3 songs from new cd

[guitar zero]

yehp,,fair point, i forgot about that bit.....i'm at the stage where it's all a blur,lol.

crows is a compliment we're both fans! thanks.

any comments on the other songs? pretty smiles is gettin a lot of attention, but in terms of mixing, it's the odd one out on this album...

I still think with smiles, the rolling snoball effect is the way to go, but it needs to keep the acoustic feel. Maybe an acoustic bass, a shaker, solo violin. The synth strings were too heavy for this song. Thin it down to a single violin. That would pair well with the lamenting tone of the singer and his angst of having to say goodbye. It's by far my favorite of the three.

 

[Steenamaroo]

good call!!

i'll be back!

 

[gecko zzed]

I've had a quick listen to "Smiles".

Some quick comments

1 The vocal is impressive and highly engaging. A voice rich in character and delivering the lyrics intimately and with intensity, yet without resorting to theatrics. I have listened to a number of other tracks in this forum, where there have been subdued vocals, and I have suggested that they could generate more excitement by injecting some emotional intensity. This track demonstrates exactly the point I was trying to make. Awesome!!

2 The guitars are really nicely recorded; a clear, crisp sound.

3 There are some harmonies appearing through the course of the first half of the song. These are spot on . . . rendered tastefully and mixed very subtley, and the phrasing is spot on.

4 The droney harmonium sound (I'm not sure what you used) in the background (I'm not sure what you used) is effective, and likewise tastefully restrained.

5 Lyrically the song is original, interesting and blissfully free of cliches. "A cross between a habit and a real bad day", "the days move like a heartbeat", and "I'm hangin to the bottom of the end of the world" are terrific lines.

6 But towards the end of the song the main vocal does its thing while there are background voices do something else, and this bothers me. It's a neat idea, and one I've also used. The reason why it is not working for me this time is because there are lots of syllables, and lots of percussive ones at that ("my pot of gold is just another mistake . . .") . . . lots of 't's, 'k's and 's's . . . and so I'm hearing the jaggedness of these bumping against the main vocal, rather than the words themselves. I'm not sure what you can do about this, although I'd be happy to see the song finish at about 3:30, fading out on the guitar duet. Maybe you don't need to do anything, because it's only my view. No-one commenting so far seems to have been bothered by it.

This is a very impressive track, and you should be proud of your achievement.

 

[gecko zzed]

Some comments on 'Rent'

Firstly I'll echo the comments I made for 'smile'. Very tastefully and thoughtfully done, with good musical ideas and strong, well-crafted lyrics and vocal delivery.

Some additional points:

1 Essentially the song is based (with variations) around a Bb F Eb sequence. You've mixed this up pretty well with the variations, but you might also like to let the bass have a bit of freedom, and rather than sticking to root notes of the chord, it could wander around every now and again (for example, where the chords go Bb F Eb Eb, the bass could go Bb A G Eb). Had you thought about doing stuff like that?

2 At 54 seconds the kit comes in, and from there to 1:23, it's doing this kinda busy stuff compared to the restraint of the bass. From 1:23 onwards, I think the kit is fine, but I wonder whether it is just a bit too busy in that first 30 seconds of its appearance.

3 The end of the song kind of wanders off with the acoustic guitar. My inclination is to finish sharply at the end of the word 'rent'.

However, another great song!!

 

[Steenamaroo]

hi gecko,

thanks for taking the time to listen,and respond in such detail.

i have the chap coming round tonight for some work, so i'll look into those ideas and all the others!


hopefully i'll have something fresh to post up through the week!

 

[guitar zero]

Hey man, before you let this thread die. Give us the name of your group so we can buy your CD when you're done.

GZ

 

[Steenamaroo]

hi,,yeah for sure.....

altho,i'm hoping it wont die......i've 5 more songs that need a good listenin lol



spent a ten hour session with the guy yesterday and got a lot of good work done.....

there are things that we know need tweeked and sorted,,,but the links are at the bottom anyway.


His name is Pete Gardiner, he's from N.I. U.K...

as far as buying a copy, i don't know what his plans are,,,,,i know he sells locally at gigs,, and there's nothing available online, other than what i post..

but if he's cool with it i'll make it available for download

www.webforni.com/steen/dm/06What'syourpoison.mp3

ps, These may be slightly overcooked, cos i did a last minute dash to get some volume out of them,, but only so he cud take a decent volume copy home for reference...

 

[doulos24]

ill give you some mix advice when i get off of work im listing to the seond track right now but more will come

 

[Steenamaroo]

hi,,and thanks!!!

in response to your sig....i want to get better


MAJOR EDIT.....links removed,,,,itunes screwed up over duplicate file names.....will update asap



EDIT 2....links active again...sorry for confusion.


@ guitar zero, i haven't ignored your snowball idea,,,,i pitched to the artist, and he wanted to extend the flute slightly over the guitar lead part,,,,,,but other than that, he's not fussed on adding anything to Pretty Smiles. He kinda likes the raw feel,,,,i suppose because he's a live acoustic/singer and that's it!

 

[guitar zero]

hi,,yeah for sure.....

altho,i'm hoping it wont die......i've 5 more songs that need a good listenin lol



spent a ten hour session with the guy yesterday and got a lot of good work done.....

there are things that we know need tweeked and sorted,,,but the links are at the bottom anyway.


His name is Pete Gardiner, he's from N.I. U.K...

as far as buying a copy, i don't know what his plans are,,,,,i know he sells locally at gigs,, and there's nothing available online, other than what i post..

but if he's cool with it i'll make it available for download

www.webforni.com/steen/dm/06What'syourpoison.mp3

ps, These may be slightly overcooked, cos i did a last minute dash to get some volume out of them,, but only so he cud take a decent volume copy home for reference...

Ahhh, I was confused. I thought you were the artist doing the singing and he wrote the songs. But he wrote and performed, and you're recording him. Now I got it. I'll give the new songs a listen when I get back to the studio with some good monitors.

 

[Steenamaroo]

nah,,i'm 'just' the engineer

fwiw, i agree with your suggestion but still,,,lovely song as is too!

 

[doulos24]

Steenamaroo I can tell you one thing if anything you sold me on the shure sm7 ok the track brand new day 4 I think the only thing weak is the section at 3:25 to 3:30 and the climax is a lil weak (3:36-3:49) but really solid mix the vocals are pretty forward more then what I'm use to, but really I'm adjusting and I like it

 

[Steenamaroo]

good news i really can't recommend the sm7 enough...

not a go to mic for everyone by anymeans,,,,,but really handy with those singers who go nuts with dyn.range.

i recorded this same guy with an nt1a last year,,and it properly upsets me to listen to it now....


as far as the weak vocal sections,,,,i'm kinda disheartened! i had a lot of trouble with those exact sections,,,,,and i thought i'd 'got away with it'...

maybe i should use parallel compression just for those few lines? what do you think?


any way,,thanks for pointing it out!

 

[doulos24]

yea i think if you compress it it should bring more room and verb up a lil which is what i think it needs. on sihouettes I have to say dont be afraid to compress and bring up the snare the sound is decent on its own so bring the level up a lil bit more an maybe a tad of verb on it but thats just my style

 

[guitar zero]

good news i really can't recommend the sm7 enough...

not a go to mic for everyone by anymeans,,,,,but really handy with those singers who go nuts with dyn.range.

i recorded this same guy with an nt1a last year,,and it properly upsets me to listen to it now....


as far as the weak vocal sections,,,,i'm kinda disheartened! i had a lot of trouble with those exact sections,,,,,and i thought i'd 'got away with it'...

maybe i should use parallel compression just for those few lines? what do you think?


any way,,thanks for pointing it out!

Yeah, we've had an sm7 laying around for a long time, and now we've just started using it more and more. It's just solid and dependable, and gives you good tracks that are easy to mix. OK, back to the mixes. I'll give it a listen.

 

[Steenamaroo]

glad to hear it

there's a lot of good advice coming in, and i'm really really appreciating it,,,,,

although,,i'm not rendering and updating links as i go...so

maybe a good plan would be, if any advice get's posted i'll take it on board and do my thing,,,

then maybe repost all tracks with ammendments at the beginning of next week?


the mixes that we are currently 'worried' about are dirty money and cards on the table.....


thanks once again for all continued feedback!

 

[Steenamaroo]

back again people......

full track listing is at

http://www.webforni.com/steen/recordings/petecd/Dirty Money/index.html




i'm aware of a few spots of peaking in a few of the tracks,,,and the guy i'm mixing these for wants the 'rant' in Silhouettes to be louder,,,,

but other than that,i'm close to washing my hands,,,,



what do you all think?


thanks everyone!