You will never know

[Rod Norman]

I love it. I hear a swishing sound in the piano track that may be intentional. It does interfere with the vocals a little. Otherwise she's great and you did a great job recording her. A good mix too.
NewYorkRod

Hey guys,
been spending more time lately recording other people than my own stuff...
Here's a new song by a talented young lady. Would appreciate some comments on the mix.

https://www.box.com/s/33lj050jcibw4khznbp5

You will never know
Words and music by Caro Esser

Thanx
Joey

 

[PoeticIntensity]

Yo, Joey! So good to hear something from ya again, man.

So, I listened to the first-half on mix 1, and the 2nd half on mix 2. Gotta say, that the 2nd mix sounds superb, man. On the first mix, I had a really hard time hearing the vocals over the bass and that swooshing sound from the piano.. 2nd mix solved it handily.

I'd like to wrap my head around what you do to get that overall "compressed" sound in the vocals and piano. Whenever I try to compress for effect, it sounds horrible. Sounds to me like you got it down, bro.

Man, what a voice! I'd happily record her. Thanks for sharing, dude. Great to have you around!

 

[joeym]

I think the kick is off timing wise from the flow of the song. Some kind of double hit that I would simplify. The rest is really really great. I do prefer the later mix, dialing down the kick was a good choice. Outstanding vocals and really nice arrangement.

Hey Gerry!
The kick is playing kind of a hip-hoppy rhythm and the it's following the bass pattern, but I'll have a look at it again.
Thanx for listening!

 

[joeym]

The second version works much better Joey. Your singer has a great texture to her voice and I'm impressed with the big production sound you managed to get from a 'home recording' - it does have a real cinematic soundtrack feel to it. Nice to hear something new from you.

Thanks Rob!
I've been experimenting a lot with reverbs and panning, I guess that's where the secret to "big sounds" lies. Caro is a truly talented singer and we plan to record more of her stuff.
Appreciate the comments

 

[joeym]

I love it. I hear a swishing sound in the piano track that may be intentional. It does interfere with the vocals a little. Otherwise she's great and you did a great job recording her. A good mix too.
NewYorkRod

Yes, the swish is intentional Rod. I was going for a very spacy sounding piano and inserted that synth sound behind it. I dialled it a bit back in the second mix though.
Thanks for the comments!

 

[joeym]

Yo, Joey! So good to hear something from ya again, man.

So, I listened to the first-half on mix 1, and the 2nd half on mix 2. Gotta say, that the 2nd mix sounds superb, man. On the first mix, I had a really hard time hearing the vocals over the bass and that swooshing sound from the piano.. 2nd mix solved it handily.

I'd like to wrap my head around what you do to get that overall "compressed" sound in the vocals and piano. Whenever I try to compress for effect, it sounds horrible. Sounds to me like you got it down, bro.

Man, what a voice! I'd happily record her. Thanks for sharing, dude. Great to have you around!

Hey Jason, you got some great stuff coming out of your new studio, man!
Yeah, I did the first mix too soon after the tracking, with the second one I waited a bit
There are a couple of good compressors that come with Samplitude Pro X. On the vocals I chose a preset for over-compressed vocals and dialled around with attack and release until it sounded the way I liked. The piano came with a synth in Samplitude too and sounded good even in "raw", so it's only slightly compressed along with a spacy reverb. When I programmed it, I played around with the velocity on the single notes to give it a more human feel.
Thanks for the nice comments!

 

[Chili]

Hey Joey. Good song and good performance all around.

I listened to the first mix a couple of days ago and now the new mix today. Much better, but you know that already.

Dig the piano and flanger/synth effect on it.

The hard consonants are really popping through in the vocal track. I think she's a superb singer because there are no lip smacks, but maybe dial back on the compressor all the same just to soften the C's, K's and G's.

I totally get the Skyfall reference.

Did Caro write this?? I think you said she did. Great job on the songwriting.

 

[joeym]

Thanks Dave, glad you like the second mix!
Yes, the consonants do sound a bit hard at times, but I thought that would be a good effect. I even left the breaths before each phrase on the vocal track, usually i would cut those out. Caro wrote this and she's got plenty of other great songs. Considering she's only 16, she's a great promise.

 

[RAMI]

Great stuff, Joey. Second mix sounds great. Love her voice.

Trying to look for a nit-pic, I'd suggest maybe using a different reverb on the snare. The reverb you got here is a little "trashy", for lack of a better word. It sounds good, but for this kind of tune, maybe a richer reverb? Just throwing that out there, this sounds great.

 

[joeym]

Thanks Rami!
I was going for the kind of reverb on the snare that sounds like Alicia Key's "Girl on Fire". You're right, it sounds real trashy. I used parallell compression on the kick and snare this time. I mixed them down on one track, and used a NY compression preset which compresses the hell out of them. Then I mixed them in with the natural sounds. I needed them to sound big and dirty.
Appreciate your comments

 

[RAMI]

Ah, ok, I'm not familiar with the Alicia tune.

Anyway, this sounds pro, man.