And now, for something completely different; Llarion Collabs!

[Llarion]

Okay gang, you gotta love collaborating with fellow artists...

This time, it's me and a lovely young singer named Dawnmarie... She wrote a lyric and melody, I set it to chords, arranged it, recorded all the instrumental parts, she laid down the lead vox, and I dubbed in 3 parts of backing vox...

So, whattya think??

www.artistlaunch.com/dawnmarie

Take My Hand

Cheers!
Phil "Llarion: The Jazzinator" Traynor
www.llarion.com
-Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons;
for you are crunchy, and go well with ketchup.

[participant]

Hmmm... looking at her photo... yeah, she must work out

I guess that intro guit -- the brite one-- is okay, it's just not a preference of mine (the 2k/heavy bridge tone). That said, sounds like the lead voc track has maybe too much low-body to it... then again, I'm unfamiliar with mixing music in the genre... but, it seeems to my infantile ears that a rolloff would help things sit better together -- esp bass & vox....

On some held notes, she seems to go just the tiniest bit off key... but it gives the track some character -- not enough to kill the tracks. Hey, if any track screamed out for some nice strings... or a sax, this is it (steps back and looks around nervously, waiting for someone to step up )

A group of violins would sound especially sweet in the THIRD bar of the chorus/group (huh... sounds like you kinda did that with a synth...) maybe those could come up in the mix?

Nice job, Llarion... a very involved project, undoubtedly... Connie Francis would be proud


Chad

[Lt. Bob]

I like the song and arrangement. And your playing, of course, is fine as usual. But I don't think I like the way her voice has come out. It sounds a little middy to me for some reason. It sounds like she normally has a big full maybe sultry type of voice but it hasn't really come through that way. I realize I've never heard her so maybe I'm wrong but there's a midrange thing happening that I'd like to hear differently....maybe get a little sparkle in her voice. Actually, the whole recording seems to have that middy thing going on. Maybe it's just my speakers.
Nice tune and great playing .

[Guernica]

Wussup Jazzinator,
Very lush. Musically, I really like what youve done. Nice solid bass. It wouldnt hurt my feelings if the acoustic guit was brought up a hair, but that might just be preference and not really conducive to that style of music. Your backgrounds smoke. ......very nice, full, and in key.......... The lead singer is a bit iffy, in my opinion. As mentioned earlier, she does tend to slip out of key a bit, and has a bit of a forced sounding vibrato...... and should not sing those falsettos at the end. ....but you do the best with what youve got right? .....and you did a great job.

Nice stuff man, G

....by the way, its always nice to hear something different in here.
.........welcome

[Llarion]

Thanks much guys!

I posted this because while I'm experienced and reasonably adept at producing and mixing instruments, I have next to no experience producing vocalists. And Dawnmarie is a tough cookie to mix, because the dynamic range in her voice on this piece from softest to loudest is probably on the order of 60dB!! a lot of it was sung very softly, and a lot of it was knocking plaster off the walls. Girlfrien' has some PIPES. So, yeah, there's probably a little disconnect between the sound of the vocals and the sound of the backing tracks.

Her vibrato is a faster one, that comes from her classical opera training. Personally, I don't think it translates properly to pop, but it's ingrained in her now, so not much changing it...

To give you an idea of how much I struggle with it, the backing tracks were pretty much take 1 or 2 across the board, start to finish was about 2.5 hours. The lead vox took 8. (take 23...) I don't know why, but I can hear the issues plainly, and when it's instruments I always know what to do about it, but producing vocals is SO different.

Participant, she's a kickboxer...

If you want to hear what she sounds like with a pro producing her, go to www.mp3.com/dawnmarie and hit All The Tea In China; she had it done in Nashville, and it's her at the top of her game...

[B.SABBATH]

nice song..

I agree with Lt. Bob about the midrange scene.. It sounds good for the most part, but something sounds a little muffled and midrange-ish.. I have no idea what to suggest because I have problems with my stuff that I can't resolve.. Pretty nice tune though.. She gets a little flat (or sharp) a few times, but still quite good..

[participant]

Just to confirm Lt. Bob & Sam's comments about the "mids" on the vox... that's what I was hearing, but called it "low body"... it just seems on the high side of "boomy" to me. If she was using a mic with a bass rolloff switch, it was turned OFF... the delivery was smooth...

EQing vocs is tricky, and can often ruin them... the only thing I'm comfortable doing to voc trax is a low-end rolloff.

Kickboxer... eh?

[erichenryus]

big difference between your background vocals and the lead vocal. maybe you need a different mic but it's interesting that the very thing i want from the lead vocal is there in the background vocal. they are soooo much more present in the mix.

[Barometer]

Good Job Llarion, as usual I suppose. Same comments about the vocal mids, but that's covered already. Nice song too, something a little different than I was expecting

[Llarion]

Some very perceptive ears here... dead on about the rolloff; my mic does indeed have a 20db low end rolloff, but it was not turned on. The same mic was used for the lead and the backup vox, a CAD177. It was passed through an HHB Radius 3 Fat Man tube compressor in the acquisition stage to try and smooth things out and warm them up. The backups are probably more linear because my voice does not have quite the dynamic range as Dawnmarie's, and as such is probably less tricky to balance.

Thanks to all of you for listening!