Still a noob, trying to get better. Help?

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humjaba

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Still a noob, trying to get better. Help? Whiskey Lullaby cover

Hey all, I'd love some feedback on my latest attempt. First time trying to add more than one vocal track.

https://soundcloud.com/tyler-z/whiskey-lullabye

To my ears, the piano attack is definitely too harsh - I'm recording a rather old Yamaha keyboard though, and that's just the way it sounds if you hit the keys too hard =\ Also, I think we should have done the second chorus in the same way we did the first (switch voices). Other than that, what say you?

Thanks.
 
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The piano didn't sound harsh to me. To my ear it was missing some high end. Like not enough above 6K or so.

For a song like this it would really be nice to have a stereo piano. Don't know if that's possible.

Vocal performances were all nice. Sounded good.
 
Thanks for the feedback. My piano has L and R outs, but I can only record one 1/4" source at a time. How would that be different than mono?

Thanks, and also a bump.
 
The piano seems to have the same placement as the vocal. I would push the piano a bit wider to fill the edges and leave the vocal where it is. I'm not keen on the extra vocal parts, just stick to the main male and female parts. Less is more.

To be a real nitpick I can hear some bumps that sound like the mic is hand held.
 
Tobe said:
The piano seems to have the same placement as the vocal. I would push the piano a bit wider to fill the edges and leave the vocal where it is. I'm not keen on the extra vocal parts, just stick to the main male and female parts. Less is more.

To be a real nitpick I can hear some bumps that sound like the mic is hand held.
Click to expand...

Exactly what im thinking the piano is swallowing the vocal push the vocal my up front and cut the middle out of the piano so the vocals can sit better in the mix EVERYTHING sound great tho really good job. (Also make sure the backing vocals are panned left and right but not far left & right tuck them in a little behind the lead like real background singers are, i think im talkin bout the main lead with the man and woman) You did a really good job on this though really like it
 
The vocal is too buried by the piano masking it, fighting for the same freqauncys.
Remember the instruments are only there to compliment the vocal. The vocals should be the shining star.
I couldnt tell if the song had a chorus. I dont know it and i certainly couldnt distinguish a verse from a chorus.
Maybe its one of those verse only songs.
You could do with more of a build in the song too.
Maybe a little reverb on the piano too so it doesnt sound so dry.
overall i liked it i just feel you could have made a little more of it.
 
Tobe said:
The piano seems to have the same placement as the vocal. I would push the piano a bit wider to fill the edges and leave the vocal where it is. I'm not keen on the extra vocal parts, just stick to the main male and female parts. Less is more.

To be a real nitpick I can hear some bumps that sound like the mic is hand held.
Click to expand...

So how does one "push it wider?" Specifically, what knobs do I turn? I know what the sound you're referring to is, but I don't know how to get it. Copy the piano (mono) track and push it left and another right? That doesn't seem like it would make any difference.
Also, yep it's handheld.. This was recorded in my bedroom with about $100 worth of equipment and a laptop, heh. Thanks for the feedback
 
You need to make a stereo recording of the piano, or record it twice and pan each recording hard left and right. You could use a doubler, but that will always make one side dominant - it might work, try it - I've used it successfully, but if it's a feature instrument, it might just sound weird: -

(( vacuumsound ))
 
Hi humjaba,

The handheld problem can be solved with some gaffer tape and some improvisation :)

Before "pushing it wider" I would first get the piano out of the way of the vocal with EQ. Experiment cutting the piano with a parametric filter and fiddle with the frequency and the width until you find the spot that lets more vocal through (while hopefully maintaining the sound you want from the piano).

"Pushing it wider" can be done with free plugins such as "MDA Detune" (vst plugin) or similar free "fake stereo" approaches. As others have suggested, you make 2 paths for the mono sound, pan them to each side (not necessarily to the extremes) and treat them slightly differently. The simplest is to put a very short delay on one side (a few ms with no feedback and 100% wet). Another is to detune one side by a few cents. I think MDA detune does both when you put it on a stereo channel and feed it a mono signal.

Also, you can play with the placement of the instrument by having one side EQ'd a little brighter and the other with a similar cut at the same frequencies (if you are using the delay technique put the EQ boost on the side without the delay).

Width requires a subtle touch because if you get too radical it will cause phasing (completely out of phase stereo cancels itself out in mono). You may have seen "correlation meters" on plugins such as Span (free), the purpose of them is to make sure the phase is OK. If your DAW can’t mono the master bus, put a plugin on that can... then switch it on and off to make sure the stereo "width" isn't making the piano disappear in mono.

Hope that helps... or is at least a start...
 
Hi tobe,

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll go fiddle around with the things you mentioned. The MDA group apparently has a bunch of free plugins that I can play with now as well. More things, woo!

Cheers!
 
I agree with a lot of what was said here. Pretty good performances, get a full, stereo-sounding piano sound with some verb and it will breath a lot of life into the piece. A little more high freq response on it - the 6 k tip - I would ditto. Vox are at odds a liitle bit with the music too.
 
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