Album Tunes, First Tracks, Need Help...

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
I've decided to try and compile an album on my own. I could use some ears on the first three tracks. These are somewhat "mastered" as I have bus compression, limiting, and EQ on there. To be honest, all of my tracks have had those things, these are just tweaked more precisely and attentively. Nothing on the master bus is taking away more than 2db, so there shouldn't be any sort of pumping or obvious compression - if so, I'd look at the individual tracks, not the 2. The overall level is slightly lower than commercial tracks, and I might go back to it and see if I can get another couple db's out of it somehow, but it's all pretty tightly coordinated right now.

Here is the track I'm using as a reference for the overall sound/character. It is "Audience of One" by Rise Against.

mp3:



youtube:

Rise Against - Audience Of One - YouTube

All tracks below updated 5/29/2017:

1 - Black Mirrors



2 - Last One In The Room



3 - The Sun Lies



Thanks a lot for your help.
 
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Nice tunes Taras. I can't crank my monitors until tomorrow so I am listening on cans right now.

I think your guitar tones are really good on everything... I especially like the clean guitar and the slight fret buzz/rattling strings on Black Rain...gives it a nice feel. Drums sound really good on everything.

It could be just my headphones, but I am hearing some harshness in the main vocals..especially on The Sun Lies. Sounds like low-mid frequencies...I wouldn't say "ear piercing" but its where it changes tonally in your head. To me, it sounds like you have too much attack and maybe too fast of a release. So every first word comes out pretty hard. See what others say before going and messing with it and I will listen on my monitors tomorrow morning.

Regardless, stellar job...very mainstream stuff...I think you will have a winner with these first three. I am in envy.
 
Ok, I was wondering how the vocals would be interpreted. I used different compression settings this time, kind of. Instead of the normal, for me, 25ms A and 10ms R, I pushed those a little to 15 A and 8 R. I did that because they were triggering the limiter on some leading syllables. I wanted to clamp down a little faster.

I'll see what I can do there. Tonally, they aren't any different than when I first posted them months ago. Basically the same EQ and everything. Just the compression was modified.
 
By no means is my way the right way... probably blasphemy....but one of my compressors has a ZERO attack setting and I use a longer release time. This causes a gentle roll into the phrasing verses a harsh entrance. It especially works well for my voice in my opinion. My headphone monitors (seinheiser) are supposed to be flat response but as you know things can go crazy in there sometimes verses the real world sound.
 
25 and 10 has been my go to for awhile. I think it keeps the vocals up front and in your face. 0 would be too pushed back in the mix, for my taste. I'll mess with it though.
 
Yep you gotta do what you know is best for your sound! I will listen tomorrow and reply...probably sounds fine and it's just headphone artifacts of some sort
 
Bruthish said:
It could be just my headphones, but I am hearing some harshness in the main vocals..especially on The Sun Lies.
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Listening again, it's more than likely the raw vocal track. Those vocals are the one of the oldest I still have. I just redid all the instruments. I'll see what I can do and update it. I already updated Black Mirrors tonight, and I think it's a nice improvement. I'll post updates in the OP soon and indicate it there when I do. thnx
 
They sound good. I'm not hearing any major issues. On Black Mirrors, there's a sizzle on the lead vocal, noticeable especially in the first verse. Didn't hear a problem on The Sun Lies. Levels sound good across the board. I thought all three sounded dramatically better than your reference track, which is compressed to the point of lifelessness.

I had an errand today and meant to listen on my car stereo, then realized I forgot to charge my phone.
 
Robus said:
They sound good. I'm not hearing any major issues. On Black Mirrors, there's a sizzle on the lead vocal, noticeable especially in the first verse. Didn't hear a problem on The Sun Lies. Levels sound good across the board. I thought all three sounded dramatically better than your reference track, which is compressed to the point of lifelessness.

I had an errand today and meant to listen on my car stereo, then realized I forgot to charge my phone.
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned I'm only referencing that track (which was a billboard hit, btw) for EQ and tonal balance. I can't match its loudness effectively...not without compressing it way too much and distorting it.

I'm aware of that intro vocal for Black Mirrors. The sizzle is on the raw track. I've tried a dozen methods of EQ and deessing, and nothing seems to work very well. Ill see if I have an opportunity to rerecord it. That might be the only solution.

Thanks Ray
 
A little late here, was up north at cabin for a bit.

"Black Mirrors"

The sizzle on the lead vocal doesn't sound bad to me at all, unless I'm not hearing something. Great song, drums sound great, love the ghost notes on the snare. Cymbals sound fantastic. Cool ending.

"The Last One In The Room"

Wow, intro guitars sound 'bitier' than before, sounds great though. Song as a whole has more energy than I remember. Did you re-track the vocal on this one? Something sounds different about the vocal, not sure what though. Definitely sounds killer.

"The Sun Lies"

Again, even though this is a softer song, the energy level seems better than what I remember. Sounds great.

As a whole, they all sound fantastic to me. Nothing really stands out as needing to be fixed. They don't sound over-compressed, they're clean, punchy, and all seem to have more "pop" than earlier versions. So whatever you're doing compression-wise, it's working.
 
JohnnyAmato said:
They don't sound over-compressed, they're clean, punchy, and all seem to have more "pop" than earlier versions. So whatever you're doing compression-wise, it's working.
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I was wondering if there was any impact there. Two bus compressors; one faster, one slower. Thanks Johnny
 
Overall I thought it was excellent. Just a couple of things I might consider...

Black Mirrors - the vocal sounds kind of far out in front and a bit dry.

Last One In... - crunch rhythm guitar in the intro is slightly scratchy. Maybe a notch cut at 2400hz.

Sun Lies - a little hiss at the beginning. Lead vocal could maybe come up a db. Maybe even less. Or notch out the drone/crunch guitar in the mid 2Khzs.

All of this is getting pretty nitpicky.
 
Anyone want to critique the differences between the two mixes of The Last One In The Room? I demoed the Waves SSL Buss compressor, made complete changes to the vocal processing* (started from scratch), re-EQ'd the guitars, and blended the clean bass with a new distorted bass.

*took the main compressor off the vocal buss and put one onto each vocal channel: verse and chorus. Fine tuned those compressors individually rather than relying on the compressor on the buss for them both. The vocal buss still has a compressor, but it's doing much, much less work, as are the individual compressors on the vocal channels.

Curious to see how it compares, for better or worse, with the first mix.
 
The remix of Last One in the Room is an improvement. Difference in the vocal is subtle. The guitars sound smoother, or maybe a notch less loud? Anyway better mix.
 
First of all let me just say that your tunes sound friggin awesome and all of my comments are couched within that context.

Track 1:

I am trying very hard to nitpick and coming up empty. Sounds great man.

Black mirrors (I accidentally listened to the first mix):

A little string buzz in the very beginning.

At 1:15 there is a secondary guitar harmony - very nice - but could be a little louder maybe.

Overall there seems to be a little droning on a particular frequency in the rhythm guitar that is fine but if applied too loud can take away from the movement of the chord progressions. Maybe de-emphasize that frequency - (wild guess - 400Hz ish?) or those droning rhythm tracks just a touch.

The last one in the room:

I think it would be more conventional to carve out a little more vocal space by reducing rhythm gits a touch. I know stylistically you seem to prefer the thick textures and vocals within the texture. It will sound great either way.

The section at 3:06 could use a little more something. I don't know what, just seems like an opportunity to add something unique there. A featured synth pad (I know you've already got one on the right side but it's not really featured).

The Sun Lies:

The synth pad at the very beginning isn't given enough time to establish. It's kind of interrupted. I feel like the guitar could have waited another little bit. Why not give the synth 3 and 3/4 bars and have the git slap kick in on the 4th beat of bar 4?

Real nice balance/arrangement between the rhythm git and vocals.

Real nice balance once the drums come up.

Really like the ending fade except there is one guitar on the left that doesn't have any tone left but the amp simulation is just kinda producing noise and is still heard despite the right side git still having tone. Recommend fading the left side git sooner - maybe starting at 4:03 and completely gone by 4:09. Keep the right side git until the very end.
 
andrushkiwt said:
Anyone want to critique the differences between the two mixes of The Last One In The Room? I demoed the Waves SSL Buss compressor, made complete changes to the vocal processing* (started from scratch), re-EQ'd the guitars, and blended the clean bass with a new distorted bass.

*took the main compressor off the vocal buss and put one onto each vocal channel: verse and chorus. Fine tuned those compressors individually rather than relying on the compressor on the buss for them both. The vocal buss still has a compressor, but it's doing much, much less work, as are the individual compressors on the vocal channels.

Curious to see how it compares, for better or worse, with the first mix.
Click to expand...

Eh this isn't going to be helpful:

I like the first mix for the big loud sections. I like the second mix better on the intro and lower sections. On the first mix, something is resonating beautifully in those loud sections - which is the strength of the song IMO. On the second mix, the rhythm guitar sounds rounder and smoother in the intro. In the first mix it's actually a touch on the harsh side.

Truly I think there is a trade off here.
 
Each song updated with the latest mix. Using the Puigchild 670 on the master bus this time around. The SSL G was a demo which expired. The Puigchild, which I liked better, was a purchase on a steep discount. Levels and compression adjusted all around. Also, a new reverb plugin is being tested out; the Voxengo one. Plate for vocals and Bright Studio for everything else. Oh, and I used the Puigchild (Fairchild) on one or two songs for the vocal bus. Can't remember which ones; I'd have to go in and look. I did use it on most of the harmony/background vocals since it has a useful left/right compression setting.

Comments appreciated.
 
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