Born to Lose - feedback please

[Greg_L]

This is a pretty simple bluesy-rock song originally done by Social Distortion.

"Born to Lose"
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=639137

Please give it a listen and let me know how everything sounds - good or bad.

Thanks.

Greg

 

[ido1957]

You continue to put out some great tunes Greg.....

My Daddy spanked my bare @ss

The tone on the guitars is very good, they sit nicely L/R and stay out of the way of the vocals. Bit of room to them too.... Mic placement?

Cool dual leads......

The whole mix is compressed (or just mixed?) with everything nice and even....nothing poking up out of place. Smooth......

The MP3 format plays a bit of havoc on your crash cymbal. It's a bit splashy - I'd like to hear this on .wav file

Overall another good one......downloaded.....

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Nice, you sound kind of like the guy from Social D Vox are nice and clear too. Maybe a bit more aggression on the guitars. To me sounds like they're almost too far back from the vox. Then again, it does have a more laid back feel the way it is. I guess you could go either way with that depending on the feel you're going for. Either way it does sound like the lead guitar needs to cut through the rhythm a bit more. Overall, good work here. Enjoyed the listen

 

[Greg_L]

Thanks Ido.

The guitars were close mic'd. I recorded 2 rhythm tracks and panned each wide. I then copied them and put each one closer to the middle to thicken everything, but low in the mix, and shifted them very slightly to create some slight phasing. The leads were basically done the same way, but with some extra ambience reverb added. Maybe thats the 'room' youre hearing.

I didn't use much compression on the final mixdown. Very little actually. Just enough to smooth things out. Theres not much dynamic range to this song. It just plods along.

I always have trouble getting a good cymbal sound since I'm not using overheads. I 'creatively' close mic the drums to get the hats and cymbals picked up through bleed. It's not ideal, but its how I have to do it until Santa brings me my new drum-mic kit.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Greg_L]

Nice, you sound kind of like the guy from Social D Vox are nice and clear too. Maybe a bit more aggression on the guitars. To me sounds like they're almost too far back from the vox. Then again, it does have a more laid back feel the way it is. I guess you could either way with that depending on the feel you're going for. Either way it does sound like the lead guitar needs to cut through the rhythm a bit more. Overall, good work here. Enjoyed the listen

Thanks bro. I appreciate the feedback. I'll play with it some more.

 

[rockabilly1955]

ahhh Social D..... your music sounds great, nearly identical.

 

[Dogman]

Sounds pretty well done to me...snare might be a bit loud compared to the rest of the drums. Maybe drop it back, and bring the whole drum mix up just a bit. That might give the drums more impact. I think the song could use a bit of filling in the bottom end, mainly the kick. Seems there is plenty of space to try. Guitars sound pretty good...they could be beefier as Snake said, but it might change the overall dynamics of the tune.

Nice playing man. Fun song.

 

[Greg_L]

Thanks rockabilly and Dogman. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Greg_L]

Okay, updated version in the link per everyones recommendations so far. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[ido1957]

Noticed the increased beefiness of the guitars right away. And the thump of the kick too. Better sounding... I might up the first solo a tad more - make it stand out a little more like the vocals do. The outro solo is pretty good for level. Vocals are still nicely sitting in the mix, clear but not too loud....
Solid rocker, man......

 

[Greg_L]

Okay, thanks again Ido.

 

[Bulls Hit]

I like the round sound, it's fat but not overweight. I've never heard the original so I've no preconceptions, although having heard your other stuff I'll bet it's pretty close. The mix sounds good to me, everything is well balanced, drums are a good level, nice job

 

[Greg_L]

Thanks Bulls Hit.

 

[Monkey Allen]

Sounds good to me. I wouldn't be able to tell it from anything I would hear on the radio. I mean that in a good way.

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Nice, yeah things sound more balanced. Cool tune

 

[Cult_Status02]

Sounds pretty good. The only thing I would change is add a bit of reverb or echo to the vocals to get more of that rockabilly, Social D sound and bring down the vocals a bit. Otherwise I think it sounds great. Good job.

 

[Greg_L]

Thanks Monkey Allen, Snakedog, and Cult_Status. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[queepy]

Friggin' rocks man!
I always loved this tune... agree that just a touch of slapback would benefit the vocals...they are a bit dry.
Great job on a great song!

 

[Greg_L]

Thanls variaxman. After not listening to it for about a day, I agree. I need to wet the vox down a bit.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Merry Christmas.

 

[SoundofMind]

Yes. Great song, and great performance

I must say that I'm not impressed , I actually expected this to rock the floor

Great job Greg

Hope to hear more of your music soon