"Crux" - collaboration with DM60

Pinky

Pinky

and The Brain...
Here's my latest creation, lyrically a little corny by my usual standards but I am working on a mostly pop album so it fits with the rest of the material...

**THIS IS THE REVISED VERSION, SEE SECOND PAGE**

Crux

Lyrics if you are interested.

Brutal honesty welcome!

Me on guitars, drum sequencing/programming
DM60 [David] on vocals
 
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I am listening on a computer system at work with a decent sound system with a sub and I am getting a lot of bass guitar. So much that I had to turn it down quite a bit. Not getting it from the kick, just the bass. It's more than usual from all the other things I listen to on it. I also think that lead guitar part may need to come up out of the mix a little more. The vocals sounded good for this too.
 
The bass sounded good to me, but i'm not using a sub, just the monitors i normally use.

I agree the lead guitar could come up in the mix. I got most of the lyrics on the first listen, the phrasing and timing was a bit odd at times but i liked that.

That's all i got, cool song even if a bit corny in a positive affirmation sort of a way. Why'd you call it Crux if that's not too personal a question?
 
Anders Erisian said:
Why'd you call it Crux if that's not too personal a question?
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I rock climb, the entire song is a rock climbing metaphor. I usually don't write such things (topics tend to be more political/social commentary based) but it seemed to flow when I started writing the lyrics so went with it. David did some vox for me on a couple of my old tracks but I hadn't been able to work him into any of the newer material. Was thankful this song came along, and I think he did great.

Have gotten a "sounds like REM" response from one of my other collaborators. Can dig that, used to listen to a lot of REM like 20+ years ago. I hear it, mostly in David's vocal style. :)
 
I hear a bit of John Lennon influence in the vocal style. The music is solid, and I (as a bassist) love the forefront sound of the bass. Very clean and distinct.
 
I thought the bass was upfront but it had a defined tight sound and it fit the song IMO. Good lyrics on this song. I thought it 2 as a good mix and I enjoyed the listen.
 
The drumset is very quiet overall and then especially in the chorus. The tremelo effect and vocal drown it out.

Climb on!
 
Good stuff--I like the vocal effects, and the forward bass, and the structure and execution of the song. The drums are fine; it reminds me of a lot of bands that deliberately (or not!) mix the kit down a bit. The singer is really good. I didn't think about Michael Stipe until I read the rest of the comments.
 
Bass and kick work for me.
I rock farm.
This is pretty good Pink.
Has a bit of mid era REM in the verses.
 
Wow. That is pretty loud! :)

I really like the effects on the vocal...what was done there?

Overall, it sounds pretty well balanced. I think the drums could maybe come up a bit in relation to guitars and vocals...bass is fine where it is I think? Good job.
 
heatmiser said:
Wow. That is pretty loud! :)

I really like the effects on the vocal...what was done there?
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By my standards it probably is on the loud side. I usually settle for -10 to -11db RMS, but sometimes things can be pushed further without any compromise (depends on a lot of factors, song to song). I think a lot of this ended up around -9.5 db, but that's a heavy -9.5 because of the amount of instrumentation at times.

[from memory] The verse vox are EQ, multiband compression, brick compression, mild stereo chorus, sibilance filter, and some reverb. Chorus is a doubled set of vox (panned 30% left/right), with same settings from the verse, and instead of reverb I used a mild ping-pong tempo sync delay.

On my tracks I like to feature one thing from each track, making it the 'lead' element throughout. In this song it was the bass. Sometimes, it's the drums, vocals, guitar part, synth, etc. Since most of my material gets bundled into album format this helps keep each song sounding relatively unique compared to the rest, rather than making it formulaic and having each track sound the same. It keeps it interesting for me as well, finding a balance between fresh and consistent is a real challenge [especially when it's up to a year between the first and last track being finished for the album].
 
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I thought the lead vocal sound was good. The bass sounded good too. But I thought it was quite a bit too loud. So I'm not sure if it would sound good if it were at a level that I would prefer. It's pretty boomy as it is. But if it were lower in the mix it might sound OK.

The guitars are pretty far back in the mix. To me they're missing a lot of the upper midrange. They sound muffled. I wasn't a fan of the tremelo effect that you used in spots. But that's just a personal thing.

I thought the drums sounded OK. A bit programmy. But not too bad. There was one or two cymbal samples that were weird. You use them in the chorus. Almost like a gated sample. That sounded weird.
 
What a cool song. I like the chord progressions and the transitions a lot.

I particularly like the different approach to the chorus at 2:49.
 
Love the vocals, and all of the sounds and the vocal melody as well. Good song! Cool solo, lots of texture going on there. I hear a little early Death Cab For Cutie in there somewhere, maybe even a little Of Montreal. Good stuff man.

Maybe a touch more drums in the mix, and/or turn the vocal down a bit to see if it balances out a little better.
 
Tadpui said:
I hear a little early Death Cab For Cutie in there somewhere...
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HUGE Codes and Keys fan. :) I consider that a lofty compliment. :D

Hugo, been listening to a lot of Big Wreck lately (lesser known Candian grunge/hard rock band). As well as the 20+ years being a casual grunge fan like old school Love Bone, PJ, Soundgarden, Pumpkins, Mudhoney, AIC, etc fan. When grunge hit the seen it really inspired me to start looking at music as a creative outlet, although it wasn't until around 2001 I started really taking any of this seriously.
 
I addressed the more consistently noted problems with the mix in this revision. Mostly, the bass is very slightly lower and the drums brought up a tad. Lead brought up about 1db as well. Discovered the second rhythm guitar during the lead was not present enough and adjusted that accordingly.

Thanks again to everyone who replied, the positive feedback is just as valuable to know where things are 'right'. :)

REVISED VERSION:
Crux

Lyrics if you are interested.

Me on guitars, drum sequencing/programming
DM60 [David] on vocals
 
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