Rock: "Don't Count Me Out (The Rob Ford Comeback Song)"

K

Kirby777

New member
Hi, I posted this same song on this site a couple of months ago and got some great feedback. I've done a lot of work on the arrangement and mixing since then, based on that feedback, but now I've hit a brick wall again. I think it sounds pretty good, but I would love to figure out how to polish it up even more so that it wouldn't sound out of place on the Radio or TV. Any and all suggestions are welcome - please don't think you have to be an expert, as long as you have 2 ears and an opinion! I've heard the song so many times that I "can't see the forest for the trees." Thanks.

Here are links to the latest version (I keep updating the song as I get new suggestions):

CBC Music - Free Streaming Radio, Videos, Songs, Concerts & Playlists
or...
https://soundcloud.com/kirbyallen/dont-count-me-out-the-rob-ford
 
Last edited:
Haha...what a riot. Great tune. My only suggestion would be bring the main vocal up a smidge during the verses and run a noise gate to eliminate the noise at the start and end of the song. Great job and I love the whimsical nature of the song.
 
Speaking of 'brick wall'. Radio compression is likely to make the tune pump. The kick subs are almost out of control on my system. Tidy that up before you send for radio play.

Hey! :)

Yeah, clean up the noise at the end of the track.
 
My first impression was also that the kick was way too boomy. It's better on the new mix, but it's still a bit extreme. You may want to just bring the kick down overall, sub-frequencies aside.

What's the effect on the vox? It's kind of sounding like a bad autotune.
 
Thanks for the feedback, VomitHatSteve (can I just call you Steve?)

I have reduced the kick by another -6dB at 70Hz, so hopefully it's OK now (what, you never heard of a 6' tall kick drum?)

Regarding the vocal, I guess I had too many effects on it (if such a thing is possible), so I got rid of most of them. Now you can actually hear what my voice sounds like (gulp.) Let me know if you want me to put the effects back on.

Here are links to the latest version:
CBC Music - Free Streaming Radio, Videos, Songs, Concerts & Playlists
https://soundcloud.com/kirbyallen/dont-count-me-out-the-rob-ford

A big thanks to everyone that's given feedback so far - you wouldn't believe how helpful it's been!
 
Yeah, Steve's fine.

Kick sounds MUCH better! (I've seen a 6' kick used before, but it was for accents.)

You've still got a lot of FX on the vocals. It still sounds a bit robotic. It's most pronounced on the slides (e.g. "JUST be-gun") where you can hear it locking to the notes in succession.
 
I agree with Steve on the vocal FX. They'd be good on the background vocals only. There's also room for improvement in terms of getting the kick and bass to complement and support each other. That can really improve a recording. One man's opinion!
 
Man! It's all Canadians up in here! There's one post from Australia and one from Colorado (i.e. "fake canada"), but otherwise all Canada!
 
Cool song. I just listened to it so you may have remixed the song and posted based on the suggestions you heard. Before reading through the posts I thought the kick was too loud and too sonically big which drowns out the bass line. Have you tried carving out some frequencies with EQ? When I was a kid I use to draw pictures all the time. I love art. I was having a particularly hard time with a sketch I had been working on for a week or so. When I complained to my big brother about it he said "Why don't you just draw another one? It will be easier the next time." At the time I couldn't imagine doing that since I had worked so hard on this one. Now I think that was great advice. I'm not saying you should redo the song, I like your song but there comes a time to move on.
 
Thank you to everyone that replied! At this point I think I'm just applying band-aids, when there are some basic underlying problems that should be fixed. I'm going to take a couple of weeks and re-record this song from scratch, using my new knowledge. Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top