New mix of Fly Away

[cstockdale]

Thanks for the comments so far. Here is a new mix with significant changes:

1) EQ'd down the mids on the lead guitar and brought the level down
2) re-EQ'd the acoustic guitar to give it more life and vibrancy
3) EQ'd the backing vocals for more focus, knocked off the reverb
4) edited the bass line tons
5) used panning envelopes to move some things around (got the tremolo guitar in stereo now among other things)
6) took out some of the synth...left it in the intro/outro and choruses only

Please take another listen
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/...d=2680&alid=-1

Let me know what you think

Things yet to do: rerecord the lead vocals (off key in too many places, too much ESSSing), find a vocal harmony, run the bass out through my J-station (Ampeg amp sim) to fatten it up, add a few drum fills/cymbals

by the way: the synth thing at the beginning is DreamStation DXi (comes with SONAR)

[rustyfingers]

OK I'm a newbie but here's my opinion:

The synth thing at the beginning was VERY loud and annoying.
Seemed like almost to much panning on the trem guitar.
vocals sounded clipped and distorted.
The mix needs to be toned down a bit... IT WAS LOUD.

The whole mix needs work IMHO. But I'm not qualified to offer a whole lot of suggestions. It just didn't seem to blend very well.

BTW: I liked the song, it just needs some work.

DeNniS

Also, it take me a while to learn that shit loads of EQ, panning and effects are not usually what's required to make a song sound good.

dEnnIs (again)

[cstockdale]

Thanks for the reply. As for the synth...odd as it is, maybe it needs to stand with something instead of on its own so taht it isn't so central. It likely should also be turned way down. But, the main reason for that synth is actually to serve as a bridge between two songs on the final CD we are working towards: the previous song uses a groove like that, and it is a neat transition. For a "single" of Fly Away, it might be a good idea to start it at the point where the acoustic guitar comes in.

As for the tremolo, I am trying to find a rhythm to it: out wide at certain points, and then back in tight, it is going to take some work: drawing those envelopes is painstaking.

Vox: I totally agree with, but that was take one, and we haven't redone the vocals. After the mix issues are settled (on this and half a dozen other tunes) I am going to rent a good condenser mic for a weekend and redo all vocals, and likely acoustic guitars too: I only have a Shure SM58 at the moment.

[TripleM]

Quite a bit better than yesterday.

The distorted rhythm guitar sounds 100% better. Like the outro... Except the machine gun drums at the very end. I like the acoustic sound.

Some other things I'm noticing now. The "telephone voice" double tracked vocal... I don't think you retracked them right? They weren't as bad as I thought (better without the verb), but there are spots where they're out of sync. They're panned pretty hard to the right - that will make the syncing issues much more noticable.

I'd personally retrack all the vocals. Doesn't sound like you're using a pop filter. Can hear some excessive exhaling (e.g., :57). The vox need something... The notes that you hold for a long time (e.g., the word "love") aren't landing right. Maybe double track that part or put in a harmony part to see if it comes out smoother?

There's a little pop right at the begining. Little mistake on the acoustic at 2:45?

Keep working at it and having fun...

P.S., somebody mentioned the synth at the begining is a bit loud. I'd agree - nudge it down just a bit. It's got that strong mid-range energy that can get annoying real easily.

[cstockdale]

TripleM: Thanks for the second listen:

As mentioned above, all vox need retracking, and I intend to rent a good mic to do it (so far I am living off a Shure SM58), so I hope to get rid of any issues regarding excessive exhales (that actually is exaggerated due to the compressor I realize now), and anything about the backing vox being out of sync. We are trying different harmonies as well but nothing has stuck yet. I agree that losing the verb on the backing vox makes it sound better. The EQ I threw at it sounds better for this purpose too. I don't like to EQ lead vox much, but I don't have the same level of restraint for backing vox: they are there to fill space and create a mood.

Thanks for the suggestions on the guitars, I agree they sound much better. Also, thanks for the observation about the acoustic f***up at 2:45, I didn't notice it before. I likely will fix it by taking the same acoustic part out of a different part of the song, as the acoustic has now had so much treatment, I don't think I could do a new take and match it to the same sound.

Also considering not even starting the song until 00:31 as that is where the tremolo guitar begins. The rest of the stuff would still be there in an "album" as a sonic bridge between two songs, but the single would begin with the tremolo.

Still undecided about the machine gun roll at the end....it may get cut in the next round of edits.

Ironically, this song is an experiment with me and a partner: he is primarily a bass player and good guitarist. i am primarily a vocalist and songwriter and do all the mixing/production. In this song, he wrote it and sang it, and I did all the guitar work (except the tremolo part), programmed the bass and just did the backing vox. In the next couple of weeks I will have two other songs up for critique that I wrote and sang.

[RideTheCrash]

Bring up the snare, it's so low in the mix, and but the cymbals and kick are up there, sampled are they?

[cstockdale]

yeah it is all out of the DR-008, initial pattern from SlicyDrummer, but I modified it considerably. I think I need a new snare sample altogether, but I will try turning up the one that is there.

[flash2ace]

i gave this a listen the other day but i forgott to comment on it sorry about that. the remix is better and it is coming along. i like the song alot by the way it is realy easy to get into if you know what i mean. i know this remixing gets old but it is the only way to learn and we all have to do it quite frequently. the backing vox will sound fine if you guys get a good harmony going. i to have problems with harmonizing and finding the wright harmonys. overall i like the song alot just needs some mixing work, although i have found that if you rerecord the whole song it usually comes out much better since you have a better idea of what your looking for now, i dont know if you wanna put that much time into it but it does pay to do so and that way you learn to do it better the first time and your not trying to fix things with eq that cant be fixed. good luck and id love to hear this again so make sure you post when it is done so we can all hear it again. god blesss tim pate.

[flash2ace]

i gave this a listen the other day but i forgott to comment on it sorry about that. the remix is better and it is coming along. i like the song alot by the way it is realy easy to get into if you know what i mean. i know this remixing gets old but it is the only way to learn and we all have to do it quite frequently. the backing vox will sound fine if you guys get a good harmony going. i to have problems with harmonizing and finding the wright harmonys. overall i like the song alot just needs some mixing work, although i have found that if you rerecord the whole song it usually comes out much better since you have a better idea of what your looking for now, i dont know if you wanna put that much time into it but it does pay to do so and that way you learn to do it better the first time and your not trying to fix things with eq that cant be fixed. good luck and id love to hear this again so make sure you post when it is done so we can all hear it again. god blesss tim pate.