Losing My Religion

GuitarLegend

GuitarLegend

New member
Recording session yesterday with 21yo James Abbot

James Abbot - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Mandolin & Bass
Alan Lowe - Rhythm Guitar, Recording & Mixing

The mics for the guitars and mandolin were (neck) AKG C414 xls and (bridge) Shure SM57
Bass was DI

Vocal mic is Neumann TLM107

No pitch correction was used on the vocals at all. This was just one of those times when you get a good performance without having to doctor it.

Losing My Religion
 
GuitarLegend said:
Recording session yesterday with 21yo James Abbot

James Abbot - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Mandolin & Bass
Alan Lowe - Rhythm Guitar, Recording & Mixing

The mics for the guitars and mandolin were (neck) AKG C414 xls and (bridge) Shure SM57
Bass was DI

Vocal mic is Neumann TLM107

No pitch correction was used on the vocals at all. This was just one of those times when you get a good performance without having to doctor it.

Losing My Religion
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I think you should've posted this in the MP3 Mixing Clinic part, man...
 
Well, seeing that you're not seeking comments or feedback, we can leave it here. Or. If you want, I can move this one over, but please don't post duplicates. I deleted your other thread. Thnx.

But I will say, I think you can pull the vocal down a bit. Yeah, he can sing, but it's really on top of the mix.
 
Chili said:
Well, seeing that you're not seeking comments or feedback, we can leave it here. Or. If you want, I can move this one over, but please don't post duplicates. I deleted your other thread. Thnx.

But I will say, I think you can pull the vocal down a bit. Yeah, he can sing, but it's really on top of the mix.
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Ok, can you move it to MP3 Clinic please?
 
GuitarLegend said:
Why? It was my recording technique that I was posting. Do you think there is something wrong with the mixing?
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There are no problems in you mix. The problem is that you've posted on the wrong part of the forum, thats all...dont worry.

Now, the mix is pretty good. It is a pretty accurate version compared to the original...it is very close to that.

I would bring the guitars a hair down...and thats all I'd do to the mix.
 
CMolena said:
There are no problems in you mix. The problem is that you've posted on the wrong part of the forum, thats all...dont worry.

Now, the mix is pretty good. It is a pretty accurate version compared to the original...it is very close to that.

I would bring the guitars a hair down...and thats all I'd do to the mix.
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Thanks for that. I would bring the left guitar down, I seem to keep being drawn to that. I thought it was ok but will see what your suggestion does to the mix...
 
What I wanted to do with this mix was to use two acoustic guitars. One person could have played the same piece twice but that would have sounded like doubled guitars, so my idea was to play the rhythm guitar part myself, then get James to play the same part on the same guitar, thereby catching subtle differences in our personal strumming styles. Then pan the two guitars fully left and right. I am pretty happy with how that turned out
 
A very nice and full sounding mix. The guitars and mandolin sound nice.

The low end seems to be mostly from the kick. It's a little thuddy too. It's more prominent than the bass.

I thought the lead vocal take was decent. But I'm not sure it's the best take you have in you. Pitch and everything is fine. But it sound's a bit tentative. Like you were trying to get through the song without messing up vs really trying to nail it.

I might pull down the guitars/mandos just a bit. They're not really masking the vocal, but they're taking attention away from it. Just too much going on on the edges of the mix.
 
I thought the vocals sounded a little, I want to say bland but I know that's not the word I'm looking for. they sound like the lyrics are being read out rather than performed.

Everything else sounded good.
 
TripleM said:
A very nice and full sounding mix. The guitars and mandolin sound nice.

The low end seems to be mostly from the kick. It's a little thuddy too. It's more prominent than the bass.

I thought the lead vocal take was decent. But I'm not sure it's the best take you have in you. Pitch and everything is fine. But it sound's a bit tentative. Like you were trying to get through the song without messing up vs really trying to nail it.

I might pull down the guitars/mandos just a bit. They're not really masking the vocal, but they're taking attention away from it. Just too much going on on the edges of the mix.
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The singer has a light voice. I had asked him to sing stronger after a preliminary recording test the previous day and he tried to do that. However, that is his voice, its the one he uses on stage and its pretty much all he has. But he seems to have good control of it.

I understand what you are saying and I noticed that myself. But I had to bring the vocal down as it was sitting somewhat high in the mix. I have only made slight adjustments, but it seems to be too much or too little. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and helps me to take more notice of things I noticed but disregard to some extent. I felt there was a little too much on the edges but not sure what to do about that. I might just play with it a little more and see what I can do.
 
Mr Clean said:
I thought the vocals sounded a little, I want to say bland but I know that's not the word I'm looking for. they sound like the lyrics are being read out rather than performed.

Everything else sounded good.
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Thank you. No, the guy knows the song very well, he often sings it live, he was not reading lyrics. However, I had asked him to try to sing stronger than he normally does. Not go too far out of his comfort zone but just put a little more into it. Otherwise, that is the voice he has and the one he uses for his live performances. Not sure I can or would change that. I just recorded him to the best we could do on the day and what we got was a faithful reproduction of his natural voice
 
TripleM said:
A very nice and full sounding mix. The guitars and mandolin sound nice.

The low end seems to be mostly from the kick. It's a little thuddy too. It's more prominent than the bass.

I thought the lead vocal take was decent. But I'm not sure it's the best take you have in you. Pitch and everything is fine. But it sound's a bit tentative. Like you were trying to get through the song without messing up vs really trying to nail it.

I might pull down the guitars/mandos just a bit. They're not really masking the vocal, but they're taking attention away from it. Just too much going on on the edges of the mix.
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I took another half a db off the guitars and hope that doesn't leave the vocal high and dry again.

The bass is a Fender Squier for which I apologize, and was booming on the lower notes. So I applied a low cut filter around 60hz. During mixing. I found the whole was too in ya face and maybe left it a little low in the mix as a result. I should have miked it through an amp but I chose to DI it through a Radial PRO48 Active DI. I got rid of the low cut and applied some EQ to try to tame it and think that this result is a little better at least on my system (RME Fireface 802 into Yamaha HS80Ms)

I appreciate all the feedback.
 
Listening to the mix in the original post, assuming that's the most recent.

One preface: I hate this goddamn song, and I have ever since it was overexposed on MTV in the early 1990s. Putting aside my disdain for this song in particular...

Very good vocal performance here. I think that the vocal levels are just right. The mix as a whole sound good to me. The bass doesn't sound bad ...it does boom in the low end, which makes it tough to turn it up enough to give it definition without blowing out the low end of the mix. I understand, my Squier bass does the same thing. I've had the damndest time getting that thing to sit in a mix.

The acoustic instruments get jumbled up and end up as a bit of a mush of chorus-y strums. They don't sound bad by any means, and the attack on the mandolin riffs comes through pretty well. It may be worth spending a little time to try some sweetened EQ between the mandolin and the acoustic guitar so that the mandolin still has its space and yet the acoustic guitar strums don't get lost.

Really a good effort all around though. This is a combination of instruments that I have yet to try to mix, so I'm curious how someone would make it all work like REM's engineers did back in the 90s.
 
Tadpui said:
Listening to the mix in the original post, assuming that's the most recent.

One preface: I hate this goddamn song, and I have ever since it was overexposed on MTV in the early 1990s. Putting aside my disdain for this song in particular...

Very good vocal performance here. I think that the vocal levels are just right. The mix as a whole sound good to me. The bass doesn't sound bad ...it does boom in the low end, which makes it tough to turn it up enough to give it definition without blowing out the low end of the mix. I understand, my Squier bass does the same thing. I've had the damndest time getting that thing to sit in a mix.

The acoustic instruments get jumbled up and end up as a bit of a mush of chorus-y strums. They don't sound bad by any means, and the attack on the mandolin riffs comes through pretty well. It may be worth spending a little time to try some sweetened EQ between the mandolin and the acoustic guitar so that the mandolin still has its space and yet the acoustic guitar strums don't get lost.

Really a good effort all around though. This is a combination of instruments that I have yet to try to mix, so I'm curious how someone would make it all work like REM's engineers did back in the 90s.
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Thank you. Yes, that's the latest. I just update the existing mix rather than creating new ones. Although sometimes that might be useful to hear the progress. It was hard to get the mandolin loud enough yet not poking you in the eye. Its easy to overstep there. But yes, some EQ could do the trick. The mandolin is in the middle of the two acoustic guitars and the lead guitar is pretty much over the top of the mandolin. May be able to separate those with EQ
 
I agree with the others here, the vocal on it doesn't sound right to me. I know everyone has said he is on pitch but I don't think he is. He sounds flat (not horrible or anything, just a little flat). He does have a good voice though and I think if he can get some emotion in to it would make a world of difference. Just as a test make a bounce of his vocals and open it in melodyne or something that does pitch correction to see if he is hitting the notes (you don't have to edit it, just see where he falls). I could be wrong, it's just how it sounds to me. Also something sounds a little funny with the mandolin, I don't know if it's just in the wrong spot or if something is fighting with it frequency wise. All in all a great recording, just a few things I'm nit picking.

If you want to send it over to be (the stems or just the vocal), I can open it in melodyne and see what it says after work.
 
polarity said:
I agree with the others here, the vocal on it doesn't sound right to me. I know everyone has said he is on pitch but I don't think he is. He sounds flat (not horrible or anything, just a little flat). He does have a good voice though and I think if he can get some emotion in to it would make a world of difference. Just as a test make a bounce of his vocals and open it in melodyne or something that does pitch correction to see if he is hitting the notes (you don't have to edit it, just see where he falls). I could be wrong, it's just how it sounds to me. Also something sounds a little funny with the mandolin, I don't know if it's just in the wrong spot or if something is fighting with it frequency wise. All in all a great recording, just a few things I'm nit picking.

If you want to send it over to be (the stems or just the vocal), I can open it in melodyne and see what it says after work.
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That's ok, I can check it with Melodyne, I have the full version. The mandolin probably sounds funny because it is competing with the lead guitar, which is essentially doing the same thing, bar small differences

---------- Update ----------

polarity said:
I agree with the others here, the vocal on it doesn't sound right to me. I know everyone has said he is on pitch but I don't think he is. He sounds flat (not horrible or anything, just a little flat). He does have a good voice though and I think if he can get some emotion in to it would make a world of difference. Just as a test make a bounce of his vocals and open it in melodyne or something that does pitch correction to see if he is hitting the notes (you don't have to edit it, just see where he falls). I could be wrong, it's just how it sounds to me. Also something sounds a little funny with the mandolin, I don't know if it's just in the wrong spot or if something is fighting with it frequency wise. All in all a great recording, just a few things I'm nit picking.

If you want to send it over to be (the stems or just the vocal), I can open it in melodyne and see what it says after work.
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I appreciate nitpicking :D
 
Awesome, I am curious to know about the vocal though. Maybe I'm wrong, but for my own listening/translating I'm interested to know the outcome.

That explains it on the mandolin, I think for the original they used the mandolin as the lead and I can't recall if it even had a guitar (I guess I need to listen to the original)
 
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