Going Home.... instrumental

[GuitarTricks]

ok...I guess I need major feedback on this song.
It's the second one I've done since I bought Cubase VST a coupla months ago... the first song was
Every Breath, but cause of copyright crap I had to scrap the cover tune ideas.
This one is just the instrumental so far , ie no vocals yet.... every instrument is live to tape.with no drum machine or midi sequencing etc.... (except to do the scratch tracks, then I replaced em with real drums etc....)
...just need some feedback on the mix.... how it sounds.... how it would do backing up a vocal etc......
Any comments are really welcome.

http://members.rogers.com/schmange3/goinghome.mp3

[NYMorningstar]

Hey,
We're rapidly becoming fans of yours here at my home. I have your last DL(everybreath) still, it was worth saving. My lady likes this instrumental also, as do I. As far as mixing, this one seems to have the guitar, in spots, sitting a ways back into the mix. I guess if you add vocals that would make it ideal. You gotta let us hear the final cut with the vocals.

[GuitarTricks]

wow... thanks muchly
Nice to hear after a hard day.

Spent the day doing a remix
http://members.rogers.com/schmange4/GoingHomeTake6.mp3

Basically the same but with more time spent on each fader.... tried adding a backwards guitar sound and accidentally erased a part of the original guitar track so I've been in major edit mode all night trying to fix it.
Still gotta do the vocals.

[Polaris20]

What guitar recording equipment/methods are you using?

The guitar sound is a little sterile. Overall it's a really good recording.

[GuitarTricks]

The guitar's direct line in through a Boss ME-5 multi-effects pedal (distortion/chorus/compression/reverb) with the little 3" computer speaker turned up to give a bit of feedback.
I'm basically screwed when it comes to recording live guitar through an amp because of neighbors..cops etc....
About the only thing I can think to do is maybe add a bit more compression and 'datube' or find a good VST cabinet simulator and see if it sounds better... otherwise it's stuck that way. Out of 64 patches on the ME-5, this was the only one worth using.

[Polaris20]

The song's really great though man, I like the composition. I know what you mean by the whole noise issue.

I recommend checking out the POD or the V Amp.

I have the POD, and I absolutely love it. It is so warm, for being digital.

[Blue Bear Sound]

As a song, you've got a cool thing going... so kudos on the composition...!

The mix, however, has a number of sonic problems....

1) The drums have an annoying muddy quality to them, especially the snare.

2) In this type of tune, I expect the drums and bass to provide a good portion of the track's ambient environment the rest of the tracks will sit in and they just don't!

3) You've buried one or more tracks in far too much reverb and it's standing out like a sore thumb relative to the other tracks...

4) The percussive guitar part needs to be better blended into the rhythm of the song and not quite so up-front... plus you've got too much of the wrong type of reverb on it... (too wet, and the verb's too deep!)

5) Just got to the short solo break -- too much verb on the parts...

6) Just got to the guitar solo -- again, way too much verb... cool solo BTW, but at one point I here you stumbling just a bit (as if you lost focus), you may want to punch that few notes in again...

As I said, musically you've got some good stuff happening, now you just got to get your recording chops up to where your songwriting chops are!

Overall, your mix is thin-sounding and the tracks don't work together to give the listener a sense of cohesive ambience... it sounds like you just threw a bunch of reverb on things hoping it will all somehow meld together! You need to spend more time on verb selection, not just on each track, but on how the tracks' verb fit together to form song ambience.......

Good luck.. keep at it...!

Bruce

[MiXit-G]

sounds great just try and steer away from that phil collins drum sound!!

[GuitarTricks]

> The mix, however, has a number of sonic problems....
>
>...


Excellent!!
Wow...thanks. Now that's the kinda feedback I like.
...a buncha honest advice from someone with great ears who really knows what they're talking about.
heh.. you picked up on all the stuff that was really bothering me about the mix but didn't realize why it was bugging me.
Now I can get back to work on it. I've been stuck on a holding pattern for the last coupla days wondering where the heck I've been going wrong.

Peace & Grooviness
schmange

Schmange's Guitar Tricks
http://www.schmange.com

Friday, May 17, 2002
1:31:20 PM

[GuitarTricks]

Peace baby...
Took some of the suggestions from here and came up with this ...

http://members.rogers.com/schmange4/GoingHome.take9.mp3

... some stuff I'm stuck with.. ie, I've only got the minimum recommended processor for Cubase, a coupla radio shack microphones ..15 year old equipment etc... ie.. a $25 Diatone acoustic from Sears.

I added some more Freeverb to the overall drum kit, but during mixdown the cpu overloads and the sound craps out.. same thing with trying to clean up or sweeten some of the sounds... it's either put everything through one group channel and go for an average balance, bounce down and print the effects to 'tape' or EQ it. I'm basically stuck with 2 VST effects per song, & I'm already using Datube & Freeverb.
blah... any help or suggestions appreciated.