A sappy jazz tune- first of a series of same

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boze

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I still need to practice singing and playing this, but the reason I'm sending it to the clinic early is because I'm just starting out using my setup to record real music (rather than make electonic music or whatever) and I can definitely use some tips and criticism from folks with production experience. The goal is to make an album of chill sappy jazz tunes and give them to... well, give them to my mother and my sister probably- my gf can have a copy if we haven't broken up by that point.

This is me singing into an AT4033 while playing a nylon string that's plugged into a Genesis3 (like the Pod by Line6- an amp modeler thing). I've been trying to lay off the bass notes because I'm sending these tracks for rehearsal purposes to a friend who plays upright and he's going to lay down some bass once I'm rehearsed better.

In Digital Performer I just bussed the two tracks to a reverb and put compression on the vocal (not as delicately as I'd have liked, but like I said I'm still learning). Only a bit of panning and levels and that's it. No eq at all- should have at least tried that to see how it went but it's midnight and my back hurts.

Thanks for any advice and thanks for listening.
 
Nice. Totally relaxing, just what I need at the moment :D Whats the AT3035 go into? The quality is good to me :)
 
the at4033 goes into an 01v, which goes into a motu2408 via a lightpipe.

i think i just need to learn a lot more about sw mixing and mastering. the sound i'd like (once i'm better practiced) is something simple like the solo João Gilberto records i've heard only warmer and with less room ambience.

glad you enjoyed it though.. future tunes should be more relaxing i think- this one is kind of a challenging melody for me compared to many of the tunes on my set list.
 
To be honest there isn't a lot to mix there :D With two tracks its easy to get a nice sound, and a damn nice sound it is. Good singer too :) OK for suggestions:

Perhaps a melodic nylon string second guitar coming in the last verse. If you could create a "collage" of guitar it would sound amazing (it's hard to explain though). A female vocalist could do some harmonys too, but I think perhaps its best to keep this tune simple. It's real nice though :D
 
OK I'm getting a few distorted vibration sounds, but I can't guarantee that its not my headphones. There's a certain frequency that buzzes a little, the words "surrender" around that kind of pitch seem affected. It may just be my monitoring though.
 
Very nice.I think the guitar work could use some more rehearsal,
but the vox sound perfect for this genre.Very clean and airy.I
think an upright bass and some piano would put the finishing touches to it.
 
No mix needed here....

No effects needed... all in the mood !!!

You're doing really great !!!
 
hey thanks guys

i appreciate the kind words.

it's true that some more rehearsal is definitely called for. i think maybe i'll just use a bit less compression and make some gentler changes and see how things go with different tunes. getting a good take is going to be a bigger challenge than producing something that's this sparse and straight forward anyway.

thanks again :)
 
It certainly sounds fine just the way it is, but I'd love to hear a nice mildly dampened plate in there... Maybe with around 60 or 70ms pre-delay to give it an "almost empty at the end of the night" club feel... You'd probably have to add a little high-shelf to the guitar for it to work... Then find a thick, lush chorus and put the tiniest little bit on the guitar. Vocals sound nice & clear.

Just a thought.

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
okay- i'll give it a shot. i don't think i know how to dampen a plate and i don't think i know which kinds of chorus are lush (never used chorus for anything since i tried to learn Purple Rain when I was in high school). Thanks a bunch for the specific pruduction suggestions. I'm curious to hear what I can make happen with the ideas but at least I can upload again and you can tell me how close I was to the effects you're talking about.

thanks.
 
By "lush" I'm talking thick, slow, hardcore chorus. But just a BIT mixed in.

On the plate - If you're "in the box" using plugs, most verbs will have some sort of "dampen" control... If you're returning an external unit on a console and you have a bright plate setting, just bring your hi-shelf down a few dB to dull it down a bit.

And sure, I'd love to hear it.

JS
 
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