Can I get feedback on a new folks/rock song?

It's a good song, Jgwire. The lyrics are good and vocal sounds good.
That chord at 1:15 is really odd. What is that?

My only constructive criticism would be the song doesn't really build up. The energy level at the start is almost the same as at the end, and at the end the lyrics are suggesting what (at least how I interpret them) should be a buildup in the music (either with rhythmic methods, a solo/counterpoint, or the harmony), with a climax and then a release.

The mix is good in terms of where everything is placed.
 
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Sounds like an interesting song, and the mix isn't far off, but this is a classic case of murder by mastering. Whatever you have on mix bus is giving your nice song a grating, hyped and unattractive texture. My suggestion is to get rid of the mastering crap and work on getting the mix solid.
 
Robus said:
Sounds like an interesting song, and the mix isn't far off, but this is a classic case of murder by mastering. Whatever you have on mix bus is giving your nice song a grating, hyped and unattractive texture. My suggestion is to get rid of the mastering crap and work on getting the mix solid.
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Yeah, I agree with this -- it is too compressed. The placement of all the elements is good, but the compression/limiting is too much.
 
thanks, man. That helps me -- an easy fix to tinker with the dynamics at the end. chord is just a weird barre version of D#, the song key.
 
point well taken. I have no idea how to master properly but I think the culprit is multi-band compression. Thanks for the input. Will take another look at it.

---------- Update ----------

thanks. My ignorance of multi-band compression is showing...:) time to try again.
 
jgwire said:
thanks. My ignorance of multi-band compression is showing...:) time to try again.
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Multi band compression is the hardest to learn, and honestly it has pretty specific uses (only time I ever used it was to try to restore a recording). If the song is recorded well MBC is not really needed, and your song sounds well recorded.

You can put a smidge of regular compression on the master buss if you really want that sound. Like -2db or so. I don't do that, but many do, and it can sound transparent and just help tame some transients or "glue" the mix.
 
yeah, I think I'll just dispense with the MBC. Since the last mastering round, I have an Apollo Twin with some swell new UAD plug ins for mastering. Will tinker with those without going down the rabbit hole, hopefully. This feedback is great. Thanks.
 
Yeah, don't be slapping a multi-band compressor on your stereo bus at this stage. Work on getting a good sounding mix. If there are problems that are causing you to want to reach for a MB compressor, then you're not done mixing yet.
 
Point well taken. That's what I get for watching too many amateur YT videos on mastering. :) Thanks. Will revise and repost.
 
Sounds like a good song, I agree with Robus about the mastering, it sounds unnecessarily hyped in the high end and lacking in the low. The drums and bass sound like an afterthought, the drums sound obviously artificial, the snare sound is pretty vanilla and i don't really hear the kick drum or the bass guitar. I recommend turning up the bass track and the kick drum to give the song some pulse and glue things together. The guitars and vocal sound well performed, seems like the rest of the elements of the mix need as much attention as you gave those. Don't want to sound too critical, but i think the song/melody/singing is very good, just needs a more smooth mix imo.
 
Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback. I want to do all I can t make the song stronger. The drums are EZdrummer loops -- I hate loops, but I'm an awful drummer and I"m out of the loop when it comes to other musicians in my area. Point well taken about the mastering. Totally agree. I actually spent quite a long time writing the bass part, so I can at least make that more prominent. I'll take your advice and repost. I"ll remix from the bottom up. Though I've been playing guitar and writing songs for decades, I'm still fairly new to recording and mixing at home -- so all you feedback is much needed and appreciated.
 
I can hear the bass part most of the time, but agree wiht the comments that it's too hyped on the high end with no bottom to it. Is this an effect of the MBC, or your mix?
 
Not to beat a dead horse but I am with everyone else....over compressed. There is some harshness/distortion in the guitars. I think the song sounds cool though, just need to dial those in.
 
thanks. The MBC horse is not only dead, it's been taken to the rendering plant..ha. appreciate the feedback. All this is helping a lot. It's great to get some fresh ears on this.
 
+1 on what everyone else has said about the over-hyped high end.

I'd also recommend looking into your gain staging. Your noise floor is really high!
 
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, gain staging was not done properly on this tune and it's apparently affecting lots of elements. I'm fairly new to home recording and mixing and I did not realize that my levels were post fader until the song was almost done . I've gone back and put a vu meter on every track and switched logic's default to pre fader. Will remix from ground up and to tame the beast and address some of the criticism regarding compression, lack of low end an overly bright upper frequencies. It's so great that folks are willing to offer such solid feedback and I look forward to doing the same for others - though I need my own house in order before being equipped to offer advice on how to fix up someone else's.✌️Out!
 
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