Acoustic singer/songwriter.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steenamaroo
  • Start date Start date
Here's another one.


This is still a rough mix but I'm getting excited now :)
 
So your putting on the producers hat as well as the engineers hat now Paul?
 
Howdya mean Henry? Getting involved in how he performs it?

I suppose it's habit cos I've been recording this guy since he didn't know how to write and I didn't know how to record.lol.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Howdya mean Henry? Getting involved in how he performs it?

I suppose it's habit cos I've been recording this guy since he didn't know how to write and I didn't know how to record.lol.
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Yeah. I find myself having to help people get their best foot forward with a recording as you are here, which is primarily a producers job.
Most people can't afford a producer and the job always falls to us.
 
As long as it has a box to tick on the royalties form I'm happy!
Whatcha think of that last track there?
 
I've been on the other end, as a band that didn't know how to record...we appreciated the producer side of the engineer!
 
Aye, I've been there myself Aaron. A bit of guidance is nice.


Dunno if anyone's following but I'll post these as I start them
I'm adding 04 and 06 now but here's the full list so it's easier to keep track of

Softer love song
Bit more uptempo tune
Softer love song
Upbeat more pop style.
Upbeat more pop style.
Epic super ballad.
 
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I think you did a really good job with these. I listened to the last three and while not my cup of tea stylistically, I think the whole thing is packaged pretty well. The tracks sound consistent from one to the next and nothing jumps out at me level-wise or otherwise.

Wow, there's a lot of singer/songwriter stuff in here at the moment! Personally, I always like to imagine Bluto from Animal House smashing thre guitar in the stairwell when I hear this kind of stuff, but that's just me.

The only things that came to mind for me (other than the postives about the production) were that the drums seemed kind of generic sounding (how were they done?) and that the singer (I assume he's British?) has an odd delivery and almost sounds like he's trying to put on a certain kind of American accent that I'm not sure exists. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I found the way he pronounced certain words to be odd...interesting lyrics to be sure though.

Again, not my forte (I don't have one) so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I spent a good deal of time listening this evening and wanted to let you know that I thought you did really nice work with these tracks.
 
Thanks for taking the time heatmiser.
You're bang on with both points.
He's got a good oul Norn Iron accent (read Nothern Ireland) but yeah, as you pointed out I suppose he puts on some kinda of US attempt.
Words like "fight" and "like" seem to come out as faaaat and laaaak which kinda bugs me but hey, he's been doing that for years.lol.

Once I actually got him to try out just singing in his natural accent. Turns out there's a good reason Liam Neeson's an actor not a singer! :p
You get the odd guy like Duke Special doing it. It annoys me more than the fake US accent though tbh.

The drums are done in addictive drums. Programmed is too generous a word; I pretty much just duped some pre-made loops but maybe I should look into varying the beats a little. I'll spend some time on that tomorrow I think.
Thanks for that. :)

You touched on continuity there. If anyone has any tips in terms of mastering preparation I'm all ears.
Another thing that i keep chopping and changing is vocal level. Obviously I want him good and clear but I don't wanna go too far, so any advice on that is appreciated.


This will be the first session that I have professionally mastered elsewhere, so I wanna make sure the tracks are the best they can be with that in mind.

Cheers all.
 
Steenamaroo said:
As long as it has a box to tick on the royalties form I'm happy!
Whatcha think of that last track there?
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I like it - what are you using for the strings?

And what are you using for piano on Hollywood Lights?

You were asking about the vocals in preparation for mastering and I was going to suggest double tracking them like you did (I believe that's what you did) on the chorus of Hollywood Lights.
 
Hey Henry.

The brief strings on Baby before the first chorus are me and me £15 violin.
The ones in Hollywood lights are two string patches from a Yamaha Clavinova recorded over line out, and the rest are the xpand synth in Pro Tools.

All of the piano parts are from the Yamaha Clavinova too. Damn I love that thing!

You're right, we did double track the choruses of Hollywood lights but only cos it's sounds so much like an anthem (IMO).

I don't think I'd wanna do the rest, cos (believe it or not) the focus is meant to be on the singer songwriter.lol.
Might have got a little carried away again.

At least a few of the songs are singer/songwriterish.lol.
 
I can see your point with the singer/songwriter - Just that every time I hear such works my mind starts to work over time with production and I envision a simple song turned into a work one would find on the Sgt. Peppers album with multiple tracks of instruments and effects. ☼ I m just crazy like that ☼
 
Tell me about it.
This is his first CD with no drums......................
 
You play the fiddle as well! Next you'll be telling me that you play the pipes.
 
Actually I did have the opportunity to try once. I was a kid though. Can't even remember if I got a sound out of it or not.
 
All and all though Paul ..... exultant work so far! Can't wait to hear the masters.
 
Thanks Henry :) I'm pretty excited about that too.

The thing that really surprised me is I only broke out the Mackies today.
Until now I'd been working on old Sony hifi speakers.....Not even dear ones.lol
 
Will you A/B between the two or just go with the Mac's?
 
Gonna a/b/c/d/e/f/g lol.

Really wanna make this as good as possible so I'm gona listen on anything that I can.

At the minute they sound great on the Mackies and a Sony ipod dock we have here.
Seems like a very good start!

*update*
I think I've done as much as I can without taking some time out to listen to these tracks a lot.
I'll meet up with the guy after the weekend and finish up I think.
 
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You should be able to find a cheap AM/FM transmitter on e-bay. So as to broadcast it into the airwaves to be picked up by any radio within say 3oo to 500 feet. I found some for under $25.
It's kinda cool to be ale to go out to the street and tune in in on your clients car radio to see how it transfers that way.
 
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