A Tune

  • Thread starter Thread starter TripleM
  • Start date Start date
There's a little pop on the left side around 1:46.

I hear what sounds like a small insect land on the vocal mic around 2:12.





Just kidding - I always wanted to be able to say something like that to you :D.

Hell, I wasn't completely sure you made music at all, so after reading all of your advice and comments over the years, I was psyched to see this thread. Thank goodness this doesn't suck - that would've been awkward.

The drums are kinda dark for my tastes. They and the guitars are quite dry as well, but while I might not have gone that direction, on the plus side it provides great separation and clarity.

I really like the singing though. Is that you? I wish I could sing high like that. Well done. :)
 
No nits ... you nailed the guitar tone perfectly -- and the bass sits very well in the pocket. The drums have a slightly retro tone that suits the genre perfectly ... but I know there's nothing you could do about that anyways so I wouldn't worry a second about it. Did you redo the vocals?

Happy to see you back recording ...

Hol's comment: Terrific commercial appeal.
 
miser - OK I read that first sentence and for a split second I thought, "Like hell there's a pop..." But being the smart guy I am, I realized you were messing with me. <roll your eyes here>. Thanks for the thoughts. On your nits... I like things dry. There is reverb there, but it's medium room type stuff and my send levels are real low. So it's real subtle. I'll relisten just to make sure I didn't under-do it. Now I don't really want dark drums. So I'm going to go back and see if there is something I can do. It might be limited though.

Dub - The new amp is a Mark V. I love that thing. I like the tone I got on this one. But I'm still trying to get it better. That's the fun of it anyway. Yeah I redid the vocals. I pull this off of my backup, and when I listened the first thing that hit me was the vocals were too "pedestrian." Not enough energy. So I sang it louder. :) Hol's comment... I guess MarciaMarciaMarica has a groupie. woo hoo. <again roll your eyes here>
 
heatmiser said:
I hear what sounds like a small insect land on the vocal mic around 2:12.
Click to expand...

Lol

I like it alot, cool tune, catchy harmonies, remind me alot of The Who Sell out album. The vox could come up 1-2db especially sounding that good. The Kick and snare could use a touch more top for my taste.

Good to finally hear a Trip tune. Overall real nice.

Pete
 
Thanks PDP. I appreciate the thoughts.

There is a second mix at the top.

I brightened up the drums a bit. I thinned out the snare and gave a a little high-mid boost to the kick. I tried brightening up the overheads, but I didn't like the way that sounded so I put it back.

I gave the guitars just a little bit more reverb and raised the lead vocal about a db or so.
 
Listening to the 2nd mix........

Not crazy about the drums. They lack "glue" or whatever it is that holds a kit together. Overhead presence maybe? I know from recording my own drums that this sounds like you're relying a little too heavily on the close mics. It's hard to tell, but the overhead(s?) sounds thin and phasey. The kick needs more low end power. They're not your drum tracks though, so I'm not gonna pick too hard. If you get em sorted though, I'd like to hear em louder. The drums get buried a lot of the time.

The guitars sound okay, but they're a little scratchy and thin. It might just be a mic placement thing. They kind of lack the meat of a speaker pushing air. Bass and vocals sound good. Good little pop rock song.
 
I agree that the drums are just a little dark. The vocal harmonies are nice. I like the tune overall. Cool chord changes. Mix is decent. I'd have wanted a bit more snap to the snare and kick and a bit more overheads.
 
Who is Steve McQueen? :)

Yeah bring the vox up a bit.

Nice to hear you again.
 
Thanks guys. Gotta work on the scratchy guitars. I didn't think they were scratchy, but gotta listen with a new perspective now that I have more opinions.

I'll definitely try boosting the overheads and reducing the close mics. Phase is phase - not much I can do about that. It was weird, but I only hear phase issues in a couple of spots and it lasts for a few seconds. Aside from that I don't hear phase problems.

Anyway, thanks again.
 
Vocals are fine, the thinner guitar on the L (?0 is very scratchy like you put a high pass on it & too high at that).
The drums sound better as the song goes on but are too naked at 1st.
The verse strikes me as more resolved than the chorus.
The solo & noodled guitar sounds good.
 
heatmiser said:
I hear what sounds like a small insect land on the vocal mic around 2:12.





Just kidding - I always wanted to be able to say something like that to you :D.
Click to expand...

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek::laughings::spank::laughings::laughings::laughings::eek::laughings::laughings::laughings:

Dude... I laughed for about 5 straight minutes when I read that. Holy moly, that was funny. Thank you!

haha....

Now... ahem... The song. I listened to the 2nd mix, and I didn't think the drums were dark at all. Everything was generally tight, but your vocals were off pitch here and there, but only very minorly. Take with grain of salt, because it is quite late here, and my ears have had a lot of music pumped into them today.

I'm just glad I finally got to hear some of your music. Good stuff, man. Thanks for sharing.
 
I really like this song - what a toe-tapper! I love the subject; very clever! It's got that Weezer vibe, which I dig. I got nothing major to pick on here after two listens, but maybe a few 'wish list' kinda things. I'd like the kick louder. I love the opening guitar line, It has a nice 'cheap' sound to it, which is actually kinda cool for an intro. I just wish the guitars when they kicked in were a little bit more believable. I understand you don't want a metal guitar-wall in a tune like this and I think the distortion is appropriate, but it's just missing something...more natural...realistic. You say you got a new amp, so, I guess you mic'd it right? I don't really know what I'm saying, since 90% of my guitar stuff is Amplitube 3. But, I'll tell you, I don't have a setting for this kind of song. I hear a Strat + simple tube amp w/ low watt Celestion turned up for this. Anyway, sorry for rambling on. Great song - good job! :)
 
To rayc, PoeticIntensity, and Maximumbs - thanks to you all.

Mix #3 is at the top. I tried to de-scratch the guitar on the left. I emphasized the overheads. I compressed the kick harder and brought it up a bit.

Thoughts?
 
I think mix 3 is headed in the right direction. Drums are better and the guitars seem less scratchy. I'd still like more durm presence. The kick and snare are still lost most of the time. Here's what I'd do: Find the loudest, wildest passage in the song (like the choruses or that last ending lead break) and make sure the kick and snare are audible and present. It might make you think that the drums will be too loud everywhere else, but in reality it will be just right. I think that maybe you're so focused on guitar sounds and vocals that the rest is taking a beating. On a poppy rock song like this, the drums gotta be there. They almost can't be too loud. Listen to any commercially released pop/rock song and the drums are there in full force driving the thing along. Another bit of evidence for louder drums is to just listen to the performance. The guy is kind of getting down. Open hats, fills, ride accents, etc. He's not playing subdued, so let him out of his cage. We should never have to strain and focus to hear a drum fill in a rock song. Know what I mean? I think the sounds are mostly decent, just bring em up more, or the other stuff down. The kick could use more pure low end punch, like around 50-60hz and less low-mid boxiness. Try cutting in the 200-300 range to deepen the kick tone. It kind of sounds more like a mega-muffled floor tom than a kick drum. Guitars, bass, vocals, and the song in general are all pretty good. Better drum presence will kick it up a notch.
 
Thanks a ton Greg.

I was comparing this with Weezer's Buddy holly when I was mixing. Now I have to say that I thought my overheads were *louder* than they were on that track. But the kick still wasn't at the same level. I was feeling air come out of the monitor ports when Buddy Holly was on - and the air was popping along with the kick. I could feel air with my mix, but not as much.

So I'll boost the overheads more (adjusting them in the chorus like you suggested) and repost just to see what people think. I'll also EQ the kick per your suggestions and boost it. Dang - it just seems the kick is already so looouuuuddd!
 
TripleM said:
Thanks a ton Greg.

I was comparing this with Weezer's Buddy holly when I was mixing. Now I have to say that I thought my overheads were *louder* than they were on that track. But the kick still wasn't at the same level. I was feeling air come out of the monitor ports when Buddy Holly was on - and the air was popping along with the kick. I could feel air with my mix, but not as much.

So I'll boost the overheads more (adjusting them in the chorus like you suggested) and repost just to see what people think. I'll also EQ the kick per your suggestions and boost it. Dang - it just seems the kick is already so looouuuuddd!
Click to expand...

I think just EQ'ing the kick away from the bass will make it thump out more without it having to be louder. Try to find a nice 50/50 balance between the overheads and close mics. The close mics will give you definition and the overheads will hold it all together.

Since you mentioned "Buddy Holly", I'm listening to it right now. The main differences I hear between your mix and Weezer's are in the low end. Weezer's kick is deeper and less boxy than what you have here. It sounds like a natural kick. The bass gtr is also rumbling around down there but there's seperation between the two without either being very prominent. The drums are pretty buried in Weezer's mix, so if that's the kind of mix you want, you're very close. They never get lost though. Just clean and tighten the low end and you're pretty much there.
 
Just for shits and grins, I threw your SMcQ3 mp3 and Buddy Holly into Reaper and looked at them through a spectrum analyzer balanced out to the same relative loudness. Your mix shelves off to almost nothing below approx 100-125hz. The weezer mix is full and balanced all the way down to like 40-50hz. It seems to carry literally twice the energy below 100hz that yours does, but it never gets muddy. I hear it with my ears and can see it with my eyes. Just something to think about and maybe something to work towards.
 
I used BH for guitar and vocal tone and bass level. But since I had it up, it was easy enough to compare drum levels. But from the start I wasn't really using it to shoot for drum levels.

As for the overhead levels, I know you like the Ramones so I went out to YouTube and brought up Blitzkrieg Bop. Crappy sound of course, but you can roughly guage levels. Huge difference between it and BH. So I might shoot for something in the middle of those.

As far as the energy below 100hz, I'll take a look the next chance I get. I can't remember cutting anything down there, but I know I didn't boost anything down there either. Thanks again.
 
Great tune dude. In my monitors the drums are just too buried, I think it is probably due to the prominent bass (which is great, I love the bass, don't lower the bass ) just bring the drums up some via EQ or volume - not exactly sure how to do that but sounds like Greg's spectrum analysis might give you some ideas.

I listened to version 3

Everything else sounds excellent - love the vocals, lyrics, guitars and bass.

Great song.
 
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