How I earn my royalties! :p

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steenamaroo
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Steenamaroo

Steenamaroo

...
Been working on a new track with a friend lately and I thought I'd post up what I do.

Historically, he'll come round and play a live take of a song, then I'll build a structure around it, delete him, and then have him re track his guitar and voice.

This current song is at the stage where I've built my stuff around his scratch vocal+guitar so I thought I'd share both states.

No soundcloud I'm afraid. I don't think he'd want it on a public site like that at the minute.

<- 100% me.
<- includes scratch vocal and guitar.


I tracked bass, piano, hand percussion and all harmonies.

Some of the pad oohs are synthetic, as are the drums.

Oh, and yes, I do get that this is disgustingly cheesy. :p
I'm especially proud of the faux-fretless bass; The drum levels need to be worked at a little though.
Enjoy. :)


EDIT: oh, and could someone tell me if the 'fairytale of new york' tribute in the 2nd verse works please?
 
Cool tune - the bass seems to dominate in the first mix. Where do I get me some royalties!
 
Funny, that drew my ear.

The two mixes are the same though, apart from the obvious.
I'll check it out when we record the proper vocals and guitar.

Cheers. :)
 
cool man I like it already and its not very often i say that about unfinished projects.
The panels are doing a good job.
 
Sounds really good so far. The only thing that caught my ear was the violin that comes in around 2:11. There's something off about the vibrato that tips you off that it's not real. Don't know if that's adjustable or not. The tone is very good. I love the chorus, love the background vocals. Tell us again how you get the background vocals to sit so well tucked in behind the lead. I know you compress the hell out of it. Do you cut the high end as well?
 
guitar zero said:
The only thing that caught my ear was the violin that comes in around 2:11.
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Thanks for bringing that up, Mel. I wasn't sure.

I have a violin and can just about blag straight notes on it,lol. Maybe I'll try that?

Actually, I did at 1:00 in the track 'Baby'. Do you think that'd be a better sound?


guitar zero said:
love the background vocals. Tell us again how you get the background vocals to sit so well tucked in behind the lead. I know you compress the hell out of it. Do you cut the high end as well?
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Funny you mention that. I do generally squash my backing like crazy and roll of the high end so they blend behind the main guy.

The technique kinda failed me this time because I also echo the chorus vocals.
My backing sits out on it's own there, so if you listen close, you'll hear the highs come and go on the backing vocals, depending if Pete's singing or not.


guitar zero said:
Sounds really good so far.
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Cheers man. I'll keep the thread up to date.
Should be recording vocal and guitar tonight.
 
I think the mix and arrangement is pretty solid. My biggest beef is the drums. The sound really obviously fake. Fake drums are a necessary evil sometimes and I'm not so snobby that I look down on anyone for using them, but in my opinion when they sound this canned it makes the whole mix sound cheap. The cymbal crashes are the worst offender. I don't know how you can make them seem more real, but if there's a way, do it. The rest seems fine to me.
 
Greg_L said:
I think the mix and arrangement is pretty solid. My biggest beef is the drums. The sound really obviously fake. Fake drums are a necessary evil sometimes and I'm not so snobby that I look down on anyone for using them, but in my opinion when they sound this canned it makes the whole mix sound cheap. The cymbal crashes are the worst offender. I don't know how you can make them seem more real, but if there's a way, do it. The rest seems fine to me.
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I think we've been down this road before, Greg, and you're right.

It's very much a necessary evil with these productions, because there's no drummer, no kit, and no real space.
Last time you commented I didn't actually do anything to make them less fake sounding, because it was a one off song for a wedding,
but maybe this time I should just solo the drums and bass and spend some time listening and tweaking.

I think (for me at least) fake sounding drums aren't just as obvious in a mix, because I'm not really listening for it.
Solo mode might be different.


You know, we'll be doing a new six track in jan/feb. I think I'd like to create our drum tracks but then maybe hire in a drummer to record them properly.
Maybe someone on here would be interested?

Cheers Greg.
Sorry for the life story. :p
 
Haha, sorry if it seemed like I was dogging on you. I wasn't. I know that very few people have the time, space, or ability/experience to track real drums. The drums are always to me though the thing that really makes the difference between an obvious home recording and something that sounds realistic and professional. And I think it's almost always the cymbals that ruin the drum tracks. Drum samples have come a really long way. Sampled snares, toms, and kicks can sound great. They still seem to always fall short with the cymbals though. Maybe it's the lack of bleed, or the built-in processing, but the cymbals always sound bad to me. And really, your average listener will NEVER notice the difference. Joe shmoe has no idea what a real vs canned cymbal sounds like. The average person just listens to the vocals and that's all. But if you're looking for feedback and want to make the best mix you can for a song like this, I'd say use a real drummer or use a better sample library.
 
it's cool. It's sometimes a bit thin (stereo field wise). Like those toms could be panned a bit harder. and the piano at the beginning could be wider.
it'd make it wide in the beginning and back to normal when the keys and backings are coming in.
the verb on the rimshots is a bit on the digital side.
 
Greg_L said:
Haha, sorry if it seemed like I was dogging on you.
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No, not at all Greg.
It's probably right to say that drummers are more likely to pick up on it, but you're still right no matter what way you look at it.

Cheers. :)
 
bwstudio said:
it's cool. It's sometimes a bit thin (stereo field wise). Like those toms could be panned a bit harder. and the piano at the beginning could be wider.
it'd make it wide in the beginning and back to normal when the keys and backings are coming in.
the verb on the rimshots is a bit on the digital side.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the comments bws.
I listened through a bit today. I think the rimshots in general are distracting; They seem a bit dominant.
I pulled them back but I think maybe I'll do away with the addictve drums reverb and just set up my own.
Thanks for pointing that out.

I also panned the toms out a bit. I think you were right with that.

Stereo field wise though, I think we might just have opposing preferences.
I intentionally made the verses slightly narrower than the rest so that the song opens out in the chorus.

I'll experiment, because I don't actually thing it opens out enough, but for my preference at least, I think I'll keep the quieter sections reasonably narrow.


I'm trying not to be too rash before the guitar and vocal goes down properly though.
I could easily forget to leave room for this guys guitar. At the minute the piano is the main thing carrying the verses I suppose, but it will eventually be guitar.

Cheers. :)
 
Yeah definitely don't over-mix it until all the pieces are in place.
 
Steenamaroo said:
...I have a violin and can just about blag straight notes on it,lol. Maybe I'll try that?

Actually, I did at 1:00 in the track 'Baby'. Do you think that'd be a better sound?

...
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Not necessarily. The vibrato on that patch seems a bit slow and deep, but only in a couple of spots is it really noticeable. Maybe you can cover it up with a second violin note in those couple of spots??? It's not probably something most people would notice just casually listening to the song, but I notice stuff like that.
 
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