Distant Melodies

[mikemoritz]

Hey all,

This is my latest...just a rough mix...have yet to touch vocals and need to verb some things, but overall, what do you think? Song is called "Distant Melodies"

Thanks a lot,
Mike

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Mike,

That's a pretty good pop tune you've put together there!

The composition gets a little un-steady in a couple of spots but the playing over all seemed quite good!

The guitar work, bass and drums sounded well balanced but the drum mic placement probably was the culprit of the kit sounding a little one dimensional and bland in the mix.

The vocals, while competent, could probably stand to be re-done with a little more heart in the performance. Perhaps if you turned up the headphones when you sang them and lowered your voice in the headphone mix, it might of inspired you to belt out the tune a bit more, which is a trick I do often to really open up the pipes.

The vocal levels in the mix seemed a bit too loud in the current mix through out most of the track.

There are some good guitar hooks in the track and I encourage you to keep working on perfecting the track.

Good stuff, so far!

Cheers!

 

[studioviols]

Nice tight entrance, well mixed.

Strong clear vocal entrance at 00:21, you could bring the instruments down here for a very nice dynamic effect.
And I mean the accompanying rythm guitar.

Because as the other instruments join in at 00:26, the vocal is no longer 'dominant', it gets a litte buried. And that could be EQ, not just fading. Something needs to be done to tame the instruments at 00:26. The opening vocal needs to be exposed and strongly on top of the mix at all costs. There is plenty of time later for the instruments.

Look at the meters, if the meters of the instruments are at the same level as the vocal, which is actually, much, much, much louder ?

All the instruments combined ... now that's really A LOT louder than the vocal. The human voice is an acoustic instrument encased in flesh, it cannot compete with metal and drums, or line level POWERED electric instruments.

What's your goal, what is the most important element in the song ?

At 00:33 the instruments dropping out somewhat is very effective, but when they come back in on the second phrase of the second part of the first verse, they are much to loud. Instruments 'accompany' the lead singer, they are not at the same level of status and importance ... whose out front ? The drummer ? Or are you the star ?

And the vocal is a tad to dry, if you lower the instruments and gain some headroom, you can add a bit of reverb and put the vocal more in the same room as the instruments, but I agree with you, keep it on the dry side.

At the first chorus 00:47, the drums really are much to loud, and the cymbals also, center them and drop them way, way down 'back behind the lead singer' , like they are live.

You are probably going to put some backup vocals in here, and there is no headroom for them at this point.

Now, I can understand all the words on the first listen, a few words, there's a struggle and I can pick them out, but the members of this board are NOT the average listener, we are extra keen eared ... friends

At 00:59, I really lost the vocal, big struggle to understand those words.

To much low mid on the guitar riff that is filling as we enter the second verse.

Yes at 1:26, the drums are too loud, just because they are real ... doesn't mean they are up front, they are not starring in the song.

At 1:40, your vocal performance in this second chorus is generally stronger, very nice.

These backup vocals at 1:53, good backup vocals are GOLDEN, don't you DARE hide them from us.

What is happening here, is the actual note you are singing, and the tambre of your voice are very sonically similare to what is happening in the guitar, don't EQ the voice here, go back to the beginning of the piece, and drop the guitar, then when you finally get to this point, EQ'ing the guitar as a special case scenario here is not going to be that noticeable, also, you will then have the headroom to pump these backup vocals.

GOOD BACKUP vocals and HARMONIES ARE SOLID GOLD ... show them off.

At 2:10, totally losing the vocal, and that's a perforamance issue, mic proximity I believe, you ducked your head a bit ?

At 2:32, vocal performance is at it's strongest now.

If you re-track this, when you get to this third chorus go back to

At 02:59, this section is great, that cymbal 'tank' in the middle of it ruins it though.

And yes, we've got to hear more of this vocal, so LOWER the INSTRUMENTS ... always, don't hit the vocal fader first, always create headroom first, you can always raise the faders, getting them back down is difficult.

The drummer is generally a little to busy.

The guitar player is fairly tasteful if understated. I'd like to hear less notes from him and more bending in this genre. A change of pickup postition to neck would be nice in some spots.

I'm hearing a 'country blues', and there is a brand new Austin Band called 'The Breathers' at http://www.thebreathers.net, the drummer is their engineer and mixer, and they sound a bit like this ... Eldridge Goins he's a mover in Austin, a young guy, and someone to watch closely I believe. He's going somewhere, fast.

This is like 'progressive Americana' ? Grateful Dead and John Cougar Mellencamp ... very catch stuff ... I like.

And I could hear a massively cool cello part in this. But yer gonna have to EQ that guitar.

Generally a good performance, a nice song, could easily be on a CD as say ... track number 7 or so.

Generally a bit to bassy and guitars are heavy in the mids.

Thanks for sharing with the board.

 

[TripleM]

Nice feel to the song. It's a style that I personally like. A real nice toe tapper. I like the drummer - the part supports the song well without trying to hog the limelight.

The vocal performance wasn't too bad, but could still use a little work. Some slight pitchiness in spots. It seems there was a little trouble hitting certain spots with confidence. I think doubled vocals would absolutely kill on a tune like this. That might be my strongest recommendation. I also think there are spots for harmonies that could be taken advantage of.

The guitar tone, I thought, lacked a few upper mids and highs. It kind of sounded like you were listening through a closed door (that overstates it a bit, but hopefully you know what I'm trying to say). To me, it should be retracked with some brighter tones (be very careful not to over-do that. It's all too easy.)

Liked the song...