An Old Challenge

T

TripleM

Well-known member
This is like 2 or 3 challenges ago, but I'm slow.

This is a complete remake of a song I put up a couple of months ago called 'What I Want'. The song has no effects - just manipulation of faders and panning.

It uses the SLuiCe -12db method of tracking and it's the first time I recorded in 24 bit resolution.

So tell me what you would do if this were your "dry" mix...

Again - 'What I Want'

Thanks in advance.

edit: http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=1436/singles
 
i definitely remember the song.......very r.e.m., end of the world as we know it-ish lyrics....very nice.......i think the dry mix realy works here
 
I love this song. I think it's one of the best lyrical tunes I've heard here. Never thought who to compare it to but yeah, VERY R.E.M

The mix is better I believe, I'm hearing harmonies I never heard before, sounds a bit dry but it works in this context.
 
Thanks powder and lynx. I apreciate your thoughts and comments.

My intent (which I should have explained better) was to get mixing ideas. I wanted to get a bunch of perspectives and ideas. e.g., is a guitar clobbering a vocal? What reverb(s) would you use? Would you put a delay on anything? Would you squash the vox and make it REALLY LOUD? Does that clean guitar need to be brightened? Stuff like that.

I'd then consider all the ideas and implement the ones I like. I'll post a remix when I'm done.

Again, thanks.
 
I can't really make out the chords in the middle eight so that part kind of fell apart for me. I like the song though and the Disney reference was very funny. On my crappy speakers, the vocal is clobbering the guitar, not the other way around. I think the backing should be brought up a bit or beefed up.

I know this is splitting hairs, but I would change the lyric to "read a play by Checkov" to be a little more precise, since I don't think he wrote "books" in the sense you mean here.
 
"I wanna bring you up instead of down, I wanna build an ark instead of drown"
Click to expand...


I love that line..

This recording sounds a bit better to my ears than your usual.. One of the main reasons is it doesn't have that nasty mp3 side effect that I've come to expect from your tunes..

There is a lack of crispness to the music, but it might help make the vocals come through better.. The whole thing could use some higher end without making it harsh..

If you ever figure out how to to that, please tell me! :D


love the tune!
 
ashulman - thanks for the input. I probably boosted the vox too much - the opposite of what I usually do. Easy to fix. I'll take a hard listen to the middle 8 and see what I can do - perhaps a high end boost to the guits.

Sam - thanks man, that's some info I can really use. I'm going to try to boost the highs (> 5500 hz) on a couple of tracks. I encoded the thing at 160 kbps this time because I could notice artifacts at 128. 192 only offered minimal improvement over 160.

Later...
 
Trip,
I remember this one! Classic lyrics as usual.

First off, I would say more They Might Be Giants than REM but that is neither here nor there.

I would also say try cutting the lows/low mids before you boost the highs. That seems to be the common rule of thumb. At least give it a shot. When you boost you intrduce the crispiness.

Also, the vocals tend to wear on me. Because of the style (ala It's The End Of The World) it tended to tire my ears. It seems high to me throughout, like the melody needs to lower further in some spots if possible (like verse vs. chorus), or maybe the harmonies could be warmer. Could you double the main vocal an octive lower and mix that in? Just ideas to warm it up!

Now the lyrics and the song don't wear on me at all. I love that part as usual. hopefully what I'm saying makes sense.

Great work so far. Let's see what you can come up with. Maybe some other more experienced folks can give you some more concrete suggestions.
 
Cool, I'm still working on my "dry" challenge tune, it's going to have to wait till the current challenge is over tho, it's also my first 24 bit project as well.

I remember this one. :) This is a step up from the last mix, effects or no. Vocals have lot's of ambience.

It's a cool song, I heard some more lyrics this time around
"I want to use depech mode in a sentence"...nice :)

I could hear everything clearly but the clean melodic guitar near the end, which I thought was too good to drown out.

I still think the growly guitar is a bit too much for the tune, maybe edge up the fuzz a bit so the strumming comes through a little clearer on it.. Mix wise the bass seemed a little strong. If a big bass is what you are aiming for with this then I'd say some other parts need to come up a bit, not sure what tho.

Doug
 
Really great lyrics and well written song-(I bet I said that last time you posted this)

I think this sounds pretty good for no effects.

If I were producing this:

-Retrack the guitar, cleaner-I think jangly would be nice-or a tone with less distortion at least-It has a real throaty sound at the moment. Strumming acoustic might be cool.

-Drums-add some high end so the the cymbals and snare come out some more-kick louder. Put some verb on the snare or the whole kit except kick-so it doesnt sound so "machiney"-a few of the fills sound programmed.

I like the bass track

Vocals are great.

That throaty guitar is dominating the mix-if I was at your place I would pretend to trip into your computer and Delete that track!!

Really good song-great lyrics.
 
skids - I'll take that advice on cutting lows and mids before boosting. That's something I should have gone with in the first place. I think the one exception to that is the clean guitar, which just needs to be brightened up. I also played around with an octave-lower vocal track last night. I might give that a try too, perhaps just on the chorus. Thanks.

Doug - Thanks for the listen, thoughts, and compliment. Yeah that clean guit gets buried here and there. I'm hoping a bit of compression and a high end EQ boost will make it sit nicely. That's my going-in plan anyway.

Strato - thanks for the nice words. Good ideas on the drums. I had thought of that on the cymbals, but not the snare. I'll give that a try. On the distorted guitar... It's double tracked, so it's a bit of work to retrack. I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure I can bring myself to dig into that again. Ever been there? I'm still working on getting that "perfect" distorted guitar sound. I've finally figured out that you need to turn the drive DOWN once you get a good live sound to get it to record well. I just gotta figure out the sweet spot.

Thanks again everyone.
 
Trip this is really clean. Is that a Ric bass? It sounds good. The vocals on this mix are really good, I do think there is some higher air missing from mp3 conversion but I like the presence. The drums sound good, but I`d like a little more thoomp on the kick and a fatter snare. The guitar playing is good, increasing the higher mid might bring them out just like you want. Are you using the Fraunhofer codec for your conversion? I find it has a little brighter result than the stock MS codecs. This is my favorite tune of yours. I want area 51 explained too. :)
 
Toki - props on those ears. Yes it's a Ric bass. I love that thing, I wish I had more time to play it. There was a time long ago where I was a pretty good bass player. Don't know if the MP3 conversion is sucking too much of the highs or not. I'll pay more attention. But the conversion is no doubt removing some of the highs - that's a big part of how they work. I'm using LAME. Is there a free version of the Fraunhofer codec? I've heard nothing but good things about it. I'll try to give the kick and snare some more umph. Though that snare sample is the biggest snare sound I have.

Thanks toki. I'll try to get to your remix some time today...
 
Man, this made me giggle. I needed that.

Some of the lyrics are a little hard to make out. You might bring the "main" vocal up a tiny bit (is there a "main" vocal... man, theres so many in there). Love the ric bass sound. I agree that jangly guits might work better on this.

As for the encoder, you might be able to "get" a free version of the fraunhofer (FhG) encoder, but I doubt they offer a free one. I did a lot of encoder comparisons a few years back and I generally liked FhG at 128 and lower but LAME at 160 and above. The differences really became less noticable above 128kbps.

Whatever you do here, it's still gonna be a fun song.
 
God, I LOVE this! Incredibly witty.

I did your low-volume-on-crappy speakers field test for ya. Nice blend, vocs were right where they should be, snare cut through nice, bass was in the mix.

Vocal tone was okay - kinda nasally, a la REM. Might want to retrack the vocs with a bit more accuracy on pitch, especially the bridge, and the backgrounds in general.

Still, and excellent effort. Funny about the title too - I've been working on a jokey nu-metal thing called "What I Want". Probably wouldn't go any farther than the clinic, though. THIS, on the other hand, could make us forget about the Bare Naked Ladies...

Daf
 
Sounds pretty good to me. The left and right guitars sound a little too similar in tone though, maybe have the left one a little cleaner? Also the kit sounds a little too wide, almost like there's a guy on the kit sitting slightly off to the right then another guy on the other side of the room playing the crash and toms hehe Saying that though it kinda fits the quirkyness of the tune. Just me, It sounds good man.
 
"I wanna girl w/ long long legs and short memory":D

Hey Trip,
Yeah man, great lyrics for sure. This is a great song, ...and a fun listen. Youve got a nice touch for writing this kinda pop. I like it the way it is, but i can totally picture Strat's suggestion for a more jangly guitar. ....and that would sound real cool next to that Ric bass. Nice work man!!
gw/5
 
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