The lost art of living

C

chuckduffy

Well-known member
This is a track I've been working on that's been KILLING me. Stylistically I am going for a 60s kind of vibe. I realize the vocal is super wet - that part is intentional, and that my vocal is all over the map and pitchy - so it goes - I've tried about 100 vocal takes of this thing.. I had this neighbor that used to play Chet Baker all the time and his voice really stuck with me, and I guess I am shooting for that lazy kind of vocal.

Drums are a single mono overhead and I played with brushes. Bass is the music man DI. Realized that the intonation is all off, so I will be re-recording.

Links are Google Drive

03-27-2016- Mix One - The lost art of living

04-02-2016- Mix Two - The lost art of living - Tweaked piano, panning, bass, strings, got rid of placeholder vocal.
 
Last edited:
Hey that was cool.

I like the mix depth you've achieved. The vocal sits nicely in the pocket.
The performance has the issues you mention, but as a mix it's really good. The piano might be a hair loud and lacking fullness (maybe bump the lower mids), but otherwise I don't hear any problems.
 
I liked this track a lot, especially the mono drums! Although its is more 70's than 60's for me...I think the mix sounds just fine. Everything is how it should be for me!

Nice one!
 
The vocal is getting lost in spots. And then in other spots it's too far over the instruments. I think you could do a volume envelope and even it out. There are also spots that get below your range.

The piano sounds midi. A little more natural sound we suit a song like this better.

I kind of liked the song. Nice melody.

Maybe fade the last chord at the end a little nicer.
 
TripleM said:
The vocal is getting lost in spots. And then in other spots it's too far over the instruments. I think you could do a volume envelope and even it out. There are also spots that get below your range.

The piano sounds midi. A little more natural sound we suit a song like this better.

I kind of liked the song. Nice melody.

Maybe fade the last chord at the end a little nicer.
Click to expand...

Hey man - thanks for checking it out. The vocal is total fail and driving me crazy, I've tried it about 102 ways now and I think I am going to try it in one more key then just write it off and give up.

One question on the piano - is it the sound (i.e. bad sounding sampled piano) that sounds midi, or my playing (too samey or not loose enough) that sounds midi, or maybe both :-)
 
I don't think the piano sound is too bad, just too heavily roomy - but different than the drums and vocal room, which makes it stand apart.
Vocals are fine in the 'chorus', but the verse just sounds too low for you. Have you tried transposing to a higher key? I'm guessing it would be too high an octave up.
 
mjbphotos said:
I don't think the piano sound is too bad, just too heavily roomy - but different than the drums and vocal room, which makes it stand apart.
Vocals are fine in the 'chorus', but the verse just sounds too low for you. Have you tried transposing to a higher key? I'm guessing it would be too high an octave up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm with you on the piano sound. I wanted a more muted tone then I have been using, and I like the tone, and it plays like a dream - but to be honest I don't know where all the room is coming from on the piano. I've been using Garritan CFX and it has a huge amount of options. I turned off all the internal effects and dialed the room mic in that UI way, way down, but it's still there. It could possibly be the sustain just masquerading as room. I don't know. I think I will switch to the patch I used for my last song. It's funny but this is the *exact* same type of problem I used to have when I used to use addictive drums. I am kicking myself for selling my real piano.

As far as vocal - I will just reboot the whole thing, it's so seriously bad. Since the piano is midi I can just keep bumping it up in 1/2 steps until I find a good range. I also have a serious problem with my voice cause I constantly have all this crud in my throat that shows up in my recordings as little clicks and buzzes and the like, and I try saline spray and gargle and the like but I can't get rid of it.

Thanks for your feedback Mike -
 
Man, really great arrangement. I always like your stuff. Pretty ambitious vocal melody though, I can see it being a bitch to track as it's kind of all over the place.

I'd transpose it up a step like you mentioned and see if it makes those low notes easier to hit. You're slurring alot of words when you get to the bottom of your range and I think that, along with the natural volume differences between the low and high notes make the vox a less cohesive than they could be. I often get a few inches closer to the mic when I go down low, but automation can help too.

Beautiful song though. Reminds me of The Left Banke. Thanks for posting.
 
Oh god it's beautiful. Sounds like the stuff I listen to offsite. Great vocal, that really sells it for me. I might bring down the piano a bit and bring the strings up, I like the textures there. What synth did you use (if you used one?) That's real nice. Maybe even more wet on the vocal I wouldn't mind. Song may be killing you but you're also killing it. :D
 
easlern said:
Oh god it's beautiful. Sounds like the stuff I listen to offsite. Great vocal, that really sells it for me. I might bring down the piano a bit and bring the strings up, I like the textures there. What synth did you use (if you used one?) That's real nice. Maybe even more wet on the vocal I wouldn't mind. Song may be killing you but you're also killing it. :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback :-) After doing some car listens I realize the strings are criminally low, and I have a few ideas on how to flesh out the parts a little better. I am using Garritan Personal Orchestra, which I love the sounds on - but don't have a good handle on putting it in to practice as far as controlling the gazillion parameters, and I sure don't know anything about orchestration lol. I realized just how little I know after hearing the strings for - wait for it - JUST WALK AWAY RENE in the soundtrack of a movie last night.
 
Yeah that's a beautiful song Walk Away Renee, I think the guy who scored the strings on that worked with Nick Drake too.
 
Wow. That was really kind of beautiful. I listened to it quite loud through my tracking phones. That is a crazy melody and to have to mimic it on the piano too...
It just had a nice, relaxed thing going on, but it really took off during the parts where your voice got into the higher registers I thought.
Maybe if you could soften the tone of the piano a bit and make it less angular sounding somehow? I dunno. It was a great listen...again.
 
Very nice Chuck, I enjoyed this a lot. The vocals open out nicely on the choruses and didn't mind the lowness on the verses. It gets kind of slurry, but in a kind of Kurt Wagner-ish way and that works for me.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about were the ba ba ba vocal sections. They feel slightly like placeholders - I think if it were me, I'd try cutting them and see how it sounds with with the vocal just coming in at the verse each time?

Brushes sound great and I like the overall mood a lot :)
 
robgreen said:
Very nice Chuck, I enjoyed this a lot. The vocals open out nicely on the choruses and didn't mind the lowness on the verses. It gets kind of slurry, but in a kind of Kurt Wagner-ish way and that works for me.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about were the ba ba ba vocal sections. They feel slightly like placeholders - I think if it were me, I'd try cutting them and see how it sounds with with the vocal just coming in at the verse each time?

Brushes sound great and I like the overall mood a lot :)
Click to expand...


Hey Rob - great suggestion!!! - I posted a new mix up top. I had totally forgotten that the ba ba ba stuff WAS a placeholder. So I hauled out the pumpkin gretsch and ampeg and had my way with it. Doubled the guitar line up an octave and panned slightly left and right. Tweaked the piano, panning, vocal levels, string levels and it is starting to dial in. Couldn't get a substantially better vocal take so I said screw it. It is what it is. I can live with it and it's time to move on :-)
 
This is a great song,I really enjoyed and listened to it a few times already , the vocals are great too and fits well with the piano .GReat tune though well done ;)
 
I like the song. You do pretty well on the vocals, including the parts where you bottom out your range. Not everybody can pull that effect off, but you seem to. I'm with 3M about consistency of levels in the vocal. You could use some automation or hand-editing there.

I'm noticing more the ambiance on other instruments besides the vocals. For me it was way over the top on that opening guitar that repeats a couple of times after.
 
Robus said:
I like the song. You do pretty well on the vocals, including the parts where you bottom out your range. Not everybody can pull that effect off, but you seem to. I'm with 3M about consistency of levels in the vocal. You could use some automation or hand-editing there.

I'm noticing more the ambiance on other instruments besides the vocals. For me it was way over the top on that opening guitar that repeats a couple of times after.
Click to expand...

I guess it is over the top, but I haven't figured out if it is too over the top (for me) :-) I will have to re-cut it if I do decide its too over the top cause 90% of that is the verb on the amp and the mic in the room.

g.JPG

I will play around with some volume automation on the vocals. Thanks for checking it out!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top