I think I'm finally done. Please Review and tell me your thoughts. I'll reciprocate.

undrgrnd studio

undrgrnd studio

New member






I've been recording and mixing this album for more than five years. I just could never get the sound I wanted. I think I'm there now. At least with the equipment I have available.

I would appreciate any comments you might have on the sound or even the songs themselves. I'm so close to this project that I can't listen to it objectively any longer. If you would like me to review something for you, please let me know and I would be happy to. Thanks!
 
I listened to College. I liked the song. I like the singer a lot.

I thought there was too much reverb on the guitars. Some of the guitar riffs and leads are kind of buried. Guitars seem to be missing a high end. They all sound muffled.

Bass has a problem frequency in the low end. It's all low end and low-midrange. Nothing above that.

Snare sounds really good. Kick sounds pretty good too. I think maybe the OHs could come up a bit. One of the cymbals sound a little phasy and cheap. The others sounded pretty good. Toms are OK, but a little woofy.

The backing vocals are a little tentative and pitchy.
 
I checked out all three songs.

It's interesting. I liked the beginning of all three songs, but ... none of them really went where I wanted/expected them to go. I mean ... I guess I was kind of waiting for a chorus or something (13 Hours had the kind of instrumental riff I guess) or some kind of development. If it were me (and I know you didn't ask me, so what the hell do I know?), I would consider these strong starts of songs but not completed ones. That's just my opinion, of course.

Regarding the recording, it has a lofi-ish sound to me, and I don't mean that as necessarily a bad thing. I love indie stuff. I will say, though, that it seems to kind of be missing a "sheen." As TripleM said, it sounds rather dark.

There are some nice sounds in there (I like the acoustics), but the snare sounds a bit flat.

I'm assuming this hasn't been mastered or anything, right?
 
I really enjoy these songs.
College: I agree that the guitars are dark and too reverby. The guitar licks could come up too.
Beautiful Night: I think the production style on this one matches the song more.
Thirteen Hours: I like the keys and the songwriting. The lyrics are a bit drowned out at some points though. Personally I find vocal levels to be a challenge when you know the words. Its too easy to fill the gap mentally. I do the same thing with bass levels being the bass player in my band.
 
The first tune: I'd cut some low end from the bass, and then I'd route *everything* except the vocal to a separate buss and try a subtle lowmid EQ cut, and maybe even a gentle boost somewhere up in the 4-8K range. By cutting everything at certain frequencies except the vocal, the vocal will be just that little bit more present, which it needs to be I think, cuz the vocal's the obvious focal point of the song, and right now it's getting ever so slightly overshadowed by the slight darkness of the lows and low mids of the other instruments at certain points.

Cool song, by the way. I like how it's sung and how it sounds. Good stuff.
 
Thank you all for your reviews.

I really appreciate these reviews, as JG96 mentioned it's easy to get too close to your own music and miss things in mixing. I do tend to hide my vocals in the mix. I always feel like they stick out in a bad way when they are more present. It's not that I'm off key or anything, I just tend to cringe when I hear my own vocal profile. I think what I will do is ask a friend to remix the vocals for me, and see what they do.

TripleM, on COllege (song 1) the guitars don't have any additional reverb or processing. They were recorded that way, and unfortunately will have to retain the reverb. You're dead on with the darkness of the guitars and also the missing highs on bass. I always kick back the treble on bass. Perhaps I should pop it back up.

Famous beagle, I'll take any and all reviews and advice. I think what you are picking up on is the fact that these particular songs don't include a bridge. I didn't realize that when posting them together, but you're right. Sometimes I omit writing a bridge when I don't feel it. But a bridge always seems to help a song crescendo, and while I do have dynamic changes or additional instruments to simulate that with these songs, they do suffer from "missing bridge syndrome." I am a little taken aback by the lo-fi comment though, I thought these were clean and fairly well polished. College being the exception, because of the style of the song.
But again, you're right there is no mastering here. These were "final" mixes. No limiting or anything. Sounds like they need it.

Thank you dobro for the advice on EQ, I'll give it a try. I'll repost the first song College in a couple weeks after I remix.

I thank all of you for your advice.

Does anyone have anything they need another set of ears on? I'd be happy to listen.
 
Sure - listen to stuff you find interesting in this forum and comment. It's a pretentious word, but 'synergy' applies to situations like this forum. When lots of people start listening honestly to lots of stuff that's posted here, this place starts getting really useful to the people posting their music here.
 
College

I like the sound of the guitars, kinda vintage/vibey sound. I think if I were to mix this song I would try to give it a bit of a fuller sound, especially in the low midrange area. I feel like there's a lot of spectral area not being covered by vocals or any instrument that creates an emptiness. I would probably try to keep the guitars thin and make the drums more punchy. The snare especially could use some compression, and I'd like to hear more overheads and room. You could also compress the vocal a touch more and bring in a touch of presence to bring it forward, to create a stronger forefront and background.

Thirteen Hours

I like the balance between acoustic & keys. The bass has a lot of low end to it, but is pretty far back in the mix. I'd like to hear it be more of a central part of the mix, with some more mids and maybe some saturation. Most of the same observations from College apply to the drums & vocals. This song sounds less vintage to me, so I'd like to hear a nice wide mix (stereo pairs, haas effect). In particular I'd like to hear the drums and bass filling out the soundstage, with everything else falling in to create a sense of space. The one crash (1:49) takes your head off, even for an effect/trash sound.

Beautiful Night

Same thing with the drums and stereo field. The snare is really dry and thin. I would definitely compress the snare a lot more on this tune. The vocal is a little more present here, but I'd still like to hear a touch more compression to bring it up front.
 
Can you put your songs somewhere they'll stream from? I'm not keen on downloading from someone I'm not familiar with.
 
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