Have I Wasted My Time Trying To Salvage This?

groucho

Member
Here's another salvage job I need some help with. This is a tune I recorded right when I first started a year and a half ago or so and I did a lot of things wrong. Anyway, I've tried to fix what I could, so let me know if this reeks of incompetence or what.

I have a much better mic now (this was done with an SM57) so I should just re-record everything... but I probably won't.

I know I just posted a song but hey, Walter's still a good ways ahead of me in terms of frequency...:)

Thanks,
Chris

"Nothing Stays"
 
YO

Since you recorded this, you have developed a little more of your OWN sound. So, yeah I think you should retrack everything because it's a good tune.
Right now it sounds good, but a little to Van Morrisonish.

Dan
 
I agree that this one is definitely worth keeping around and possibly retracking. It definitely has a cool vibe to it. I like the percussion you are using on there and the building arrangement is nice.

Your voice works perfect for this tune. The arrangement is great, but retracking might make the overall recording sound better with some of the techniques you have learned.

Overall a very enjoyable listen!

:D
 
Cool tune, and the recording is not bad either. A bit grainy, and the snare is too hot in the beginning. Don't like something about the sound of those horn stabs. They sound gated.

It's missing something though. Maybe some guitar or harp riffin' in there to fill in some of the holes.
 
keep this man. Its happn'n. Id take the stabs up an octave if you can the trill after the stab is a little too midi tight sounding. Add a tad of meat to the kick and bring the bass up a tad. Love the tone on it. rythym is robbin the stage a little up front.
One more guitar or piano doing a counter rythym after the 1st verse would be nice on my end.
 
I love the guitar tone in the beginning. Vocals are also very clear. I'm not sure what's with the drums, I guess they're bad samples. Overall, good mix.
 
Hevy: Yeah, you got me.:) I was actually kinda deliberately imitating Van on this one. It was just the only way I could think of to do this song, so I did it. I knew the whole time I was gonna get nailed on it by any Van fans...

boydrj: thanks for the comments. Have I mentioned I HATE re-tracking?:) Yeah, I know, I should...

MBrane: you're right about the snare. I just brought it down a tad (new mix is up there where the old one was). And yeah, I agree with you on the horns. Best I could do, sample-wise. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to piece together the sax solo from various loops. Insanity, I tell you.

Toki: Good call on the kick and bass. I tried to fatten them up a tad in the new mix. I'm about to give up on bass. I just can never get the damn thing to sound the way I want. Still trying though. Thanks for the words.

Fatt: Thanks and yeah: samples. Fuckin' samples. But if anyone has any suggestions for what I might do within the limitations of that, please throw them out there. I'm just trying to get this one as good as I can get it before I set it aside. I just don't think I have a re-track in me for this one.

Thanks guys,
Chris
 
While I enjoyed this, I'm going to say it is my least favorite of yours. So maybe that's a vote towards ditching it. Your quality has improved since then - I think a lot of the improvement has been the arranging too, not just the recording. This arrangement doesn't live up to your others.

Pretty amazing job with that sax solo if you had to put it together piece by piece. The other horn parts just aren't working for me. They don't sound real. My guess is the mix is too sparse to have a midi(or whatever you call it) horn section and get away with it. Maybe an additional rhythm guitar could come in behind the sax solo to help cover some of the "midi-ness" of it. That's something I often do for guitar solos. Sort of like the drummer moving to the ride cymbal to help fill the mix.

You brought the snare down a tad? Maybe a tad or two more. It's still pretty loud.

The percussive strums on the guitar seem to center on the same frequency of whatever percussion thing you've got going in the right speaker. Anything you can do to seperate them a little? As it is, it makes the guitar sound sloppy when it in fact is not.

I can really hear the difference because of the vocal mic. I like the vocal sound on this, but not quite as lively.

OK- I've been listening to this over and over as I'm typing. It's growing on me. I've changed my vote to keep it.
 
Hey, good helpful comments, fprod.

You know, it makes me feel very easily suggestable when I find myself agreeing with everything everyone here says, but... you guys are right on the horns.

I realized that one of the things that give the horns an odd sound (aside from the fact that they're freakin' loops) is that they cut off very abruptly during the stabs, which give em that "gated" feel.

So I did a little work with delay and gave them more of a tail. It makes a big difference to me, but I'm curious if anyone else can even notice.

Anyway, the new version's up there where the old one was.

And may I just add that I've never used midi in my life. It's all loops - which gives me even less control and probably sounds shittier.:)

Thanks,
Chris
 
I was gonna mention the Van Morrison thing too but, that's already been said.

I was going to say, Van Morrison on crack but, good crack, not the cheap stuff!

If your not going to re-track it to fix up the hick-ups in the rhythm, maybe consider adding a piano to fill out the sound a bit and accentuate the timing to make it your own.

Horn stab's verb should not be gated so hard.

Nice tune! I liked the vibe!

Cheers! :)
 
Aha! I just realized you're the guy who did that "Final Friday Night' tune - I love that tune - if I ever decide to play solo again, I'm doing that song. I like 'Table Talk' a lot, too.

For what it's worth - I'd lose the horns altogether. I gather you don't like to deal with bass - but a kickin' bass player flappin' around all over the neck with a fretless would be just the ticket with that percussion thing goin' on. I like the tune a lot! - it's a keeper in my book.
Milan
 
The Ghost of FM said:
I was going to say, Van Morrison on crack but, good crack, not the cheap stuff!

Oh man, now *that's* an endorsement...:)

Thanks for the comments, Ghost.

fprod: thanks much for the second listen! You got good ears, and I appreciate it.

MC: I *totally* agree with you on the fretless. I was actually picturing a big old doghouse standup bass on this one. But all I got is this old Fender. I spent an ungodly amount of time trying to get the bass sound on this somewhere near what I want. I didn't get there, but I got close for once, which is something I suppose.

Mixing bass is *so* damn hard for me. I dunno what my problem is.

Oh, and funny how a song I did years ago, in one take, ripped to the gills, on a cassette 4-track (Final Friday Night) has gotten more positive feedback on this board than all the rest of my stuff put together.:) Seriously, thanks for the nice words.

Chris
 
Ref:
Oh, and funny how a song I did years ago, in one take, ripped to the gills, on a cassette 4-track (Final Friday Night) has gotten more positive feedback on this board than all the rest of my stuff put together

I didn't say the mix or tone quality was worth a shit - it's not - all of our stuff sounded like that back in the days of cassette - your newer stuff is ten times better! Now - do you feel better? (But I really think it's an excellent song.)

BTW - I'm remixing 'Amanda' tighter - sounds soooo much better - good call, man, thanks a bunch!! And I restrung the guitar to fix that shitty sound. It did. And I even restrung the mando becasue Hevy was bitching about it being out of tune!!

Some of you people are really hard to please. (That's a good thing.)

Thanks again!
Milan
 
Back
Top