Dream about Being a Fan by Sarah and Me

The vocal sounds good, and not the doubler, just the tone and pitch. I actually don't like the quiet vocal section where the doubler is audible.

The guitar needs reverb or lower volume or both, especially the left side. It sounds like a sim so try to find that annoying sim frequency.
 
easlern said:
I used center setting so both humbuckers I think.
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I guessed it was something similar to that - actually I would have guessed you were using just the neck pickup. I'd bet I'd personally like the tone better with just the bridge pickup. But again, that's just me.
 
4tracker said:
The guitar needs reverb or lower volume or both, especially the left side.
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Sorry, I should have elaborated on why I think that.

The guitar sounds "flat" (not pitch wise) and 2-dimensional, like sims do. If it isn't a sim I'd be surprised and eat my hat! But fixing that 2D nature of sims and making them more 3D is tough. I find that reverb helps a bit, cutting that annoying frequency, and playing with mic position in the sim itself can help, too. Right now the guitar, especially the left side, is very upfront and 2D. I also think sim guitars should always be turned down in mixes or coupled with something like an acoustic guitar doubling the part. At least that makes it more human, 3D, and the frequencies pleasing. Trying to make straight-up rock songs using sims might be possible, but it's beyond my ability, so I stick with those methods.
 
No she just happened to be practicing her acoustic in the next room. I could hear it clearly while recording though and the mic didn't pick it up. It's really good at rejecting noise. :)

I'll try figure out something for the guitar to make it more 3d. I wonder if some saturation or overdrive from dedicated plugins might help? I'll try some reverb too, just a tad I hope will do it.

I took a note from foulphil on this one and got myself magic a/b, comparing to "month of may" by arcade fire. Just as a side note. I think it really helped.
 
Okay, I think I got just about everything in except the extra part in the last verse (the one without lyrics or anything in it). Sadly, there is no sidechain on the multipressor (groan) so I just used eq as I could. I think this is improved. . .

Also, turns out I didn't have a doubler on, it was just a really long pre-delay on the echo. :) I brought it down, lead vocal sounds a bit more natural now I think.

View attachment dreamAboutBeingAFan 2.mp3
 
This is a good one. The vocals could still come up a bit for me. I couldn't make out all the lyrics. Talk Sarah into doing a little harmony on the chorus.
 
Hey, great song. I think this is the first one I've heard from you and really enjoyed it. Vocals sound great. Good delivery, good tone, good processing. Vey natural sounding.
I read someone else suggest to turn them up and I almost agree, but I think you would do better to turn the guits down a little. Vocals and guits are fighting for attention and vocals should win always.

Guitars were a little repetitious, but I get that they are the hook of the song.

I thought the bass could come up a little, but maybe not if you turn the guits down.

Are you using real drums or fake?

Thanks for sharing.
 
Hey chili thanks for listening! Yeah I think I'm having trouble keeping the guitars balanced, there are left and right parts to every section of the song and three different sections- probly doesn't sound like a lot I think most people do a lot more guitar tracks than that, but it's the most I've done. I'll see about bringing them down in the next version. I think that'll cause the bass and vocals to come up too.

I'm using addictive drums 2, I used to keep a real set but didn't get to play them really after our son was born. Just as well though, the room was too small and I never had enough inputs to do it right.
 
easlern said:
I'm using addictive drums 2.
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How do you go about programming them? I noticed you had fills and rolls and stuff. Is that you playing those, or do you mix and match different clips?
I really want to learn how to program drums more realistically. It seems like such a huge undertaking.
 
They come with a bunch of those types of things. Like you get a bunch of ride patterns and you drop them into your daw from ad2 window, then you go to the fills collection and drag in some of those. Occasionally I'll play them on my keyboard (kick is a c, snare is the f above that. . .) but I couldn't do that this time, just too fast a tempo and it has a lot of latency. You can draw them in too using an onscreen piano but that would be a pretty big project. Modifying existing patterns is your best bet I think.

Edit: I'm gonna be going on vacation for a week starting tomorrow. When I get back I'll make some tweaks and post a soundcloud link. Thanks all!
 
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Eas,

Wow man you've been working! This is really well sung. I agree with the sentiments of Broken H on the first page the most. Gotta knock up the lead vocal 1 or 2 db for sure! Also, I found the adlibs got lost in the background. For example near the end where you were saying Na na na after phrases...I could barely hear that. Also sometimes when singing a line the last word seems to trail off from time to time so maybe boost the phrase endings a little to make sure the word doesn't get lost.

Finally I echo what Robus said at the start...I can't tell there is a second person singing in this song...or is Sarah playing instruments? If she's singing I definitely cannot detect where.

All of that to say that I think you did a dandy job with this track. Your voice also sounds a lot grittier...no...edgier is the word I'm looking for. It definitely sounds a lot edgier than the links you've sent me before. Persistence really is the key. Thumbs up man.
 
Thanks dtoks! I'm gonna do a new version with the latest comments when I get back from vacation. See you next week! :D
 
The song is about "jaded semi-rock stars?" Sounds like you wrote it for this forum!

Hope your vacation is great. I love the song and the mix is awesome. I love the energy. The changes you made in your second version are definitely in the right direction. Over the system I'm listening on, great job. Catchy....good hook....I love hooks....hooks make me want to listen to the song again and again.

signed, jaded semi-rock star!;)
 
Hey thanks for listening fireflyva, yeah vacation was awesome!

Funny I guess we are semirockstars, some of us maybe even full rockstars at some point? I didn't have anyone here in mind though when I wrote it, it's very loosely based on one of my favorite artists who's maybe not a household name but has some success musically. I don't think he sleeps in a van though. :)
 
I'm listening to the 2nd mix you put up. Sounds really good to me, mix wise. The vocals could come up a little touch but I could hear them all so they're not bad at all. Nice simple guitar riff. Sometimes, the simplest things sound great and this is one of them for me.

The song, style and execution reminds me of Josh Ritter (Someone Greg inadvertently put me on to a while ago) and to me, that's a good thing.

Really enjoyed this track, a few times. Very good job :thumbs up:
 
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