"Thinkin' Of Home"

JohnnyAmato

JohnnyAmato

New member
Another track from the Addison Lane record I'm producing.

Me on all the instruments again, my wife Christina Grace on the lead vocals, and me on all the background vocals. Written by Laurie Green.

Acoustic based pop-country, I think it's just about done, definitely need some input.

Dropbox - ThinkinOfHomeMix3Demo.wav
 
Bass may be a bit loud in the beginning. Once everything else comes in, it's at a good level, but it kind of dominates the sparse parts.

The snare tone in the verses may be a bit much. The alternating snare clicks and big snare hits don't really match. It works for the choruses tho.

Vox sound good. I like the stacks of low bgvox, and your wife is good at belting.
 
In those bigger parts (bridge, whatever), the background vocals are not crisp enough for my old ears. It kind of muddles the lead attack so it's just not clear, i.e., like the other parts of the song. I'm not sure if it's overcompressed to kill the transients or there's some minor timing stuff, maybe even on purpose, but it ends up just being louder without the impact I think it could have.

And, the drums, well, I don't understand drums, but it seems a little monotonous, and possibly the bass/kick is heavy - only listened on one set of cans.

But, boy, nice mix otherwise and I always love to hear her sing. Thanks.
 
Kick feels loud in the opening. The bass is dominating your vocalist there. I think it could come down a dB or so everywhere. Just dropping the bass slightly will give CG space for her vocal.

I wanted to hear a little more of that honkytonk guitar in the background. And just more of your guitars. I think the lead instruments are so low they aren't contributing what they should

Arrangement wise, it sounds pretty good. However, I noticed in both verses that rather a long time when nothing much changes. In the first verse we don't get to a real break until 1:45 (that part is awesome).

Maybe you could build more during the verse. Start out sparse, then bring in more instruments like that electric guitar lead. That would break up the monotony of the verse.

CG's vocals sound great. You could tame the midrange a bit more when she belts.

Sounding good, you two. I'd love to have CG sing on one of my songs if she's ever into it. When I saw this post last night, I misread the time stamp as "posted 4 days ago." You must have just posted it. I was thinking, "crap, how could I have missed that?"
 
Robus said:
Kick feels loud in the opening. The bass is dominating your vocalist there. I think it could come down a dB or so everywhere. Just dropping the bass slightly will give CG space for her vocal.

I wanted to hear a little more of that honkytonk guitar in the background. And just more of your guitars. I think the lead instruments are so low they aren't contributing what they should

Arrangement wise, it sounds pretty good. However, I noticed in both verses that rather a long time when nothing much changes. In the first verse we don't get to a real break until 1:45 (that part is awesome).

Maybe you could build more during the verse. Start out sparse, then bring in more instruments like that electric guitar lead. That would break up the monotony of the verse.

CG's vocals sound great. You could tame the midrange a bit more when she belts.

Sounding good, you two. I'd love to have CG sing on one of my songs if she's ever into it. When I saw this post last night, I misread the time stamp as "posted 4 days ago." You must have just posted it. I was thinking, "crap, how could I have missed that?"
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. Yea i just posted it last night.

I definitely agree about the arrangement, it just takes too long to get to that first chorus. In pre-production we tried to convince her (the writer) to only have one verse and then the first chorus (instead of 2) but she specifically wanted it this way, so I did my best to make it work. Threw in some extra embellishments, but was careful not to over-do it.

Halfway through verse 1 a pair of picked electrics come in. There's the guitar fills throughout, and verse 2 (and 3) has 2 extra pairs of acoustics (Taylor 6 and 12-string) picking high chords in a slight mandolin/banjo type way. And then the reverse cymbal for impact when the chorus finally does hit. And my stereo backgrounds obviously come and go. The pre-chorus/bridge parts have a fuzz-tone type guitar holding notes that end in a harmony; low in the mix but has a very slight accordion feel to it. Strange, not intended but sounds cool.

Maybe I need to do more. Not sure what, maybe more guitar fills. I think there's enough rhythmic elements, just maybe needs more embellishments.

The verse and chorus acoustics had to be separated too; they're just ringing chords in the verses but full-out heavy strumming during the chorus. Had to be processed differently. I was pretty pleased with the results actually.

Two of you mentioned the bass was a tad high, so I'll probably just turn it down a db at the fader and see where it is. And lower the kicks in the first verse some. And like Steve said, lower the verse snare hits a little more. And yea I'll probably turn the guitar fills up a bit as well.

Definitely struggled with the monotonous drum beat on this one (probably wouldn't feel as monotonous if if went to the first chorus earlier)

Also struggled a little with her belting parts. Songs where the same singer sings soft and also belts at times are tough to mix. And Christina has a crazy dynamic voice. It's not easy, but I thought I did pretty good here. But yea, could probably use a little more of a dip somewhere in the mids when she belts.

Thanks guys, going to let her sit for a few days.
 
I wish I'd married someone like your wife = she certainly has a sweet and powerful voice. My wife only has a voice like that when the "complaints department" is open.

Seriously, I love the dynamics in this mix. I've listened through and am going through it again. Some things that I'm catching (mind you I'm in an untreated world):

= the nice little guitar riffs are coming through very quietly for me (e.g. at 52 seconds). I'd like those brought forward.
= although I love the sound of the bass, it is overwhelming at times
= I'm not really happy with the sound of the snare's verb = maybe it's the right verb and there's too much, or it's the wrong verb
= I can really hear the compression at 1:53, dunno if it's the whole track or the vox only. This happens again later in the song when your wife blasts it
= Robus' comments on making the song more "interesting" are bang on, maybe a slide or some strings would do it in the second verse

Great job! And thanks for sharing.

Timbo
 
Wow Johnny...This sounds awsome to my ears. Clean as a bell and a great mix. The vocals are hot but that is exactly what should be showcased on this...the vocal. Great vocal performances all the way around. Good song and melody also. I can't really critque it because, as it stands, it's far superior to anything I have mixed. Professional sounding and pretty much broadcast quality in my opinion.
Fantastic job man!
 
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