"American Wake" - Acoustic ballad

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famous beagle

famous beagle

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Hey y'all,

Quick background: So, this is a song written by the Grammy-winning songwriter Chris Tompkins, who's written and/or co-written several hits for Carrie Underwood ("Before He Cheats," "Blown Away"), Kenny Chesney ("Aint' Back Yet"), Dierks Bentley ("Drunk on a Plane"), and more.

Anyway, we (my wife and I) know his father-in-law, who is a really good acoustic guitarist named Scooter Muse, through the Celtic music scene. (My wife used to be in a Celtic band called The Selkie Girls, and they played a bunch of festivals, etc.)

The only thing I had to do with this recording is that I recorded my wife's vocals. Scooter recorded everything else and is doing the mixing. I thought I'd run it by y'all here to get some feedback if possible.

Thanks for listening, and any comments welcome!
 

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Love it. Your wife has a beautiful voice. (I’ve mentioned that before) Song is pro on all levels. (y)
 
Thanks, y'all. Yeah, it's so humbling recording her vocals. She gets it all in just a few passes.
 
Fantastic ! Very well performed and produced . I Love his picking style and the way the song flowed. Her Beautiful voice gave me chills on the opening lines.
Loved it .. mark
 
I have to say, that didn't sound like a rough version to me. Beautiful song.
 
@mark skinner Thanks for the listen and the kind words! Yes, Scooter is a fantastic player, and my wife's voice ... well ... it's one of the things that made me fall for her long ago. ?

@R D Smith Thanks so much!
 
Nice song all around. And yes she has a very nice voice - and it works very well for a song like this.
 
Beautiful, smooth, lilting, graceful. I've got only a couple of thoughts about the mix. I think I'm right about the first one, but you're going to have to mull the second one. The inbreath sounds are pretty loud, so you might want to reduce them with automation - you can bring the whole breath sound down by the same amount, or you can automate a slope that shortens it by reducing the first part of the breath and the slope returns to normal level by the end of the breath. The other thing is the bvs - the only time they were loud enough for me was about the three minute mark where they were singing the other language. Every other instance, they sounded buried to my ears,

Lovely, lovely tuneage.
 
dobro said:
Beautiful, smooth, lilting, graceful. I've got only a couple of thoughts about the mix. I think I'm right about the first one, but you're going to have to mull the second one. The inbreath sounds are pretty loud, so you might want to reduce them with automation - you can bring the whole breath sound down by the same amount, or you can automate a slope that shortens it by reducing the first part of the breath and the slope returns to normal level by the end of the breath. The other thing is the bvs - the only time they were loud enough for me was about the three minute mark where they were singing the other language. Every other instance, they sounded buried to my ears,

Lovely, lovely tuneage.
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Thanks so much for the listen and the suggestions. I agree with you for sure about the BG vocals. I'll have to check out the breaths. They didn't bother me initially, but I'll have another listen.
 
I never used to pay attention to recorded breaths either. Then I paid a guy fifty bucks to master a tune and aside from some EQ advice, his main comment was 'do something about mouth and breath sounds'. So, because it cost me fifty dollars, I notice it now lol.
 
dobro said:
I never used to pay attention to recorded breaths either. Then I paid a guy fifty bucks to master a tune and aside from some EQ advice, his main comment was 'do something about mouth and breath sounds'. So, because it cost me fifty dollars, I notice it now lol.
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Haha!

Yeah, it seems to bother some more than others. I guess it also depends on the style. For example, in this old Stevie Wonder tune, you can hear breaths and mouth noise all over the place. It gets more noticeable as the song progresses and gets more intense. To me, it adds to the energy of the performance. In fact, I really love hearing them on this track.


To me, it seems natural, but I guess in a stripped down ballad like this, I can see how bringing them down a bit wouldn't hurt. Thanks again!
 
famous beagle said:
To me, it seems natural, but I guess in a stripped down ballad like this, I can see how bringing them down a bit wouldn't hurt.
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I'm with Dobro on this one, I think a bit of breath control would help get this mix over the line.
 
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I’ve been traveling for a couple of weeks and have only a set of wired earbuds, many years old (so regret that choice when minimizing). This is a lovely song and as others said, the singing is quite nice. I do hear some little clicks that I cannot identify but also likely due to my limited “listening environment.” Could be mouth noises or something from the bit of percussion.

If this is “just a mix,” it feels a tiny bit [over-] processed/compressed, but, again, what’s entering my ears is not optimal by a mile. The bass sounds less acoustic (as in more electric) than I’d personally want, but probably it’s a little bit of my more recent turn to the bluegrass-y stuff that has me wanting to feel like I’m hearing physical movement in the dynamics, i.e., more than faders.
 
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