Apartment 17

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Fishmed

Fishmed

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This is one of my all time favorite songs to have worked on.
It is another song I recorded for my friend Nate and his Band.

Apartment 17
 
the sounds are mostly good, but the balance is a little off.
the git is way out front, and the bass is a little too far back.
the kik and snare (at times) are a little hidden.

in a perfect world, the git would be mic'd and not di.
maybe a little more comp on the snare, it seems to have a lot of range dynamically. the snare and toms sound a little "papery" to me. hard to say what an easy fix would be without being able to play with it my self.

kik could use a little work too, proper eq could probably preclude the need for a volume boost.

very good song.
 
I mixed this years ago, so I am sure I could do a better job now.
I guess i have listened to is SO much the way it is mixed that I am use to the way it sounds. :o

Maybe I will break-out the old tracks and do a new mix.
 
Hey, this is a real catchy tune. Nice. Enjoyable rhythm. The vox are pretty good. Mix is pretty good.

Around the end of the chorus the vox kind of become hard to understand.

Behind the chorus the hats are a little too bright. Just the closed hats not the opens. I'd say just lower by 2db.

Rhytym guitar is a little loud. I'd say lower by about 4-5db and then go from there. Unless that's too low then you know how much to raise. I'd maybe touch it using EQ around 5kHz-10kHz by a couple of dbs.

Oh, you can afford to raise the bass a notch or two. If you EQ and lower the lows, you could raise quite a bit.

The Harmonikee is a nice touch.

The keys are just at the right level and nice addition. :)
 
NICE SONG, FISHMED!

I love the way this recording sounds... (but more interesting than simply comment and make some critics, is to know the gear used (tell us, please :cool: :cool:).

I was comparing with a Ben Harper song called "Gold To me" , and its very similar in a lot of ways. :cool:

Vocals sounds good ( what mic, pre, room ? )
Perferc Drum (BD) and bass guitar " frequencies interaction".
Like the guitar sound too, the level it´s good to me (maybe a little more comp, but i´m not 100% sure if is the way)

The only neg point, (to my taste) are the "super" high frequencies (~14 khz).Are unnecessary, to me. I try to cut a lot (maybe 8 or 9 db!) or even a hi cut in 12 or 13 k ( I´m not joking, the recording are sounding so well that even with this "super hi cut" sound even more similar with the one of Ben Harper.

Are you recording or mixing in tape?

Congratulations, one more time.

Ciro
 
During the time of the tracking of this recording I had a Hill console which was interfaced to my PC through a Layla and I was running a version of Cakewalk (pre-Sonar) and editing in Sound Forge. By Drum booth is a very small room that I created by extending a closet, and it has been lined wall to wall and ceiling with acoustic panels. I really like the sound of the booth; its got a little bit of life to it.

We used the drummer's set which was an older Yamaha "Rocker" set of some sort; I am talking huge toms. I use a pair of AKG C418 for the overheads, AKG D112 for the kick, Sure Beta 57 for the snare, but I cannot remember what I was using for tom mics at that time. The Bass went direct through a Peavey Sessionbass, and I think the acoustic guitar was direct too. Nate had an Epiphone Jumbo which we used in many of his recordings. I believe I used an EV RE-27 for the vocals; I don’t think I had the Beyerdynamic at this point.

On this version of the mix, I had a MCI JH416 console, and I used a DBX 162 on the vocals. I still used a PC, but my new interface was a MOTU 2408 using a pair of ADAT XTs for the AD/DA converters.
 
Cool vibe and feel to this one...like the harp in the intro!I like your acoustic tones alot...there not to brittle or quacky sounding.Smooth tune with nice vocals/backing harmonies..well done!
 
Fishmed_Returns said:
During the time of the tracking of this recording I had a Hill console which was interfaced to my PC through a Layla and I was running a version of Cakewalk (pre-Sonar) and editing in Sound Forge. By Drum booth is a very small room that I created by extending a closet, and it has been lined wall to wall and ceiling with acoustic panels. I really like the sound of the booth; its got a little bit of life to it.

We used the drummer's set which was an older Yamaha "Rocker" set of some sort; I am talking huge toms. I use a pair of AKG C418 for the overheads, AKG D112 for the kick, Sure Beta 57 for the snare, but I cannot remember what I was using for tom mics at that time. The Bass went direct through a Peavey Sessionbass, and I think the acoustic guitar was direct too. Nate had an Epiphone Jumbo which we used in many of his recordings. I believe I used an EV RE-27 for the vocals; I don’t think I had the Beyerdynamic at this point.

On this version of the mix, I had a MCI JH416 console, and I used a DBX 162 on the vocals. I still used a PC, but my new interface was a MOTU 2408 using a pair of ADAT XTs for the AD/DA converters.
Click to expand...

Well I decided to get on the ball and remix this song this weekend. Listening to the individual tracks I could tell why some things sounded as they did. The overhead mics were actually Shure BG 4.1, very harsh sounds and that is why I ditched them. The tom mics were AKG C418. The guitar was both mic'ed and ran direct. I am still working on the kick sound, so I should have the new mixed posted this sometime this week.
 
Good tune, I think if I had anything else to add to the comments is that the guitar seems out of phase, it is throwing the stereo field off... the remix is a little more balanced, but that out of phase is still confusing the overall mix.

Could just be that it's panned way out (hard L/R) but it still seems phased.

I really like the tune though....definately worth working on!
 
Perdicament said:
Good tune, I think if I had anything else to add to the comments is that the guitar seems out of phase, it is throwing the stereo field off... the remix is a little more balanced, but that out of phase is still confusing the overall mix.

Could just be that it's panned way out (hard L/R) but it still seems phased.
I really like the tune though....definately worth working on!
Click to expand...

That is correct it is panned Hard L/R; one side is mic'ed and the other is direct. I will reverse the phase and see if that makes any difference.
 
I like the remix better for some aspects, but teh guitar is odd...I think the phase issue discussed. But vocals are really good....and drums seem to be up to snuff. Good tune overall. Fix that guitar issue, and should really shine. :cool:
 
Man, it's easy to miss a thread if you're not paying attention. Juat caught this.

I love the song itself. There's nothing wrong with any of the sounds and, in fact, everything sounds top-notch. There's just something about the levels that I can't put my finger on that doesn't allow the tune to grab me and make me listen. Maybe the vocals are not up front enough or not dynamic enough? I don't know...But everything's there to make this killer. All the instruments sound good. Drums sound great.
 
Fishmed_Returns said:
My newest mix:

Apt 17
Click to expand...
It sounds great, a marked improvement over the original mix. I think the acoustic sounds much warmer (sounds like the highs and mids were brought down a bit). Nice job
 
I listened to the first mix. I'm on dial-up so didn't have time for the others.

What a great song!!! The singer is very good.

My biggest problem is the acoustic guitar sound. I'm sure that there is no microphone involved and it suffers for it, especially as that instrument is really the main one in the song.

I live in Apartment #17, so I just had to listen!!!

Good job.
 
This song is well nice mix, but it lacks a bit of punch on the kick.

I would recommend putting a little compression on the kick in the mix assumming this is still possible.
 
this song sounds amazing. the only flaw i found was the kick drum should be a tiny bti louder just to give the mix a nice little kick, and i agree with how the hi hats closed is loud durring the chorus.


but other than those 2 very small flaws, this mix is amazing. i would love to find someone to record a song like this. These kind of songs are always the best to record, cause the possibilities are endless.
 
Dude, that is pretty darn nice now. Vocals are sweet. Guitars seem fixed to me...nice sounds there. Good tune overall man...nice mix, nice playing and very good structure. :)
 
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