Wow. . . This girl has only been playing 1 year!

Beezoboy

Home Recording Guru
I got to take a break from a full rock record I am working on and record a girl acoustic. She just came in with a guitar and herself and I set up a couple mics and we were on our way. She told me she had only been playing a year so I wasn't expecting too much. . . when all of the sudden I heard great playing coming out of this girl. The real suprise was her voice though, it is great. She is not too confident with it yet, but she still sounds great.

The song I am posting is her finger picking on the guitar and singing. It was tracked sepreately and I think it sounds really good. Mics used on acoustic were an MXL-603 on the 12th fret, and a SP B-1 off axis at the hole. Vocal mic was a Shure Unidyne 330 Ribbon. I think it sounds excellent. It is airy and smooth sounding to my ears. I put a little sonic maximizer on the recording after mixdown to help improve the stereo width. Most importantly there is ABSOLUTELY NO EQ on this mix.

Kristin is her name and she is really looking for some feedback on what you guys/girls think about her playing and her voice and her song. Please let us know.



Beez

P.S. If you want to post comments on the mix thats okay too.
 
Nice guitar sound.. needs a little reverb, and the voice a little less IMHO.

That's all I can say, since I can only download the first 26 seconds of the song. Don't know if it's my fault/ my computer's fault but I guess it is. Anyone else getting troubles too?
 
Wow. . . you got it right as I was uploading it thats why. Try again and you'll get it all.

Thanks for quick reply though.

Beez
 
Decent git sound. Way too much reverb on the vocal.

Not a bad voice... kinda Fleetwood Mac-ish. Not my cup of tea, but not bad.


WATYF
 
Ditto on above comments - good sound on the acoustic, but way too much vocal reverb.

Nice song.
 
very good. Nice presentation both picking and singing. A freq on the A string is resonating into the low end of the vocal a bit and they get big together occasionaly. Cuttin that verb a little on the high end and roll of the lows might clear that resonance up and keep the "sss'" down on the vocal for you.
 
Not bad, I like the guitar sound a lot.

Vox need less.....well the verb comments have already been made so...:D

There's a crackling sound I'm hearing, think it's the vocal track. Becomes really noticable to me around the 2:31 mark.

She's talented for someone that's only played for a year.

Needs some confidence in the vox department. Seems like she's holding back or smethig. Gotta let lose.

Nice song.

~scott
 
Hey thanks for the comments. I really thought the 'verb lends itself to these recordings. Are you guys listening on monitors?

I guess maybe I got a little carried away on the 'verb, but it just sounds sooo good with her voice and it is such a nice reverb that I had to. . .

Beez
 
Are you guys listening on monitors?

no monitors, but i bet 90% of the people who get a copy of this demo won't be either. The vocal sounds like its in a huge auditorium while the acoustic sounds like its in the same room with me. I would do as suggested above and cut some of the verb on the vocal and add a little to the acoustic.
About the only acoustic fingerpicking i get into is when Opeth is doing the picking. So for what its worth I think shes off to a descent start for only playing a year.
Keep the songs coming man. I got a new one i should be posting sometime this week.
 
The reason I asked about monitors is because I hear reverb sooo much better on monitors than regular speakers. When I have listened on regular speakers I normally don't notice reverb unless it is overdone.

Maybe its overdone, but its not in poor taste. The wet/dry balance is not bad either. I just wanted a bit of room on her voice and to be able to hear it. I do agree that the sssss sticks out some.

Beez
 
I understand what your saying about monitors and regular speakers. I listened on two different sets of regular speakers and the verb was VERY prominent. If you and kristen are digging the way it sounds, then go for it. Sounds good man, let me know when you get some more stuff up.
 
Smoooooth

Nice playing, nice voice. I enjoyed the song.

Technical crap---There is a tad too much reverb on her voice--and I like a lot of reverb. I know there is no eq on the piece. The guitar has a freq problem(I think its the A string). Probably a mic placement thing, or its the natural freq of the guitar. A little tweak with an eq would smooth that out.

Keep playing and singing, you are very very good!
 
She is very proficient for only having played for one year. I think i was still having trouble with the riff to 'iron man' at the 2 year mark so kudos to her.

I like her voice very much as well. If she rounds off the whole package with a hot look she could go pretty far. Wish her good luck for me and give her my hr alias (if she's hot!) ;)
 
I'm listening on monitors and yes, there is way too much verb on the voice, IMO. Lots of sibilance too.

My opinion is you oughtta rethink the "no eq" tactic on this one, lay off the verb and sonic maximiser stuff and concentrate on getting a nice clean sound. I don't think this kind of material lends itself well to overprocessing.

She's definitely got talent. Not just for someone who's been at it a year, but for anyone. Very mature vocal delivery. I'd like to hear more of her and less of the engineer on this one.

Cool.

Chris
 
Really fine, even playing and a good sound on the guitar. The voice has waaaay too much verb and there are sibilance problems here and there. The Stevie Nicks comparison is going to come up, but not sure how you can get away from that. The song is quite good.
 
Not listening with monitors, so this can be way off, but here's my $.02.

Why so much voc. revreb? and not on the guit., also vocal is way out front, so much louder, than guit. or so it seems.

She seems to be employing a large number of vocal techniques and switching them frequently. This confuses my ear. Sound like she goes from sounding like Natalie Merchant, to Stevie Nicks, and her own sound. I didn't notice a build up to a climax. As far as the song, I'm confused very quickly. There's a lot going on in there, the lyric. If I were you, or was it If you were me? Sorry, just a lot to try to comprehend. If I were you, I'd not make that mistake.... It would take me a whole lot of repeats to try to figure it out, not that that's a really bad thing, but only from a more Pop point of view, we Pop listeners have only so much attention to give to figure it out.

The guitar picking is pretty complicated sounding. I don't remember it in my mind. And I'm a guitarist, so imagine the untrained ear trying to remember how this song goes....

Huge potential, tho, obviously talented instrumentalist, vocalist, and an introspective writer, great clarity in the recording.
 
Hmmm....thanks for the rather confusing reply junplugged.

Too much 'verb I guess has been the verdict. I just couldn't butcher the guitar part with 'verb. It seems like it ruins the stereo image and the clarity whenever I try and use some.

Here is a thought though. . . Why does no one ever complain about reverb in Led Zeppelin recordings? I mean if you think about it, the drums sound like they were recorded in a warehouse and the guitars are right in your face. The the vocals have just a touch of verb.

To me mixing reverbs and dry sounds are commonplace in a mix. I realize this mix is sparse but it really doesn't mess with my ears whatsoever to hear this much reverb on the vox. They don't sound distant or anything. . . just "wet."

I actually wish someone would CLARIFY as to a reason why there is too much verb. I would just like to know. I am not trying to be argumentative or anything. I am just looking for answers.

Does anyone have an acoustic recording that they could show. I mean I have listened to CRAWDAD's stuff on here and it drips with reverb and it is very pleasent to my ears.

Anyone care to elaborate?
Beez
 
ill play...

I think reverb on drums is a totally different animal than reverb on vocals. Also the song you posted is sort of like oranges and apples compared with zepplin. As far as led zeppelin goes, the massive amount of reverb on the drums gives it that much more power. Think about "when the levee breaks" , its just your standard rock beat but that reverb makes those drums sound larger than life. It also made it a more memorable drum part to me because of that.
As far as the comments about too much reverb on your recording. I can't speak for everyone else but to me the song sounds like its calling for something more intimate. The reverb seems to take away from that intimacy to me. Is she in the same room with her guitar singing to me or am i at the opposite end of the field on the 10 yard line with her singing over the loud speaker.
I think reverb or any other effect is just as subjective as anything else in music so i wouldn't worry about it too much. If it doesn't sound wrong to your ears and the artist your recording is happy with it, then at the end of the day thats all that really matters. I don't think your going to find a right or wrong answer, or a real explanation, just more opinions. If everyone did everything a set way things would get pretty boring but im sure you already know this.
 
Beezoboy said:
Hmmm....thanks for the rather confusing reply junplugged.

Here is a thought though. . . Why does no one ever complain about reverb in Led Zeppelin recordings? I mean if you think about it, the drums sound like they were recorded in a warehouse and the guitars are right in your face. The the vocals have just a touch of verb.

To me mixing reverbs and dry sounds are commonplace in a mix. I realize this mix is sparse but it really doesn't mess with my ears whatsoever to hear this much reverb on the vox. They don't sound distant or anything. . . just "wet."

I actually wish someone would CLARIFY as to a reason why there is too much verb. I would just like to know. I am not trying to be argumentative or anything. I am just looking for answers.

Does anyone have an acoustic recording that they could show. I mean I have listened to CRAWDAD's stuff on here and it drips with reverb and it is very pleasent to my ears.

Anyone care to elaborate?
Beez

Well, first of all I don't think there's much point in dragging Zeppelin into it.:)

Beez, the vocal on this sounds like it's in a tunnel somewhere. Not only is there too much verb, but the verb that's there is not good.

I'm being a little harsh but you've been pretty busy defending the tune so far. There's very little point in trying to argue someone into thinking that something sounds right when they think it sounds wrong. Just listen to the criticisms, let them soak in and sit for a few days. Don't worry about trying to justify anything to anyone. Just take in the comments and either learn from them or ignore them.

Believe me, I've had many times where someone here said something about my tune and my first response was "what the hell are you talking about?". But after I calm down I usually realize that if 10 people agree something's off, it's usually off.

That said, my take on the vox are that the verb sounds like some kind of "great hall" preset on a freeware software verb. There's tons of sibilance, the natural sound of the singer's voice is almost totally obscured, it's boomy, muddy, grainy and indistinct.

Crawdad, in my opinion, gets some of the nicest verb sounds on the board. Listen carefully to his stuff and you'll hear that the verb doesn't swirl all *over* the voice, it just kind of swirls "around" or "behind" it.

I'm certainly no expert, but I've found that with reverb, if you want to really layer it on and get that silky shimmering sound, you gotta damp down those high frequencies. I usually dump almost everything above 4k on the verb. And I usually try to seperate the verb from the voice with a predelay of at least 50 ms - you can get away with more if it's a ballad.

I also tend to go easy on the early reflections, especially on acoustic material. Overdoing that is the easiest way to just muddy up the whole thing and give it that cheap "great hall" sound.

Just my input, for what it's worth. I've struggled a lot with verb over the last year, so it's been on my mind.

Chris
 
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