Mix Critique: "Galway Girl" (with a few punkish twists)

ShanPeyton

ShanPeyton

Member
Hey HR gang :guitar:

I need some extra ears for picking apart this tune. It is a cover of Steve Earles Galway Girl done in the same session as the last cover i posted.

I have kind of played around with some different eq's and effects and stuff i am not comfortable with in the hopes i become more comfortable. I always kind of worry i may have overdone a reverb or delay or something, so i am looking for help/ears in that arena. I had fun with EQ on this one learned a lot about frequencies and stuff. *after listening to this while i type it out i am going back to the drawing board on the vocal delay - sounds boxy in the beginning*

Anyways here ya go. I appear all over the place on this one but my vocal efforts can be heard in the third verse. My first real non-backup vocal in years. Kind of cool to hear it again. Be gentle! HA!

Reference Mix 6.1 GWG Looking for mix advice. by S.M.P. on SoundCloud - Hear the world

Work and the short northern summer has kept me away from getting at this much to the dismay of the others involved. Thanks for your time!

!!!!!!!!!EDIT!!!!!!!!
Here is the most recent mix: GWG Reference 7 by S.M.P.
 
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Just a little bump to get it started. Don't be shy! It is a sound cloud link I didn't embed it into the post because i didn't make it a public track on soundcloud right now.

Anyways. Thanks again.
 
I think it's pretty good man. Here's what I hear:

The lead guitar can come way up.
The bass gtr is pretty thin and MIA. No meat to it.
The snare seems really flat and lifeless. It's just "plap" and not much else. Some shell sound or some dimension to it would be good.
Guitars and mandolins and shit sound nice.
 
It's a pretty good start.

Mostly, I think it's down to level adjustments. Vocal level, I think, should come up. Snare is too loud (and too compressed). Lead guitar could come up. Mando solo could come up.

Some vocal pitch issues here and there. Mostly on words at the end of phrases.
 
Ah! Awesome! This is some great advice here. This is why I love the clinic!

I have a list of notes here to work on and the snare and lead guitar are on the list too. Not sure how the snare ended up like this it sounded so good last night. But could it be that it was too loud to begin with and then when I added a little compression on the master channel that is when it got mangled? I think that's what it is. But I will fix it because I definitely hear it today.

I also picked up a stray frequency in the lead solo that needs some attention. Tickles the inner ear at high volumes.

@greg: what range do I find the bass meat? I may have eq'd it out quite possibly due to my room. I don't have much in the way of a formal room treatment so it may be eating the meat?! Suggestions?
 
ShanPeyton said:
@greg: what range do I find the bass meat? I may have eq'd it out quite possibly due to my room. I don't have much in the way of a formal room treatment so it may be eating the meat?! Suggestions?
Click to expand...

That stuff varies. Put up a mix with no EQ on the bass and let's see how it sounds.
 
I think i found the problem with the bass! It would seem somewhere along the way i added a 2db boost in the 45hz range on my kick drum. I don't think that was doing me any favors.
 
ShanPeyton said:
I think i found the problem with the bass! It would seem somewhere along the way i added a 2db boost in the 45hz range on my kick drum. I don't think that was doing me any favors.
Click to expand...

That can cause problems, but I do think just raise that bass up. People listen on a wide variety of stuff here and there is always someone to spot when it is too wooly, or boomy or dead spots, even when I can't hear it cause my room stinks.
 
Updated track. I'll provide the link in the top part as well...

Made some adjustments! hopefully for the better. I won't really go through them all one by one but i took heed to everyone's suggestions and also trying to keep the actual performers happy when making them. AND!!! more bass for greg! HA!

It's hard to find space for so much midrange! ??? White people everywhere will rejoice when this one is done. Such awesome help guys thanks so much.

GWG Reference 7 by S.M.P.
 
By lead guitar, do you guys mean the electric? Yeah, the electric was pretty weak in the first mix.

It's better in the second, but it's still kind of underwhelming. I might drop the acoustic way back to make room for it.

Mandolin sounds pretty sweet though.
 
Dude! This is the best cover of this song i have ever heard! I really like it. Hopefully Steve Earle doesn't come after you i don't think he likes people "stealing" his songs

The second mix is much better than the first by far. That kick and snare aern't blatting in my ears and there is much more even balance for sure.

But i think your acoustic guttar got a little louder in the 2nd version. I am going to second BarfCapSteves vote to turn that shit down a little bit i think if it were my song i would aslo move it toward the centre a little bit more.

That mandolin sounds deadly... Did you run that through any amp sim's too? Are you still using amp sims?

Also did you do anything with those riffs i sent you to play with ? I will never get around to using them dude.
 
Thanks again guys.

Yes the acoustic trk did pop put a little more than i had thought it might on the second one. I will turn it down and do some other little tweaks i have listed here. And i think one of the guys wants to redo his vocals. So we'll see when he gets back in town? Guess i wasn't as close to being done as i thought.

Really cool to see so many votes for the mandolin. Makes me feel pretty good. And i thought this was the internet. I was expecting to get flamed on for ruining a classic?? HaHa!

@VomitHatSteve: There has got to be a fantastic story behind your name!

@Atom Bomb: I did get your tracks. thanks. Those are some pretty cool riffs. I will see if i can find a use for them somewhere.

Cheers.
 
This sounds pretty good. I enjoyed the listen. I don't know the original, so no frame of reference here.

Mandolin sounds great. I like the vocals, but they seem a little buried to me and hard to pick out what is being sung at times.

I think the acoustic guitar level should come down while the bass could come up quite a bit. I think the sounds are all there I would just play with the levels even more than you already have. I listened to what I believe is the latest mix (7_1).
 
Thanks heatmiser. I did do another quick mix of this and turned the acoustic guitar down more but for some reason my electric guitars are really dominating the whole thing no! Which is really weird considering I didn't touch their faders. I think it could have been my final compression and limiting that did that!

I am sitting on it now because the one guy does infact want to redo his vocals.

@vomithat: still a cool enough story. You got a thing. Things can be awesome.

@atombomb: sorry I missed this the first time. No. The mandolin and the acoustics were not amp sim'd. I mic'd those. Just one mic. But I think next time I am going to mic each instrument with two mics. Should be fun. I am sort of getting bummed out with amp sims. Unfortunately not a lot I can do about where I am living.
 
Final Edit!

Hey gang. Thanks all so much for all suggestions and tips
All the guys were really happy with the end result! If you want to download a version here is the link and the sound file.

Thanks again.

 
Nice work on the track...I think the Vocal could/should come up a smidge......needs more "presence"

like the instrumentation here....good job
 
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