New Song, New Mic, Better Sound?

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dewhitt

dewhitt

Dave DeWhitt
Hi All,

I just finished a new song, and I used my recently acquired Mojave Audio MA-201fet microphone for the vocals. The song is called "Landmines", and I really like this one. It's a little simpler than some of the ones I've been doing recently, and that may be why I like it so much. The drums were recorded here in my basement, and all guitars and bass were done with Line 6 Pod Farm and my Fender Strat and P bass. i think the vocals sit in the mix a little better than my previous efforts with my Rode NT1000 did - there doesn't seem to be the same high/mid harshness with these, but I'm curious to hear some other opinions on that.

SoundClick artist: Dave DeWhitt - page with MP3 music downloads

Let me know what you think...

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
SoundClick artist: Dave DeWhitt - page with MP3 music downloads

BTW, to the moderators, the new site update looks nice!
 
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Sounds great, man. Your vocals sound very creamy... I love it. My nits would be in the mix. It pains me to say this, but the drums are too loud. Either that or the guitars are too soft.... the more I listen to this, the more I think that the vocals and drums are about on the same pane, so ... if it were me, I'd just bring the guitars up 2 or 3 decibels to see if that gives them a bit more presence.

Great sounding drums, man! Your drummer's timing is spot-freaking-on, too. Curious if any beat-detection type software was used... If not, keep your drummer. Very solid.

So, yeah.. Just bring your guitars up (bass too), and see if that helps a bit...

Great song, man. I really dig your style.
 
I found the vocals just a little too loud...but nothing else on it...great performance and nice clean sound.
 
Hey Jason, thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it too because I know how much it must have hurt to say that...ha ha! I did use flex time audio in Logic to correct a stray bit of timing on the drums here and there. The drummer is just getting back into drumming after about 15 years of not really playing, so while he's pretty solid, I'm not above letting the perfectionist in me run loose to make sure that it's dead on. It really wasn't much though, he's already 90% of the way back into the pocket, and the more we record the better it gets, so it's cool.

Keith, thanks for the listen. Just curious...did the vocal strike you as too loud purely in the volume sense, or was there still something "harsh" about it? I'm asking because that was an issue I was hoping to attribute to the Rode mic, and I was thinking it was better with the Mojave Audio mic.

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
 
dewhitt said:
Hey Jason, thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it too because I know how much it must have hurt to say that...ha ha! I did use flex time audio in Logic to correct a stray bit of timing on the drums here and there. The drummer is just getting back into drumming after about 15 years of not really playing, so while he's pretty solid, I'm not above letting the perfectionist in me run loose to make sure that it's dead on. It really wasn't much though, he's already 90% of the way back into the pocket, and the more we record the better it gets, so it's cool.

Keith, thanks for the listen. Just curious...did the vocal strike you as too loud purely in the volume sense, or was there still something "harsh" about it? I'm asking because that was an issue I was hoping to attribute to the Rode mic, and I was thinking it was better with the Mojave Audio mic.

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
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purely volume...sounded great to my ears otherwise, not harsh......
 
What a beautiful song, Dave!:)
Everything sounds great, drums, bass, guitars....my only nit would be that the voice sounds a bit detached from the rest. It could weld a bit better into the mix. But your voice sounds lovely.
 
Cool tune Dave!! Kinda 3-doors down vibe, but better. I like that Strat with the neck pu. Did you switch in the bridge or middle pu too or just neck? What else did you do...layer diff. chord voicings? I can't quite make it out. Cool :cool:.
One nit - The b/u are great (as always), but jumped out a bit for this song style - maybe smoother/less distinction and further back? The new mic might be too good :eek::confused::D;)

rokon brutha

:D
 
Hey Joey, thanks for checking it out. I'll take a closer listen to the vocal track on the next (and hopefully final!) mix to see if maybe it's sounding like it's in a different space or something. I'm going to admit right now (although I'll deny it if you ever tell anybody :)) that I actually just recorded the vox and then set a preset vocal channel setting in Logic to see what it sounded like right away with the new mic. I kind of liked it so I left it while I recorded other stuff. I intended to go back and actually look at all the settings and change them or at least make sure they were good for the track, but I got lazy/forgot and never did that on this mix. So, chances are, the vox have a different delay type, reverb, compression, whatever, than the rest of the instruments....and that's probably what's making them sit apart. Great ears on that!

Hey Brad, not too much special about the guitars on this one...just the neck pup on the strat, which you picked up, and minimal distortion on the amp sim, each part doubled and spread wide to the sides. I think the chord voicings you are hearing are probably stacked fifth chords - which I always think of as "Andy Summers Message in a Bottle chords". The ones from Landmines are shaped like this:

3 3 5 7 0 0

5 5 7 9 0 0

And I love how they lead nicely back to this chord:

2 0 0 2 3 0

Hopefully that makes sense...I don't ever do much with tab, so I hope that's the right format.

Anyway, I'll give a second listen to those backup vocals. Thanks for listening!

Best,

Dave DeWhitt
SoundClick artist: Dave DeWhitt - page with MP3 music downloads
 
AHHH THIS SONG HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY! Okay, during the chorus, definitely add at least 2 more vocal tracks with doubling (During the stepping on landmines part). I think the cymbals need to be louder. Especially during the chorus. It has no oomph. The vocals can be compressed and brought up a little more. That tiny octave solo needs a bit of tweaking. Add some delay, and add a high pass, if it's possible, add more distortion. Say, can I mix this one? If not, it's cool. I understand.
 
Hey Squibble94, yes I love the idea of hearing someone else's take on mixing one of my tunes, so I'm definitely game. I haven't done that before, so I'll need to know what you need from me. I use Logic, but I'm assuming you'd need the separate files as .wav files or something? Also, I'm assuming you'd want me to record those additional vocal tracks you mentioned, so maybe I'll just double the whole chorus and let you use what you like.

Thanks!

Dave DeWhitt
SoundClick artist: Dave DeWhitt - page with MP3 music downloads
 
Sounds great, I think the lead vocal is perfect, I would just blend the backup parts in more. Great job! Mix sounds great to me.
 
sounds good. you should EQ the vocals a little bit differently & catch the peaks by soft limiting or saturation to glue it better with the rest.
if you post the playback track & the vocal track separatly (maybe also w/o stereobus FX like limiting etc.), i could give it a try.
 
Sounds great to me. Maybe a more guitars would be good. I loves me some loud drums, but they might be too out front on this. More guitars will balance it out.
 
dewhitt said:
Hey Squibble94, yes I love the idea of hearing someone else's take on mixing one of my tunes, so I'm definitely game. I haven't done that before, so I'll need to know what you need from me. I use Logic, but I'm assuming you'd need the separate files as .wav files or something? Also, I'm assuming you'd want me to record those additional vocal tracks you mentioned, so maybe I'll just double the whole chorus and let you use what you like.

Thanks!

Dave DeWhitt
SoundClick artist: Dave DeWhitt - page with MP3 music downloads
Click to expand...

YES! Thanks. Yeah, I would need the wav files. Recording the other vocals is up to you. Would you mind if I put parts of my own in?
 
Thanks All - great feedback and suggestions! It sounds like the vocals in general, leads and b'ups, need to gel better with the mix, so I'll focus on that. Greg, thanks for listening man...when both you and PI are telling me that the drums are too loud, I have to start wondering if I haven't slipped into an alternate universe or something where everything is flipped :D

Squibble94, it's going to take me just a bit to get you the .wav files you need, because I'm leaving later today on a business trip, and I'll be gone most of next week too. I'm going to have some much needed vacation time at the end of the month though, so if I haven't gotten them to you by then, I will make it happen. I don't think I mind if you add parts, but it's hard for me to tell until I hear...lol. I usually have such a clear idea in my head about how I want my stuff to sound that it could be tough for me to be open-minded about it. But, I will do my best :) One bit of direction I'll provide though if you don't mind...I really like the simplicity of this song, so I'm hoping you won't do too much to it. That said, go for it! (How is that for a bi-polar instruction kit? Ha ha) Karumba, it will be the same timetable with the split playback and vocal tracks. I'm looking forward to hearing those mixes.

Thanks again everyone!

Dave DeWhitt
SoundClick artist: Dave DeWhitt - page with MP3 music downloads
 
Greg_L said:
Sounds great to me. Maybe a more guitars would be good. I loves me some loud drums, but they might be too out front on this. More guitars will balance it out.
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More GUITARS!! :D:D:D
 
I didn't mean I wanted to add all kinds of crazy synths and stuff. Hahaha I meant just some more rhythm guitar. Maybe an acoustic here and there. I think it will fatten the sound a lot. If you want, I can download your song and just do a quick demo of the parts I would add?
 
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