Christian country/folk rock pre-production

S

skiz

New member
Hey guys, been a while =]

Ive been asked by a buddy at church if i could help him out and record his demo for him. Im really stoked cause i get to write the drum parts :)

anyway, this is a pre-production track that we laid down the other day, i really enjoyed the vibe we came up with:

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=21616

the vox are a bit out of time in places, and the acoustic guitar is DI'd which was done just for time saving reasons - will be mic'ing it up when we actually lay down the final track, and the electric guitar is also a bit out in places.

Like i said this is really early, so any suggestions, from mixing suggestions to extra instruments and parts, would be hugely appreciated!

thanks for listening :)

EDIT* track with bass http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=21682
 
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no one? Should i post a version without the vox? Just want some comments on the mix and arrangement, not tryin to push anyones personal belief buttons :)
 
Hi Skiz,
First of all I'd just like to say that I'm not religious in any way, so I'm listening to this purely from a musical point of view.

Actually, there's something about it that I really like. Nicely folky with good vocals and general overall sound. The subtleties of the playing work really well and the drums are nicely different in places.

I won't go into technicalties as I'm a bit of a technophobe myself, but maybe you just need to hone it in places until you're happy with the mix overall.

Nice sound though and I think you've got something going there,
Dreamer :)
 
The mix and individual tracks are way heavy in the mids between 200-450 ish Hz. Way, way heavy. I was correcting by boosting the bottom and top and cutting that belly radically , to get it near sounding even and real. If you just look at the bar graph in WMP you can see it. Not good. I'd suggest going back to each track and tweaking EQ to breath some life into them before making the soup. [especially the vox...the guys singing into a box of Cheerios....

The arrangement of the bass part could use a lot of work...I'd suggest re-recording it, fixed along three lines:

Have the bass sounding in the bass range...below 220Hz: it moos like a cow, now.

Re arrange the fifth note of the 'intro' theme to hit the root note at the top of the line, instead of the dominant 7: with the droning guitar chord playing the 7 prominantly, the bass hitting the same note overdrives the thing...and tends to make the chord ambiguous....and the sound is fatiguing. Maybe a little more melody/ theme would be nice...but hitting the tonic somewhere on the 3-beat would glue things together...make the playout a lot stronger.

And have the bass strike notes on every bass drum hit....all those orphaned thuds....very weak...and a lot of opportunity to boost strength of unison bass/BD lost.
 
Yo SkizDude :D

Catchy tune man. Good change ups, vox, overall a good song. I can't comment too much on the mix itself cuz I'm at work and all I've got is some crappy headphones but sounds like you've got everything in the ball park.
I'd be interested in your main mix.

Peace mang...
 
I guess Jeff summarised some good points. A very good tune, but the arrangement and mix could be better to give it more dynamic and colour. The performance is already of a very good quality so it shouldn't be that much of a problem for you.

Joey :)
 
thanks guys, i really appreciate it!

theres actually no bass on this track, i think its the crappy low end of the DI'd acoustic that comes across as bass at times

but i have since tracked a version with bass and tried to EQ the vox a bit better, so if anyone would like me to upload that, just say!
 
That's a major improvement!

But....

There's so much potential for the bass part that's left un-tapped, I think.....like playing a solid, melodic line for itself...instead of doubling the guitar comp [ that dom7 really seems fatiguing] and playing a root/five, four-on-the-floor figure on the choruses to lend motion and momentum, along with a likewise thumpthump on the bassdrum. Like a bluegrassy opening-up. I can hear it. Acoustic upright would be perfect. A real compliment to the brushed snare.

I think you could increase the temperature and excitement by...uh....30% :^)
 
you may want to tone down the instrumentation in parts you are going to sing over. its taxing to listen to something that busy with words over it.
 
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