Poor Ian - first song with new nylon string guitar

mjbphotos

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I had posted a question elsewhere in these forums about tracking nylon string. When I first started working on this song, a lead part done on the nylon on the upper (unwound) strings really interfered with the piano part, so I retracked the lead on the lower strings, which seems to work better. There's a nylon string rhythm track in there, too, but it pretty much disappeared behind the piano.
Also was trying out the VSCO2 string section VSTis - this song has 5 separate tracks of those - 2 violin, 1 viola, 1 cello and 1 double bass. Definitely like doing strings this way for the overall sound rather than using the same VSTi (or keyboard) string sound for each part.

Poor Ian 12-24-17 by MikeBirch | Mike Birch | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
Strings sound really good.
Snare sounds really good on the mix.
Nylon string guitar doesn't seem to be as pronounced as probably you were wanting. I know the show Doc Martin uses what I think is a classical guitar in the opening for the show and I do not know how they got that thing pooping and upfront, but that would have really sounded good in this song.

Song is really good, everything seemed to be very tastefully done, everything just right. Nice.
 
Nice sounding mix-Vocals sound clean and quiet. I would have solidified the melody/phrasing in a couple of spots (eg: the phone line) during the verses but thats just my own taste. I expected realistic sounding strings and to me these sound pretty organ-y like they have a chorus effect on-i think the high notes stand out too much-the cello and bass could come up a good bit-especially the last part of the chorus-"Poor Ian" i think you would get more emotional impact with the low notes louder. I didn't hear any guitar until the solo-the tone fit the song. I bought a cordoba nylon string to play one part on one song that noone will ever hear, worth it? oh yeah! Always good to have the nylon in the arsenal, it fit this song well.
 
Thanks, Strat - yeah that phone line is a tough one. I'll probably keep retracking it until I get the phrasing right. Definitely hear what you say about the high strings, I did hear kind of an 'organy' feel from them too, but much better than using the string sounds on my Casio Workstation!
 
Very nice and touching song.

When it's just the vocal and keyboard, the vocal is a bit too forward. Vocal has a pitch problem or two.

THe piano-sounding keyboard part is much dryer than the rest of the tracks.

On the drums, I would turn down the cymbals and turn up the rim-shots.

Nice harmonies. Pretty.

The pulsing synth part during the chorus was a nice touch.
 
love the strings. The vocals are good too, but perhaps a little to up front and dry. Maybe work on making then sit better in the mix. I want to hear more snare when the drums just come in, but that's just me and I hear how you're trying to build drums. Nice tom break. love the nylon guitar lead. I'd really like to hear that with just the string in the beginning. maybe just a taste to get our mouth watering.
 
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