Tots - catchy new wave like stuff

WarmJetGuitar

New member
Had the immense pleasure of recorded an EP with my mates. In my ears they are a bit similar to Television, The Cars, Blondie and maybe Tom Petty on his first album.

I nicked a tecnique from Roy Thomas Baker of stacking up the background vocals in the outro. There's 20 or more voices there, four people around a mic and repeating a few times, then bounced to one track on the 16-track machine.

Recorded on Fostex G16, mixed on DDA Q desk, effects from Korg GR-1 spring reverb, Yamaha EM-300 set up for it's spring, Yamaha and Dynacord analog delays and parallel compression with a GL Audio 5021. Borrowed a SE Gemini for the backing vox to keep enough high freq details despite the bouncing.

Enjoy.

The Stars Are Up There For You by tots | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
I think the lead vox might be a little mid-rangey. The rest of the mix is bright enough that they sound a little dark by comparison. How'd you EQ them?
 
I love the feel of the song. It's really fun.

A double tracked lead vocal is practically a requirement for a tune like this. :)

To me there is way too much reverb on the guitars. The guitars are pretty clear, but the vocal isn't. They sound like they're in different spots.

A thumping snare would really help this tune. I'd bring it up in the mix. I'd give it a boost in the 5K-6K range. Compress it a bit harder.
 
I agree with 3M, good snappy snare, sound like the snare you have would do the trick if it were brought up.
I don't mind the reverb on the guitar, but it is a lot.
Fatter vocal would really give this song the pinch of salt that would make it even better.

I think it is a good song, good recording over all. Just a couple of production suggestions, but really it can stand as is, just IMO dash here and dash there in the mix would make it that much better.
 
Thanks for the usefull feedback dear people.

Can't remember how I EQ'ed the vocals, lots of water under the bridge since I mixed this one. The mid-rangy ness is due to make the lyrics intelligable without an extremely loud vocal. The mid range are quite busy. But if I remix it for their EP I'll keep it in mind.

I love the feel of the song. It's really fun.

A double tracked lead vocal is practically a requirement for a tune like this. :)

To me there is way too much reverb on the guitars. The guitars are pretty clear, but the vocal isn't. They sound like they're in different spots.

A thumping snare would really help this tune. I'd bring it up in the mix. I'd give it a boost in the 5K-6K range. Compress it a bit harder.

I agree as for the reverb on the guitars and the snare and I usually have this discussion with them and I just have to respect that it is their music. I love the snare, it's a Pearl Reference. And the drummer is kick ass. Had him do session work for my band too.
 
i love reverb. it had a sound so I assume it was intentional too, slap the verbs on.
i never know if some of the distortion stuff is intentional there are some tracks with this type distortion-y saturated sounds Ive heard in the Skateboard shops and Vans etc..
 
This was a really fun listen. Great performances all around. I guess the mix could be a little "cleaner"-sounding by today's standards, but it's got a great vibe, which is the most important thing in my book. Well done!
 
When the guitars were playing with all that verb in the beginning, I had an idea in my mind about the vocal tone, space, etc and you nailed it. It was exactly what I thought needed to fit in with the rest of the music. Right on, great mix
 
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