"Make It Real"

JohnnyAmato

JohnnyAmato

New member
Another one from the project I'm producing for songwriter Laurie Green.

I did all the guitars and bass, and programmed all the drums with Superior. The wife on lead vocals, Laurie's friend Tina on backgrounds, the half-time section has them both on backgrounds, the "hey-you" chorus parts was all of us.

Running in circles with vocal levels, lots of backgrounds, seems the vocals might be too hot but I'm not sure. Finished tracking a few days ago, been mixing it since, and definitely reached the point where I need feedback.

Basically just a rock tune; guitars, bass, drums, vocals.

Dropbox - MakeItRealMix2Demo.wav
 
I'm listening on phones. Sounds great, as usual :listeningmusic:

The lead vocal.. is that a single track? It sounds a little thin to me, maybe double track to fill it out more. Nice voice.
 
Awesome track Johnny! Good job to all.

I don't think the vocals are too hot, but I do think they are in a volume war with the guitars. The rhythm guitars especially are masking the nuances of the vocal performance, leaving the more shouty parts to come through. I think you're aware of this and trying to address it by pushing the vocal faders, which has you wondering if they are too loud. It's true the vocals do seem a little loud in places. I hear a bit of sizzle.

You'd do better to address the conflict subtractively, by lowering your guitars down. I don't think the rhythm guitars would lose much impact if you were to drop them by a dB or so.

This sounds like a guitar mix, with vocals. You want it the other way around.

Your wife is welcome to sing one of my songs any time she likes, just let me know.
 
Thanks Spantini!

The lead is actually doubled, but the double is super low, lower than I normally put them. Her voice is powerful, so I'm always careful with doubling it.

I have her hi-passed around 120, I think, might be a tad too high. Thanks!
 
spantini said:
I'm listening on phones. Sounds great, as usual :listeningmusic:

The lead vocal.. is that a single track? It sounds a little thin to me, maybe double track to fill it out more. Nice voice.
Click to expand...

Thanks Spantini!

The lead is actually doubled, but the double is super low, lower than I normally put them. Her voice is powerful, so I'm always careful with doubling it.

I have her hi-passed around 120, I think, might be a tad too high. Thanks!

Edit: somehow this double posted, sorry!
 
Robus said:
Awesome track Johnny! Good job to all.

I don't think the vocals are too hot, but I do think they are in a volume war with the guitars. The rhythm guitars especially are masking the nuances of the vocal performance, leaving the more shouty parts to come through. I think you're aware of this and trying to address it by pushing the vocal faders, which has you wondering if they are too loud. It's true the vocals do seem a little loud in places. I hear a bit of sizzle.

You'd do better to address the conflict subtractively, by lowering your guitars down. I don't think the rhythm guitars would lose much impact if you were to drop them by a dB or so.

This sounds like a guitar mix, with vocals. You want it the other way around.

Your wife is welcome to sing one of my songs any time she likes, just let me know.
Click to expand...

Thanks Robus, yea you're probably right, I'll take the guitars down a touch, and spend a little more time even-ing out words and phrases that pop out/get lost.
 
Nice guitar work. The vocal is powerful, there's a frequency in there that could be notched or multibanded out if you can find it. The drums seem to lose some oomph during the 1/2 time part. Will you do real drums?
 
This sounds really good!

The only nits I'm hearing is that there seem to be a few spots where she leaned too far back from the mic. (e.g. "There at the end" around 3:14), which lost a little bit of power. It's pretty subtle tho, so I don't know how much of an issue it is.
 
Great song, great performances, and great mix...as is.
It rocks and I, personally, wouldn't dare tone down the guitars.
Very nice johnny!
 
Thought the guitars were fine. I'd approach the vocal mix differently, though. The verses are the weak link, as far as vocals, in my opinion. They aren't blending in with the mix convincingly. With the background vox, they sound much better. I think it's the distance that's the key - where she steps away, it sounds better. You might want to consider putting the verse vox on a separate track and process differently.

It's not my favorite composition, personally. The chord pattern doesn't make a lot of sense to my ears, and the vocals seem to have a tough time keeping the melody during the verses. Chorus is much better.

Instrumentation sounds phenomenal, as usual.
 
I thought this sounded great. Guitars sound great. Vocal does too. Only a couple of suggestions...

Turn down the crunch guitars just a half-db or so.
Notch out the lead vocal around 2400-2500hz. It gets a little biting.
Turn down the reverb on the instruments.
Turn the bass up a half-db or so.

But that's it. I thought it was really good.
 
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