Please review - Riff The People

[JMac52]

Hi all,

Please give this a listen, and some critical feedback on the mix.

With regard to the song itself, the "band" members all work for a US defense contractor, except for the drummer who retired from there (lucky bustard), so this is basically, y'know, a phony reggae rant against the Oppressors in the Executive Suite. Riff = RIF = Reduction In Force = layoffs.

But I did the recording and the mix,really that's what I am looking for as far as critical input now...


J

https://soundcloud.com/saturday-noon/riff-the-people-1

 

[rayc]

Bass is too woolly & it has eaten the kick drum.
The vocals remind me of Tom Robinson from about '77.
I like the lyric theme though selling the hook does require people knowing R.I.F.
I think the panning of the drums is a little too wide & weird.

 

[JMac52]

Bass is too woolly & it has eaten the kick drum.
The vocals remind me of Tom Robinson from about '77.
I like the lyric theme though selling the hook does require people knowing R.I.F.
I think the panning of the drums is a little too wide & weird.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I'm not sure what wooly means, but I get eating the kick.

I like the Tom Robinson reference. Before Todd Rundgren produced him?

This was actually my first time recording and mixing drums, so just following what I read about panning. I will give that another look and listen.

J

 

[PrideOfNation]

I find the drumming a bit off. In some parts it's ahead of the beat (should probably be a bit behind for this style), and in others it seems it's swinging, which I'm just not used to hearing in this style and not sure if it can be made to work.

I dig the bg vocals effect.

 

[JMac52]

I find the drumming a bit off. In some parts it's ahead of the beat (should probably be a bit behind for this style), and in others it seems it's swinging, which I'm just not used to hearing in this style and not sure if it can be made to work.

Yeah... none of us are pros, but the drummer is, well, he's our drummer . In the only other song we've completed so far, I ended up using samples instead of his tracks. I feel bad since he bought the mic kit and US-1800 for me to record his drums.

I just started mixing another one, it's more straight rock and I think the timekeeping is much better

I dig the bg vocals effect.

Cool. I was shorthanded - from the session itself I only had the drummer singing the backing part. I recruited my wife (who is not a singer) to add some female sound, then I used the Vocal Transformer plug in in Logic Pro to pitch shift her voice up and his down to try to create some harmony. Then I sub-mixed the two, and put that through the Chorus and Ensemble effects. It sounds pretty bad when soloed, but seems to work out OK in the mix.

J

 

[ido1957]

Cool tune ! Is this recorded live then? The drums seem a little left of center for me. I like the vocal sound you have. The background vocals are well set.
Can you record with a click track?

 

[JMac52]

Cool tune ! Is this recorded live then? The drums seem a little left of center for me. I like the vocal sound you have. The background vocals are well set.
Can you record with a click track?

No, it wan't recorded live. The bass, uke, and guitars were recorded individually using drum sample beat and a click. The drums were recorded using a click track (I also had provided the drummer with an mp3 without the samples and with a click track to practice with. Vocals were added last. I think he might go between listening to the click, the bass and the guitars when he plays...

J

 

[Sonic Misfit]

I liked the song. Had a good groove, which was actually held together more by the bass than the drums. The snare was back farther in the mix and seemed to me to be a little too mellow for the style. The wide panning was okay if you were going for an "old school" effect, so I don't think that was bad.

I liked the thin guitar sound on the bridge near the end of the song. I thought it gave a lot of character to the mix and tied things up nicely.

Thanks for sharing.