ambient U2ish type song - comments, please?

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circusfreak

circusfreak

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Hey guys. This is the first mix I've posted here. It's from a session a few months ago. I'm starting to record my new album and will probably use many of the same techniques as I did in this song, but would be totally open to trying new things if you have any ideas.

Any comments, criticisms, or ideas for improvement would be appreciated.

peace-kev

www.kevinbrawley.com

it's called "Anything you Want"
you can left click to listen, or right click to save
 
Hey,

I thought it sounded very good. Nice vocals and a decent mix. The only thing I heard that I didn't love was something about the 16th note open hi hats that start somewhere around the 3 minute mark. I'm not exactly sure what it was about those that hit me wrong, but something was off for me. It could be just that the level was too high, but it also seemed I was hearing some weird stereo imaging just on those hats that seemed to kind of wash and smear them across the left sound field (it could be just that I haven't had any coffee today :))

It sounded very good to me other than that :)

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
 
I liked the vocals. Good sound and real good singing.

There's a big difference between the softest parts and the loudest parts. I found myself turning it up to hear and then back down because it got too loud. I'd vote for leveling that out a little.

When the cymbals come in at around 2:50ish, they mask the vocal just a bit. The vocals in general could be compressed a little harder. Besides the section I mentioned, words here and there get lost.

Acoustic guitar is lacking a little higher end detail.

That's about it. Pretty good mix.
 
I agree with the previous posts.
What equipment you used to record it?
 
Thanks, everyone. Sincerely - I appreciate it.

Re: the cymbals - It was tracked using a MIDI keyboard and EZDrummer, so the wacky sound does not surprise me in the least. I did the most with what I had to work with, and finally got to the point where I threw my hands up and said "I'm done."

Re: Acoustic guitar - I agree this was the weakest part of the recording. I recorded an old Ibanez guitar with an AKG C-1000.

Re: vocal and overall levels - I have been drooling at all the posts on compression and hopefully my future recordings will show a step forward.

The whole thing was done in my office with Cubase LE, a Tascam US-144 interface, Ibanez acoustic, custom built electric played through Amplitube, AKG C-1000 for acoustic guitar and vocals, and EZDrummer triggered on an Oxygen 49. (Not as organic as I would like, but hopefully the overall tone came out as organic as possible - at least that was the idea.)

Again - thanks for the ear everyone.
 
I enjoyed the song, though a little TOO close to U2. :) I think the bass line repeating between the I and IV like you did is kind of a signature to a U2 song and you could probably change it up a little to make it your own.

About the ezdrummer thing... don't use a midi keyboard to drive ezdrummer. Just get in there and manually edit your drum tracks. Put the effort and time into making it sound the way you want instead of relying on a kybrd play-along. When you edit, look at every drum hit from a drummer's perspective. What would the very best drummer do for each note? Can he physically do it? Answer those questions as you're editing and it will come out much more organic. You can easily edit ezdrummer tracks in Cubase, it just takes a time and vision. I have ezdrummer and I love editing the parts.

Cool man,
 
Music's very good.
The one thing that stood out in the recording was that hihat, it sounds pretty terrible. Otherwise, great voice and nice guitar playing.

Joey :)
 
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