You Won't Be Disappointed

[Tadpui]

Don't let the title fool you...you might actually be disappointed. I don't want to oversell it or anything

Hopefully I'm not just spamming the clinic, but I've been spending a lot of time in my studio lately. So I have a lot of material that I've been working on. This is another oldie of mine that's finally seeing the light of day. This is a pretty aggressive one as far as my writing goes. This chorus actually came to me in a dream...the only time that's happened to me. Too bad, because writing would be so much easier if it all happened while I slept.

I tried to get a little bit wider/bigger vocal in this one, is it distracting? Or not enough? It's really hard to judge one's own vocals unless one is a narcissist. If I can find a good vocal bigger-izer technique, I'd love to apply it to a few different songs that seem to need it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ksy5jt64v2hay9y/You Won't Be Disappointed-003.mp3

Lyrics:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/nfc93wrx5eh7jgh/Lyrics.txt

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

I like the prominent bass but I can't hear the kick. They might just be mushing together to form a SUPERBASS! since they seem to be pulsating on the same beats.
Nice snare and guitar sounds.
The vocal was a bit too bright. You could really hear the sharpness and light hiss on the quieter sections. Cut around 7-9kHz?

 

[Bruthish]

Agree on the kick...bring it up a little. Other things sound pretty good IMHO.

 

[Tadpui]

Thanks Schwarz! I agree about the vocal brightness. I tried out Slate's virtual rack thingy, which came with a free analog warmer VST. I put some of the hi-freq distortion on it and it didn't really do what I expected, just made it too sizzly. I'll get rid of that. I'll see what I can do about the kick/bass situation too. Do you think that the bass is too loud? I have a heck of a time setting bass volume correctly.

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

I like the loud bass but if it's always hitting on the same beat as the kick, one of the two will drown the other one out.
It would probably help if you upped the attack of the kick so that the envelope of the sound can unfold better.

 

[Brian Miller]

Listening right now. Really good stuff man. Thoughts:

-Guitars have a very nice tone

-Drums are solid throughout, in particular the snare sound is schweeet
-Kick drum got buried a bit. I would either push the fader up, or bring some of the 2k beater out so it cuts through

-Vocals could use some harshness control as others said, but I didn't think it was the end of the world or anything. I've heard a lot worse on a lot of big commercial releases. Guess when you squash things to DR 4 that's going to happen

-The bass has a beautiful tone, and I really appreciate the level you set it at. I've said it many times on these forums, but I'm sick of rock music that has absolutely no bass guitar anymore. So kudos for letting it be an actual instrument, rather than just emphasizing the lows of the guitar.

Arrangement: I think the chorus would benefit from at least two more unison voices spread wide. Would help it feel really big!

 

[Tadpui]

I like the loud bass but if it's always hitting on the same beat as the kick, one of the two will drown the other one out.
It would probably help if you upped the attack of the kick so that the envelope of the sound can unfold better.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm working on the kick right now. I'm not much of a whiz when it comes to mixing drums, so this might take me a while.

Listening right now. Really good stuff man. Thoughts:

-Guitars have a very nice tone

-Drums are solid throughout, in particular the snare sound is schweeet
-Kick drum got buried a bit. I would either push the fader up, or bring some of the 2k beater out so it cuts through

-Vocals could use some harshness control as others said, but I didn't think it was the end of the world or anything. I've heard a lot worse on a lot of big commercial releases. Guess when you squash things to DR 4 that's going to happen

-The bass has a beautiful tone, and I really appreciate the level you set it at. I've said it many times on these forums, but I'm sick of rock music that has absolutely no bass guitar anymore. So kudos for letting it be an actual instrument, rather than just emphasizing the lows of the guitar.

Arrangement: I think the chorus would benefit from at least two more unison voices spread wide. Would help it feel really big!

Thanks so much for your compliments and suggestions Brian. I've lifted some of the high frequency enhancement off of the vocals. Not a bad idea to add some extra vocal lines to the chorus, I'll see about hammering some out tonight. And I added some mids to the kick (you were right, about 2KHz) and turned it up a bit to keep it from getting lost under the bass guitar. I hope to have a remix soon!

 

[dobro]

I tried to get a little bit wider/bigger vocal in this one, is it distracting? Or not enough? It's really hard to judge one's own vocals unless one is a narcissist. If I can find a good vocal bigger-izer technique, I'd love to apply it to a few different songs that seem to need it.

Your vocals are mixed quite compactly, even when the backing is more aggressive. I'd like to hear a slapback echo on this vocal just for fun, just to see what it sounds like. Put a delay on a send with 90 ms on it and dial the vocal into it and see what happens.