For your consideration - poppy/southern rocky song

I liked it, I think your title will put people off though, I don't see this as a Southern rock song at all.

I think you need to put more into the vocals, you have a decent voice but you sing tentatively.

Tony
 
First sounds as I walked onto my deck outside to listen a grab a sip of tasty beverage were promising steady drums...electronic without a doubt, but nicely toned. Unfortunately the guitar and vocals were muddied somewhere along the way, likely in the mix. Listen to your recording objectively. It is really quite nice, but everything other than the drum machine needs some sparkle, e.g.-it is muddy. More high end, less low, maybe some tasteful mids but ever so slightly. Nice tune when you get it tweaked. Made me kick my feet at first measure when I listened :)
 
Sounds good to me. I like the quality of your voice, reminds me very strongly of Tom Petty. The singing should be worked on as mentioned above, with more energy and control, but the quality of your voice is great. Nice tune though, and the mixing sounds fine to me. I think if you asked 10 people on these forums to mix this "right" you'd get 10 very different mixes. Sounds to me like its about perfectly mixed, granted I am using studio headphones.
 
Good tune - sounds familiar but new at the same time......previous poster is right about the Tom Petty similarities.
I like the mix except the vocals could use some more punch/bite/volume. My friend always says the same thing - he likes a voice with more bite which you get when singing live rather than in the studio with headphones on. Maybe different with a dynamic versus a condenser and monitors where you have to sing louder to hear yourself thus get more bite. Some noise on the end of the track - maybe from guitar track?
 
Nice sounding recording. The song is good.

I definetely hear the Tom Petty sound in the vocals as well. Very nice.

To me, the drums are just a tad loud compared to the instruments. Arrangement wise, I think I'd like to hear a different beat during the choruses--the drum rhythm never changes throughout the whole song. Also the instruments (all but drums) sound slightly, very slightly, lack-luster. Don't have any suggestions on how to fix that other than re-tracking.

Thanks for posting. Good job.
 
Thank you all for listening...

HomeMadeHitShow: You are probably right that this should not be labeled as southern rock...my friend (who was visiting for the day from 500 miles away) did most of the writing and performing of this song (I worked mostly on the drum track, put in the bit of keyboard "windy/vox" sound, and acted as the recording engineer)...one of his biggest influences is Lynard Skynard, and we both thought this song sounded like the 80's group 38 Special, so I thought others would catch a hint of southern rock in this song...I wanted potential listeners to know what to expect...simply pop/rock is probably the best label to put on it.

Seeker of Rock: You confirmed the nagging feeling I also have that this song could be brighter EQ-wise. I have always tended to have "muddy" recordings and I have been struggling trying to get the EQ right in this song. In the past I have mostly recorded on 4-track cassette. This is one of my first songs recorded by computer. This song used around 16 tracks (it could have easily been 10 tracks or less if I had used the tracks more effeciently). The complexity and added options with using the computer has been challenging. I've noticed that of my 4-track recordings have more "sparkle" when I listen for comparison. I am going to start using "official" monitors soon so maybe this will help me with the EQ issues in my recordings.

Johndowis: I'm sure my friend will be flattered by the Tom Petty vocal comparison and will be encouraged to consider upping the energy level to his singing in the future.

ido1957: that noise is from the bass guitar...I probably need a DI box. I was able to eliminate the noise at the end in later mixes (by turning down the bass track at the end) but when I made comparisons this mix (that I had done weeks ago) sounded better than my more recent mixes (sadly, at a certain point in my mxing, I began to do more harm than good in subsequent mixes)

Incanus: you have every right to call us out on the drums...there could definately be variation on in the percussion area of the song.
 
Hehe, before I even read anything else above, the first thing that popped in my head was... Tom Petty. That's really cool.
The solo sounds kind of thin and back in the mix to me. Maybe double track that or thicken that up some. Little guitar fills during the last verse would sound cool.
Since the rhythm is similar throughout I think adding some tambourine to the chorus would add to the piece. Or backup vocals. Just some thoughts.
Overall I'm a Petty fan so this was pretty cool, good song :D
I'll refrain from too many mix comments for now since I don't trust these headphones.
 
When I think of southern rock,I kinda think of Lynryd Skynyrd or The Allman Brothers,and this does not really fit into that catagory imho....although its kinda close to some of .38 Special....anyways ,pretty cool song,I to hear a Tom Petty resemblence to the vocals..A it more bottom end to the mix might help a bit,otherwise I think this is a cool easy song to listen to.Nice job!
 
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