Whattya mean no vocal issues?? I think you've got to turn them way up!!
Really nice relaxing tune. I agree with Greg about the percussion sounds, but really don't know what to suggest without taking away from the feel of the song. Anything stronger would change the nice mood you've got going.
I don't like the rain. Mind you, I never really like added soundbites to any tune, they always come across as gimmicky to me. With this one, I get what you're doing and it might actually work if the rain soundbite had more depth to it. I find it sounds weak and thin and I almost didn't recognize it as rain; more like a bath running in the background. This is part of the reason why I don't like soundbites. You gotta really make sure it sounds like rain and not something else.
HTH,
Heh heh, do you reckon I need something other than rain to get something more rain sounding? Like in films where they slam phone books to make punching sounds etc. Maybe I can beef up the rain somehow - I like how it bookends the song, but I don't want it to sound like I'm running a bath
As I said on the response to Greg's comment, I'll have another think about the percussion. If I can get hold of something with a little more depth to play the same rhythm I think it will improve things on that part considerably. I did worry whether it would make it sound a little amateurish. Thanks for your nice comments about the overall feel and cheers for listening Chili
Hey rob - I won't lie and say that I wasn't a little disappointed not to hear a more song-like song with vocals and stuff, but this is nice. Very pastoral. I liked the verb/room on the harmonica...can you talk a little bit about how that was captured? Have you used that instrument before in songs? I don't remember...
I didn't mind the percussion or the rain. I've listened to this many times already since you posted and I don't have any mix critiques myself. I'll be listening again for sure.
Hey Pete, I figured it was time to do another instrumental. I've always really enjoyed the likes of Godspeed You Black Emperor, Ennio Morricone and Calexico with their instrumentals that have the space to breathe and evolve, but seem to have been more drawn into vocal stuff recently. For me it was fun to work on something again without the pressure to tie it down to verse-chorus etc. and still retain cohesiveness/interest throughout. There'll be some more song-like stuff along next I think.
I'm glad you liked the feel though and nothing leapt out as out of place. Yeah, I think it's the first time I've posted anything up with the harmonica. I wanted to get a bit more expression in it and play with more vibrato - but I didn't manage to get a good take playing that way the other weekend when I was recording it and went with what I had. In terms of capture, I wasn't getting much joy from my sm58 which I use for pretty much everything - it just seemed a bit brash. Then I remembered that when I first started out I'd use a Peavey PVI2 that seemed to pick up the harmonica fine in the past. I dug that out and although I probably wouldn't use it for vocals, it softened some of the highs and suited the sound better. I just close miked it to pick up some of the graininess and after tracking added some saturation, gave a wide boost to the lows/wide cut to the highs, a light compression and some reverb. I use a reverb plugin called
Ambience by Smartelectronix which I like a lot because it has two sliders to boost the wet and dry volume respectively. It means that you can set quite a long tail on the reverb, but then turn down the wet volume/up the dry volume until you reach a balance where you get the richness of the verb without the wetness/stuck in a metal container sound.
I'm pretty happy with how the bass turned out on this as well - it's nice and fat without being too overbearing - maybe the sparseness of the mix has meant I didn't have to cut too much to accommodate the kick or other elements that often make it muddy.
Thanks for your thoughts as always Pete
Typical girl, getting all romantic and shiii. 