A Part of Love - alternative-pop-rock

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Hey guys, how about some feedback on this? Wrote it over my Christmas/NY's break and recorded the next day. I've spent the last two weeks working on the mix and am pretty satisfied with it (for the moment). I've turned the vocals up a bit more than I usually do since I get some comments about their level during quieter passages - i've also compressed them pretty heavily. Finally, I added a tube saturator to the vocal buss simply because I liked the little "lift" it gave them. Does this work similar to an exicter or would that give a different effect/feel?

as usual, i didn't practice singing this until recording time - i always seem to write slightly higher than my voice can go without some strain. i admit i don't practice/exercise enough, and it wasn't anything 9 takes couldn't fix, but if anyone has tips/advice/exercises on the higher pitched/almost screaming-type vocals, that would be appreciated. I have a post in the "singing and vocals" sub-forum regarding this also. basically just looking to make it easier on my throat/chest and more natural rather than having to warm-up for over an hour to hit the high notes.

thanks for listening, looking forward to the good stuff and the bad stuff. thanks!



might as well throw some lyrics in, though i'm never a fan of "words" - more of melody...

a place to lay my head, i fear sometimes...
the darkness overhead is now alive.
they try to hold you down
next to me -
i listened for you now, in my dreams.

i've searched the whole damn world,
i've bathed in sorrow,
i've roamed the empty earth,
your heart won't follow down.
the water fills my lungs,
it's killing me to be a part of love,
so get me out.

i'll breathe awhile alone,
to save the air
from weathering this stone - if only.
steal the trust in me to give back hope
from what lies underneath - we're buried.

i believe it's all a part of you,
to break the other down until they come unglued.
 
Last edited:
Hi Taras. Good work as always.

Despite the compression, your vocals are still dropping out on the lower parts. You might want to go in and do some surgery by hand, rather than leave it to the compressor. Try cropping around the parts that are dropping out, and just raise the level of those clips. Actually, I think your voice works better on the parts where you are straining at the top of your range. It's the lower parts that lack power.

Musically, it's up to your usual standard. Tight, well played.

Glad to see you post your lyrics. To me, they are essential, what the melody conveys. Have you thought about getting a lesson or two with a vocal coach? You've got a way better voice than I do, but I think we struggle with similar issues when it comes to tending to writing melodies outside our range. If I only wrote songs that I could sing comfortably, I'd be sounding like William Shattner...
 
Out of the gate, nice tones, nice general balance and nice sense of openness and clarity to the mix. Very good blend of the different elements of the mix overall. Nothing masking anything else and no muddiness as far as I can discern.

Before going any further I will say that I don't think you should make any drastic changes. Just subtle moves from here on in.

I am finding that there is a slight bit of harshness to the mix overall. I would venture to guess that you need to look in the 3 - 6 k region to tame those with a very wide and gentle cut on your 2 bus. That's where harshness always is, or at least where I always immediately pick up on it.

I think you need to de-ess the vocals first though before looking at the above, as your esses stand out quite a bit.

I like the phasing in the guitars in the intro. However, I am getting phasing in the choruses at around 1:20 and again around 2:40. In these cases, perhaps it is intentional, but it seems not to be. It is unsettling to my ears in any event. It sounds like it is on the vocals. Do you have some sort of stereo effect, harmonizer or microshifter on your vocals in the chorus? Whatever it is, I think it is unflattering to the production, but this is subjective of course.

Cymbal hits seem a little unnaturally wide to me. The drums overall sound really good and suit the song well. The kick is coming through nicely, as is the snare. Something about the snare feels a bit off to me, like there is too much of the top of the drum and not enough of the snares or something. Subjective, this one, I think.

Aside from the vocal esseyness, only very subtle moves are needed here in my opinion.

Very good job!
 
nice work, mix sounded fine to me...maybe a little compressed, but suits the style...I liked the bass, nice tone...the vocals were good, I think the saturation suited them, maybe a little uneven in volume at parts, but thats really looking for faults


good stuff
 
kindafishy said:
It sounds like it is on the vocals. Do you have some sort of stereo effect, harmonizer or microshifter on your vocals in the chorus?
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the huge review. All good stuff in there.

You're totally correct about the harshness. Before I settled on boosting a db around 9kHz, I brought it down some to see how it lifted the top of the guitars...I do agree that it's too much. Its around 4kHz that the guitars are starting to "sizzle" or fizz. Good call. Brighter seems good at first, then "why did I do that" the next day.

Also, correct on the vox. There is a stereo chorus underlying everything. I take the main vocal of the section and put it onto the stereo chorus track. The chorus section is double tracked, so I took one track and set it to L5 and the other to R5, with the stereo chorus being the left take, but obviously centered. I'm guessing you have very good ears and are picking up that the left side is also running center.. Leaving the right side as a single instance of vocals. Good ear dude. I didn't think it would make too much of a difference, but you got me!

The cymbals are the default settings for superior drummer and come as a stereo track. However, I widened the whole thing to about 116% .

Great info, thanks for the listen and feedback!
 
kcearl said:
nice work, mix sounded fine to me...maybe a little compressed, but suits the style...I liked the bass, nice tone...the vocals were good, I think the saturation suited them, maybe a little uneven in volume at parts, but thats really looking for faults


good stuff
Click to expand...

Hey thanks a bunch. Bass is all Greg's help and advice (cut the mids and compress to hell) lol. Thanks for the listen and feedback!
 
I really like the guitars. They sound good. So do the vocal. The vocal level is a bit uneven - a little harder compression might help.

Drums sound good.

The bass, to me, is too loud. The tone is OK.
 
TripleM said:
I really like the guitars. They sound good. So do the vocal. The vocal level is a bit uneven - a little harder compression might help.

Drums sound good.

The bass, to me, is too loud. The tone is OK.
Click to expand...

Thanks dude. So far, we have bass good, bass could be louder, and bass is too loud. Lol. Aahh, what to do what to do...

Also, if anyone has a suggestion or recommendation for a superior drummer expansion that would best fit this genre, feel free to let me know. I'm just using the stock NYA kit, though I did buy metal machine for the cymbals. The xdrum function is too many buttons for me though and I don't use them. :)
 
Robertt8 said:
The sound is really nice, fat and punchy! Not sure what I could possibly add. Good work.
Click to expand...

Right on. Its amazing what one helpful member can do when they really want to help! I give most of the credit on the guitar, drums, and bass sounds to Greg for his great help. He really helped me shape them. Dude knows his stuff. Thanks for the listen and comment
 
andrushkiwt said:
Thanks dude. So far, we have bass good, bass could be louder, and bass is too loud. Lol. Aahh, what to do what to do...
Click to expand...

Could be an indication that the mix isn't translating well? On headphones the bass is nice and clear, the guitars could come up a little though. Vocals sound great, what ever you're doing is working
 
Bulls Hit said:
Could be an indication that the mix isn't translating well? On headphones the bass is nice and clear, the guitars could come up a little though. Vocals sound great, what ever you're doing is working
Click to expand...

i'm confused by the contradiction in your post. are you saying that on headphones things are good, but possibly not on other systems? "whatever you're doing is working" is throwing me off compared to the first sentence.
 
I'm just saying the bass sounded fine on my headphones. But if you're getting mixed messages from various people then maybe your monitoring environment isn't giving a true representation of what the bass really sounds like. The other comment is directed at you vocal processing
 
Bulls Hit said:
I'm just saying the bass sounded fine on my headphones. But if you're getting mixed messages from various people then maybe your monitoring environment isn't giving a true representation of what the bass really sounds like. The other comment is directed at you vocal processing
Click to expand...

got ya, sorry about that. You're probably right about the monitoring environment since that is made up of....headphones. at least they're Senns HD280, but I do need proper monitors
 
Nice! I really love the three different melodic threads that are going on in the intro.
I thought the vocals sounded terrific. Hard to believe you don't practice. I'm jealous.
Vocals in the chorus could be screamier in my opinion. But that's probably not too helpful.
I've probably said this before, but I love the tone of your voice.
 
Jessica_X said:
Nice! I really love the three different melodic threads that are going on in the intro.
I thought the vocals sounded terrific. Hard to believe you don't practice. I'm jealous.
Vocals in the chorus could be screamier in my opinion. But that's probably not too helpful.
I've probably said this before, but I love the tone of your voice.
Click to expand...

thanks! i'm glad you noticed the 3 different melodies going on in the opening - little things like that, people don't usually pick up on. the very first part, the opening, was a last second composition - i almost started it with the bass slide. and yes, i wanted "screamier" - i know exactly what you mean. That's where not practicing is hurting me...i can't get that scream-y tone I want for most of my songs. i have to dial it back or else i blow my voice out in 15 minutes. thanks for the listen, feedback, and kind words
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top