MayFlower - alternative/pop/rock

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Hey, I'd like to know how you guys think this one turned out. My brain is fried with this song after working on it for almost a month :)

How's the overall energy? The room, depth, space, etc? Is there a nice "air" around the vocal and drums? I'm pretty happy with my tones, overall, so I'm looking to improve my reverb application and try to get that studio sound, artificially, the best I can. I don't mean studio quality, I mean the actual room sound. If the band were to break/stop suddenly, do you feel you could get an idea of the room it's played in? I guess that's what I'm working on at the moment. So, it'd be cool to hear some opinions on that. It goes further than just simple reverb when you consider room size, pre-delay, wet/dry, population, buses, etc...

Thought I'd mention that I ditched the $300 AT4040 for vocals and went back to the $79 Sterling ST51. I think this mic is brighter and it was easier to mix with my vocal.

Looking forward to some critiques. Thanks for stopping by and listening.

 
Great song and performances. Good energy. For my taste, the doubled rhythm guitars are a hair too loud in places. Some of the details of the other parts are struggling to be heard over them, notably lead vocal but also drums. There were places where I had difficulty understanding the lyrics. If you listen to some of the drum fills during the louder parts, once in a while body of the snare is getting drowned out to the point where I am hearing mainly top mic, which leaves a dead-sounding thud rather than a thwack. It's different during the quieter parts, where I can begin to hear space and air--for example the opening lines of the first verse and your bridge. Judging by those sections, I think the ambiance sounds good. It's harder for me to tell in the parts where everything is going full bore. Vocal definitely sounds brighter.

These are quibbles, probably. And a lot of it is down to taste and genre.
 
Good mix overall. I agree with Robus on most of his points.

Vocals are getting tromped on by the guitars. Vocals sound good and can stand to be further upfront. Drums need to come up as well. So maybe backing off the guitars would help, rather than turning up other things.

Check the 200-400 area and see if some reduction doesn't help open up the song some.

Overall I think it sounded pretty good, just a few tweaks and you have a nice song/mix.
 
Robus said:
If you listen to some of the drum fills during the louder parts, once in a while body of the snare is getting drowned out to the point where I am hearing mainly top mic, which leaves a dead-sounding thud rather than a thwack.
Click to expand...

I'm willing to bet that's an issue of programming rather than the mix elements. Some of the snare hits are set too low and it comes across as a thwack-kind of noise. The hits I put in at 95% and up and very clear and prominent, but the ones I missed that are lower 90's and high 80's aren't so clear during busy sections.

Again, just my thoughts on that. You might be right, but I'm inclined to think it's the MIDI.
 
Sounds pretty good. I can't really speak to the "studio space" idea. I'm not entirely sure how that would sound. Would you have to recreate the drum VST's space?

Oh look! Christian C G Ironside asked you to submit it to a contest to get constructive feedback! What a great prize! :D
 
Sounds great, Taras. The guitars are really nice and open. There's a little accent part at :35 that seems a bit loud on my headphones.
 
Very cool. This sounds great to me. listening on headphones and it sounds solid to me. Good sound, balance. it’s all good to me!
 
easlern said:
Sounds great, Taras. The guitars are really nice and open. There's a little accent part at :35 that seems a bit loud on my headphones.
Click to expand...

I'll check that. Actually, there's a loud pop somewhere else in the track that I'm surprised no one picked out yet :) Thanks for listening Nick

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

Robertt8 said:
Very cool. This sounds great to me. listening on headphones and it sounds solid to me. Good sound, balance. it’s all good to me!
Click to expand...

Definitely things to improve on, but I'm getting there...slowly. Thanks for checking it out and commenting. Much appreciated.
 
andrushkiwt said:
I'm willing to bet that's an issue of programming rather than the mix elements. Some of the snare hits are set too low and it comes across as a thwack-kind of noise. The hits I put in at 95% and up and very clear and prominent, but the ones I missed that are lower 90's and high 80's aren't so clear during busy sections.

Again, just my thoughts on that. You might be right, but I'm inclined to think it's the MIDI.
Click to expand...

The inconsistent drum hits make it sound a bit less mechanical.

I dont mind the vocal a bit back. I like the guitars out front.
 
Guitars sound terrific.

Your vocal sounded good. But it's missing a little low-midrange that you usually get. Not bad by any means, but a bit thin sounding compared to what I remember from you.

Cymbals have some SOundCloud swirl. Snare sounds compressed just a bit hard - to the point of sounding un-natural (kind of that .22 rifle shot sound). But it kind of works well for this kind of tune.

Kind of minor gripes. Not really much I'd change in this mix.
 
TripleM said:
Your vocal sounded good. But it's missing a little low-midrange that you usually get. Not bad by any means, but a bit thin sounding compared to what I remember from you.
Click to expand...

cool, i changed mics, so i bet that's the major reason. was wondering how this one fared compared to the thicker AT4040. thanks for the listen/comment :thumbs up:
 
RFR said:
The inconsistent drum hits make it sound a bit less mechanical.

I dont mind the vocal a bit back. I like the guitars out front.
Click to expand...

I like where the vocal sits.

But I also hear those saying the guitars are a little too loud. I'm not sure what the solution would be...
Off the top of my head, maybe lower the guitars as much as possible with the vocals still remaining where they are. Or keep the guitars at this level and trying to carve the guitars up with some EQ to lower unnecessary frequencies. That will make them sound lower overall.

I struggle with that issue as well so I'm not sure, but those are methods I'm trying on my own mixes that could help.

The only other issue I hear is the vocal sounds quite bright. Not harsh but right on the cusp.

Overall, great job. I think it needs a few tweaks.

Oh, and with regard to reverb, I also just started dabbling more in that, and I think using three reverbs is the way to go. Short, medium, and longer for vocals. If the amp sim has a spring reverb using just a hair of that (like 2 on the setting) helps, too. But your mix is dense with what sounds like 3+ guitars, so it will be harder to give a sense of space in that case. You'll have to use EQ to carve things up and give each thing some space, then put the reverb around that newfound space. I haven't mastered it myself yet, but I've been tinkering with that so hopefully the advice can help.
 
Holy cow. This is the result I've been working toward for years and have yet to be able to achieve. On my phone (which is where most of my own mixes fall apart), it sounds like any professional mix I've ever heard.
 
seeking said:
Hi.

Very cool. Im hearing a small studio room. Sounds professionale.

-einar-
NORWAY
Click to expand...

i actually am using "medium studio" preset on my verb vst, but tweaked. close enough though! far from professional, but thanks

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

dkerwood said:
Holy cow. This is the result I've been working toward for years and have yet to be able to achieve. On my phone (which is where most of my own mixes fall apart), it sounds like any professional mix I've ever heard.
Click to expand...

phone is a place i'm too scared to check. :) thank you, but i've got a ways to go yet. thanks for listening and commenting. much appreciated.
 
I think this sounds really good man. I listened back a few times to see if there was anything that stuck out, but nothing came to mind. I'm more interested in the creative side being right and then the mix getting into the right ballpark, so I'm never too good on precise details - which probably doesn't help much. The main thing is that it all works and sounds good I think.

In terms of 'sounding in a particular room' I think it's too much of a studio sounding piece for that - it has the studio polish and tricks like the vocal and drum filters in the breakdown section, rather than sounding like a capture of a band playing. Good energy and a good listen I think.
 
robgreen said:
- it has the studio polish and tricks like the vocal and drum filters in the breakdown section, rather than sounding like a capture of a band playing.
Click to expand...

yeah, i just wanted to throw something more modern in the breakdown, as opposed to the rest of it where i was aiming for a studio sound. nice catch. :thumbs up: thanks for the listen and comment
 
Nola said:
maybe lower the guitars as much as possible with the vocals still remaining where they are.
Click to expand...

also, i think i could ease up on the vocal compression. after a week off from listening, i hear it smashing, a bit, against a "wall" where it just can't get over the guitars. i think it might sit better if i moved the threshold and ratio and then played with the output gain on the comp. thanks Nola :guitar:
 
Just got around to listening to your song (12/26/16) - Merry Christmas! What a great Christmas gift.... as always, you amaze me with your songwriting and recording. As some of the others have noted, the vocal is a little thinner than on your previous songs which would make it easier to mix, IMO, but I miss a little of the vocal warmth that some of your previous songs demonstrated and I think it may effect the overall presence of the song. I might bring the vocal up a hair in the mix perhaps with the compressor. The energy is amazing - I would have to consume 2 pots of coffee to have that kind of energy. Excellent song once again. Excellent recording once again. Sounds radio ready to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top