Did You Fall From Heaven ('cause Your Face is All Messed Up)?

[VomitHatSteve]

Hi folks. I've been banging my head on this mix for several weeks now. The drummer had a lot of trouble keeping up with the 290 bpm tempo, so he didn't hit the snare hard enough, but I think I've managed to get things to a point of relative coherency.

May just be Stockholm syndrome though.

Please give me any feedback you have on this thing:

Did You Fall From Heaven ('cause Your Face Is All Messed Up)

(It's labeled mix 2 because I had an earlier mix 1 that was a lot worse)

 

[jimmys69]

Wow! That was different from what I have heard from you.

Sounds really good man. It is tough to give critique on your stuff because it is so different from what I do and you have a totally unique thing going on here.

Guitars could have much more balls, but in all the tone seems to work for the song.

Good stuff man!

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Thanks Jimmy.

Yeah the first mix had a lot more guitar, but they started to bury everything else and get pretty "mid-rangey". Maybe I can knock out some mids and bump them a bit to get more out of 'em.

 

[jimmys69]

On further listen I would also bring up the bass guitar when the song gets heavy. Even a second layer of heavy guitar tracks there maybe. There is not much for low end going on in this mix on my system. It really needs it.

Cool tune tho man!

 

[paddedcell]

That is a REALLY interesting song. I listened to it three times, and I think that there are only three things which I might change, if it was my song.

When you transit from the slow opening beat to the hyperbeat (!!), I have trouble sorting out that beat right away, and it tends to sound a little train-wrecky. That resolves itself about eight or ten bars down the line where it becomes fairly easy to lock into the rhythm.

I'd also bring up the guitar tracks in the latter half of the song. There's some nice stuff in there, but it seems to be pushed rather far back, and I think it would help define the rhythm a little more. For the same reason, I'd also bring up the bass some (although, to be honest, I'm not really sure what the bass is doing).

I think your vocals are great, and I also like that little synthesizer (?) thingy you've got going under the vocals. It's a very listenable song to my ears. . .

 

[NotThatBright]

Your songs are weird as hell but they're awesome. Your stuff is definitely the most creative and arguably the best I've ever heard on this site. No bullshit.

 

[Anders Erisian]

Hey Steve, the drums sounded pretty coherent to me. The snare hits sounded hard enough. I guess the percussive embellishments might throw some people. Was all the percussion from the kit or was there something else there too? I couldn't quite work out what i was listening to sometimes, especially the syncopated drum sounds. Sounds good though. Nothing wrong with some crazy beats.

Only thing i would say critically is the vocal was a bit harsh in the upper mids in the louder parts... but it is falsetto i suppose. I probably would have gone with more guitars, but it would be a shame to bury that synth arpeggio under them. Cool sounding song to me.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

On further listen I would also bring up the bass guitar when the song gets heavy. Even a second layer of heavy guitar tracks there maybe. There is not much for low end going on in this mix on my system. It really needs it.

Cool tune tho man!

More bass and guitar. Ok.

That is a REALLY interesting song. I listened to it three times, and I think that there are only three things which I might change, if it was my song.

When you transit from the slow opening beat to the hyperbeat (!!), I have trouble sorting out that beat right away, and it tends to sound a little train-wrecky. That resolves itself about eight or ten bars down the line where it becomes fairly easy to lock into the rhythm.

Thanks, Padded.

When you talk about the transition, do you mean the transition itself (when it's just guitar) or after the transition ends (when the rest of the band comes in) that's hard to follow?

I'd also bring up the guitar tracks in the latter half of the song. There's some nice stuff in there, but it seems to be pushed rather far back, and I think it would help define the rhythm a little more. For the same reason, I'd also bring up the bass some (although, to be honest, I'm not really sure what the bass is doing).

I think your vocals are great, and I also like that little synthesizer (?) thingy you've got going under the vocals. It's a very listenable song to my ears. . .

Sounds like a consensus on more guitar and bass.

Your songs are weird as hell but they're awesome. Your stuff is definitely the most creative and arguably the best I've ever heard on this site. No bullshit.

Thanks, NTB!

Hey Steve, the drums sounded pretty coherent to me. The snare hits sounded hard enough. I guess the percussive embellishments might throw some people. Was all the percussion from the kit or was there something else there too? I couldn't quite work out what i was listening to sometimes, especially the syncopated drum sounds. Sounds good though. Nothing wrong with some crazy beats.

Only thing i would say critically is the vocal was a bit harsh in the upper mids in the louder parts... but it is falsetto i suppose. I probably would have gone with more guitars, but it would be a shame to bury that synth arpeggio under them. Cool sounding song to me.

Thanks, Anders.

Yeah, I've got a lot of stuff going on in the drums.
1. Original drum kit - with some kick and snare replacement and a bunch of EQ/compression.
2. EZ drummer - using the original drum kit as a midi control signal (with a volume humanizer) - essentially more sample replacement
3. Randomized loops - those are the weird drums at the beginning. (they're a lot less pronounced throughout the rest of the song)
4. Manually-sequenced miscellaneous percussive noises - mostly live samples of the same drummer via an awful, awful camera mic plus some SID samples and the Amen break

I'll look into EQing the vox a bit tonight to trim some of the harsher edges.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Ok. New mix is up.

I bumped the guitars and bass up pretty substantially, EQing the former a bit out of the mid range; tweaked the EQ on the lead vox to hopefully cut off some of the harsher edges; and re-arranged some of the sequenced noises to be "clickier" rather than bassy and distorted.

How's it sound now? Did I bury the vocals? Does the increase in bass and guitar give it more Oomph?

Thanks again for all the feedback!

 

[jimmys69]

Much better man! Vocals not even close to buried. In fact they jump out in a few spots but much better.

I still wish for more guitar and bass but not my baby.

 

[DM60]

Wow, that was pretty hard to keep up with. Little too fast for my taste. Mix 3 sound like everything was in its place. At the start, sounded like the kick, probably could use a small reduction since it is so sparse at the start.

Nice mix, interesting choice of the BPM.

 

[Anders Erisian]

I think i liked that version better too - guitars and bass were definitely more prominent, plenty of oomph as you put it, and i think any more would alter the character of the song in the direction of a straight guitar/bass/drums rock track, i like the blend of electronica even if it does make things a bit more poppy than rock. The synth arpeggio did get a bit buried, but it probably is more balanced that way and popped out from underneath in the pauses in the vocal phrases nicely.

Didn't mind the earlier sequenced percussion sounds, but they probably match the brightness of the mix better now too.

Vocal sounded smoother to me too, don't know if you altered that at all, but it's definitely not buried, i had no trouble understanding the lyrics. Sounds good.

 

[Greg_L]

The random percussion sampling gets on my nerves with this one. I'd prefer it more stripped down, but whatever. The mix seems too vocal heavy to me. Too many layers of too much falsetto. The vocals and noises beat down the actual music parts of the mix.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Wow, that was pretty hard to keep up with. Little too fast for my taste. Mix 3 sound like everything was in its place. At the start, sounded like the kick, probably could use a small reduction since it is so sparse at the start.

Nice mix, interesting choice of the BPM.

Ha ha. This one's part of the "play terrible emo songs way too fast" series.
Just the kick's too loud at the beginning? I may or may not adjust that since that's all randomized drums, so it's pretty automated and kinda infeasible to adjust individual drums.

I think i liked that version better too - guitars and bass were definitely more prominent, plenty of oomph as you put it, and i think any more would alter the character of the song in the direction of a straight guitar/bass/drums rock track, i like the blend of electronica even if it does make things a bit more poppy than rock. The synth arpeggio did get a bit buried, but it probably is more balanced that way and popped out from underneath in the pauses in the vocal phrases nicely.

Didn't mind the earlier sequenced percussion sounds, but they probably match the brightness of the mix better now too.

Vocal sounded smoother to me too, don't know if you altered that at all, but it's definitely not buried, i had no trouble understanding the lyrics. Sounds good.

That's good. Vocal clarity has often been an issue with my songs.

The random percussion sampling gets on my nerves with this one. I'd prefer it more stripped down, but whatever. The mix seems too vocal heavy to me. Too many layers of too much falsetto. The vocals and noises beat down the actual music parts of the mix.

Now that you mention it, yeah the whoahs probably should come down a bit.

 

[TripleM]

General VHS coolness. I always like your songs. I mostly liked the mix.

Some nits...

When things kick in and speed up, the mix needs a stronger low end. The bass is a bit low and pretty wimpy. I'd like a stronger bottom to the mix.

The tempo seems just a bit too fast. I like the idea of speeding up, it just went too far for me. It seems like everything is rushed and it's hard for the listener to make out what's being sung. It also sounded like the musicians were just hanging on and trying to get through the take.

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

The vocals get annoyingly loud at around 1:50.
The mix is too vocal heavy in general. The drums sounded weird. Not bad but just not like a drumset, more like a group of people throwing volleyballs against a wall really fast.

 

[FoulPhil]

Cool tune man. Pretty weird. I might have to be drunk to listen to get this. Are you or the singer singing in a high pitched voice, or are you using a pitch shifter? lol it's funny either way.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

General VHS coolness. I always like your songs. I mostly liked the mix.

Some nits...

When things kick in and speed up, the mix needs a stronger low end. The bass is a bit low and pretty wimpy. I'd like a stronger bottom to the mix.

The tempo seems just a bit too fast. I like the idea of speeding up, it just went too far for me. It seems like everything is rushed and it's hard for the listener to make out what's being sung. It also sounded like the musicians were just hanging on and trying to get through the take.

Thanks, TripM.

Alright, that's two for maybe even more bass/guitar/low-end. I'll take another stab at that.
The musicians were having trouble keeping up. Probably should have spent more time on pre-production on this one. Stupid concept EPs!

The vocals get annoyingly loud at around 1:50.
The mix is too vocal heavy in general. The drums sounded weird. Not bad but just not like a drumset, more like a group of people throwing volleyballs against a wall really fast.

Thanks, Shwarz...
I'm gonna tone down the "whoas", but the loud "Heaven's missing an angel tonight" is the climax of the song, so I'll have to respectfully disagree with you on that part.
Weird drums is what we go for in Regdar and the Fighters, so that'll work. (I like the volleyballs comparison! )

Cool tune man. Pretty weird. I might have to be drunk to listen to get this. Are you or the singer singing in a high pitched voice, or are you using a pitch shifter? lol it's funny either way.

Thanks Phil.
No pitch adjustments or correction on the vox. I'm quite proud of my goofy, high voice.

 

[FoulPhil]

Thanks, TripM.

Alright, that's two for maybe even more bass/guitar/low-end. I'll take another stab at that.
The musicians were having trouble keeping up. Probably should have spent more time on pre-production on this one. Stupid concept EPs!


Thanks, Shwarz...
I'm gonna tone down the "whoas", but the loud "Heaven's missing an angel tonight" is the climax of the song, so I'll have to respectfully disagree with you on that part.
Weird drums is what we go for in Regdar and the Fighters, so that'll work. (I like the volleyballs comparison! )


Thanks Phil.
No pitch adjustments or correction on the vox. I'm quite proud of my goofy, high voice.

Nice job man

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Ok. Mix 4 is up.

Bumped the guitars by 1 DB. Any more than that, or any more bass and the vox do start to get buried.
Turned down the weird percussion. Now it's a less-overbearing "fast volleyballs against a wall" but quieter sound.
Turned down the oohs a lot and also drenched them in reverb. I realized a faux "choir of angels" sound is good for the last chorus. (And it seems to help them sit in the mix better)

As before, any and all feedback is welcome.