loser

[heatmiser]

Hey,

Here is a first stab at mixing a jerry garcia cover I did this weekend. Not a carbon copy by any stretch, but you get the general idea. The snare sound is bugging me. Sounds almost like a drum machine snare at times? The bass seems all woofy now that I hear it on the pc. Still...I kinda like it. Any thoughts?

SoundClick artist: kingseesar - loser

Thanks,
Pete

 

[PoeticIntensity]

Very different from the music I've been listening to, but in its own right, it sounds pretty good. Those aren't 12-strings, by chance? Guitars sound a bit muddy, and in my experience (which isn't much), recording two takes of 12 strings, panned can get a bit messy - but for all I know, this is legit in this genre. Doesn't sound bad by any margin.

Snare just sounds loose, not bad. Kick needs to be pumped up. Vocals seem like they're in their own space, apart from the music. Gotta get em' to seat a bit better. Maybe just lower them a tad... Not quite sure what's got them apart from the music.

Anyway... Good tune, man! Keep it up.

 

[PoeticIntensity]

crap.. duplicate post. Good song, yo.

 

[Greg_L]

Not too bad. I like the flabby snare. Fits the song well. A little more kick would be good. Also, the vocals seem thin and pitchy in the mix. Try double-tracking. That'll thicken em up without the need for a bunch of artificial effects. You gotta sing it good though. A nice job overall though.

 

[Bubba po]

Is there compression on the snare? I think what's making it sound a bit drum-machine like is that there isn't any variation in the volume of the snare between the main groove and the fills, no dynamic if you see what I mean. The actual sound is pretty good.

 

[ido1957]

On earbuds the stereo sounds great on the guitars. They have nice (slight) differences that make the l/r interesting. I've never heard the tune but it sounds pretty cool. I read about the bass drum and then listened and it does sound a bit low. Overall though I thought th ambience and mix was great!

 

[aaronmcoleman]

electric guitar sounds cool. i like that tone. acoustics sound a little phassy, maybe just the 12 string. Vocals are a bit lost to me. maybe do them dry or possibly eq out whatever is getting in the way of the vocals.

good tone overall, and i like the way the low end sounds even though it may be a bit muddy.

 

[aaronmcoleman]

I take back what I said (except for the cool guitar tone). I accidently listened lo-fi at first, hi-fi sounds MUCH better. Cool tone, nice low mids, and the drums sound good for a 70's style.

 

[kcearl]

I aint got nuthin for you man...the mix sounds good to me..the snare sticks out the first few hits then it just blends in fine..

maybe the vocals good come up a touch in the chorus..


good job man..you make garcia listenable

 

[robgreen]

Sounds very nice to me heatmiser. Good performance and polished mix, with the rough edge to the vocals meaning it doesn't sound overly so. I got no nits to give ya.

Is your username an Elliott Smith reference by the way?

 

[JB's Studio]

CAVEAT: Listened with my computer speakers which aren't bad, but not great by any means.

Sounds good to me. Just an idea: side chain the bass behind the kick drum. That should give the kick a bit of punch. Flabby snare? fine. Nit picking here ... might want to play with the velocities a tad on the snare to make them a little more uneven. Not much. Just a little. Maybe some ghost hits every now and then. But like I said.. .nit picking.

12 strings sound chorusy but that's the nature of the beast. That doesn't bother me. 12 strings give character.

Vox? (Warning: I'm a reverb whore) I'd add a faint mono-stereo delay (-15 to -18 db) right in time with the music and put a reverb right after it. Send the vox to an AUX channel with those effects on it. The effects on the AUX should be 100% wet -- well reverb maybe 50% to taste. Just to give it some fullness. If it works you're good. If it doesn't delete the AUX and send, nothing lost.

These are nit-picky things. I thought the track sounded very listenable. Good job.

 

[heatmiser]

Very different from the music I've been listening to, but in its own right, it sounds pretty good. Those aren't 12-strings, by chance? Guitars sound a bit muddy, and in my experience (which isn't much), recording two takes of 12 strings, panned can get a bit messy - but for all I know, this is legit in this genre. Doesn't sound bad by any margin.

Snare just sounds loose, not bad. Kick needs to be pumped up. Vocals seem like they're in their own space, apart from the music. Gotta get em' to seat a bit better. Maybe just lower them a tad... Not quite sure what's got them apart from the music.

Anyway... Good tune, man! Keep it up.

Thanks P.I. Frustrated by the vocals at this point. I keep trying covers and it just never really pans out. Originals seem easier as I can stick to that monotone pseudo rap thing that I do and expectations are perhaps lower. I ain't giving up yet though! I am nothing if not stubborn.

There are a bunch of guitar tracks in there, but no 12 string. I started with two electric guitar rythym tracks, but each was recorded with two mics and panned. Those alone lacked both flow and brightness so I tracked a 6 string archtop acoustic twice just strumming the chords and panned each all the way L&R. While this isn't done on the real version of the tune, it seemed to help here. On top of that is a more distorted lead guitar (again stereo) but more or less panned towards the center. The result is a wash of guitar sounds all kinda melding into one another. Maybe I should retrack the electrics and try to clean it up some? The acoustic tracks sound fine by themselves.

Not too bad. I like the flabby snare. Fits the song well. A little more kick would be good. Also, the vocals seem thin and pitchy in the mix. Try double-tracking. That'll thicken em up without the need for a bunch of artificial effects. You gotta sing it good though. A nice job overall though.

Thin vocals is odd, 'cause I have such an unusually deep voice in person...maybe I overcompensated by dropping off a few db on the low end of the lead vocal track? I've heard that before, so despite my natural voice being really deep, I'm obviosuly doing something to thin them out. I almost always double track lead vocals, but more for an obvious effect than for reinforcement. I haven't been able to double them and set one behind the other in a subtle way yet, but perhaps I'll try again. I thought the pitch was pretty decent, but I have a hard time being objective about my stuff - while I have no problem pointing out others' pitch issues!

Is there compression on the snare? I think what's making it sound a bit drum-machine like is that there isn't any variation in the volume of the snare between the main groove and the fills, no dynamic if you see what I mean. The actual sound is pretty good.

I think you make a great point. There is a sameness to it that may be more bothersome to me than the actual sound. These are actually loops I've strung together, but with all the drums separated, so I have some flexibility there, but when people talk about volume automation and velocity and stuff - I think they're talking software and I am not using a computer for this so I'm kinda technologically challenged.

On earbuds the stereo sounds great on the guitars. They have nice (slight) differences that make the l/r interesting. I've never heard the tune but it sounds pretty cool. I read about the bass drum and then listened and it does sound a bit low. Overall though I thought th ambience and mix was great!

Thank you ido. The kick is the loudest track on this when looking at the VU meters, but I agree it gets lost. Doesn't seem to be a volume issue - any ideas? I played around with EQ and compression a bit but while the sound changed, it didn't come to the foreground anymore than it does now - mysterious???

 

[heatmiser]

I take back what I said (except for the cool guitar tone). I accidently listened lo-fi at first, hi-fi sounds MUCH better. Cool tone, nice low mids, and the drums sound good for a 70's style.

Ha! I've only heard that lo fi option on soundclick a few times by accident and it is horrible! You must have been like - what is he doing?? Anyway, thanks for the good word. The lead guitar tone is probably the only thing hear I'm completely happy with.

I aint got nuthin for you man...the mix sounds good to me..the snare sticks out the first few hits then it just blends in fine..

maybe the vocals good come up a touch in the chorus..

Ok, big help there man . Thanks for chiming in though . I did have to erase that last line of yours as it struck me as sacrilegious.

Sounds very nice to me heatmiser. Good performance and polished mix, with the rough edge to the vocals meaning it doesn't sound overly so. I got no nits to give ya.

Is your username an Elliott Smith reference by the way?

Thank you rob -
I've been using this username online since forever merely reflecting my odd affinity for rankin/bass animated christmas specials. Always liked the heatmiser song with all the tiny little heatmiser backup singers...don't know why

CAVEAT: Listened with my computer speakers which aren't bad, but not great by any means.

Sounds good to me. Just an idea: side chain the bass behind the kick drum. That should give the kick a bit of punch. Flabby snare? fine. Nit picking here ... might want to play with the velocities a tad on the snare to make them a little more uneven. Not much. Just a little. Maybe some ghost hits every now and then. But like I said.. .nit picking.

12 strings sound chorusy but that's the nature of the beast. That doesn't bother me. 12 strings give character.

Vox? (Warning: I'm a reverb whore) I'd add a faint mono-stereo delay (-15 to -18 db) right in time with the music and put a reverb right after it. Send the vox to an AUX channel with those effects on it. The effects on the AUX should be 100% wet -- well reverb maybe 50% to taste. Just to give it some fullness. If it works you're good. If it doesn't delete the AUX and send, nothing lost.

These are nit-picky things. I thought the track sounded very listenable. Good job.

Thanks for all of the ideas! Some of it is over my head, but I can certainly use other bits. I've read about sidechaining here, but never tried it. It is unlikely I will get my head around it, but maybe I'll surprise myself.

Although not 12 string guitars, I can see how it'd sound that way with everything going on. The 2 6-string tracks sound fine by themselves. I blame the somewhat grainy, perhaps slightly out of tune electrics.

Thanks for the specifics on the vocal processing. May be just the trick. If not - as you say - nothing lost...uh, except time...thanks again!

 

[Bulls Hit]

I like the vocal on this. Haven't heard the original... If the sidechain doesn't get the kick popping out, solo it have a look and see where the main frequency is, and then notch that out of the bass. If the kick is really low, you can even high pass the bass

 

[heatmiser]

I like the vocal on this. Haven't heard the original... If the sidechain doesn't get the kick popping out, solo it have a look and see where the main frequency is, and then notch that out of the bass. If the kick is really low, you can even high pass the bass

Thank you. I will see what can be done with the kick. Your idea seems pretty simple.

Considering the comments and having had a chance to get away from this for a day or two, I think maybe some retracking and a new mix approach may be in order. I will post up any revisions if they seem worthwhile. Thanks to all for your input!