New Piano Ballad: Seagull Song

jm67

jm67

Member
I put this together over the last couple of weekends. It was supposed to be a happy, upbeat song but it came out as a depressive piano ballad! Ah well... I still think it's sort of pretty. These days I only write songs about birds and politics; and then I delete the ones about politics.

My immediate question is whether the bass is too boomy - it sounds really loud on my AKG headphones, but kind of meek on the monitors. It's my new Squier Mustang and I'm still figuring out how to record with it.

This was tracked & mixed w/ REAPER. Piano is TruePianos, drums are BFD2. Please forgive the vocals - they aren't my strong suit and still need some touching up.

https://soundcloud.com/jm67dc/seagull-song
 
The bass sounds great but is a little too loud and just a tad boomy.
Once all the instruments are in it fits well.
No fussed on the vocal treatment in the intro.
Have you heard of Australian band The Whitlams? You sound like a combo of them & early Al Stewart.
A little de essing and some general bass management would be good.
The solo panning is a little to quick and it seems to duck as it moves.
Enjoyed the listen.
 
Thanks for the listen and feedback RayC. Sounds like I should drop the bass level & tame the <100Hz, especially in the beginning.
The guitar is put through a Leslie effect, but I could mix in some pre-FX input in order to minimize the obnoxious stereo panning.

I haven't heard the Whitlams but I will check them out. It's nice that these days everyone is on Youtube! Cheers...
 
Your vocals are definitely not your weak point lol they are great. The mic has a bright sound to it and could use some de-essing. What kind of mic and interface are you using? The writing is pop but very progressive at the same time - excellent. Not sure about the panning lead - I'm on the fence.
 
Thanks ido1957 - glad you liked the song. I'm a sucker for major7th chords... ;)
The vocals were recorded with an AKG 420 through a Tascam 1800 (via XLR). I did add the "ozzifier" stereo effect to the vocals (mixed low) so that might be taking some of the warmth out of them. But I think the AKG is also fairly bright. Do you have a favorite (free or cheap) de-esser plugin? Otherwise I'll just try a narrow EQ cut.
 
Nice work, very interesting use of the instruments. Not sure the drums fit, but I don't have a suggestion on what to change so I guess they work OK. Great lead vocal ! Really like the song.
 
Thanks PDP. Yeah, somehow BFD2 drums aren't really ideal for this type of song. They seem more suited to Zeppelin-like tracks rather than stuff that's mellower. But it's what I have ;) Of course I could shell out some more $$ and buy the jazz kits, but I can't really justify it for one song.
BTW, I downloaded the Spitfish de-esser plugin. Seems to work really well for this application.
 
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