Acoustic Based Rock Song

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Sound & Vision

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Hello everyone. Here is my first song in the MP3 clinic. I'd greatly appreciate any advice on the mix or song. Its a pretty straight forward song with acoustic, electric, organ, and drums. I played all of it myself, so feel free to rip away on the performance.

I have mixed this many different ways and never seem satisfied with the end result. I figured that some of your ears would be helpful.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8525987

Thanks in advance!!!
 
I am on my laptop so I can't give it a 100% review but: Love the song. Mature writting. Good vocal. I would do the acoustic guitar over two times, panning one performance hard left and the other hard right to give body to the song.

Well written song man, you have it.
 
I'm not great at determining whether the lyrics are good, but the vox are nice, I enjoyed it.

could you list your gear? as a beginner at this I'd be very interested!
 
TaintedDb said:
I am on my laptop so I can't give it a 100% review but: Love the song. Mature writting. Good vocal. I would do the acoustic guitar over two times, panning one performance hard left and the other hard right to give body to the song.

Well written song man, you have it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback TaintedDb. I originally considered doing the acoustic guitar as you said with two tracks and panning them. I ended up doing one take center panned because I thought it might keep the song a little more focused on the acoustic sound. Next time I do some tracking I will try your advice and see what it sounds like. It may give it a little more life. Thanks again.
 
GoblinInventor said:
I'm not great at determining whether the lyrics are good, but the vox are nice, I enjoyed it.

could you list your gear? as a beginner at this I'd be very interested!
Click to expand...

Well, I learned from many posters on this message board long ago that it isn't necessarily what gear you have but how you use it. I try to not stress about what gear I have and instead learn to best use it. Just my 2 cents.

I'll list what I remember off hand:

Hardware: Aardvark Q10 recording interface (Now obsolete)
Software: Cakewalk Sonar
FMR Really nice compressor used for vocals and drums

Vocals: Tracked twice and panned (Elliott Smith used this technique)
Each take has a Rode NT1 mic'd close and one about 10 feet out in the room for effect.

Electric Guitars are thru a Marshall 30 watt amp mic'd with a SM57 on the grill

Drums: A Cheap drum set with Zildjian ZBT cymbals (you have to start somewhere). I tried to use the Glyn Johns technique with my 2 Rode NT1's. I also ran the overheads through the compressor. I accidentally compressed the drums too much IMO. Also a SM57 on the snare drum.

Bass is a cheap Rogue guitar run through my guitar amp for EQ, into the compressor, and the soundcard. (I don't have a bass amp)
 
I liked this song - very easy to listen to. Great feel and vox. The whole feel of it kind of reminds me of Paul Kelly for some reason. That's a compliment. :)

Jen
 
Overall I think it sounds pretty good.

There is definitely a lacking in the low-mids. I'm guessing that it's a monitoring problem. It makes the song sound a bit thin, and is contributing to the harshness of the cymbals. Also, I'd bring the vox a bit more forward, as well as the backing vox.

Great tune. Very catchy! :D
 
NL5 said:
Overall I think it sounds pretty good.

There is definitely a lacking in the low-mids. I'm guessing that it's a monitoring problem. It makes the song sound a bit thin, and is contributing to the harshness of the cymbals. Also, I'd bring the vox a bit more forward, as well as the backing vox.

Great tune. Very catchy! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch. You hit the nail on the head with the low mids. I have been having trouble with those levels and really learning my monitors. Something I'm working on. Thanks for the feedback!
 
There's drums in this? Where? I hear some trashy cymbal crashes here and there, and the hint of a snare and toms in places, but overall, the drums are DOA.

The whole things sounds squished into the middle. I'd like to hear more spread in the mix. The performances seem fine, the guitars sound okay, the bass gently holds down the bottom end, but it's still a long way from home to me.
 
It's a good song. The performances are fine. This mix def misses the bass drum & those low mids as mentioned. It sounds lightweight at present - a bit more work & you'll be in lemonheads territory.
 
Thanks to everyone who gave advice

I just wanted to thank everyone who gave advice on the mix. I have updated the song on soundclick ("Wonder") based off of those recommendations. I increased the bass drum and overheads in the mix. There were a few complaints about the drums, but unfortunately I don't have the option of re-tracking right now. I also increased the low mids and vocals which filled it out a bit.

Again, thanks for your help!
 
This is cool. It has a kind of basement quality to it which kind of gives it charm (maybe it's the drum sound?). This sounds like something off of the first few Built to Spill albums (only less chaotic), which is rad.

Maybe it's just what I'm listening on, but I feel like the bass guitar could be louder. I'm not hearing much differential between the guitars and bass, but maybe that's just because they're essentially playing the same thing? Organs are really pushed back, but that's fine...they usually are on songs like this.

Cool tune!
 
Very The Strokes

Cool low fi stuff. Doesn't ask me to be smart or anything. Just listen. It's good enough for me.
 
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