This Life - Sons of Anarchy Theme

D

DogsoverLava

Member
View attachment This Life - V9mix1.mp3

Hello everyone. Here's a recording project that I have been working on since January. This is basically mix #25 on this with I'm sure more to come. Note to Mods/Admin: This is a cover version, my arrangement and I am in possession of a valid license for digital distribution for this song (Thank you HFA). I'm just starting to use some compression as well as in-track envelopes to control trim. The track is all me. Any feedback welcome. My name is Rob. Many Thanks.


This track Features:
DAW: Reaper
Interface: M-Audio Profire 610
Computer: Clevo M570ru
Drums: Superior Drummer & Ez Drummer
Amp Modeling/Sims for Bass & Guitar: GuitarRig 5 free version, & Amplitube 3 free version.
Guitars: Fender Lead III, Hamer Californian USA, Fender P. Bass (USA)
Mics: EV N/D357, SHure SM57
Mixed w/: Apple iphone buds and a cheap JVC HA EBR80 iphone headset & Sennheiser OCX 685i Adidas Sports In-Ear Headphones, plus Sansui 6060 w/ Altec Lansing Model Three Series II Speakers
Recorded & mixed/mastered in my living room.

 
Last edited:
Updated mixes

UPDATE: I've added a new mix featuring better use of compression and I hope a better mix. My headphones currently skew my mixes - they are quite top end heavy so my mixes tend to be a bit bass heavy (lacking highs) I think. My listening & recording space is a compromise - I live in a city condo with neighbours all around (hence the use of headphones a lot).

View attachment This Life - V10mix2.mp3

Would love some feedback -- I am new here but I spent several days listening to tracks and your feedback and have already learned quite a bit so you've already had a hand in the latest mix but you just don't know it. My goal is to make this mix the best I can (hence mix #28). I'll do my best to be a good student and a respectful contributor. Many thanks again



Rob
 
I haven't heard the original, so I won't be able to compare.

But anyway, overall I thought it was a decent mix. Performances solid.

Bass sounded good to my ear. Nice strong low end without being boomy. Nice consistent level. Bass is kind of dominating the kick though.

Vocals are somewhat buried behind guitars and all the effects applied to it.

Lead-ish guitar on the left is quite a bit dryer than most of the other tracks.

The rhythm guitar (the guitar in the center) tone is OK. I think it would be improved if you could have tracked with the high end boosted more. It's a little too grainy to my ear.

Lots of reverb, which I generally don't like. But it works fairly well here. Just not so much on the vocal - I think you should back off some of the delay/verb there.

The song had a real cool vibe to it.
 
TripleM said:
I haven't heard the original, so I won't be able to compare.

But anyway, overall I thought it was a decent mix. Performances solid.

Bass sounded good to my ear. Nice strong low end without being boomy. Nice consistent level. Bass is kind of dominating the kick though.

Vocals are somewhat buried behind guitars and all the effects applied to it.

Lead-ish guitar on the left is quite a bit dryer than most of the other tracks.

The rhythm guitar (the guitar in the center) tone is OK. I think it would be improved if you could have tracked with the high end boosted more. It's a little too grainy to my ear.

Lots of reverb, which I generally don't like. But it works fairly well here. Just not so much on the vocal - I think you should back off some of the delay/verb there.

The song had a real cool vibe to it.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for taking the time to listen, and for your feedback.

I initially decided to cut the song after a marathon session this new year watching all the seasons to date. The song plays twice in every episode so I must have heard it about 150 times in total. The music is amazing in the series - best part of the series for sure. Worth checking out on youtube for all interested. Some very strong cuts.

The original song is done in the Biker/Western Outlaw motif - so it's much more Southern Rock and a bit cliched that way. In the show, the MC is from Northern California so I tried to re-envision the song in a musical style more appropriate to Northern California -- A Steppenwolf meets Jefferson Airplane kind of sound -- Acid Rock as opposed to Southern Rock

The opening guitar riff is supposed to be suggestive of a motorcycle engine, hence the low end. I'll try to mix using monitors and check it again as my headphones are very treble skewed so I get a false mix that I have to compensate for. The verb is a Acid Rock staple of the time and the effects on my voice (verb/stereo chorus) were probably about my own timidity of hearing my naked voice as much as they were about the effects. I'll revisit the vocals to see if I can do a less verby treatment. I may have to go back into the project mixes because at some point I rendered this track with verb.

A real big advancement for me on this was finally reorganizing the tracks into folders which allowed me so much more control over the project. Just a huge mixing workflow advantage (Reaper is great for this).

Would you suggest bumping up the Kick then ---- side chaining it to trigger a more robust sample? How would you deal with the conflict? In the second mix I posted here (Mix 28) the vocal levels are higher and more clear in the mix - and I use a better bass amp model *GuitarRig5 Pro" as opposed to the free version of Amplitube. That helped with making the bass parts knit better for me.

The lead-ish guitar on the left is dryer -- all the lead guitar was initially really dry (also sometimes an Acid Rock staple) but I had to add in some delay/verb for sustain on the solo but I left that signature lead dry -- I'll give it the same treatment I gave the lead solo and see what that does.

There's one area I've yet to explore in my mixes and production -- that's correcting timing issues. I notice I'm a little off when the BG vocals come in sometimes - especially in the Chorus. It's quickly forgotten but I'm sure could be cleaned up by some stretching?

Also I've heard reference to proximity effects with mics and lots of stuff spoken about singing while holding a mic and pops and mouth noises --- Can you hear that with my vocal? I not only held the mic, but I used it like I used to back in the day doing live performance -- my mouth literally touching the mic. (Mic was a EV/ND 357).

Thanks again for your feedback.

Rob
 
Hey - I listened to this yesterday on a less-than-ideal set-up (small bose bookshelf speakers plus a cheap sub), and I thought I commented, but I see that I ddin't...

So, I wasn't able to hear quite so much detail as Trip, but I did think it sounded like a good mix overall. My only sense was that the vocals should come up. They sounded really buried to me. Timid or not, I'd like to hear them louder and/or more clearly myself.

So, this is that AMC show about bike gangs, huh? I see their commercials all the time when watching the walking dead...is it any good?
 
It's a good show that has unfortunately devolved over several seasons into an over-complicated soap opera. Every season for the last few seasons, I tell myself that I'm going to stop watching because it's pissing me off. But then I get sucked right back in again because I'm too invested in the series to give up now. I can just hope that they give up and end the series soon, it's way past its prime and needs to be put out of its misery.

...anyways...I'll have to give this a listen when I'm in front of my "real" computer...this laptop isn't going to do anything justice.
 
Nice take on this song.

I'm not a fan of the prominent flange/phaser on the vocals. The vocals can still come up a bit, and the backing vocals can probably come down just a bit too. When the guitar goes solo, it being panned to the left is a little distracting too.

All in all, not a bad souding mix.
 
Hey, vocals up and bass down a little I think. The bass tone is fine, but it's quite dominating in the mix.

Maybe easing back on the vocal reverb as trip says might unbury them? I don't know the show or the original theme, but it's sounding pretty good and I think you've got some good feedback from the guys above :)
 
robgreen said:
Hey, vocals up and bass down a little I think. The bass tone is fine, but it's quite dominating in the mix.

Maybe easing back on the vocal reverb as trip says might unbury them? I don't know the show or the original theme, but it's sounding pretty good and I think you've got some good feedback from the guys above :)
Click to expand...

Thanks again guys -- yup some good feedback. The consensus is too much verb on vocals, a bit muddy as a result-- lacking clarity - other feedback has been about drums -- some timing issues -- general mix clean up required across the board...

I'm going to see about woodshedding -- going back to the raw stems and see what I can build up. Might retrack Bass & considering some changed to drums.

R.
 
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