baby tombstones

[dobro]

This is what I did today instead of doing all the stuff I was supposed to do.

Trish V (aka fritsthegirl) kindly supplied the female voice.

What do you hear on this one? I've only listened on my monitors, nothing else so far.

 

[PoeticIntensity]

The only thing I found wanting was getting rid of the vocal doubling on Trish's voice. I don't think it added anything while she was singing lyrics. Her "ooohhh's" were great doubled.

I think the bass could come up a bit, too, to match the drum levels.

It's good to hear music that seems real. No auto-tune, and the imperfections add to its appeal, in my opinion.

Good work.

 

[dobro]

The only thing I found wanting was getting rid of the vocal doubling on Trish's voice. I don't think it added anything while she was singing lyrics. Her "ooohhh's" were great doubled.

I think the bass could come up a bit, too, to match the drum levels.

It's good to hear music that seems real. No auto-tune, and the imperfections add to its appeal, in my opinion.

Good work.

Hey, thanks for the ideas. I'll solo Trish's vocal in the middle and see what it sounds like. I was looking for maximum contrast with my vocal though, and that's why I doubled hers.

I'll try the bass up like you suggest, but it's a great big ballsy bass and I'm not sure the tune's got room for it. I could cut a bit of the low end though. Experiments.

And yes to your comments about auto-tune. I recently acquired some autotune software (the demo, anyway) and I thought about it for a while and decided not to molest anything in this tune with it. Sometimes less than perfect is perfect, like you seem to say.

 

[Chili]

I saw the title the other day and knew I had to check it out. Glad I finally got to listen to it. A very unique and eclectic song. I hear influences from a lot of different artists.

I am not a fan of double vocals, at all. I say let Trish do another ooooh take and use two tracks instead doubling one. I like Jason's idea to keep Trish's verse (chorus?) part to one track, too.

I thought the bass is good where it's at. It very up front.

Everything is cleanly recorded and sounds good. I'm going to give this one another spin.

 

[dobro]

I saw the title the other day and knew I had to check it out. Glad I finally got to listen to it. A very unique and eclectic song. I hear influences from a lot of different artists.

I am not a fan of double vocals, at all. I say let Trish do another ooooh take and use two tracks instead doubling one. I like Jason's idea to keep Trish's verse (chorus?) part to one track, too.

I thought the bass is good where it's at. It very up front.

Everything is cleanly recorded and sounds good. I'm going to give this one another spin.

Hey, Chili thanks very much for giving it a listen and talking about it afterward.

Fun fact: Trish's ooh's were recorded on different mics, so I just panned 'em left and right and said 'yay'. I love the sort of shaky vulnerability of them. It fit right in with the song.

I like how both you and (Jason?) suggested to simplify her main vocal - the single voice might express the loneliness better than a doubled vocal. I really like Trish's voice. It's got something approaching fragility at the same time it's singing fearlessly about death. Very cool.

 

[K-dub]

What are you using for your rhythm, P? Quite effective, unique sound.

Liked the instrumental change(s) ... a lot.

I'd stick a fork in it. Any changes made would be so minor as to be of no consequence.

 

[dobro]

What are you using for your rhythm, P? Quite effective, unique sound.

Brushes on bongos. I love that brushes sound so much that I'm thinking of getting a snare just for that.

Thanks for listening over the years. You've got good ears. I appreciate it.

 

[Stratomaster]

Sounds great-nice and clean. Cool effect with the brushes. The mix sounds great overall everything clean and upfront, nice tremolo/phaser effect on the guitar. I have to agree with the doubled vocals comments-seems like one would do just fine- maybe adding the second vocal on held notes might be a nice effect-the oooooh's sound fine but the slight timing differences in the worded parts takes away rather than adds IMO. Cool tune, very easy to listen to.

Strat

 

[dobro]

Thanks, Stratomaster. Okay, you've swung me, along with everybody else who says lose the doubled vocal.

 

[heatmiser]

This is now my new favorite of yours. I think it sounds great...very full and rich. I like the doubled vocals as a contrast to your voice which is clear and upfront by comparison. I think the way you've handled her voice here suits her style of singing. It's a really cool melody, the lyrics are interesting and the rhythm section is awesome. Good job.

 

[dobro]

Maybe you haven't heard the most recent one without the doubled vocal? Trish sent me a vocal she did on a condenser and one she did on a dynamic, and I opted for the dynamic for the single vocal version. The condenser version would have blended into the mix better, but I wanted contrast. Thanks for the very kind words, man.

 

[Jessica_X]

Well I almost couldn't listen because of the title! But I really liked it. I love the tone of both of your voices. And I like the quality of two so very different voices in one song.
I didn't notice anything on the volume levels, I like the doubling of Trish's voice. (If you did two takes, and don't use auto tune, whoa, that sounds extremely hard.)
I really like the simplicity and purity of the song overall. Great melody.

 

[heatmiser]

Maybe you haven't heard the most recent one without the doubled vocal? Trish sent me a vocal she did on a condenser and one she did on a dynamic, and I opted for the dynamic for the single vocal version. The condenser version would have blended into the mix better, but I wanted contrast. Thanks for the very kind words, man.

Oh, I hadn't noticed the new one. That's cool too, and objectively it's clearer and more present and all, but I still like the doubled vocals. Maybe just because I heard it that way first?

 

[dobro]

Well I almost couldn't listen because of the title! But I really liked it. I love the tone of both of your voices. And I like the quality of two so very different voices in one song.
I didn't notice anything on the volume levels, I like the doubling of Trish's voice. (If you did two takes, and don't use auto tune, whoa, that sounds extremely hard.)
I really like the simplicity and purity of the song overall. Great melody.

Hi Jessica. For the doubled version, I just put the two takes up the way they were and panned them. I like harmony as much as anyone, but I really like that unsophisticated singalong quality of two or more voices doing the same melody line together. But I'm leaning toward the single vocal version I posted because it makes it sounds more vulnerable, I think. Simplicity and purity, like you said. Thanks very much for joining the parade.

 

[dobro]

Well, you've heard them both. I've got my favorite. So have you.

 

[TripleM]

Didn't you have a different song years ago called "Baby Tombstones"?

I didn't find a thing I could offer as an improvement on this mix. It sounded great to me.

 

[robgreen]

Definitely the doubled vocals version for me please. They give it a real psych-folk flavour that I liked a lot.

You've fleshed out your arrangements recently and they're benefiting from it. I like the contrast between the male and female sections. This is really good stuff - I got no nits

 

[dobro]

Didn't you have a different song years ago called "Baby Tombstones"?

A different tune with the same name, yeah. (It's actually baby tombstones 3.)



You'll have to turn up the volume, I think. The Soundcloud player on this site's not as loud as the site sound, I think. Could be wrong.

Anyway, me and Tjarko and Trish. Think I'll call myself Tu. Then we can be Tu, Tjarko and Trish.

Updated mix here:

 

[jimistone]

I think the vocals fit the song. Everything in the mix sounds balanced and nothing really needs tweaking in that respect IMO.
The only thing I would suggest is when the song goes into the musical break in the middle, and there are no vocals, I think it could use a little more volume. It would sound fuller and fill up the space better and give a more dramatic crescendo before dropping when the vocals come back in. Overall great job on engineering and mixing. Great performance also

 

[Greg_L]

I'm hating the brushes. Sounds like static and it's not fun to hear all song long. That's just me.

Trish's voice doubling is not doing anything for me. I love her voice, and I'm cool with double tracking, but I'd like one of the doubled tracks to be subtle underneath whichever track you determine to be the main one.