"Say You're Sorry" - new VHS original

VomitHatSteve

Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Most recent mix (flac)

Final mix: with video!
YouTube

Hi folks! I've got a brand new song I'm working on. A tale of love and heartbreak and generations of war between ninja clans.

Let me know how it sounds!

My biggest concerns with the mix are:
a) How do the drums sound? I got some new VSTis and expansions for EZD. Is this one sounding decent?
b) How's the lead? I've got two versions of the song one with and one without leads. I don't know how I feel about the part. If I should scrap it or edit down or what.

View attachment SayYoureSorry no lead.mp3

View attachment SayYoureSorry with lead.mp3

Thank you!

Edit: mix 2 View attachment SayYoureSorry.mp3
Edit: mix 3 View attachment SayYoureSorry.mp3
 
Last edited:
I had a listen to both and the no lead version is the one I prefer. Interesting choice of percussion sounds. The groove itself is pretty good but some parts sound like creaky bed springs. Vocals are good, not much bass coming through on these headphones
 
Vocals could come up in the opening and throughout, getting stepped on by the guitars. I strain to hear all the lyrics. Snare is waaaay loud in fast parts of the song. Here and there it feels a little stiff, timing wise. Definitely better without the lead. Great song with a catchy chorus!
 
Listening to the lead version.

I'm not hearing bass or kick at all. Very mid-rangy. I thought maybe there was a problem with my speakers or sub, but a quick check and they are good. Do you check your mixes at low volume? I can hear everything if I crank the volume, but I don't usually listen at loud levels.

Oh wait a second. There's the kick!! It comes in nicely at 2:25 mark. Right after the bridge.

Snare is above the mix, maybe a little too much.
I can hear the vocals fine. Once the song gets going they sit in the mix good.
 
Thanks, folks!

Mix 2 is up

Turns out that I accidentally deleted the entire kick channel prior to the bridge. I really wish Reaper would fix some of their UX issues.

Also: more bass. Heavy automation on the leads. Less snare. Automation in the early vocals where they were most buried.
 
Much better balance on everything. Geez whatta difference a kick drum can make.... :D

I think there are some tweaks you can still make, but small ones. A little fine tuning.
 
The up part of the song is dramatically better. Sounds like you lowered the snare and beefed up the low end. That chorus hook is sweet. I'm still not hearing your lyrics well in the opening and in the quieter part between the choruses. You are singing at the bottom of your range. There's not a lot of power in your vocal there, while the doubled guitars are playing loudly in the same register. The vocal gets stepped on. It makes the mix sound unfinished for me. Maybe lower the guitars during that part?

I read your post on the Cockos forum. That's interesting. I'm not understanding why you want to do what you are doing.
 
not keen on the hi hat sound in particular, especially in the quiet bits, sounds a bit exposed to me, vocals too quiet in the verses and too loud in the choruses, some gentle compression might help even the lead vocals out.
 
When you say "lead" I think you mean vocal and not a lead instrument. Vocal clarity is excellent. Performance is good. No problems with the vocal to me.

There is a cymbal sample on the left that sounds a little cheap to me. The rest of the samples were OK. They didn't really blow me away. But they were OK.

Guitars and bass sound cool.

There is a synth part in the chorus that really gets buried. At least in spots.
 
I think you can EQ out some low end on the vocal. It's boomy and fighting the mix a bit. Could use a hint of reverb on the vocal, too, to make it sit better.
 
robus said:
I read your post on the Cockos forum. That's interesting. I'm not understanding why you want to do what you are doing.
It's a re-occurring editing issue I run into. I'll be doing something that involves editing a large number of media items at the same time, and it will apply to off-screen items that I don't realize are still selected. The cutting off of tails example is just the most common case.

btyre said:
not keen on the hi hat sound in particular
The actual high hat or the clanky, glitchy sounds? The real hat and the random (literally randomized - I have no idea what it's gonna sound like until I upload it) percussion fill a lot of the same role.

triplem said:
When you say "lead" I think you mean vocal and not a lead instrument.
Sorry. Lead guitar. The noodley, high parts.
cymbal sample on the left that sounds a little cheap to me.
Oh yeah! I'm hearing that too. Why is it so far out? Lemme fix it!
synth part in the chorus that really gets buried
Yeah. I'm leery of bringing that out too much from where it is. It's also randomized and can get kind of chaotic and unlistenable if it's too prominent.

nola said:
I think you can EQ out some low end on the vocal. It's boomy and fighting the mix a bit. Could use a hint of reverb on the vocal, too, to make it sit better.
I'll double check the EQ, but I think I like the amount of 'verb I have on the vox already.

Thanks!
 
Mix 3

Way more kick (probably too much now)
Updated panning on crashes (averaging 40-60% pan instead of either 0 or 75%)
EQ tweaks on vox: -2.5db at 350Hz on lead and -5db at 350Hz on bgvox.

Thanks, everyone!
 
First off, I like the song.

I like the drums, nice job on them.

I'd be a liar if I said I was happy with your vocal treatment for a couple of reasons.

The first is that there's a lot of sibilance. I don't know if it's the 200k mp3 conversion or not, I'm also hearing it in parts of the song from cymbals and stuff. Maybe it's my ears and all is good! I listen to low bitrate audio books and here the same thing on esses, so I tend to be able to pick it out with mp3's.

And the second is that when you're singing in the low octave (that I've not heard you sing in before), some of the vocals are real hard to hear. Once you're singing full blast, they sound fine. Automation and eq, as Nola and the others have suggested.

Terrific original song!
Timbo
 
I listened to mix 3. All the sounds are great. Love the song too.

My only nits are with levels. In the first part of the song (up to about :48 when it kicks in) the vocal is just a bit tough to hear. I can make the words out, but I have to work at it. For the rest of the way, I can hear the vocal pretty easily.

After the :48 mark when things kick in, it can be tough to hear the synth. At least in spots. There are sections where it's really buried. The guitar is covering it.

But it's a really cool song.
 
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