Mack the Knife (cover of Bobby Darin 1959)

If I was your producer, I'd say let's try something - just the bass part and maybe some brushes to provide the swing and your voice - your vocal is easily the strongest and best thing, and it's getting lost in clatter and clutter in this arrangement.
 
Hey dobro. Man you know not what you ask. jazz brushes? Me? no fn way dude.
And I don't get the "clatter and clutter in this arrangement" sounds pretty dam sparse to me.
A couple of acoustic guitars and a midi piano all playing the same thing with basic bass and drums till the swing drop - when yes. that drum loop does have some offensive cymbal work. is that the clutter?
I guess I am too close to the flame to see it.
Thanks man - love you.
 
Manslick said:
Hey dobro. Man you know not what you ask. jazz brushes? Me? no fn way dude.
And I don't get the "clatter and clutter in this arrangement" sounds pretty dam sparse to me.
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The best part of your tune is the vocal - it's a great sounding voice with a good presentation of the tune, but I find the rest of the arrangement sort of distracts from the vocal. When something isn't working for me, I always simplify - I start playing fewer notes, muting tracks. That's what I meant by clutter and clatter - the stuff that detracts from that great vocal. But I get the way your arrangement moves - like you say, it's sparse. So, putting all that together in what passes for a brain, I got 'keep the bass, add some brushes, and suddenly the vocal gets just enough support to shine'. I'm not trying to convince you, I'm trying to explain what I meant. But in addition to simplifying, I like to try things out, so... if you're cool with it, send me an mp3 of the vocal and the bass part, and I'll do a brushes part. Just to see. Probably be off the wall, but it might be fun, too. (Alternately, do 'Hit The Road, Jack' and I'll get it.) I'm away from the studio until the 26th, but free after that.

I love the tune, and I love the singing.
 
I've always Loved this song . You did a Great job with the instruments and Especially the Vocals ! It's hard for me to listen to it without seeing Steve Martin using it in his comedy skits .. I do agree brushes would be nice. The cymbals are excessive. Still .. Great Job . Enjoyed it .. mark
 
I think the thing that sort of doesn't for me is the guitar and some drums playing the pushed dah---dah, dah---dah rhythm but other drums playing the 8 to the bar straight pattern so it kind of tugs. Is it straight or swung? It keeps changing
 
dobro said:
If I was your producer, I'd say let's try something - just the bass part and maybe some brushes to provide the swing and your voice - your vocal is easily the strongest and best thing, and it's getting lost in clatter and clutter in this arrangement.
Click to expand...
Yeah the vocal is great. Dobro's right. It's the cymbal that's intruding on everything else.
Good version it swings
 
We should definitely start a new area - where we could take good vocals and we could all contribute the different backings - the same voice on a quiet guitar version up against a loud rock one would be really cool.
 
Gotta agree with most of the comments. The 1/3 accents on the guitar seem stiff. As Spantini said, it seems to lack the swing of the original. Maybe too many instruments hitting the same accents (guitar, kick drum, etc). Might help if the kick was less straight?

Cymbals at 1:26 are distracting and too dominant.

Vocals are good, but probably could have been recorded better. Not sure what mic you're using. If you have a selection, maybe try another one.

Also a lot of noise in the beginning (before anything starts). Probably carrying through into the recording, so you might want to try and get rid of it. Maybe a condenser mic picking up heating systems or something?

Ending is a bit abrupt.

All in all, not bad. Easy to listen to. Worth working on.
 
Hey Manslick, are all the parts real acoustic recordings? Drums, piano and all of it? I enjoy people recording the classics.
 
Monkey Allen said:
Hey Manslick, are all the parts real acoustic recordings? Drums, piano and all of it? I enjoy people recording the classics.
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guitars and vox are the only "real" parts, as in I recorded them.
drums are a loop i found inside the Reason DAW.
Piano is Reason's Radical Piano on a midi roll.
the bass is a 70s era Yamaha G-100A classical guitar. the bass track, I detuned 1 octave.
That Yamaha is the guitar in the rhythm too, plus a Martin SWDGT.
Thanks for asking
 
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