Electric Pussycat - original glam rock (no, it's not about that)

  • Thread starter Thread starter VomitHatSteve
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VomitHatSteve

VomitHatSteve

Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Just finished the first mix of one for the upcoming glam album.

Electric Pussycat | Lipstick

Lemme know what needs fixing. It's a lot simpler than the last one, so hopefully there's less to fix.

Ft. Greg_L on drums.

(yes, it is literally about a time-travelling cat who has come to our era to destroy us, terminator-style)
 
Hey Vomithat, the drums sound really far away and the vocal right in my face (though I can hear it has reverb on it, so it's a volume issue). I'd lower the vocal quite a bit and take some reverb off the drums. The drums are losing power b/c of the reverb.
 
Yeah, I gotta agree with nolo. The drums are distant and weak. I drummed the fuck out of this song, get em up front more. :D
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Alrighty. Less verb, louder drums.
Click to expand...

That sounds better...but still not right.

I'd remove more reverb. It's making the kick flabby and the snare is just a wash of sound after the initial transient. The vocal is still super loud. Is that for effect and it needs to be that loud? Why is an upbeat song like this drenched in reverb? I guess I'm just not understanding the context b/c this is the opposite of what I'd do. I'd make the vocal quieter, drier, and bring up the drums. Maybe the ballad section at 1:30 could be drenched in reverb with distant drums and that would probably create a cool contrast, but it doesn't sound right on the rest of it.
 
I'm agreeing with all the rest. Not just the drums, but the backing tracks in general seem distant while the vocals are up front. Gives it karaoke vibe.
 
Listening on HP's and the flac version. Drums sounded good, but a tune like this needs to sit just under the vocals. Maybe snare stays where it is and the other drum parts come up since it is very pronounced (the snare cuts through). Backgrounds can come up as well.

Overall, clean mix, just a couple of volume adjustments. Nice tune.
 
Ok. now there's a new mix up: Electric Pussycat | Lipstick
:D

Took the drum reverb down maybe 5 dB and the overall drum bus up 2.5. I can only turn down the verb so far before we lose the "arena" vibe we need for the album tho.
All vox down by about 1 and some change. Lead vox reverb down by probably 2 more.

It just clicked what people mean by "karaoke" sound on these tracks. It's that thing where there's a fainter version of the lead vocal mirroring it underneath, right? The goal there is to get some of the doubling effect from T-Rex and his ilk.
 
DM60 said:
Listening on HP's and the flac version. Drums sounded good, but a tune like this needs to sit just under the vocals. Maybe snare stays where it is and the other drum parts come up since it is very pronounced (the snare cuts through). Backgrounds can come up as well.

Overall, clean mix, just a couple of volume adjustments. Nice tune.
Click to expand...
You wouldn't believe the shenanigans I go through to make a snare cut through a mix!
 
Nola said:
You can probably turn the kick down now a hair or adjust how you processed it. It gets rumbly at times (i.e. when beating fast).
Click to expand...

This idea terrifies me! I don't think I've ever accidentally made a kick too loud! o.O
 
What I mean by karaoke is that sounds like the vocal is in a different space than the backing tracks, like you're singing along to a instrumental track rather than being in an among the other players.
 
Robus said:
What I mean by karaoke is that sounds like the vocal is in a different space than the backing tracks, like you're singing along to a instrumental track rather than being in an among the other players.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...
Is the second mix better about it?
 
Much better. It's got almost a rock opera feeling to it, like the singers are dancing on stage while the band is sitting in the orchestra pit. I noticed that about the other one too. That's fine if that's what you're going for.
 
Cool track. Very unusual and creative as I've come to expect from you. You're sort of the opposite of me in that you pack a lot of changes and surprises into a compact arrangement. It's refreshing actually.

I'm not wild about the mix myself though. It just feels like the rhythm guitars, bass and drums are kind of dark and muffled compared to the vocals, which have much more clarity and bite to the them (through hd280 phones anyway). The bass seems a bit rumbly as well.

I don't mean to suggest that it like really off or anything, but I think the instruments listed above could have more clarity or something to them to bring them closer to the same sonic space as the singing,

There's great energy in the performances (which are really solid) and I loved the ending!
 
I'd like stronger mids and more presence from the bass. I can tell it's doing some cool stuff down there.
 
Mix 2 drums are way better. I hear similar timing issues that you had with the other one. I think you need to get things in the same space. The vocals are way out front and dry, the drums are roomy as hell, and that lead guitar is kind of a mess. Where's the bass guitar? I hear a low end energy down there, but there's no character to the bass. It could be a synth cello for all I can tell.
 
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