will it come

[Casey H]

KellyRegarding te guitar. I'm not sure what I thought didn't sound right regarding the guitar. I think I heard something in the strumming, possibly the timing, and the way it was mic'd that sounded off- but this is not my area of expertise at all. So, if no one else here hears any problems with the guitar on your track, you should ignore my comments. I could be all wet.Best regards,Casey

[andreh]

Kelly-The problem with the guitar isn't that it's not bright enough - in fact, it may need some freq's pulled out to leave more space for the vocal; this would also help the vocal cut through more. Maybe drop a dB or two at ~3-4k and possibly ~7-8k from the guitar, and try a de-esser on the vox at ~6-7kHz and lose a couple dB's at 8k. [These are just guesses at the problem freq's without playing with an EQ on the track.]The real problem with the guitars is some distracting warbling/distortion. It sounds like they've been compressed into low-fi MP3's...this could be from improper compressor settings, or maybe the mic was placed in such a way that the worst traits of the guitar were captured.Can you post a file of the guitar without any other tracks or processing? It'd be interesting to hear what it sounds like on its own and flat (no EQ or other FX).Andre

[thesucker]

Thanks everybody!Sadly, the song was returned. Although, it may not be so sad...I think, like a bunch of you, that it needs some work. As far as the lyrics go, I might be hosed. I can't write lyrics that are stories very well. In some ways, I can live with that; storytelling has never sold me on songs in the first place, unless there's somehing socially/politically relevent, and most of my favorite music nearly lyric-less...REM, Radiohead, etc. Andre - Thanks. I'd be happy to post the guitar clean and processed for comparison...I'm kinda dying to know myself. I got some new plugs, and the comp is really tough to dial in (waves ssl). It's pretty great sounding, but it LOVES to compress, and it loves to sound like the ssl buss comp...so much so, that I have to put an eq in front of it to make it work subtly at all. Also, I remember dialing out a lot of ribbon right at the end, in some effort to mix it bright and commercial, and to lower the noise, as that ribbon needs gobs of gain. I'm starting to learn this is a bad idea. That probably killed the mid midrange...that's for sure. I'm psyched though...I just got a J45, and so far it's sounding pretty great to me. Much, much more dynamic than the previous instrument. I'm not sure anyone has more time to help with opinions, but, do you think this song could benefit from a more natural, organic recording (i.e. more ribbon, less bright, more dynamic) at the expense of not sounding contemporary? The more I listen to it, the more I think the vocals sound "pro" enough in terms of performance, but I feel like it's nearly emotion-less. Maybe that's just because I'm aware that they're so painfully patched together line by line, that it's hard for me to view the vox as a performance, and not homework. Again, thanks to all. Back to the drawing board. This is fun.