Company - I just need 62 seconds of your time

  • Thread starter Thread starter VomitHatSteve
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VomitHatSteve

VomitHatSteve

Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Continuing with my "ruining songs by friends" project, I just finished my first mix of Company by Gene Elton Crawford Jr.

As always, I'd love feedback. I'm especially concerned with whether or not the drums and lead vox are cutting through the mix. They feel a little buried to me?

Link.
 
Does look like hard work trying to get folks to give feedback on stuff here currently - if there were as many commenters as posters of new mixes, it would be fine.

I was surprised you were worried that the lead vocals are buried - they sound the right level to me. The only nit I got was that the mix is very heavy on the hi hats, they sound too prominent and overwhelm everything else, especially with the fizzy guitar sound you use. Everything else sounds good man.
 
The drums and vocals sound fine to me. Whatever is on the side is distorted and sounds strange. It sounds like a broken speaker or something. I can't tell if it's a guitar or a synth, but I'd either cut it or try to fix it.

I agree with robgreen about the about needed more people commenting. I wish more people would say something even if it's just a short comment.
 
Thanks, guys.

Too much hi-hat, Rob? Ok. I'll try knocking that down a bit. I tend to have trouble getting the HHs quiet enough. As compared to kick and snare, which I have trouble getting loud enough!

Chandler, I keep the guitars pretty distorted, and the synth here is pretty clean, so it's probably the former. (Unless it's the lead guitar, which is pretty distorted too.) Which side were you hearing it on primarily?
 
I'm hearing it on the right. I'd cut down on the distortion for the guitars. Too much distortion makes guitar recordings sound smaller generally. They get bigger up to a certain point and then they end up sounding smaller for some reason. I find using less distortion than you think you need makes things sound better. Btw what type of amp are you/they using?
 
Ah! That could be tricky then. I'm using a Zinkey Smokey amp (on the right). It only has the one setting!
 
Hey VHS.
Like Chili, I also try to check your stuff out when I can as it's usually pretty creative.
This has alot of your signatures.... the fizzy guitars (bitcrusher?) and the switch to double-tempo around :48.

I'd like to hear the original. I'll bet it sounds nothing like this.
 
Very quirky and very cool. Love the rushed pace and weird timing.

There is a little "chimey" thing on the right. great part but when the vocals are in the mix I can barely hear it. It's kind of a dense mix and I think it's having trouble cutting through.

The vocals sound like they're in a different place from everything else.

I'd like to hear the snare much louder. Kick too.
 
Thanks.

Yeah, the original does sound pretty different. Unfortunately, I've lost the domain that I had it hosted on, so I don't have a good solution for that right now. (Fricken' GoDaddy.)

The chimey thing is a randomized synthesizer. I usually tend to bury those a bit because bringing them out really highlights their weirdness and unpredictability. (It'd be a lot louder on a live recording.)

TripleM, what would you recommend for placing the vox in the same location as everything else?

Not enough snare or kick? Hmmm... That could be tough to deal with. If I turn them up at all, I'll get a lot of clipping. I'll see if I can find some time to tweak the mix on Friday.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Not enough snare or kick? Hmmm... That could be tough to deal with. If I turn them up at all, I'll get a lot of clipping..
Click to expand...

Then turn everything else down.

Sounds pretty good. It's got your usual signature sound all over it. Lotta weirdness and rapid fire spoken vocals. I think you're steadily improving. It's lacking bass guitar presence. I know you use that weird abomination bass thing you made. Maybe bring up whatever bass thing you got going on. The drums sound better from what I can tell, but the snare is pretty weak. I know your stuff is quirky and weird and you don't go for traditional drums/bass/guitar sounds, which is cool, but what is it that you actually want to sound like? I mean, if this is it, you nailed it.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
what would you recommend for placing the vox in the same location as everything else?
Click to expand...

I would probably first think about adding a small amount of room reverb to the lead vocal. If there is some there already, I'd nudge up the wet/dry mix a bit, watching carefully not to over-do it. The mix, I think, would be ruined by too much verb.

An alternative is to just rethink the reverb entirely. Use medium/large rooms for guitars and background vocals, use small rooms for lead vocals. Just one possibility out of many.
 
It is quirky & oddball & pretty cool. Reminds me of XTC from the late 70s, except with an American accent. I like the vocals and the delivery. I think the vocals got a bit loud in the last verse
 
Greg_L said:
Then turn everything else down.

Sounds pretty good. It's got your usual signature sound all over it. Lotta weirdness and rapid fire spoken vocals. I think you're steadily improving. It's lacking bass guitar presence. I know you use that weird abomination bass thing you made. Maybe bring up whatever bass thing you got going on. The drums sound better from what I can tell, but the snare is pretty weak. I know your stuff is quirky and weird and you don't go for traditional drums/bass/guitar sounds, which is cool, but what is it that you actually want to sound like? I mean, if this is it, you nailed it.
Click to expand...
I do have a conventional bass guitar line as well as the abomination. It always seems too loud to me recently, but I'll see about bumping it up.
Optimally, I'd like to have a standard drum sound supplemented by the weird, randomized drums.
TripleM said:
I would probably first think about adding a small amount of room reverb to the lead vocal. If there is some there already, I'd nudge up the wet/dry mix a bit, watching carefully not to over-do it. The mix, I think, would be ruined by too much verb.

An alternative is to just rethink the reverb entirely. Use medium/large rooms for guitars and background vocals, use small rooms for lead vocals. Just one possibility out of many.
Click to expand...
Alright. I'll try futzing with the reverb some more. Thanks. I don't think I have any verb on the guitars actually. They're already more distorted than most people recommend. I think adding reverb would just be a mess!
Bulls Hit said:
It is quirky & oddball & pretty cool. Reminds me of XTC from the late 70s, except with an American accent. I like the vocals and the delivery. I think the vocals got a bit loud in the last verse
Click to expand...
Thanks, Bulls.
 
Wow. Your timing and arrangement is amazing. I can't really comment much on the mix as I'm too inexperienced as of yet. But man do I like the song.
 
usual VHS whackiness..I enjoyed it, I get bulls XTC reference, I was just listening to them on Youtube recently...Partridge is a great song writer


I think your skills improve with every mix


no real nits from me
 
Ok. New mix is up: Company | Regdar and the Fighters

Bass is up. Snare has a slight boost at 10k+ to make it more "snarey". Other drums stayed the same.
Everything else came down. (I knew it before you said it Greg, but I didn't want to!)

I also attached a bootleg of the original writer doing the song. It's lovely!
 
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