Grabbing at Straws: Some Power Pop for ya...

[Boo Radley]

Lemme know what you think of the song and mix. I took a little different approach for the mix and listened to about 10 songs/artists that I think are well produced, then tried to match what I heard. I'm pretty pleased with the results, but would like to know what you all are thinking.

By the way, the mix is pretty hot. I compressed it pretty hard and pushed it on up to 0 db, so let me know if I went overboard.

Thanks,

Brad

http://home.earthlink.net/~boo.radley/Songs.htm

Nice guitar riff. Guitar tones sound good too.

Vocals sound like maybe there was a bit too much compression used.

Sounds like the guitar solo was panned mostly left. I'm used to hearing it in the center but I think it sounds good like that.

I think you did a good job with this.

[Boo Radley]

Cool...thanks for the quick feedback. The vox are at an 8:1 ratio across the board, but at a super low threshold (-20db). Since there are two vocal lines throughout the song, I wanted them to sound pretty tight. I may try to back off on this a bit and see what that does. I didn't even realize about the solo being panned so hard left...there is a 6 db difference in between the sides. I had actually had a fill on the same channels on the solo. I wanted the fill to come in strong on the left, and forget to balance it a bit more when the solo comes in.

Brad

[Track Rat]

Mix sounds good. The compression on the vox is OK (I kind of like the heavy compression on vox in this kind of tune). Not bad at all.

[Boo Radley]

Thanks Track Rat.

[ido1957]

Cool tune, very power pop, catchy and uptempo.

The compression on the vocals works ok, but it is just not my personal preference.....but it works ok.....

Everything else sounds great, guitar tones are excellent, bass nice and fat, drums sitting nicely...

Again...very cool tune.......

[Boo Radley]

Thanks fellas.

I've played around with it and can't tell much difference when I use a lighter compression on the vox.

Anything else? I'm thinking I'll leave well enough alone.

Brad

[rayc]

Shouldn't that be, (given the genre) Clutching at Strawbs?
Yeah vocals are way too compressed but the song & playing are very very good.
Just a little 3khz boost to the bass maybe?

[turtlishous]

leave well enough alone>?


hell....you wouldn't be here if you thought it was right would you?

just eggin ya

my only nit is the guitar part that comes in between vox.....it is really loud! doesn't fit the rest of the tune to me....(doesn't work for me)...do ya know which one i am reffering too?

[johnnymegabyte]

Very nice.
Maybe bring up the bass a bit. Because it plays a lot of the same lines as the guitar, so it's a third part of the main riff.

Suggestion: Change the opening guitar riff to the bass player. That would be cool. See how that sounds. Might work.

[IronFlippy]

The rhythm guitar sounds a bit too loud, it almost hid the lead and it clashes with the vocals a bit too much. Maybe just EQ them to fit (cut it where it collides with vocals and lead guitar).

I like the song, the chorus reminds me of KISS a little tiny bit. Very raw feeling to it, giving it that rock and roll edge.

[Boo Radley]

Okay, for you that might be interested, I've made a few changes:

I reduced the compression on the vocals a bit.

Per IronFlippy's observation, I fiddled with the eq on the guitar and vocals to try and balance them in the mix a bit better.

I reduced some of the compression on the bass just a tiny bit and bumped the overall volume.

I balanced the pan on the guitar solo.

Some of the things I didn't change:

Johnnymegabyte: I tinkered with making the bass line the opening riff...actually a very cool idea. Something just didn't sound right to me though when I did it. Probably either because I just cut and pasted a piece of the main riff and the eq sounded funny or because I've listened to this about a billion times and the guitar intro is tattoed on me.

Turtlishous: Really I'm here to show you guys what the perfect mix sounds like Just kidding...I value this board's collective opinions greatly. I've got that middle guitar riff at the same volume as the intro riff. I really don't think it's too loud. I've tried it at lower volumes, and it always sounds like a big dropoff when it begins or a big bump when the other instruments come in.

Rayc: I'm afraid by boosting it at 3k it may make it sound too slappy or pingy. I boosted pretty hard around 800 to make it jump out in the middle some. Listen to this mix and see if what I did to the guitars helped out (or hurt) the bass.

Once again, thanks guys, and I hope these changes work for the better!!

Brad

P.S...here's the link so you don't have to go back to the top.

http://home.earthlink.net/~boo.radley/Songs.htm

[rayc]

Yep, the guiatr changes have made space for the bass - good job well done.

[Webb]

I dig it...good production and good song. I don't know if I hear it as power pop per se. When I think power pop, I think Cheap Trick, Butch Walker/Marvelous 3, etc... The riff and voice remind me of Collective Soul.