"El flapo" strikes again... Now an acoustic song

  • Thread starter Thread starter flapo1
  • Start date Start date
The rhythm guitar sounds pretty good. The voice, however has a very midrangey, "boxy" sound to it.
Your singing is nice but you need to EQ it differently. Also that accapella part at the start is very noisey. You need to mute the other channels 'till they come in to cut down on the noise. The drums and bass are played well but they both need the bottom end cleaned up some. Try a little less EQ down low....maybe around 40 to 60 Hz. Then you can bump them up around 100hz without it getting too muddy.
This is a good song. Keep working on it....I'd like to hear it as it progresses. I think it'll be reall good. ;)

BTW.....I only found one song on your site...Naces.
 
sounds pretty good to me. i have no idea what you are singing but it sounds very romantic to me. you could be singing about small engine repair and i'd respond the same. couple of intonation things in your singing but the voice sounds really good. man, i keep going back and forth on whether to buy one of those C1's. I bet you're glad you got it.

What plugin are you using for the ambience/reverb? It sounds sweet.

Nice job. Sorry I can't give advice on what to change besides the singing intonation (minor point). Others will chime in with better feedback.

Just a matter of opinion but the drum track wasn't quite fitting for me. Maybe something softer with brushes or something.
 
Hi Lt. Bob

It's an honor to me that you have reviewed my song since I am a big fan of your playing.

I agree with you on the voice thing. Cutting what freq's do you think would help to solve the problem with it? In the beginning, it's an effect (Izotope Vynil) that when the guitar comes in is taken away. :)

The drums are actually soundfonts but I think I can do the mixing you talk about. The "bass" is an acoustic guitar pithed down electronically and heavilly compressed :eek:

Please help me with the voice issue, I found it really boxy too, but couldn't eq it properly.

Thanks, pal :D
 
This is a song about the recent volatility of the European bond market...TOUGH subject.

:D

On a more serious note, (and I could be way off here), but it sounds to me like you used a ton of compression on the vocals AFTER you'd added reverb? If so, I don't have a clue what you can do with EQ, but I'm sure there's something. (Man, I'm not very helpful today).

Here's my suggestion: I think you have a very strong voice, and I also think that you had some pitch problems

:30
:51
:47
1:13
1:17
1:24...1:29... You get the idea.

If you didn't do it, record the vox absolutely dry (background and leads), and listen to them that way pumped entirely too loud...and without using headphones. This helps me a ton to isolate those errant sharps and flats. EVERYTHING sounds good on headphones. :D I doubt you'll have to EQ your voice much at all...it's a great voice.

Keep in mind, I know nothing about anything.
-chris
 
Hi erichenryus.

Thanks for your comments.

I am VERY happy with my C1, its my first LD condensor and I think it's very good. It has improved my recordings tremendously as well as the mxl 603s (Imagine how they sounded before :p ;) :D )

The lyrics are unfortunately not related to mechanics, but go a bit like this:

You're born, as everyone is born
with your skin and your soul naked
you grow, as everyone grows
learning from everything you see
without knowing if it's wrong or right

You were born with an evil seed
and you think you know everything there is
and your eyes won't let you see
and your ears won't let you hear His voice

You think, as everyone thinks
your strenghts will hold always you
You say, as everyone says
"I believe in me, and nothing else,
I trust myself, I can do anything"

And you left thruth for false
And that evil seed grew
And that is what doesn't let you live
you are slave of your own evil
nothing can satisfy you
and you want more...


"More" is song #2, I will download it tomorrow morning.

PS. I wish I had some brush samples but I couldn't find any
 
Hey: I'd be more than happy to email you some brush wavs. Even though my drums always suck, I've got GREAT source material.

You don't need AUTOTUNE...you can obviously pitch very well...It's just that singing with headphones does something to us...I'm sure somebody else here could give a dissertation on phase differentiations of something...I just know that it's harder to catch the sour notes unless they're dry, and you're listening to them without phones.

Please don't think for a second I was criticizing your voice or your obvious talent...I wasn't.

:D
-chris
 
Man I like this tune. You could try pulling down the EQ right around 1.6k or actually I might try bumping 500 to 600hz up a little bit. When I say a little bit I truly mean a little bit. Try various freq's around those ranges and use your own judgement. Try a little bit of one thing and if that doesn't work, put it back where it was and try a slightly different freq.
Personally the first thing I would try would be a very slight boost somewhere around that 500-600 area. I know some will disagree because they feel you should never boost but I'm talking about a very small amount of boost and if it works it would be easier than figuring out exactely how to curve the highs.

Or you could try chris' idea and redo the vox. In that case I would do like he said and record it dry and flat.
 
You have a great sounding throat!

It does sound like the mix got eq'd so much that the life has been sucked out.

The song has potential... work a little bit on the mix and it will sound fantastic! Good Luck!
 
Actually I will redo the vox specially the off-pitch parts, and try Bob's EQ tips. Though I did track them absolutely dry, I will take a look at the effects chain to see if I mistakenly put the verb before the comp. Maybe it's the room, since I don't have proper reflection protection and my closet is too thin...:p

Don't worry guys. As I said before I can take good AND bad reviews, and that's what I'm looking for, ways to get better in my mixes. The Autotune thing was nothing but a joke, I've tried the demo and I know it makes my voice sound really horrible!

So Chris, how do you track voice without headphones, or do you put one can in and one out?. Any idea would really be great.

OK guys, gotta leave my internet computer now. See ya tomorrow, I will bring song #2 ("more") which is a lot more electric and uptempo.
 
Looks like you broke waldo's rules man:eek: This is the page I get now:

This users account has been disabled for having multiple accounts.
Only one user account is alowed per person.

If you feel you are getting this message in error, please contact an administrator.
 
listening to "Naces"
I agree there are some pitch issues here and there but nothing that you won't be able to nail if you try IMHO. Specialy if you hear those places yourself too.

the drums could start earlier IMHO... or introduce the bass before the drums. also acc gtr is a little sharp and narrow sounding, you could go for fuller sound since it's pretty striped down arrangement, back the mic a little to get fuller sound

(note to self: "you don't know what you are talking about" :) ).

hey a second song appeared while I was typing, pretty good one.. too, same little pitch issues.... on the first listen.. I will listen more latter...
cheers
 
Hey FLAP01 - (does your name mean that "flapo" was already taken???).

I was unclear (shocker) in my first post. I don't track vocals without headphones, but I DO, after tracking the leads and bg vox, take the headphones off and listen to the vocals really loud in the mix - totally dry. The sour notes seem to stick out better.

looking forward to listening to new song this evening.
 
Thanks guys for all your replies

Fed: Actually at first the song didn't have any drums or bass, I put them because I didn't wanted it THAT stripped down, but though I know the first part sounds strange without them I wanted to keep that "naked" feel, kind of "growing" like the lyrics speak about. BTW what do you think of them? (of course it does not have any metrics or rhyme in english but it does in spanish, really!)

Chris: Oh, I see now! :p The problem is I do hear them but it's very hard for me to do bckgd vocals in tune! You know what I'm talking about? I've tried to do it both listening and not listening to the main vox and It's still hard for me! :( What method do you use? Advise, please!

The new song "mas" is already posted, and the name flapo1 is... well, I really don't know why I put the "1" in there. I'll let you guys call me just "flapo" ;) :cool: :) :D Man, I love smileys!
 
I do bckgrnd vocals listening to the main vocals so you can get the phrasing just right. I personally use open air headphones as opposed to leaving on can off one ear. I know some people feel like they get too much bleed-over into the mics with open-air's but I don't run them that loud and so it hasn't really been a problem for me. I heard the pitch problems some others mentioned but they didn't bother me that much. It's not like you were a 1/4 tone off or anything.
As for the drums....maybe you might try just a single percussion instrument during the "naked" part like a shaker or something. That way when the drums come in it won't be quite as big a change but the first part would still be very open.
 
Thanks again, Lt. Bob.

I'll try the shaker thing in the first chorus so it builds up a bit more steady I guess.

What do you mean by "open air"? Do you use them as some kind of "mini-speakers" or something?. Thanks for your kind words about my vocals but the off-tunings cut like knife to me, specially in the harmony parts.
 
flapo1 - I just tried your link and I got a message from NoWhere saying your account was closed because you have more than one active account.

Wondering if it was a problem with Nowhere, I tried my account. It worked fine.

Anyone else getting this? If you think it's in error you may want to contact Waldo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
opinions? I've been sat on this song for 2 years
Replies
2
Views
1K
PoeticIntensity
PoeticIntensity
D
Pop Rock song...
Replies
4
Views
2K
MadHatterTCM
M
D
New Jaguar in Family
Replies
8
Views
2K
Greg_L
G
Z
Songwriters are whiny bitches (acoustic-lo-fi)
Replies
0
Views
1K
Zille
Z
G
acoustic song - rough mix
Replies
15
Views
2K
SnakeDog5050
SnakeDog5050
Back
Top