"Hearts Collide" - feedback needed/wanted

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Let me know how this one shaped up? Had some help shaping the guitar/drums from very helpful members. Some new guitar plugs - Lepou (free) through Recab ($40-ish). Bass also through Recab. First time I've done a true double on the rhythm guitars instead of copy/paste/modify with EQ/delay. I definitely like this better.

Any/all comments welcome. thanks!

 
Nice one. Sounds REALLY good on first listen. I do like the guitars, especially the chunky parts. I think everything sounds well constructed. Not an expert on drums, but they do sound good to me. Vocals blend nicely with the music. Sometimes it sounds like the vocals are muddy during chorus and I think its because of the delay you have going, but doesn't sound bad. Great job
 
Bruthish said:
Nice one. Sounds REALLY good on first listen. I do like the guitars, especially the chunky parts. I think everything sounds well constructed. Not an expert on drums, but they do sound good to me. Vocals blend nicely with the music. Sometimes it sounds like the vocals are muddy during chorus and I think its because of the delay you have going, but doesn't sound bad. Great job
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ok thanks Bruthish. yeah the vocals were a battle... the chorus is double tracked, there's a delay, and there are harmonies at 70% each side. This was the first time i stood while singing...i usually sit. lol. i think i was moving around too much while tracking them, i wasn't really satisfied with their sound. also, i pulled back when i sang the choruses and louder parts. i might have pulled away too much.
 
I usually sit when singing too mainly because I am recording scratch vocals. But I do notice its better to stand usually. Of course with a crappy voice like mine, I take any advantage I can get. lol
 
A few ppl have asked why it's so quiet... you know, there were two peaks that were messing everything up there. I ran slight compression before the limiter, something like 1.2:1 so that it only took off 1db from those peaks. The rest of the song was barely affected by it. I wonder if I should have hit those peaks harder with the compressor, maybe a few db's instead of 1. that would have let me put the limiter up some more, or even just the master volume fader.
 
Good one, maybe your best yet of the ones I've heard. I can't understand much at all of the lyrics. I'd take the guitars down a notch to open space for the vocals. For me, the gold standard is: Every word should be intelligible, at least for those willing to listen carefully. But maybe the lyrics aren't such a big deal for you. Bass sounds great. Your drums always seem a tad busy for me, but it's less of an issue here than in some of your other songs.
 
Really full guitar sound, I love how it fills the low mids. It does seem to mask the vocals just a bit though, I think the vocals can come up a bit anyway so maybe that would address that. There's a cha-chugga in the verses I think that kind of boomed on my headphones. Sounds really good overall!
 
You've got a good balanced pop rock mix. Compress the lead vocals a little more maybe? Just to keep them out in front of the guitars when you're quieter. Honestly, if you did that you could probably even get away with taking all the vocals down a db. Other than that, it's really just up to taste. Personally, I'd give the kick and snare some more punch and really let them move the mix while the guitars sit loud and proud in front. But that's just because I love a good wall of sound for a chorus like that. If it were me, I'd probably also turn that bass down a hair and add some more overdrive for a smoother blend.

In short, IF IT WERE ME I'd do something along these lines:
-compress the vocals more
-turn the bass down
-overdrive the bass
-turn the guitars up
-make that kick punch harder

All in all fwiw it's a good mix to me anyways.
 
Very nice song. Nice mix in general. I'd improve the snare and drum kit sound. It sounds "to much electronic".
 
wtfuhz said:
Compress the lead vocals a little more maybe? Just to keep them out in front of the guitars when you're quieter. Honestly, if you did that you could probably even get away with taking all the vocals down a db. Other than that, it's really just up to taste. Personally, I'd give the kick and snare some more punch and really let them move the mix while the guitars sit loud and proud in front. But that's just because I love a good wall of sound for a chorus like that. If it were me, I'd probably also turn that bass down a hair and add some more overdrive for a smoother blend.
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I agree with everyone that the vox need to be more intelligible. I have two compressors running on that vocal buss, each with about 5db max reduction on the loudest parts...i thought more than that sounded like they were pumping or thrusting. Perhaps I could try adding gain to the compressors' output?

Yeah I didn't consider adding some overdrive to the bass - I wish I would have thought of that, that's something i have done before and liked the sound. good idea.

There are probably a few ways to make a kick "punch" harder. I already boosted a small notch at 50hz on the kick buss, but are you suggesting something with the compressor settings?

thnx for the comments
 
andrushkiwt said:
I agree with everyone that the vox need to be more intelligible. I have two compressors running on that vocal buss, each with about 5db max reduction on the loudest parts...i thought more than that sounded like they were pumping or thrusting. Perhaps I could try adding gain to the compressors' output?
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Usually the first compressor on my vocals catches the bigger peaks with a medium-fast attack and a pretty quick release. Then I'll bring up the soft parts with another compressor via quick attack, slow release, lower threshold than the first. Adding gain won't do anything but push the louder parts out even more, which were fine at the original mix. It's the soft spots you'd wanna raise a little.

For a pop rock kinda kick, honestly a little eq boost on the upper mids and one compressor with a 25-35ms attack usually does the trick.
 
wtfuhz said:
Usually the first compressor on my vocals catches the bigger peaks with a medium-fast attack and a pretty quick release. Then I'll bring up the soft parts with another compressor via quick attack, slow release, lower threshold than the first. Adding gain won't do anything but push the louder parts out even more, which were fine at the original mix. It's the soft spots you'd wanna raise a little.

For a pop rock kinda kick, honestly a little eq boost on the upper mids and one compressor with a 25-35ms attack usually does the trick.
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ok very cool, i'll leave the track up but I'll go back in my session and mess around w/ the vocal compressors to see if i can find something there that sits better. good ideas, i appreciate that, thank you sir
 
Yep. This is a song called "Hearts Collide" alright. :D Kind of sounds like a mellow-ish All American Rejects.

Pretty good mix. I agree that the vox could stick out a little more. I think scaling back the reverb could help that, actually. It might help brighten things up a little too. The mix felt a little dark overall.

Lepou
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I've been futzing with that myself. Do you ever have problems with it crashing? I had it working for a few weeks, but now it crashes reaper (or the 32-bit bridge) every time I try to use it.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Yep. This is a song called "Hearts Collide" alright. :D Kind of sounds like a mellow-ish All American Rejects.

Pretty good mix. I agree that the vox could stick out a little more. I think scaling back the reverb could help that, actually. It might help brighten things up a little too. The mix felt a little dark overall.


I've been futzing with that myself. Do you ever have problems with it crashing? I had it working for a few weeks, but now it crashes reaper (or the 32-bit bridge) every time I try to use it.
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good ideas Steve. I felt it needed a touch up top, so i added about a db on a 12db curve starting at around 5khz. more than that and it got too fizzy overall. i experimented w/ the verb settings throughout the mix (which i did over a week). You're right that bringing it back some would have helped pushed it up a bit. It's on there pretty heavy to be honest.

No probs w/ lepou stuff yet. i've been messing w/ it for about 2 weeks now. I'm trying to figure out when is a good time to use the other channel...i think the orange one. of course, "when it sounds good to" is a clever answer, but some of those knobs/switches were made for certain things. This is the "modern" mode on the lepou lecto you're hearing. I've been trying to connect w/ users of that amp for some hints and tips. I matched it up with Recabinet's "Oversize" cab model...that one is also based on Mesa Boogie..figured they would sit well together.

what cabinets are you using with your amps?
 
I have used Lepou for my old tracks. It used to crash on me pretty easily and he wasn't planning a 64-bit version of the LeCab. I found that he did update it though so you should be able to search for the newer version of it. I don't use it all that much but since the update I haven't had an issue with it crashing.
 
Bruthish said:
I have used Lepou for my old tracks. It used to crash on me pretty easily and he wasn't planning a 64-bit version of the LeCab. I found that he did update it though so you should be able to search for the newer version of it. I don't use it all that much but since the update I haven't had an issue with it crashing.
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yeah i want that Lecab, too bad about the 64-bit though. I was hoping to get it until i saw it wasn't available...oh well, Recab has lots of options and was pretty cheap. Still messing with microphone selection and placement.
 
I liked it, two of my nits have been hit already (bass drum is more of a presence (or pressure) than a hit, and the bass sound is not very distinct...thank you, wtfuhz). The third (a bit of a mudiness around 150hz at points) was a bit distracting through the M-Audios, but not noticeable on the Rokit 5s...well, that makes sense from the freq ranges of each. :)

The end of the first chorus (~1:00): if that nice high note went up a step instead of walking off the plank I think it would work a lot better.

Love the tune. Good work on the vocals. I can tell it was a challenge.
 
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