Alright with Me

[powderfinger]

well, i had been suffering from quite a case of writer's block and finally finished something, so i'm happy about that alone......

....the acoustic guits are pretty heavily compressed, but that's what i was going for on this track.....i don't know, sometimes a hugely compressed acoustic can create some cool harmonics that wouldn't be there otherwise

any comments or ideas on the mix would be great.......also, sorry about the sloppy edit at the beginning, but the only way i could edit it at the time had to re-encode and ended up losing a losing alot of clarity, so i just kept it like that for the time being........

the song is called "Alright with Me"

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1642&alid=154

 

[jamal buchet]

nice drum solo in the begining.....

man i love the "texture" of this....guitars all fit so nice...
man this "reminds"...me of U.2....in the very best way....
man i want to go wake up my wife so we can listen to this together and sway back and forth.......very cool..
" a stroke of luck just in time...when your wheels are stuck....then you learn to fly".....great line.....
...yep.......download......



jamal

(man could i say "man" any more in here man?)

 

[snibbel]

Thumbs up powderfinger (btw, did you get your nick from that australian band?)! Nice tune and very nice recording.

I like the sound of all of it. The acoustic sounds very nice; your comment about "heavily compressed" immediately made me think of sugar's "if i can't change your mind". That's probably not the sound you were longing for and I don't know if the acoustic guitar in that song is heavily compressed, but I presume it cos if you want to hear the hardest and most energetic a-guitar ever recorded, you should try to get that track somewhere. But back to the subject: I also liked the panning of the clean electric guitar and the "simpleness" ("simple" with a positive connotation here) of the song. The only thing I noticed, is that the voice is a bit flat (I hope this is the correct word, pardon my english ) sometimes at the long notes. But it's not really bad, it adds a certain way of charme, there's a lot of music I like where the singers not always in tune but it still sounds freaking good (do you greg dulli and the afghan whigs?).

So, summing it up: good work!

 

[David]

Really nice song. I liked your vocals on this, and the back-ups worked out great..sounded good. This is a good tune to chill out to after a hard day's work (like i would know ). Really nice track powderfinger...Thanks

 

[Roker1]

very nice man...you probably look for (negative) criticism , so you could improve but there aren't any.. ..the only thing I didn't like is that ride during the chorus, but hey thats only a small thing,..overall: ECXELLENT JOB

 

[erichenryus]

can you turn on download? can't stream

?

 

[Stratomaster]

Ahhh-This is a nice way to start the day-Great tune-I like the mix too-sounds like you could ride the lead voc at times~ 1:20 mark when that ride comes in for example--Are the kick and snare samples? They sound ok but the kick esp. sounds kind of clicky for this tune-but at least you can hear the bass drum . Anyway-great song-nice recording.

p.s.-this reminds me of Becks newest stuff

 

[powderfinger]

guys, thanks for all the listens so far.........

jamal...glad you liked it.......the drum solo is definitely getting edited out if you know what i'm.......thanks man

snibble...actually powderfinger is the name of one of my favorite neil young songs (i think the band took it from that as well)....i'll have to find that sugar song, i've never heard it......as for the vocals, it was a single take, so it could probably use a couple punch ins as you said....but i thought it was good enough for the time being

david....thanks for the listen......i'm glad you liked the back-ups because that's what i had the most trouble mixing right....i never know quite how to mix them.....

roker...thanks for listening....i'll see if i can make the ride more subtle....

erichenryus.....i allowed an all user download....you should be able to give it a listen now...

stratomaster...yeah these are samples.....i don't have much experience w/ samples, so i did the best i could....i didn't take this one to the band...and did all the recording myself....maybe i should get my drummer to redub a drum part

thanks guys, keep it coming...........

links the same, all downloads now available.........

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1642&alid=154

 

[Myx62]

This song was nicely done. You got great tone from the acoustic. Whats your secret? Very nice vocals also. The only thing I can barely complain about is also the crash during the chorus. This reminds me of some old Bread stuff. Great stuff. Good work. Hope to hear more.....
Myx

 

[powderfinger]

Myx62.......thanks for listening........for the acoustic parts i recorded from a condensor about 2 feet away.....the 'secret' to get them to sound that way was a HUGE amount of compression......it almost sounds like there's reverb on the acoustic tracks right now, but they are dry with loads of compression...........thanks for listening

 

[wes480]

which compressor did you use?

I love it man, reminds me of the wallflowers kind of (your voice esp) which is cool.

Sounds great to me, has a very laid back almost velvet underground 70s thing going on...nice work.

 

[chrisharris]

If there's anyway to tone down the ride/crash during the chorus, do that...cool?

I pretty much love everything you do, but this very simple mix seems to be a step up from some of your other tunes. And I just LOVE going to your page and seeing all the songs that have come out of you during your "dry" spell.

Okay, if I was into illicit drug use, I'd get baked right now.

Keep 'em coming, brother;
Chris

 

[powderfinger]

wes, thanks for listening man......i used the timeworks compressor that comes w/ cakewalk sonar........

chris, thanks for listening man......by the way, when i was searching the board for how to better mix backing vocals i ran across some tips you gave someone else and used them.....this is my best backup vocal mix yet i think.......so thanks for that.....also, i updated the file w/ less ride and crash, let me know what you think if you have the chance.......

so, the update has a less crash and ride during the bridge/chorus.......

same link........'alright with me'

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1642&alid=154

 

[WATYF]

nice song man... kinda got that laid-back Coldplay sound to it...

I don't know how the ride originally sounded, but I like how it sounds now. You've got some pretty decent drum samples (primarily the cymbals)... where do you get those at???? I'm in desparate need of decent drum samples.

The mix on this one is good... I think it would help to bring that harmonica out just a bit more... I barely noticed it until the third listen or so. That delayed elec. git (on the left) may sound a little better placed a bit more in the "background". (primarily in the intro) It just stuck out a bit too much. Maybe center it a bit more and give it a tad bit of 'verb so it doesn't cut through as much... Other than those really minor mix suggestions (which are mostly personal preference) I would say this is a great recording.

WATYF

 

[chrisharris]

Yer done

Man, just downloaded Mix 2. I listened to mix 1 on headphones, and I used the "monitors" for this mix. I don't know if you changed anything, but I do know that there's nothing bothering me about this mix. Really nice.

I won't comment on the songwriting, b/c you generally write very good tunes, and nothing I say is gonna' change that (thank God).

The bg vox comment was nice of you. You're one of the very few people on this BBS that has his own folder on my harddrive. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Guernica]

Hey Powder,
Interesting intro...... I havent read the other comments yet. Nice writing man. I was torn between thoughts on the piano part. I like it, and the part definitely sits well in the song. I was just not sure about the random playing style....... but after a few listens....... it kinda grows. ....might be nice to tame some of the ring in it though. Great vocs man........ very Jacob Dylan meets that singer from soul asylum (that was the guy i was trying to think of a few posts back )

Nice work powder.......


G

 

[B.SABBATH]

nice tune... pretty nice recording and mix too.. are you using real cymbals? the cymbals sound better than the drums.. the keys in the left were strange.. almost distracting a little.. not sure.. the mix sounds good, but I'm not feeling those keys that much.. Piano or strings or something would be cool, but that's strictly preference.. this tune has a classic feel to it.. like Dylanish maybe.. not sure.. nice acoustic sound.. nice job man!

 

[WATYF]

lol.. are those keys...?? I thought that was a cheesy elec git with a delay on it.

Well,.. either way, I still think it needs to be a little more in the background..

WATYF

 

[powderfinger]

WATYF, the samples are all one shots off sonic foundry's drum tools, i'll try messing around w/ some of the mixing ideas you threw out.......thanks for listening

Chris, thanks for the second listen

Guernica and Sabbath, something odd happened in this track...... both of you said the same thing about the 'keys' or 'piano' part...but oddly enough, i didn't use any keys or piano on the track......there are four guitar parts, bass, drums, and vocals.....i know what you guys are saying, because before i tracked the vocals and had it in a full instrumental i could have sworn there was a piano playing........who knows......for that reason, i have know idea how to even starting to go about fixing that....thanks for listening guys...and Sabbath, the cymbals are samples too, i just kind of threw the drum track together because i don't know jack about samples

keep it coming.......

 

[powderfinger]

alright, now i'm not sure which part you guys you were talking about that sounds like keys, left or right?.......WATYF, i'm gonna try turning the delay part down like you said and repost.........