Sad Lisa - Cat Steven's cover

StuGort

StuGort

New member
Here's a preliminary mix of this one. I was going to add bass but I also like it without. The lead guitar is basically triple tracked with panned delay on one of them...might have laid it on too thick. Maybe I'll add something at the end so there's something to fade out. I had trouble matching the patch...that part being done at least six months ago.

Appreciate any mixing or tone comments. My ears are tired.

 
I thought you'd also post here ... where critique is appropriate. The guitars are fine, the performance spot on. The vocal ... it's got to be an effect ... sounds hollow and boxy.

Big Cat Stevens fan here. Great interpretation. Once you fix the sound on the vocal, you've a solid keeper.
 
It sounds good. It's rather minimalistic and nothing strikes me as offensive. I don't think that there is much to offer here besides personal flavors.
The vocals are a bit dull occasionally, frequency-wise.
 
I think the delay on the guitar is a little too much, but I guess that's just me, good work on them. The main vocal is a bit lacking in tone/feeling (I'd retrack rather than try to 'fix'), but the harmonies are good, maybe a little loud -hard to tell until the lead is better.
 
StuGort said:
Here's a preliminary mix of this one. I was going to add bass but I also like it without. The lead guitar is basically triple tracked with panned delay on one of them...might have laid it on too thick. Maybe I'll add something at the end so there's something to fade out. I had trouble matching the patch...that part being done at least six months ago.

Appreciate any mixing or tone comments. My ears are tired.

Click to expand...

Lovely. I don't often say this, but you could take the vocal back in the mix - either turn it down or add some delay. I'd add delay - the vocal would take a step back, but be just as loud.

Future steps: the next time you do a solo guitar part over a rhythm part, explore different sounds for the guitars. Distortion's your friend here.

Really enjoyed the tune.
 
I appreciate the nice comments guys, thanks.

As far as the "boxiness" goes ... what would I do? I don't really her the boxiness but maybe it could have more air?

I'll certainly mess with delay on the vocs...and maybe dial back the layering on the guitars.
 
The lead vocal originally had compression, a bit of a 4500 shelving bump to make it more lively, and a subtle reverb.

I just added delay on the vocals and dialed it back on the guitars...that helped to put them together better...maybe. I'll be messing with it some more and then post it in a few days.
 
Last edited:
K-dub said:
It may be compression "honk" that I'm hearing. Did you hit it hard?
Click to expand...

No...I never do. Usually I manually edit the big peaks and then apply a mild compression to get the really quiet stuff up in the mix. I'm still really not hearing a "boxy" sound...which I would normally associate with something in the 600-1000hz range. If anything, the spectrum analyzer shows a little weakness in that area.
 
StuGort said:
No...I never do. Usually I manually edit the big peaks and then apply a mild compression to get the really quiet stuff up in the mix. I'm still really not hearing a "boxy" sound...which I would normally associate with something in the 600-1000hz range. If anything, the spectrum analyzer shows a little weakness in that area.
Click to expand...

I don't hear 'boxy' either, but maybe a cut at 350-400 would nudge it in a good way.

About compression: have you started using parallel compression yet? It's a very cool way to bring up the quiet bits independently of what you're doing to deal with the peaks.
 
dobro said:
I don't hear 'boxy' either, but maybe a cut at 350-400 would nudge it in a good way.

About compression: have you started using parallel compression yet? It's a very cool way to bring up the quiet bits independently of what you're doing to deal with the peaks.
Click to expand...

Ya...sort of...I've done that with other effects....not compression. I'll play with that. It's a good idea.

That concept is used on the guitar tracks in this mix. I played one stereo track with printed ping pong delay all the way through...because I kind of need to hear the ping pong when I play it. The side tracks are unprocessed, mono overdubs of the same part until the end...where I add more harmonizing layers. Mixing them all together I have control over the amount of ping pong and the depth of the chorus effect you get when you double or triple track. I went too thick for sure in the first mix. Maybe I just muddled up the whole solo part doing this...but I do like composing...so I usually end up with lots of layers one way or the other. :)
 
Hey hey!
Cat Stevens fan here. I posted a cover of 'Where do the Children Play' here not too long ago.

I really enjoyed the guitar work in this one. It was really enjoyable.
I think, maybe, the comments about the vocal might be influenced by the fact that the guitar is quite ambient and spacious.
I don't know that the vocal is boxy or muddy, but along side those guitars it does sound a bit out of place to me.

I'd be inclined to try slightly reducing around 500hz on the vocal and giving it a little more subtle bright reverb.
Then again, I do that with everything! :p

When the harmonies came in I did think they sounded far too thick. I sort of got used but, still, worth a mention.

Thanks for sharing. ;)
 
Steenamaroo said:
I really enjoyed the guitar work in this one. It was really enjoyable.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I have this album on rotation out in my shop. I probably listen to it once a week.

Steenamaroo said:
I think, maybe, the comments about the vocal might be influenced by the fact that the guitar is quite ambient and spacious.
Click to expand...

Yes...the guitar effects need to dial back and the vocal needs some delay and some more EQ attention. I've been messing with it. Delay greatly improved the vocal in terms of getting it onto the pocket.

I pulled out some lo-mids on the bg vocs and that helped "unthicken" them. :)
 
This is great! :)

I also hear the boxy vocals that many others are hearing. My suggestion wouldn't be any better than theirs.
 
Never heard this particular song before, but it reminds me more of a Gentle Giant tune (if you ever heard of them). If it had some renaissance sounding instruments, I would swear they wrote it.
Regardless, I enjoyed the listen. I think you heard enough about the vocals.
 
I remixed this one...and also replaced the initial post.



I added a short stereo delay to the lead vocal and cut that track at 800hz. The lo-mids were cut in the bg vocs. Also, delay was cut from the lead guitar track and that cleared it out quite a bit. Also on the lead guitar, I hammered the multi-band compressor to try to tame those percussive transients around 1500-2500 without hand editing like I usually do.

I can't really remember where I was with the reverbs on this but I played with those a lot on everything...trying to fit it all into a common space....might have accomplished nothing though...I don't know.
 
I think the vocal sits with the guitars much better now, but the EQ of the vocal is still a little wonky, not sure if you need to cut something and/or maybe add a little 'air' (I'm sure hte better ears here will suggest something). The harmony vocals should be brought down just a bit in volume. Guitar is better without the heavy delay.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top