New song: "20/20 Foresight"

[mbouteneff]

"20/20 Foresight" is the 2nd song I've recorded so far...I move depressingly slow.

In any case, it's not what I typically write/play (it's the only "love song" I've ever written), but it's the song I wrote for my current wife when I decided I'd propose to her, and which I sang just before popping the question. (Btw, she did say yes, so it can't be THAT bad. )

Anyway, you can click here to listen:
http://www.reverbnation.com/garagespin

Thanks!

-Mike

[dastrick]

I love it. This is my kind of music.

It reminds me that I need to dig out the song that I wrote/sang when I proposed to my wife. It's the only song that I've ever written. I have it recorded on one of those mini cassette tapes which I have no idea where it is. Anyway...I got sidetracked...very nice tune.

[DARKSHINE]

This is great!!!!

Really love the mix !

What equipment did you use for this?!!
I'd be happy if I can get my recordings sounding as good quality as this!

Is that viola/violin in the back of the mix a real instrument??

Really love the song!
Congratulations on the marriage !

[gecko zzed]

Strong, rich voice, strong rich guitars.

Your song is well played, well sung and well recorded.

Lyrically you've tackled a topic that could easily drown in the sugar bowl of sentimentality with conviction and without banality.

The song structure creates interest, particularly the chord changes in the chorus.

The background vocals are great, and the double vocal works well . . . though personally I don't think it is needed.

You are a competent guitarist and you pay a lot of attention to how you play and how it sounds, right?

Consequently, the guitars are prominent in the mix.

There is a bit of a downside to this. You've got some excellent supporting instrumentation there, but it tends to get pushed to the back, specially in the more percussive guitar bits later in the chorus. Where there are bits of guitar silence, the strings can be heard, but when the guitars are not silent, they disappear, and the effect is a bit like a compression pumping effect.

I think the song is great, but I wouldn't mind hearing the guitars pushed back to give a bit of space to the backing instruments.

[mbouteneff]

Wow, this is great feedback.

Dastrick: Thanks! I highly recommend recording your song again, and perhaps even surprising your wife with it on an anniversary. You'll score some MAJOR points.

Darkshine: Thanks so much for the compliment! I used Sonar 7, an MXL v67G mic, and a DMP3 preamp, for all audio tracks. And yup, great question on the strings -- There are BOTH real and synth strings in the song. I recorded a real cello (triple tracked for a fuller sound) on a single melody, which is what you hear most of the way through. But then, for a "lift" at the end of the song, I added a synth bass and violin using Reason 2.5. (I only own a cello.). Combining the two sources helps make it all a little less "synthy".

Gecko ZZD: Awesome feedback about lyrics and music -- I really appreciate it. You're absolutely right, the background mostly drops out during more intesnse guitar parts... (It's a problem I often face, and am not good at solving -- too many sounds stepping over each other.) I'll try lowering the volume of the guitars during the chorus...hopefully that won't take away from the intensity of the chorus? Btw, could EQ also help, by "making room" for the strings? (That's something else I've not successfully accomplished yet. Thanks again for your thoughts, they'll definitely help to make this song better!

Thanks again, everyone!!

-Mike

[joeym]

This is charts stuff my friend!
Nice acousting sound, great voice, very good hook-line, love the strings. Reminds me of the Goo-Goo Dolls and that's good..... I'll bet your lady had tears in her eyes when she heard this. Well done!

Joey

[mbouteneff]

JoeyM: Thanks for the compliments... Goo-goo dolls ballads are classics...thanks! And yup, tissues were required...her blurred vision probably helped me a bit.

[dastrick]

very rarely do I listen to a song from the clinic more than a couple of times, but this one is an exception.

[DARKSHINE]

hey man

quick question..

How did you get everything sounding so warm?
Everything seemed to have that nice umph and the vocals sounded really warm and had a really nice sound... something you could hear on an indie album. Is it because of the pre-amp??

I use a Focusrite LE audio interface with a Studio Projects B1 condenser mic and I can get no where near the sound you got. Is most of it done through the mixing and EQ or what?

If you could message me about this that would be great, because I'd love to get a mix as good as this.

Thanks man
again, great song! great sound!

[mbouteneff]

Dastrick: Multiple listens? That may be the best compliment I've received yet. Thanks, man.

Darkshine: Regarding the "warmth" of the sound, I'm afraid I'm not really sure how it was achieved, but I'll try describing what I did...hopefully the answer lies somewhere in the process?

- Mic: I don't have much experience with mics, but I do love my MXL v67g. The only other mic I have is an SM57...which I NEVER use. The MXL sounds better on every single instrument and vocal I've ever tried it on. The SM57 is hollow and cold sounding. (I'm still not sure why so many people suggest it as the best "all round" mic...no way.)

- Close Micing: I definitely sang really close to the microphone, and set the preamp to a lower sensitivity to allow that. I also sang in a very relaxed way, and focused on outputting as pure a tone as I could manage; it may have taken some of the passion out of the performance, but that was the sound I was going for -- nice, smooth, relaxed tone. The close micing probably increases bass frequency response in the recording, which might contribute to the warmth of the overall sound (the added bass frequencies, etc).

- Preamp: I do use a DMP3, but I've never used anything else. From what I've heard, it's a fairly "clean" preamp that doesn't add/affect the sound much. So it's probably not that..?

- EQ: I did EQ my vocals a little to decrease an upper frequency that was a little scratchy...and may have increased it elsewhere... I'll have to check, as I'm not remembering.

- Double Tracking: I triple tracked the chorus vocals, meaning, I had a "main" vocal part, then sang that same vocal two more times, and panned those two recordins left and right 100%, which adds a lot of sweetness/smoothness/fullness to a vocal, so there's a good chance that's what you're referring to? That may be the "indie" sound you mentioned. If you listen closely to pop, over half of pop tracks double up in the chorus. Coldplay, BradSucks, Jack Johnson...they all do it all the time. (And it sounds much, much better than only using a chorus effect.)

- Master Plugin: The very last thing I did was throw in a mixing/mastering plugin (for the ENTIRE track), which I just set to a default setting called something like "soft master". That may have helped also, though when I listen to the track with and without it, it seems to mostly effect overall loudness of the recording...I'm not sure there's a big "warmth" change...but I also honestly have no idea how to optimally use the plugin -- like I said, I (embarrassingly) just use a default setting with no edits whatsoever.

If you want, remind me, and I can check out the EQ settings I used, and any other plugin settings I may have used, for the vocals.

I hope that helps!!

-Mike

[K-dub]

Nice work, Mike ... you nailed the recording, w/ a strongly written piece.

I use MXL603s to record my guitars, and I love them. I'll have to look into that mic you use, for it sounds great. What synth did you employ for the orchestral parts?

But aside from that ...

My main question to you is how the hell do you have so many widget hits on two tunes? Where the heck did you put those things?



Kev-

[mbouteneff]

K-dub: Regarding the orchestral parts, I use a real cell throughout most of the song. At the end of the song, I added strings with Reason 2.5. Mixing them with the cello make them sound a touch lest "synthy".

As for the high widget count in Reverbnation, I just placed a widget on every page of my website, GarageSpin.com. I've been blogging since 2005, and get about 1200 unique visitors a day...the vast majority of which come in through search engines, then leave. The widget hit count is huge, but the play count is not. (I may have to turn on "autoplay" so they HAVE to listen to my songs...broo-ha-haa!)

Thanks for your compliment!

-Mike

[mbouteneff]

In case anyone's interested, I posted a 'final' version of the track online for free download here:

http://www.garagespin.com/2009/05/05...020-foresight/

I made a couple small changes: reduced volume of harmony vocal, and reduced guitar volume a bit. Thanks so much for your feedback, everyone!

-Mike