Virginia Song -- Comments?

mrface2112

Well-known member
This is a song I recorded a while back for a friend's girlfriend who wanted to record a few tunes to get gigs with. She played the guitar and sang. I did the recording and mix.

Curious as to what y'all think about the sonics and mix.

Virginia Song, copyright Lindsey Osbourne (2005). Posted with Permission.




cheers,
wade
 
Very nice guitar sound throughout.

Vocals are either phasing in and out or panning somehow that makes them distracting *in headphones* Is this auto tune I'm hearing? They're just not stable in the mix....it's hard to describe....mostly towards the first half of the song.

Really nice reverb/echo - rich and thick but not over done.....

Good performance playing/singing too....

Can you give us some details on the recording chain/mix process? It's a good one......
 
It sounds great to me, besides that thing at the beginning mentioned by ido1957. I think it would be great to see live. My only concern is that it's a little drawn out for a demo, but it shouldn't be a problem as long as it doesn't come first among the other tunes you've done.
 
Absolutely beautiful ac guitar sound. I think the vocal has too much verb compared to the guitar – it puts it farther away. I’d apply the same verb to both, and just a little. The vocal would be perfect if it was a little better in tune.

Tim
 
Thanks guys! I appreciate the comments (and compliments)!

I know what y'all mean about the "phasing" in the vocal. This was a "live" recording so the vocals and guitar were tracked at the same time--and she wiggled a bit while she was playing and singing (see more below). ;)

The guitar was a baby taylor of some sort--not the greatest sounding guitar acoustically speaking (kinda meek IMO), but it recorded rather (and surprisingly) well. Guitar mics were mxl603's and a blue dragonfly. One 603 was about 6in off the fretboard around 12th fret (panned left), the other was hanging over her strumming shoulder, in line with her ear, pointing down (and back) at the lower bout (panned right). The dragonfly was in the middle and was about 6ft away.

So what you're hearing in the vocal is her drifting towards the 603 hanging over her shoulder and then drifting back to the vocal mic--so the vocal kinda drifts right and back again. I've tried flipping the phase of the guitar mics, and then the vocal mic, as well as trying to bring the "right" guitar mic in some, but everything i've tried sounds worse than as it is now.

Would you believe that the 603s on the guitar went to a mackie 24*4 for preamps? I thought that was an excellent outcome for a Mackie preamp. The inserts were tapped to go to a symetrix 425 compressor (more for its sonic color than compression) into a Delta 1010--so the mackie was only used for the preamps. The dragonfly went to a symetrix 528 then the 1010, with the compressor "in" but not compressing.

The vocal was an MXL V77 into an m-audio Tampa into the 1010--light compression was used on the way in. I also took a DI of the guitar but didn't use it.

Interesting note about the take--this was the first "full" song she did that night, and she had warmed up on a song with the capo at 4. this song is supposed to have the capo at 3--but she forgot and left it at 4, and transposed the vocal line's key on the fly--there's your "autotune" sound as well as the pitchiness in the vocal. she did another take with it in the proper key later that evening, and while that version sounds more "correct", it's missing the "magic" of this particular performance. What's that they say about it being the performance and not the perfection? ;)

and yeah, it IS a bit long for a demo--all of her songs from that night are. believe it or not, this is actually one of the shorter ones. around here, though, no one ever "evaluates" (or even listens to) your demo to get a gig--you just need to have one.

Tim, I hear ya on the vocal reverb--it's a good bit more than i typically like (i tend towards bone dry and using delays much more than reverbs).....but this was one of those "stylistic" decisions to put the vocal a little farther back than the guitar--made it a little more "ethereal" sounding for lack of a better word.

The guitar and vocals are going to the same reverb send--i just sent more vocal there than guitar. That, and the reverb helps soften the noticibility of the pitchiness in the vocal. :D


cheers,
wade
 
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