I Do with BroKen_H

ido1957

ido1957

9K Gold Member
This is one of my first original songs, I think I originally recorded it 8 or 9 years ago - but I’ve never been happy with the arrangement.
I approached BroKen_H after hearing some of his amazing piano playing on another collab.
He was kind enough to send me a great piano track which I think has finally fixed the arrangement problem.
He also sent me a backup vocal track which really worked great for this song.

Thanks again Ken for helping me out with this :)

I’ve redone the whole mix, trying to balance it properly and it seems to be ok but I’m sure it could be improved.

If you guys can have a listen and let me know what you think it would be greatly appreciated!

:D:D:D:D
New mix #6 done sidechain vocals to piano
View attachment I Do mix for Ken 20150504A 256.mp3 Mix 1
View attachment I Do mix for Ken 20150505A 256.mp3 Mix 2 Reduced Vocal
View attachment I Do mix for Ken 20150505B 256.mp3 Mix 3 Eq Mix
View attachment I Do mix for Ken 20150506A 256.mp3 Mix 4 Added Solo
View attachment I Do mix for Ken 20150506B 256.mp3 Mix 5 Eq Lead Vocals
View attachment I Do mix for Ken 201505010A 256.mp3 Mix 6 Sidechain Vocals
 
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Vocal too upfront, piano not sitting just right. Not sure if they need to be more forward, they might come into their own if the vocal is reduced.

Goof performances by all, I didn't hear anything bad in the recording, just some mix tweaks.
 
Beautiful song guys. Nice work on the Piano Broken.

The one thing that sticks out to me is that the vocal is way way out front. So much that I had to turn my system down when it came in. I realize that the genre calls for more vocals, but I think it needs to sit better in the mix. I also think there may be some upper mid frequencies in it that sounds slightly harsh. A little scratchy too almost like you clipped it a little. Regardless, you have a great voice and its sung really good, just needs mixed in a little better.
 
Yeah vocals could be dialed down a bit, although they sound really good. Nice playing too. I would say it needs to be smoothed out quit a bit, but the material is solid.
 
Thanks DM60 and Bruthish - I'll reduce the vocal level. I probably should look at the backups too when I do that as they too may be too loud after that.
 
FoulPhil said:
Yeah vocals could be dialed down a bit, although they sound really good. Nice playing too. I would say it needs to be smoothed out quit a bit, but the material is solid.
Click to expand...

Ok new mix #2 posted in the original post - dialed back the vocals
I left the old mix there for comparison.
 
Listening to mix 2, assume this is remix after the comments above. Vocals are fraction loud. The instruments all sound squashed - not sure if this is compression or a lack of EQ 'air'.
 
Thanks Mike - there's a compressor on the main mix but it's only about -1db compression so I guess a little eq might help out. Any suggestion as to frequency to look at? No compression on any of the instruments except drums which again are -1 or 2 db only (mostly for tone).
 
I like it!

In my ears I first hear the piano needing a bit of high end and the vocal sounding a bit dry for the song.

That being said it may be more about the 'boomy' low mids in the vocals that set that off for me. They are a bit on top IMO. But it may be more about the sound of them.


Overall, that was really friggen cool guys! I am a fan now. :D
 
ido1957 said:
Thanks Mike - there's a compressor on the main mix but it's only about -1db compression so I guess a little eq might help out. Any suggestion as to frequency to look at? No compression on any of the instruments except drums which again are -1 or 2 db only (mostly for tone).
Click to expand...

I just threw it into Reaper and put ReaEQ on it, you can see the whole high end (as frequency goes up) is reduced. I boosted 1K-2K and it brightened right up.
 
jimmys69 said:
I like it!

In my ears I first hear the piano needing a bit of high end and the vocal sounding a bit dry for the song.

That being said it may be more about the 'boomy' low mids in the vocals that set that off for me. They are a bit on top IMO. But it may be more about the sound of them.


Overall, that was really friggen cool guys! I am a fan now. :D
Click to expand...
Yeah the vocals were recorded a long time ago using my Rode NTK through an Alesis Studio 24 into an ADAT. That mixer died a few years ago lol. I think I recorded it flat but I can't really remember. It has a bit of sibilance so I've put a mild de-esser plugin on it. This vocal has a low pass and I cut the 7k by 2db to reduce the harshness this mic has. I much prefer my Sputnik which is very clean and easy to mix as compared.

There's a lot of effect on the vocal (echo/chorus/reverb) actually but it's Lexicon so I find they are incredibly subtle until you really crank them. The echo and chorus are about 25% wet and the reverb is about 65%.

I'll try dropping the 200Hz-300Hz range on the lead vocals and see if it brightens up a bit.

mjbphotos said:
I just threw it into Reaper and put ReaEQ on it, you can see the whole high end (as frequency goes up) is reduced. I boosted 1K-2K and it brightened right up.
Click to expand...
Ok I have a 200Hz cut of 2db on the mains to try to keep the mud away. I'll add a wide Q around 1-2K and see if it opens up a bit. It might brighten up the piano that Jimmy mentioned.
 
Ok - last mix for today lol my ears are tired - added a db with a wide q around 2k and subtracted same around 200Hz. Did the same to the vocal track. Pushed the effects up on the lead vocals. The file is in the original post with the other 2 mixes.
 
Well, my 2.5 year old daughter loves the song and won't let me stop playing it. Over and over. You may be on to something...

I have nothing more to say other than I am not kidding. :)
 
I've love this song have for near on a decade.
Def a song to get a forum name from too!
The piano is great BUT in the verses it sounds just a little too busy (mix 3) against the guitar.
The stronger lines in the chorus work well.
The piano solo section doesn't sound like a solo - sounds like the same from the verses.
To me it sounds like a part superimposed on a preexisting arrangement.
I'd be inclined to replace the current guitar part with one that's sparser & more sympathetic to the piano part OR pan the piano & guitar wide away from each other.
Mike's bass lines are good but I'm not sure the tone matches the arrangement.
Sorry to be a dag Gerry, I love the song as you know and knowing it very well may mean either I'm unwilling to accept change or I'm precious about hwta's done - not sure which one.
 
Ray. Thanks for the compliments. I wasn't going to comment on this, but I noticed something from your comment that I didn't even think about. You said, "The piano solo section..." Guess I'm an old school rocker that can't be taught new tricks. I played it that way because I was assuming all along that it would be a guitar solo there. When Gerry wrote me back and said there wasn't going to be a guitar solo, I never even thought about redoing that part as a solo...

Gerry, do you want a bit of solo riff there? I could do that.
 
I agree with RayC that the piano is a bit busy during the verses but it wasn't enough to distract me away from thinking what a great song and totally enjoying the track.

I just really enjoyed the listen. Thanks for sharing, this is going into my HR Forum Folder Collection :thumbs up:
 
jimmys69 said:
Well, my 2.5 year old daughter loves the song and won't let me stop playing it. Over and over. You may be on to something...
I have nothing more to say other than I am not kidding. :)
Click to expand...
That is pretty cool :)

rayc said:
I've love this song have for near on a decade.\
Def a song to get a forum name from too!
The piano is great BUT in the verses it sounds just a little too busy (mix 3) against the guitar.
The stronger lines in the chorus work well.
The piano solo section doesn't sound like a solo - sounds like the same from the verses.
To me it sounds like a part superimposed on a preexisting arrangement.
I'd be inclined to replace the current guitar part with one that's sparser & more sympathetic to the piano part OR pan the piano & guitar wide away from each other.
Mike's bass lines are good but I'm not sure the tone matches the arrangement.
Sorry to be a dag Gerry, I love the song as you know and knowing it very well may mean either I'm unwilling to accept change or I'm precious about hwta's done - not sure which one.
Click to expand...

No problem Ray - as I said in my OP, I wasn't a big fan of my arrangement with all the guitar leads than Jan mastered. When I sent the first version (different leads) he chopped out a bunch and I was "ok I guess that's a better arrangement" Then I sent him a new improved lead part and he left it all in. He said it was a good part so I took his word for it. It's not a bad arrangement but I always felt it was a bit busy and loud during the chorus (my fault).
Mike's bass lines are good - the raw track though has a lot of leakage from the download from ADAT to disk - something to do with how the Alesis interface worked way back then. I rescued it as best I could but it could probably do with a redo using his current, far superior recording methods.

BroKen_H said:
Ray. Thanks for the compliments. I wasn't going to comment on this, but I noticed something from your comment that I didn't even think about. You said, "The piano solo section..." Guess I'm an old school rocker that can't be taught new tricks. I played it that way because I was assuming all along that it would be a guitar solo there. When Gerry wrote me back and said there wasn't going to be a guitar solo, I never even thought about redoing that part as a solo...
Gerry, do you want a bit of solo riff there? I could do that.
Click to expand...

Yes a solo part would be great!
And yes - it was my decision to omit a guitar lead and put the focus on the (great) piano playing. I'm sticking to my guns on that one :)

mjbphotos said:
The EQing worked, much better now! Everything is brighter but sits together better.
Click to expand...
That's good to hear - tbh I wasn't sure if I had pushed that additional eq too much. Ears were tired when I did it.

Mr Clean said:
I agree with RayC that the piano is a bit busy during the verses but it wasn't enough to distract me away from thinking what a great song and totally enjoying the track.
I just really enjoyed the listen. Thanks for sharing, this is going into my HR Forum Folder Collection :thumbs up:
Click to expand...
I understand, it's probably more my personal preference, because I actually wanted the piano to be "busy" - and I'm very happy with how Ken arranged this.
 
First impression on mix 3....

The vocal SEEMS out front but I think really it's just highly isolated from the rest of the mix. I'm hearing piano, drums and electric guitar as a stereo "wall" and the vocal and bass isolated to the middle. If you put the bg vocs out into the stereo spread that would help some...and maybe a slight doubling of the lead vocal, panned at about 50/50...the vocal might sit better into the mix.
 
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