A collab with BroKen_H on piano "Smile"

jimistone

jimistone

long standing member
I want to thank BroKen_H for laying down some phenominal piano for me on this tune! The piano kind of leaves the vocal in the dust. LOL

I'm Experimenting with vocal mics and reverbs. I have never tried to record and mix this gendre of music...although I really like it.
I recorded a vocal with a studio projects C1, but it was a bit too bright IMO. This vocal is recorded with a EV RE410 condenser. Its a lot fatter...maybe too fat.
Any comments and suggestions are more than welcome!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwimh4vst28or1m/smile20.wav?dl=0
 
Obvious vocal edit at 1:14 :)

I'm no piano expert, but is that real? I think this is mixed well, and only critique has to do with the vocal performance, if that's ok? I'd limit the number of times the notes are held for extended periods; it works well at the end, and in other spots, but it's too consistent throughout. I'm not familiar with the technicalities of the original, though, so maybe it's right on the mark. I only recall the tune in general terms.

nice mix guys
 
andrushkiwt said:
Obvious vocal edit at 1:14 :)

I'm no piano expert, but is that real? I think this is mixed well, and only critique has to do with the vocal performance, if that's ok? I'd limit the number of times the notes are held for extended periods; it works well at the end, and in other spots, but it's too consistent throughout. I'm not familiar with the technicalities of the original, though, so maybe it's right on the mark. I only recall the tune in general terms.

nice mix guys
Click to expand...
Thanks andrushkiwit.
I realized that I hit a flat note in the second line of this vocal. It's far from perfect. As far as holding notes...That's just the way I have always sung this style of vocal. I'm not a seasoned jazz singer by any stretch if the imagination though.
Thanks for listening and making some great points and suggestions!
 
Cool, I'd love to hear more stuff like this on the Clinic! Sounds good. Mixwise, the vocal is too far out front. It needs to sit back a little more, and let the piano embrace the voice. I don't know much about mixing piano, to be honest, but there are some fairly piercing notes in there. So if the piano is going to come up in the overall mix, you might want to experiment with EQ to take some of the edge off.

The vocal recording is very warm, to the point where you might want to cut slightly in the low mids. You'll need to work with your ambiance too. The piano sounds quite roomy. While I can hear reverb on the vocal, its much less so. You don't wanted your vocal drenched in reverb either, so it comes down to finding the sweet spot.
 
This sounds like 50s crooner music like Mel Torme or Sinatra. Wasn't expecting that at all. Tough to say on the mix because I associate that era with a certain sound I'm not hearing here. I'd prefer an older sound for this style so this confuses my brain a bit. Like Robus said, the piano has some harsh notes. Maybe EQ those to mellow it out. There's a harshness overall that sounds like a limiting issue (?). Otherwise the big picture mix balance sounds good.
 
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I thought this was very good. Balance of levels is good.

The vocal is just a bit pointy. Maybe notch out around 2500hz a few dbs.

A notch in the piano a little bit higher - like 3500hz might mellow it nicely.

Back off the reverb just a slight bit.

That's it for me. It's really good.
 
This is cool man. Whose idea was this?

I think there might be a bit of sibilance going on in the vocals. Sometimes a de-esser at eh front of the chain AND at the back of the chain can help in this regard. Or EQ cuts in the upper registers, 4-10kHz or so.
 
Wow, that was interesting, and unexpected.

Great piano playing, nice vocal performance.

Some great advice from the other comments, a little tweaking with reverb and EQ, and you could take this from great to fantastic.

Nice job!

Some real pretty, subtle clean guitar here and there would be awesome, but that's the guitarist in me talking. Pay him no mind :thumbs up:
 
A bold attemp Jimi ;) ...As a "keys dude" the piano sounds too bright for my liking but it is a subjective thing and Broken H may dig that sound. Both performances are good albeit as you mentioned a little flat at one part on the vocals..

Nat King Cole is a very tough act to follow and in this performance you have come close on the mellow fat vocal sound that is his trademark.

As someone who plays keys and sings along, there is an advantage in being able to have the keys in my hands as I sing the song and phrasing therein.. There at points in this seems to be a disconnect between the piano phrasing and the vocal lines...least that's what I kind of felt when I gave it a listen. On the piano side there is a lot going on whereas in the original a lot less tinkling..

I think it's awesome that you went after this and your version.... Below is Nat's version and if you have youtube autoplay on Michael Jackson's version follows...MJ loved this song...You'll see what I'm talking about with the more mellow approach they both went after.....in the end of the MJ version it's just him and a honky tonk style piano...some cool ideas in both..

 
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TAE said:
A bold attemp Jimi ;) ...As a "keys dude" the piano sounds too bright for my liking but it is a subjective thing and Broken H may dig that sound. Both performances are good albeit as you mentioned a little flat at one part on the vocals..

Nat King Cole is a very tough act to follow and in this performance you have come close on the mellow fat vocal sound that is his trademark.

As someone who plays keys and sings along, there is an advantage in being able to have the keys in my hands as I sing the song and phrasing therein.. There at points in this seems to be a disconnect between the piano phrasing and the vocal lines...least that's what I kind of felt when I gave it a listen. On the piano side there is a lot going on whereas in the original a lot less tinkling..

I think it's awesome that you went after this and your version.... Below is Nat's version and if you have youtube autoplay on Michael Jackson's version follows...MJ loved this song...You'll see what I'm talking about with the more mellow approach they both went after.....in the end of the MJ version it's just him and a honky tonk style piano...some cool ideas in both..

Click to expand...


I can do a pretty convincing Nat king Cole impersonation on this song. His version is in the key of C. I had BrokenH take it up to F in order to force me to do my own version, instead of mimicking his vocal. It's tough to resist singing it like he did. I told Broken that the toughest part of doing this for me would be to find my own voice on it and not do Nat.
Thanks man.
 
Robus said:
Cool, I'd love to hear more stuff like this on the Clinic! Sounds good. Mixwise, the vocal is too far out front. It needs to sit back a little more, and let the piano embrace the voice. I don't know much about mixing piano, to be honest, but there are some fairly piercing notes in there. So if the piano is going to come up in the overall mix, you might want to experiment with EQ to take some of the edge off.

The vocal recording is very warm, to the point where you might want to cut slightly in the low mids. You'll need to work with your ambiance too. The piano sounds quite roomy. While I can hear reverb on the vocal, its much less so. You don't wanted your vocal drenched in reverb either, so it comes down to finding the sweet spot.
Click to expand...
Thanks for listening Robus. I'm going to work on it a bit more and try to smooth it out.
Nola said:
This sounds like 50s crooner music like Mel Torme or Sinatra. Wasn't expecting that at all. Tough to say on the mix because I associate that era with a certain sound I'm not hearing here. I'd prefer an older sound for this style so this confuses my brain a bit. Like Robus said, the piano has some harsh notes. Maybe EQ those to mellow it out. There's a harshness overall that sounds like a limiting issue (?). Otherwise the big picture mix balance sounds good.
Click to expand...

Thanks for listening Nola, I appreciate the input!
TripleM said:
I thought this was very good. Balance of levels is good.

The vocal is just a bit pointy. Maybe notch out around 2500hz a few dbs.

A notch in the piano a little bit higher - like 3500hz might mellow it nicely.

Back off the reverb just a slight bit.

That's it for me. It's really good.
Click to expand...

Thanks Triple, I may just re-sing it. So, I will wait for that before I do a lot of tweaking.
 
ibleedburgundy said:
This is cool man. Whose idea was this?

I think there might be a bit of sibilance going on in the vocals. Sometimes a de-esser at eh front of the chain AND at the back of the chain can help in this regard. Or EQ cuts in the upper registers, 4-10kHz or so.
Click to expand...

It was my idea. My stepfather and my mother had a little country store in the 1970s and 1980s. My stepfather loved to take pics and he took pics of a lot of customers smiling for the camera. People who are from that little town are crazy about those old store pics. I'm going to do one of those videos where you load the pics in an app and it makes a video out of them. The song "smile" will be the soundtrack. I will probably post it on facebook. Maybe here too.
JohnnyAmato said:
Wow, that was interesting, and unexpected.

Great piano playing, nice vocal performance.

Some great advice from the other comments, a little tweaking with reverb and EQ, and you could take this from great to fantastic.

Nice job!

Some real pretty, subtle clean guitar here and there would be awesome, but that's the guitarist in me talking. Pay him no mind :thumbs up:
Click to expand...
thanks Johnny.
Record me some guitar man...I will add it to the song!
 
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