More new Honey Hunters - "Song for Sergey"

Armistice

Armistice

Son of Yoda
I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment due to good singing conditions... (which is a different thing entirely from good singing :laughings: )

Meant to be an intense, sparse, short sort of a thing...

Any and all feedback appreciated. Also, it starts with a soft synthy bit, avoiding the temptation to turn it up would be my advice... 😉 Also, also, featuring the vocal panning idea mooted by @dobro in my previous tune.



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Did some work on the vocal EQ and a few other minor tweaks...
 
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I'm a newbie around here, not sure if I could give you any constructive engineering advice. But from a musical perspective I thought it was pretty solid. Those tom hits work nicely with the gtr riff.
 
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"You do your little dance on the graves of those who never stood a chance"

Yeah, this one's great. The vocal's central and very good, but that guitar's the star of the show - it defines at least half of the tune, maybe more. I thought the panning of the bvs worked - I flipped back and forth between stereo and mono, and stereo sounded better to me. (For one thing, it worked well with the repeated 'listen'.)

Who's Sergey?

You're really closing in on this one - I listened to the tune when I listened, not the mix. That's a very good sign.
 
Wow, what a great song.

I'm hearing this as an anti war song aimed squarely at calling out the Russian invasion of Ukraine and more specifically Sergey Lavrov's bullshit justifications of it and it's in that context I'm calling this a great song (if that is not what this songs about then it should be!).

As for the mix, I think the vocal is a bit dry and there's a bit of mud around that needs clearing out and that's all I'm going to say about it.

But as I said before, Wow, what a great song.
 
dobro said:
"You do your little dance on the graves of those who never stood a chance"

Yeah, this one's great. The vocal's central and very good, but that guitar's the star of the show - it defines at least half of the tune, maybe more. I thought the panning of the bvs worked - I flipped back and forth between stereo and mono, and stereo sounded better to me. (For one thing, it worked well with the repeated 'listen'.)

Who's Sergey?

You're really closing in on this one - I listened to the tune when I listened, not the mix. That's a very good sign.
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Thanks dobro - I'm still a bit uncertain on aspects of the mix - especially the voice, so I'll twiddle a bit with it. I think the chanting L / R thing works well - it's there but not so extreme as to be distracting. Good idea - glad I did it.

As to who Sergey is, I think @HumanPlanet just worked it out. :D Now I'll have the damn Russians trying to poison me... nice knowing you all. :oops:
 
TAE said:
Man that is some nice work...cool music and lyrics! Good job Mang!
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Hi TAE - long time etc. Thanks for the listen and kind words - check out the other one a few posts down and you'll hear my keyboard playing has improved a lot ... 😉
 
HumanPlanet said:
Wow, what a great song.

I'm hearing this as an anti war song aimed squarely at calling out the Russian invasion of Ukraine and more specifically Sergey Lavrov's bullshit justifications of it and it's in that context I'm calling this a great song (if that is not what this songs about then it should be!).

As for the mix, I think the vocal is a bit dry and there's a bit of mud around that needs clearing out and that's all I'm going to say about it.

But as I said before, Wow, what a great song.
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Yeah, I'm still working on the voice - there's something there I can't put my finger on, EQ wise, that's annoying me.

Thanks for your kind words and yes, that's exactly what the song is about. Been watching that dude get up at the UN for months and lie through his teeth to the world about what's going on in Ukraine. I don't normally do politics and world events in music as it can really date tunes, but this annoyed me sufficiently that it got its own song.

Cheers :thumbs up:
 
Armistice said:
Yeah, I'm still working on the voice - there's something there I can't put my finger on, EQ wise, that's annoying me.
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I wasn't going to get involved in the mix but just on the vocal... if it were me, I'd try pulling down about -2dBs at around 110Hz, I'd add air above 2Khz, then I'd add a short (0.60s) reverb at around 40% to 50% (0dB) mix and see how all that sounded, then if I liked it I'd tweak it all until I got it where I wanted it and if I hated it I'd try something else... :unsure:

Armistice said:
Been watching that dude get up at the UN for months and lie through his teeth to the world about what's going on in Ukraine. I don't normally do politics and world events in music as it can really date tunes, but this annoyed me sufficiently that it got its own song.
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He 'deserves' his own song and a fine song it is. (y)

Armistice said:
Now I'll have the damn Russians trying to poison me... nice knowing you all. :oops:
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Bye. 👋
 
HumanPlanet said:
I wasn't going to get involved in the mix but just on the vocal... if it were me, I'd try pulling down about -2dBs at around 110Hz, I'd add air above 2Khz, then I'd add a short (0.60s) reverb at around 40% to 50% (0dB) mix and see how all that sounded, then if I liked it I'd tweak it all until I got it where I wanted it and if I hated it I'd try something else... :unsure:
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I hadn't read this but have just posted up a new version based on my own playing around with the EQ - I'd actually worked something out yesterday using an additional EQ plug in to address the issue with the vocal which I'd already identified, but had the damn thing turned off when I rendered it... :laughings: So I've done a fairly hefty cut around a wide band centred on about 150 which seems to take some of the "I don't know what to call it" sound out of it, and bit of dip around 3k which cuts the nasally sound down a little - hadn't tried the air at 2k thing but I'll have a play with that later.

I also re-recorded one line where I had a catch in my throat that was annoying me, and just added a little more reverb on the vocal, without getting specific as to detail, and pushed guitars just a teensy bit up.... when you're trying to convince yourself that a .25dB bump in guitar level sounds better, you're probably close to the end of the mix and it's time to put it away.:D

New version with those amendments is up in the original post.

Cheers
 
Armistice said:
Thanks dobro - I'm still a bit uncertain on aspects of the mix - especially the voice, so I'll twiddle a bit with it. I think the chanting L / R thing works well - it's there but not so extreme as to be distracting. Good idea - glad I did it.

As to who Sergey is, I think @HumanPlanet just worked it out. :D Now I'll have the damn Russians trying to poison me... nice knowing you all. :oops:
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Well, not if we *all* do it. But to be on the safe side, accept no offers of tea in the foreseeable future.

I like the tweaks. I think the vocal's a taste clearer now.
 
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Solo vocal is a hair too low in the mix. It should ride the top of the bed ... particularly when the words are integral to the piece. When the bgvs enter they stand out because collectively they're louder together and so they "jump out". The lead vocal and they should be of equivalent levels.

Other than that nit, enjoyable listen!
 
The bvs are louder the last time they come in compared to when they first come in. I prefer the louder version, but I guess Armistice wants them to build.
 
Well it sounds like the start of a mix to me - you've got all the elements but you have to blend them so they work together - kind of a somber song?
 
K-dub said:
Solo vocal is a hair too low in the mix. It should ride the top of the bed ... particularly when the words are integral to the piece. When the bgvs enter they stand out because collectively they're louder together and so they "jump out". The lead vocal and they should be of equivalent levels.

Other than that nit, enjoyable listen!
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Yeah, thanks K - I'm listening to it again this morning and I tend to agree. One of the problems with mixing your own vocals is that it's sometimes it's a little hard to tell what you can hear and what your brain is telling you you can hear as it's filling in on your behalf, knowing the song. I won't put another mix up but noted. Cheers.
 
dobro said:
The bvs are louder the last time they come in compared to when they first come in. I prefer the louder version, but I guess Armistice wants them to build.
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Indeed. I think I went a bit OTT with them, I've since dialled them back in a little, they're still louder, but not by as much. I won't do another mix here, however.

Cheers
 
Papanate said:
Well it sounds like the start of a mix to me - you've got all the elements but you have to blend them so they work together - kind of a somber song?
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Appreciate the listen but I'm not sure what I can do re. the comment. It's a subjective topic, so absent a specific thought on what I should do, I'll let it pass. Cheers.
 
Mix is good on my little office speakers. I like the sparse nature and the 1/2 time drum sections work well. Good job
 
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