A bit of a different approach for me

  • Thread starter Thread starter bozmillar
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bozmillar

bozmillar

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I've always tried to write songs and look for someone to sing them, but it's always hard to find someone who gets the vocals the way I had imagined, so I always have a bunch of vocal-less songs.

I took a different approach this time and decided to look for some songwriters that already have songs written so I could just record/produce the songs. So this song is not the metal I'm used to recording. In fact, it's far from it.

I recorded this song this weekend. She is playing the piano and singing, and my job is just to fill in the rest. I figured for this song, I would just add strings. I'm pretty much done, except for the verses and bridge, but I want to get some feedback on the vocals and of course the fake strings.

Being that I rarely record vocals, it's not really second nature for me to get the compression or eq settings right, so there is a lot of experimenting going on. She was sick when she sang this, so she's going to retrack the vocals later.

What would you suggest I do differently for the real vocal recording? Also, the string parts that I have finished, I need to know if they sound ok. Too fake? Too boring?

Any feedback is always helpful.

 
dont really have any advice due to my lack of experience but what a beautiful voice...very pleasant all round....
 
Real different from what we're used to from you Boz. Nonetheless, a beautiful voice, the lady sounds like Sheryl Crow and that's good. She dominates the song so much that I don't think you need anything but her solo voice. Also I think that the strings you have on it are enough. Hope you post more of her songs, she's fantastic!

Joey :):):):)
 
yeah, I'm excited to hear what she sounds like when she's not sick. My main goal is to make her not think I'm incompetent so that she will come back to record more songs.
 
Excellent results....you sound VERY competent and she sounds amazing. A few cracks here and there but she was sick as you say. Still an excellent performance. The strings are perfect, leave them as they are.
 
The vocal recording is superb. The piano sounds real. Is it? I think you've done a tremendous job with the strings. Care to share which software synth/plug you're using. Mix levels are good. nice work.
 
I see you want some feedback about the vox and string synths...(I'm not an expert)...I suppose the vocals could be a little louder...even though it is a very quiet song anyway...I'd bring them up a little coz they are snuggled too far down I think. I think the synth strings are restrained and quite ok...seems a lot of people make their synth work a bit over the top. So, you've done well to hold it back...keep it as a part of the song, not the key to it.

One thing I have been thinking about if I ever do synth strings or something like that is maybe to get them done and eq'd and all that...then mic my monitors, record them as clean as I can in my room...experiment with mic distance...and then mix that recording back into the project and maybe remove the original...just to see if I can lend any kind of real colour to them or some kind of real room sound...something like that....your synths sound good to me...so maybe no need for that idea...it's just something I have in the back of my mind to do one day.
 
Mr. Murder, thanks for the comments. I'm hoping she'll come back thursday to retrack the vocals.

Guitar Zero, I use Akoustic Piano for the piano and GPO for the strings. I still haven't gone through to do the whole layering solo instruments on top to make them slightly more lifelike. I have to give my ears a rest for a few days before attempting that.

For the vocals, I used an Astatic ctm1000 that I bought from musicians friend stupid deal of the day a year or so ago. the pair was $50. It's a bit midrangy, but I think it sounds better on her vocals than my MXL 990, which is the opposite of midrangy. It's running into my mackie VLZ mixer and into an M-Audio Delta-66. I had to put a windscreen on the mic because I didn't have time to make a pop screen, and since she was going to retrack it anyways, I didn't worry about it too much.

Monkey, I have actually considered doing that with guitar sims before, hoping that it would give more of a real feel, but never thought of doing it with strings. that would be an interesting thing to try out.

Here's an updated version. I brought the vocals up a bit. I also finished up the string section in the verse and bridge, and messed with string levels a bit. I think I overdid the volume on the strings in the last verse, but that's an easy fix.

http://www.bozrecords.com/mp3s/kara/
 
Boz,
Littlestar3.
I quite like the voice & mic combo - nice, comfy.
Strings - your arrangement is well suited to the song,
One of the lines - 'cello off to the side gets a little boomy (just like the real thing) in spots and dominates the mix for a moment.
I've found, when mixing my real 'cello, I need to cut a fair bit of bottom end off it so that it doesn't get too dominant.
All I'd suggest is that there a few moments when some stridant phrases from 'cello & bass under the smooth violins & violas might've been nice.
Lovely vox, nice capture and very sympathetic arrangement.
Good stuff.
 
rayc -
yeah, I actually started noticing that issue for the first time yesterday. I was actually going to comment on a song someone else had that had too much low end in the right channel, then listened to mine and realized I had the same problem. The low end of the mix is where I always have most of my problems.
 
Nice tune.

Well captured, got a nice cosy vibe to it.

I`d like more verb on the vox, if I were to critizise, but that just my taste:D
 
Really nice voice and vocal. I'm not to sure about the piano chord stuff at the beginning. You might try some arpeges at the beginning of the song, and then build into the string and chords progression later in the song. Nice song though...
 
ok, a lot of people mentioned bringing up the strings, so that's what I did. I also did some massaging to try to make them sound more real.

 
The lifted string lines work well, I think you were reserved in their mix level because they're synth lines - don't be ashamed of using synths when you have access to nothing else - just try to emulate the real tonal range and imagine beyond smooth & swell when thinking of adjectives - all of which you seem to have done.
Nice piece of work Boz!
 
thanks rayc,

I think I always have that underlying fear of having an extremely cheesy string section that sounds like a song from the 80's when people didn't care that their string pads sounded fake. If I'm going to fake it, I want to fake it right.
 
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