OK, my first recording post

This kinda reminded me of Jimmy Buffet a little bit.


Being that it's just acoustic and a single vox, I can't offer much in terms of mixing. I think less reverb on the vox would be in order. Good vocals.
 
Nice guitar sound in the beginning.Gentle, mellow, maybe a bit to much top end, I'm not hearing a lot of bottom on it. And this contrast very much with your ultra-smooth and low tenor vocal, it could mix better with more low end in the guitar, low mids especially.

I guess what I'm saying is the guitar is thin, the vocal much richer.

The vocal is mixed well out front and of course I appreciate that.

I like the reverb on your voice, but it's a touch to much, put some 20milisecond delay on there and back off on the size of the room for the reverb. Delay is to reverb what paint thinner is to primer ... a little delay makes the reverb go a long way.

Yes, that's it, it's really an intimate song, so the size of the room needs to be smaller, as if the setting is more intimate. I really think making the reverb 'smaller' and tighter will improve the mix tremendously.

It's a straightup song, mix it straightup.

Your singing improves tremendously as the song proceeds, and it's good to begin with. I suggest you warm up well before singing. Keep that little glass of water handy and gently clear the throat working that water back there. Make tiny rolls with the shoulders, rehearse the song.

I think with some work you could really pull off an 'excellent' track on this song.

By 2:13, things are sounding really nice, and you are in the groove and 'feeling' it.

This is a great song from the heart, thanks for sharing.

Second Listen :

Yes, you probably know you are trying to cram to many words into some of those phrases ;-) ...

on romeo, I really want to put some 50's style backup ... 0h-0h-0h ... Hard to describe in writing, just very short and tasteful.

I think you could do well by simply practicing this song and warming up well before beginning a session.

As I listen this second time, I'm really warming up to the song, and your performance, and that's a good sign that it's a good song.

It sounds kind of like a campfire song, it reminds me of Willie Nelson a bit ... believe it or not ...

Thanks for sharing.
 
Khompewtur: Thanks for listening and the comments.

studioviols: Thanks for all your input. I will print this out and use it as a guide to re-record. It will be a little while.

The guitar is a direct patch from the pickup(editing in this---through stereo peddle) and it is going in flat into the mixer. I will add a little bottom end and gently roll off the top. I will try and keep the vocal/guitar balance. I record this direct to 2 track so setting the balance is tough at times.

I really appreciate the feedback. After a while, you really can't hear the song yourself.
 
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OH ... you just wanna blame me for everything huh :D !

Yes, as songwriters we are powerfully bound to the song emotionally, when we change hats to 'performer' and singer and guitarist ... and then again to engineer, and then again to 'mixer' and 'masterer' and then critiquer ... we lost our grip on the song, the human brain gets 'distracted' ...

This is why 'Steps of Production' are so crucial.
 
nice tune, and sang comfortably is seems. I could tell when you were "working" the mic a little in the choruses. The verb is ok but just a little much. I'd set it where it does what your after but you don`t quite notice it being there. If you didn't use a click track that is some very good timing.
 
Working the mic.

Wow, now that I listen again I can here what you're saying. I must do it without thinking about it. I get a little carried away with reverb. I will fight that tendency.

Thanks for the comments. When I let my friends hear this stuff they never have any true comments. They don't understand, without feedback on a piece we don't learn what we are doing wrong.

I prefer someone tell me its crap than blow smoke up my ass!
 
Decent recording.

The guitar had a DI quality about it. Is it recorded direct?

Sort of a "big" reverb on the vocals. Maybe shorted the decay and make the wet/dry mix a little dryer. For my taste, it was just too different from the verb on the guit. That's just my opinion though.

I thought the song might benefit from "more stuff." Things like adding a second guitar part in the second verse. Harmony vocals in the chorus. etc.

Small pops at 1:10, 1:37.
 
Hey Sloop,
I read through the comments above, and it sounds like your very well covered. When the tune first started i thought to myself that that was a real nice sounding DI'd acoustic.... ...smooth, and actually pretty warm for a DI'd guit. I do agree that the verb is a touch long and roomy for this. ...Definitely worth putting more time into. Nice work.
g
 
Yes, the guitar is a DI

I ran the guitar through a stereo chorus peddle then into a stereo channel on the Mackie. The same reverb is run on the guitar, just less of it--like the vocals should have been :D .

I love the sound of my pickup on the guitar. It sure beats trying to mic it all the time.
 
sloop- I am going to echo most of what has been said but all in all it sounds pretty nice. Pretty good DI sound. I am usually not a fan of that but it worked pretty well here.

Nice work.
 
"Born To Love You"...

Nylon string? Electric Acoustic? Lots of room sound on this. Would like a touch
of high-end on the vox to put it over the top of the gtr a bit. Is this an
original? Not bad, Jeff. What's your recording set up? Would be interesting to
see how far you could stretch your equipment here. Once in a while, I hear some
tiny crackles in the track.

Good melody... one of the most important elements in any song. Singing is fairly
good, and not pitchy. Slap on your 10-gallon hat and get down wit it :D


Chad
 
Setup is pretty basic

participant said:
"Born To Love You"...

Nylon string? Electric Acoustic? Lots of room sound on this. Would like a touch
of high-end on the vox to put it over the top of the gtr a bit. Is this an
original? Not bad, Jeff. What's your recording set up? Would be interesting to
see how far you could stretch your equipment here. Once in a while, I hear some
tiny crackles in the track.

Good melody... one of the most important elements in any song. Singing is fairly
good, and not pitchy. Slap on your 10-gallon hat and get down wit it :D


Chad
Click to expand...
The song is not an original. Its by an old rocker out of Pitsburgh. His name is Joe Grushecky.

The crackles are from my MP3 ripper. The original recording doesn't have them. The setup is very basic--Me, a microphone and my guitar through a stereo peddle. All this into the Mackie 1202, reverb processed with a Alesis Microverb4. Output directly to the stand alone CD recorder. The guitar is an Alvarez/Yairi acoustic with a Fishman true life piezio pickup under a Bonz saddle. I use Elixer strings-custom light and a light pick.
 
very nice tune sloop.. reminds me of the song that goes 'be my little baby.' I have no idea who that is, and it's' a female voice, so I'm just talking about the song..

..I have to agree with the previous comments.. doesn't sound bad for DI'd, and I would like a bit less reverb on everything.. maybe a little piano or something would sit well with this.. the vocals could use some gloss e.q. wise..

ah, now I'm relaxed..
 
Please don't throw rocks at me, but I always prefer a decent miked acoustic over DI, but this doesn't sound bad for a DI. It's warm enough to work, but you know you want the real sound of the guitar
Nice vocals! I think you could back off the verb just a little. It's an intimate song, so get intimate.

Sorry to harp on the DI stuff, especially if that's the only option available to you right now. But even a SM 58 a foot in front of the 12th fret should sound better.

I thought the delivery of this was touching.
 
Singing was good, phrasing stumbled once or twice. I think the vocals could be mixed louder.

This would sound better with less reverb, just the guitar and vocals in your face.
 
Being that there was only an acoustic guitar and the one vocal, I think you did a very competent job of recording them both.

The sound was full bodied, not particularly lacking any real frequency groups and not to strong in any as well.

The big verb on the voice doesn't bother me in the slightest as countless songs of this genre have been recorded with just a much verb and still managed to put food on the table for the artists and engineers who produced them.

It seems reverb comes in and out of fashion at different cycles and periods of time. I remember when bands like heart would do an acoustic studio piece and have boatloads of verb on Anne and Nancy Wilson and it never stopped me from enjoying a good performance.

Studioviols made an excellent observation that the vocal should be re-done as he heard you getting more comfortable with the words as the song went on and I think that might be something to consider as far as any performance critique goes.

The recording itself sound very good to me.

Cheers! :)
 
Yeah, reverb - the guitar and voice sound they're in different spaces. Either cut the verb on the voice or boost the verb on the guitar. That's the main mix idea I've got - the rest of it sounds fine.

Peformance - you'll be ahead of your present game if you cut out those extra words that make you rush the lyrics in places. Like at 0.31 for example: you sing 'baby it's been one of those days'. It'll work better if you sing 'it's been one of those days'.

If this is the first you've posted here, then you're in with a way cleaner sound than I got for a long time when I started here. :)
 
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