Better Days

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powderfinger

powderfinger

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Well, this is my first try at recording with some of my new equipment.

The new toy.....a DMP3 mic-pre.......I was using a Behringer mixer........I think that the pre definitely helped for a more defined bass sound, and sounds pretty good on most the stuff for a first try.

This is also the first time I've used a stereo'd acoustic in a non solo-acoustic mix.

Comments on the mix would be much appreciated.....I used some different plugins and settings on the vocals, so any comments on those would be good too.

The song is called "Better Days".....

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1642&alid=154
 
really like the drum intro....guitars are nice and waaaaarrrrmmm...
great vox...."youtreat me like a crime"....nice.
feed off your abuse....man thats a great line..
i har a couple of spots "there are times.....'just not quite on key ...just a smidge...but the vocal "sound is great...nice harmonies.......wow...really nice..

i wont try to give you " mix " advice...thats not my thing ..

however the song lyrically and musically is VERY good...




downloading....
jamal

p.s. i know this is a first try..but right on the end i can hear you moving around and stuff...lol....adds "ambience'...
 
Its late and I'm tired :)

I really liked the song, but a combination of exhaustion and inexperience will prevent me from offering more than a bump so that others are sure to listen to this one.

Thanks =)
 
Okay, stream of consciousness...

First thing I notice is how the strumming is out of time with the percussion... vocal out not on key sometimes... are you playing and singing at the same time? Vocal should be redone in some parts really. Was the vocal done all through in one take?

Actually a pretty good mix overall, nice ambience on the acoustic. Biggest problems are out of tune lead vocal, and out of time strumming, but a good song!
 
previous caller got it right....the out of timeness of it is fairly distracting.
But the sound is pretty good....nice vox sound and the acoustic's nice too.....and that's what I get the feeling is what you're mainly interested in right now; getting the sound right.
 
I concur with the strumming being a little out of time.
And the vocal being off pitch at times.

Nevertheless, a great song with great lyrics. Bob dylanish voice in some places - love it.

I also liked the drum intro....original.

2.38-2.43 - I think the harmony needs to be changed - and a few other spots as well. obviously this isnt the final mix so i wont go into that anymore.

all in all i like the idea and the execution (thus far).

yiordanaki
 
Simple, but thoughtful. Just like I like 'em. :D

Man, in my opinion, your acoustic sound is really really excellent. It's not just good, or getting better...It RULES! For me, recording and mixing an acoustic is a ton harder than electric gits, so my hat's off. This is the acoustic sound I WANT, but only achieve on rare occasions...by accident.

I'm listening on headphones now, solely for enjoyment, so I'm not gonna' offer any mix tips.

It's a cool song; I know you're a Neil Young fan; do you like Tom Petty at all? This reminds me of some of my favorite Petty tunes.

Keep crankin' 'em out. Your acoustic work seems like your best work to me, but I'm partial...soooooo...

Have a great day,
chris
 
pw, thanks. another great listen this am. great acoustic sound my friend.
 
Jamal -- thanks for breaking in the thread with the first listen....i'm glad you like the song and lyrics...i've been sitting on this one for a while, and wasn't sure if i should record it or not, but i think i'm glad i did

adams -- thanks for listening and for the bump

schenkerguy -- no, it isn't playing & singing at the same time, as I only have 2 acceptable mics....I'm planing on re-doing the first parts of the chorus vocals...and probably re-tracking that main acoustic tonight too.....


Lt. Bob -- thanks for listening...I'm going give the rhythm guit one more shot to be on time tonight....when i was recording, i was having some latency issues, which accounted for some (not all) of the timing issues........i definitely agree that i should continue to try and tighten up the strumming


yiordanaki -- thanks for listening....hopefully i'll have a remix up tonight or tomorrow

Chris -- I'm glad you like the song....and I love Tom Petty, too. Yeah, thus far, I've been happy with my acoustic sound, which is odd, because I don't do that much to achieve it.....set up the mic, a litte compression and eq...a touch of reverb......anyhow, I'm hoping to maybe get a remix up tonight or tomorrow

dtb -- thanks for listening...i'm glad the acoustic sound is going over with you guys.......one less thing for me to worry about
 
I didnt' care for the percussion, but the guitars sounded awesome! What kind of mic's? I might just have to get me one of those dmp3's! Great song too. what other processing did you do?
 
Very good song (as usual)-Acoustic guit tone is great-as is the vocal sound. Other people have mentioned the occasional timing problems-so I won't. I hear tons of production ideas when I listen to this..This could be a full on cranked dist guit tune or some celtic fiddling even?? Im rambling...good song. Reminds me of the waterboys (fishermans blues-GREAT album).
 
Hey Powder,
Nice song man! Yeah, your acoustic tone is great. I dont mind the percussion ...kinda dig it, just straighten out the strumming and rhythmically its all there. I like your writing style ....very laid back, cool, ...and you. Nice stuff man.

g
 
I really liked the nice warm vocals. Guitars were pretty nice too. Nice song. Good writing.

A little pitchiness sometimes. Harmonies out of sync here and there. The strumming gets off track a bit. The drums cut off a bit abruptly at the end.

I'd keep working at it. It's a good song.
 
Hey Powder, I got a DMP3 for Christmas too! You're one step ahead of me though as I haven't recorded anything with it yet.

I think this is a great song, I love the sounds you're getting here, and I like your idea with the drums a lot. Maybe just a few more variations in the rythm patterns though. Keeps it interesting.

Just fix those vocals and you'll be cool. Sounds to me like you did 'em cold.


Twist
 
JR#97 -- thanks, i used a Marshall MXL v93 and an SM-58 on the guitar......other than that, it was just an EQ preset, a little compression, and a touch of room reverb

Stratomaster -- thanks for listening....yeah, i agree that this might lend to some bigger production stuff, i've thought about adding some feedbacking guitars in small doses, but haven't decided on that or not

Guernica -- thanks for listening...i'm going to try and straighten out the loose ends tonight.

TripleM -- thanks for the comments. i'm going to redo some of the guitar and vocal work......i need to do some better harmonies as well, i just kind of made those up on the spot....

Twist -- good luck with the DMP3. so far so good with mine. yup, vocals were definitely done cold.....also, i had the verses for this for a while now, but the chorus part was just written and i had never sung it before i recorded, so a little practice then rerecord is going to help.
 
twist said:
Hey Powder, I got a DMP3 for Christmas too!
Click to expand...
I did too. Dammit, I'm gonna' record something right now. It'll suck, but I'm inspired.

:D
 
you sound like bob dylan to me. i like this song.

did you do any goofy tuning on the guitar like tune all strings to one note or something? not that it sounds you did, just that someone else posted something like that and i was really curious how many other people tune their guitars outside of what my small head (and fingers) can understand.

so you just need to go back and fix the things that everyone is telling you to fix and maybe add some extra production and you'll have something to be proud of.
 
Guitars do sound very nice. It is definitely possible to get a good acoustic sound with a 58. In fact, I'm re-making some of my first recordings, and on one of them I'm keeping the original SM58 acoustic tracks because I like them, even though I could easily redo them with Octavas. You did will with the acoustic here I think.

I would consider re-tracking the vocals, and play around with the the level of your headphones. It may be that your're singing with them too loud and it's affecting your ability to sustain notes. I was having that problem until I tried turning down the cans a bit. Seems to have helped a lot. I'm hitting some of my more challenging notes in less takes and not just saying "screw it- good enough." :)

The actual tone of everything works pretty well IMO. The songwriting is great. And I really sensed you're feeling in this. You're not lacking in that at all! Nicely done!
 
I just noticed Eric's post, and I was thinking the same thing- Dylan!
 
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