Steen's back, baby!

Steenamaroo

Steenamaroo

...
Yo yo yo guys.

Haven't posted here in a long time because I'm doing label work now and it's all meant to be kept quiet.
That's kept me pretty busy so I haven't really done any covers either lately.

Anyway, a local chap contacted me and wanted to do his first ever studio recordings. I had some time so I took it on. :)


He was pretty nervous and struggled a bit with timing but I got him rigged up with a drum beat instead of a click and he got on OK.

He's coming back tomorrow night to do proper vocals. These were a bit of a warm up for him.


In true Steen style he played guitar and sang main vocals, and I've added all the other stuff to the mix.
Would love to hear what you think and hope you enjoy it. :)

*Update.
There are now two songs - One mix of each.

Darren Dilworth
 
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Very "open room" sound like you're using a big reverb in the beginning.
Vocals are fine now. What are you going to do with vocals?
The piano sounds kinda cloudy.
The vocals are definitely the focal point which is good for me. Sounds like a young singer with perfect pitch, or an old one with a high voice and perfect pitch. Either way the voice is great. The rest is a little washy sounding, unique but a little unclear. Guess I'm too digitalized lol.
 
Wow Stenno, great sound man. The guy has a great sound. Is that you on the background vocals? Some of the guitars sound kind of harsh to me but just a tiny amount and only in some spots (just sounds like it needs some low end to calm it a little?).

You know to take what I'm saying with a grain though.

I like the song, and really like the guys voice. He has that almost old time folk sound, love it.
 
The thing that comes in at 0.46 can come down a dB. The ghostly bvs in the chorus could be more present - they're so indistinct that it just sounds like noise. The snare could pop more - I'd be messing with EQ and distortion and short delays to try to make it pop more. The tremolo guitar's getting a bit masked. The bass is more of a presence than a clearly identifiable sound - is that what you're aiming at on this one?

Nice tune. Excellent vocal.

Looking back at that post, it seems mostly nits, but I think you're closing in on this one.
 
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ido1957 said:
Very "open room" sound like you're using a big reverb in the beginning.
Vocals are fine now. What are you going to do with vocals?
The piano sounds kinda cloudy.
The vocals are definitely the focal point which is good for me. Sounds like a young singer with perfect pitch, or an old one with a high voice and perfect pitch. Either way the voice is great. The rest is a little washy sounding, unique but a little unclear. Guess I'm too digitalized lol.
Click to expand...

Hey,
Thanks for the feedback.
The vocals are mostly fine in my opinion but his phrasing is off in a few places and there's heavy tuning here and there.
It was a quick warm up take so, at very least, I'll get him to do a proper take that he's comfortable with.

The piano is pretty bright but I'll take a look at cutting the lower mids or something. Maybe it's clashing with other parts? Do you mean the light melody or the full chords?




polarity said:
Wow Stenno, great sound man. The guy has a great sound. Is that you on the background vocals? Some of the guitars sound kind of harsh to me but just a tiny amount and only in some spots (just sounds like it needs some low end to calm it a little?).

You know to take what I'm saying with a grain though.

I like the song, and really like the guys voice. He has that almost old time folk sound, love it.
Click to expand...

Hey,
Yeah man. That's me on backing vocals. My favourite place to be. :)
I think I hear what you mean about the guitar. The electric on the right side?
I'm not super happy with the tone of it so that's confirmation. I'll take a look now.

Thanks chaps.
 
I'd sure like to hear more of the tremolo guitar riffs, 'specially toward the ending. The piano could use a little clarity on the melodic parts, the moving parts. Really nice vocals, really nice song. Like if Dylan could sing pretty!
 
I like the sound of this one except the vocal, it's EQ'd a bit too high for me, a combo with the reverb that makes it sound separate from the instruments similar to a David Gray sound overall (if I remember that correctly).
 
einstein magoo said:
I'd sure like to hear more of the tremolo guitar riffs, 'specially toward the ending. The piano could use a little clarity on the melodic parts, the moving parts. Really nice vocals, really nice song. Like if Dylan could sing pretty!
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That's a few mentions for the piano so I'll brighten those melodic notes up a bit. Thanks. :)
Tremolo riff...noted.

Everything seems to tend towards the idea of the mix being too subdued and rounded under the vocal, so maybe I just need to open this thing up a bit more overall?
Thank you. :)

mjbphotos said:
I like the sound of this one except the vocal, it's EQ'd a bit too high for me, a combo with the reverb that makes it sound separate from the instruments similar to a David Gray sound overall (if I remember that correctly).
Click to expand...

Oooh, Ok. that's a negative but actually kind of positive.
I got a real David Gray vibe from his voice and kind of ran with it. I intentionally set him out like that.
If you and others hear it as a bad thing I might revisit, but at least what I was trying to do came off.




Re the guitar comments - Listening back I think you were talking about the harsh jangly acoustic? I think I'm going to need to look at that.
It's not a great instrument so at very least I'll get him to use a different guitar moving forward.
Muting it temporarily made the snare seem to disappear, so re-recording or manipulating it is definitely going to have a knock on effect.
If I can get away with compressing the shit out of it, that'll do. :p

Thanks chaps. I'll take a look at these things tomorrow. :)
 
Cheers man, and thanks Steve. :)
Yeah, I didn't bother editing silences or being picky with that rough take.


Chaps, I've added a new mix with a different bass guitar. My new yamaha arrived today and this is the test.

The old bass, on the original recording, I've had for years and never really got on with it.
It's incredibly deep and full but always sounded scooped to me.

I'm in this odd boat now where the one i'm listening to always sounds the best.
I can't decide if this new, more natural, bass is better sounding or not.

Thoughts?
 
Listening from work this time on headphones and don't have both tracks to a/b for the bass so hard to say for sure with just memory.

I will say though that listening back on headphones the acoustic still sounds a bit bright (and out of tune a little, but that could just be headphones).

Still like the tune though, dude has a great voice!
 
polarity said:
Listening from work this time on headphones and don't have both tracks to a/b for the bass so hard to say for sure with just memory.

I will say though that listening back on headphones the acoustic still sounds a bit bright (and out of tune a little, but that could just be headphones).

Still like the tune though, dude has a great voice!
Click to expand...


I'm an idiot. I thought I'd posted a link to an mp3 player for you all, but I didn't.
I posted a direct link to an mp3 (that hasn't changed) by mistake.


Anyway, most recent version is 'new bass mix' @ this address. Darren Dilworth
 
Really like this. Not going to try to nit pick. Sounds really good.
Acoustic is a lot more pronounced in the second mix. Like it like that.
I had a nit about the piano, but it sounded too negative, so I will put it into this question: The piano as is, is not sharp and crisp like a piano should be. It's too smoothed, so would the song be better served with a smooth Wurlitzer or Rhodes style sound?
 
Right, well, I'm glad I asked.
The piano was totally meant to be a filler, just so the mix didn't sound empty, but if so many people are picking up on it I need to either brighten it a lot, remove it, or replace it with something more 'fillerish', like you say.

For now I've brightened it as much as I'd like to, ('new bass mix') but I'll wait and see what people are thinking.

Thanks Broken. :)
 
I thought it sounded real nice. The vocal sounds real nice.

I might push up the guitars during the verses. The vocal is quite a bit out front and there might be a little room for more guitar.

Some of the guitars have a little metallic/brittle sound to them. I would prefer a little warmer sound.
 
I'd still like to here that little tremelo git sweetener pop out a little more. Really like the piano lines, just wish you could brighten them a little more (rather than "fillerish"). Can't compare yesterday's bass, but new one sounds good here to me. I will personally think I have done something extraordinary when I can get one as good as this is, as-is!
 
Oh dang..I missed your first comment somehow!
Thanks for commenting, and for coming back.

What are you listening to now? The link should take you to a player with there tracks. The third, most recent, mix has much brighter piano so I'd be keen to know if it's still not enough.
I also carved a little more space for it by panning the guitars a bit better, I think.

New vocals are down as of about 3 hours ago.

First link is original and has the original bass, if anyone's super interested.

I played with the tremolo guitar - the intro/outro lead part? Something just won't let me turn it up...Does anything else think it needs more?


Thank you Einstein. Very kind words!


Edit: I dialied a lot of the bass back into the trem guitar and turned it up a bit.
I've also switched to a grand piano which is naturally a lot brighter.
 
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