"Rare Earth" - collaboration with DM60 on vocals

Pinky

Pinky

and The Brain...
I recently started a thread looking for a vocalist to collaborate with. Member DM60 (David) answered the call and just laid down some new vocals for one of my original songs "Rare Earth" (which was released on my last album, but I was singing and I'm not very good).

His vocals came out so good I'm going to include it as bonus material on a future album. :) I figured I'd post for some input on the mix, performance, anything else you hear that isn't quite right. Since the song's in queue and has already received one remix, mind as well get it sounding as good as I can.

Thanks again David, you are already proving both talented and fun to work with!

New mix with David's vocals:




Original (for the curious and brave):

Rare Earth - YouTube
 
Hey Pinky, i quite liked the song. Not too far removed from some 'post rock' stuff i've been listening to lately, Trans-Am being one band, not comparing you to them though.
As far as the mix goes the bass synth sounded a bit too heavy to me. I liked the vocal style in general, but i reckon it could come up a bit, and sounded a bit muffled at times, a bit less bright than everything else. Had to listen pretty closely to get all the lyrics clearly. Pretty minor details though, and it's quite possibly just the contrast with the 'buzziness' of the rhythm guitar and bass synth making it sound that way to me.

Listened to a fair bit of music tonight, and was mixing some stuff earlier today so my ears are probably a bit burnt out by now to give more than a general impression. Cool to see people wanting to collaborate like that. :thumbs up:
 
Thanks for the input Anders, you at least confirmed what David thought needed adjusting (the vocal's presence).
 
I think the vocals sound like they were recorded in a box. Unintelligible, murky, dark, dull, too much "effect" on them. They stand in stark contrast to the rest of the very bright plastic sounding mix. Clean up the vocals and you'll be in business.
 
I agree with the comments on the vocals. I would add that the vocals were off pitch in a few places...but that may have been intentional for effect. I think the synth bass is too heavy and the bass drum isn't heavy enough. If the bass drum and the bass synth were both the same level in the mix it would sound better in my opinion.
Good song
 
Thanks again for the input everyone. The new mix replaced the original in the first post:

 
The vocal in that mix sounded to suit the song much better to me. Definitely less 'contrast' now, and the boxiness is gone, much clearer. Was anything else changed in the mix?
I didn't notice the bass synth as much in this mix, it's been a few days since i listened to the original so i can't tell if there was a level change on that, but sounds less dominant to me now. I only mentioned that because i commented on it first time round.
 
I would try going back and forth between your synth bass and some other bass sound per chorus, verse, etc, for some dynamics. Maybe add a breakdown (synth and vox only) Cool tune!
 
Anders Erisian said:
The vocal in that mix sounded to suit the song much better to me. Definitely less 'contrast' now, and the boxiness is gone, much clearer. Was anything else changed in the mix?
I didn't notice the bass synth as much in this mix, it's been a few days since i listened to the original so i can't tell if there was a level change on that, but sounds less dominant to me now. I only mentioned that because i commented on it first time round.
Click to expand...

Yes, I EQ'd the bass, trimming some of the lowest frequencies and raising it in the low-mids (100-300hz) while also dropping it back a few db in the mix. Once I did that the kick came through with ease as I had already shaped that to help its presence when competing with the bass synth.

In hindsight the strategy for tracks like this in the future is to employ ducking to help allow the kick to come through with such a powerful bass part. I don't tend to mix a lot of electronic bass as I'm a capable bass guitarist, but sometimes I like the attitude and ease of using a heavy synth.
 
Crazy Luke said:
I would try going back and forth between your synth bass and some other bass sound per chorus, verse, etc, for some dynamics. Maybe add a breakdown (synth and vox only) Cool tune!
Click to expand...

Thanks Luke, I'm probably not going to be doing any new arrangements with this track but I like your idea. The idea was to have the bass synth be the unifying part of the song. I can hear how it may 'drone' a bit. I don't do breakdowns much. Seems... predictable when I hear it on other songs. But who knows, that may have worked well here.
 
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