Looking out on Mackinaw: New song with Easlern and Ibleedburgundy!

R

Robus

Well-known member
Here's a new song, and for a change somebody other than me is singing it.

Dave (Ibleedburgundy) did the drums. The vocals are all Nick (easlern).

(New Mix)

Here's the better-sounding download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzqJIqBR8uJeYW9odVpHRlFaZlE/view?usp=sharing

And here, as mauled by Soundcloud:


Thanks folks.

Looking Out On Mackinaw
(Word and Music: Ray Taylor 2016)

Now that we’ve come so far
You are
In my estimation
My superstar
We come a little closer
To our destination
We dig a little in the past
For our foundation

Went a little too far now and then
We ain’t sorry
Went a little too far round that bend
But we ain’t parted
And now that we’ve gone so far

The old ones caught the spirit
In the north woods night
And the blast of the moon on the water
Burned them in the sight
And the spirit took their bones
Scattered them asunder
By the river, by the big moon waters
The iron plows tilled them under

You know if we could be anywhere
I’d be with them for starters
Just two more campfires blinking on the water
Looking out on Mackinaw

Detroit spit us out
It’s a long damn way to Arizona
City just gave out
That lake she rolled on in my soul
Her water’s mine to have and hold

After we wake to the alarm clock bell
Morning stepping bare
Smell of your biscuits and coffee
Wood smoke in your hair
Would you go back to Chicago
If your Polish daddy called?
Would you stay with me in Charlevoix
Through the darker nights of fall?

Went a little too far now and then
We ain’t sorry
Drove a little too fast round that bend
But we still ain’t parted

And if I could be anywhere
I'd be with you for starters
Like a dream that catch you
While you're standing by the water
Looking out on Mackinaw
Looking out on Mackinaw

Well if I could be here forever
I’d be ever at your shoulder
Standing by you like a lighthouse watching on the water
Looking out on Mackinaw
 
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Great stuff guys. I mentioned before that the snare sound is my only complaint. It's not bad, I just wanted to hear a brighter one. maybe it's preference. Listened on hp's, but I'm going to play it through my car later. Can't tell the kick and bass situation at the moment. guitars sound great. bass sounds great.

lyrically, i really like the 2nd verse. that's some great writing there Ray. great vox nick. solid drumming IBB. nice work fellas
 
Thanks, I'll need to ask Dave how he feels about the blend between the top and bottom mic on the snare.
 
On, like, sixth listen, I wonder if it was a touch low for easlern. But then that makes the harmonies more difficult if it went up a half or whole step. Those harmonies are up there.
 
Yeah the main line was kind of at the bottom of my range. I think if I did it again I would double it.
 
Robus said:
Thanks, I'll need to ask Dave how he feels about the blend between the top and bottom mic on the snare.
Click to expand...

I don't feel strongly one way or another. I agree with andrushkiwt it sounds a bit dark, particularly on very first fill where the drums pop in. If you add some bite to it (+2.5kHz on the top mic) I think that would be fine. Or add more bottom mic. Either way.
 
I thought this sounded quite good. Sometimes collabs have this disjointed thing going on where the various contributions stick out as having hugely different room sounds or just clashes in tones or whatever, but not the case here. The three of you sound very synched up and on the same wavelength and everything.

I thought the bass sounded great. Guitars - also very good. Vocals were nicely processed and performed. Nice, tight drumming. There's a lot to like!

I was listening on small bose bookshelf speakers, and I found the snare sound to be just a tad dull for this piece maybe? I'd like it a bit brighter or with more of a snap or crack to it myself.

I've always heard people complain about soundcloud mangling cymbals, but haven't really heard it myself before, but I feel like I did this time? Just an odd, swishy quality to them, that may just be attributable to the streamer?

That's all I got. Good job fellas.
 
Very good job guys, as has been said ditto on the snare, the vocals are very well blended, everything sounds great! it's got that America feel to me. tight performance.:thumbs up:
 
I like the guitars. The acoustic guitar sounds especially nice. But they all sound good. It's a very good bass sound too.

Drums sound nice. Good tight kick. And a nice sounding snare - it's really dry (and I like it). Sound cloud is swirling the cymbals here and there. Do the kick and overheads lean slightly left? Or is it just me? You did a nice part IBB.

Very nice singing voice easlern. I didn't care for the effects. It's a bit sibalent. The lead vocal sounds like it's in a different place from the instruments. And the BGVs sound like they're in a different place than the lead vocal. For the reverb/delay/other timing effects, I'd treat the vocals a little more similarly to the instruments.

Other than that, I thought it was a very good mix.
 
Thanks 3M. The whole mix is leaning slightly to the left, actually, though I think the main culprits are the guitars. I'll check the kit.
 
New mix in the OP.

I've got the left/right balance sorted, I think. Snare drum should be a little more snappy. Lots of adjustments to the lead vocal, adjusting levels, dialing in the lower midrange. Less compression on the vocal. To me the vocal sounds more natural. Background vocals rebalanced. Minor changes to the guitar blend.

I'll leave the old mix up for a while, if anyone is interested.
 
You guys have done an excellent job here. The writing, performances and mix all sound great and you've all done well to make all the contributions sound like they're operating in the same space. I've always got a soft spot for songs about travel and movement and place, so this works well for me lyrically too.

l listened to the google drive mix, which I guess is the latest. l'd bring the rightsided rhythm guitar that comes in at 0:55ish down a touch, it just comes through slightly too loud to my ear.Other than that, really well done :)
 
oooooh, nice work on the new one. Vocal does sound cleaner and more in the same space as everyone else. And yup, snare is poppier. I like that. What did you do to it? Harmony levels up too? I think there's def an improvement on the new mix. The more I listen, the more I'm wanting to hear "ooo's and ahhh's" on the "...with you for starters" in the background. Some other spots too.

This one is more natural sounding overall, to my ears.
 
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Nice. I like the snare sound better now I think.

I personally liked the way the vocals were processed originally, but this sounds good too - probably a bit more polished.
 
Thanks! I took Dave's advice and added a couple of dB's to the top snare mic track at 2.5k. I also raised the bottom mic relative to the top one.

I did lower the harmonies just a bit relative to the lead vocal. But basically, I'm a sucker for vocal arrangements with lots of harmonies! What can I say? The bridge part where the harmonies cut loose on "her water's mine..." is probably my favorite part of the song, some will say the harmony gets too loud there, but not for me.
 
Responding one of heatmiser's observations...

I almost said the same thing about the snare (slightly dull). But then I decided that I liked the way it sounded in this mix. If you decide you'd like more snap, I imagine that it's a super easy fix. Something I found that's very effective for doing that:

1. Insert an aux send from the snare to a new bus
2. Put an EQ plug in and do a high-pass filter like all the way up to 2500hz or even higher
3. Then put in an exciter plugin (there is a good one that comes with reaper)
4. Play with the "gain" (or whatever they call it) on the 4K and up region in the exciter plugin
5. If you solo that bus, you should be hearing a rather high-midrange snap with a hint of distortion
6. Blend that with the rest of the snare to taste.

Anyway...
 
This is a nice one. Kind of have a seventies vibe to it with the major seventh chords.

I think the instruments all sound pretty nice. My only nit is that the vocals sound a little unintelligible and buried, mainly when all the instruments are playing. It sounds as though they could use a little more highs and a sweep through to find a frequency that's making them a little too bloated in the lower mids. At the end, when they're on their own, I can understand every word, but for most of the song (full band), I was having trouble understanding them. (I purposefully didn't read the lyrics so I'd remain unbiased in this.)

Cool tune and great performances. Just wish the vocals were a little clearer (performed very nicely though).
 
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