Can you tell me if this mix is okay?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nola
  • Start date Start date
Nola

Nola

Well-known member
hi. i know i'm a musical weirdo but i did another Beck song to get some demons out. it's all one take 'cause this 2016 stuff made me realize the years are going by fast ..and i'm thinkin' we're all gonna be dead soon so i'm trying to be more prolific and not waste time fartin' around with stuff.

can you tell me if there are any obvious, major problems with this mix? otherwise i am going to move on to a new song. i mix in apple earbuds so i can't tell much.

also, i clipped my mic at the 2:10 mark can you tell me if it blows up your speaker? i kinda liked the distortion since it was this super old mic blowing up and i just left it.

https://soundcloud.com/nolanso1/going-nowhere-fast-beck-cover

thanks for listening
 
I think it sounds pretty good/ Imo you captured a lot of the qualities of the version off Fresh Meat(I think thats the name of the album)
the clip isn't bad, I'm with you I kinda liked it. Good job !!
 
BCF1 said:
I think it sounds pretty good/ Imo you captured a lot of the qualities of the version off Fresh Meat(I think thats the name of the album)
the clip isn't bad, I'm with you I kinda liked it. Good job !!
Click to expand...

thanks bcf i'm so surprised you know that version. are you a big beck fan?

i tried to make the bass the "call" and drum the "response" like a prison work song. it was working until i added all the instruments. so i think the mix failed in that sense i wasn't sure how to make that bass/drum dynamic obvious and keep the vocal upfront and reverby like beck did. i hope some people can give more feedback, especially on how to do that.
 
I'd like to offer you some direction towards what your trying to accomplish, but I'm fairly green at taking the reins on this side of the board so to speak and seem to find my way by luck and of course forum help. I'm sure some of the more experienced, knowledgeble and talented folks here will chime in and offer some helpful thoughts or ideas for you. And no I'm not really a Beck fan. I'm a music fan and heard his stuff from 90's mostly. I have nothing against his thing and enjoy it when listening, I've even seen him live back in the day a time or two. Keep at it and you'll get the sound your after (or close) That's what I keep tellin myself...........I enjoyed listening BCF1
 
thanks bcf i am going to check out your cover soon i have to move to a better computer. I always didn't like that Edmund Fitzgerald song b/c of the plodding rhythm (is it slow 3/4 or 6/8?) and weird melody (is it a mode or something?). So i'm real curious to hear your interpretation and glad to read you didn't do a straight cover of it. I will give you feedback in an hour or two. thanks for yours, bcf.
 
It has the laconic, deadpan delivery that I always liked about Beck. Not a fan of the of mic distortion - it sounds like a clipped digital signal. If you want the vocal distortion you should find a tube overdrive effect to mellow it out. The vocal in general has an "old fashioned telephone" effect - lots of high mids. I'm guessing this was on purpose?
 
hi jm67,
i recorded the vocal on a real old mic i think it's from the 30s or 40s and i found it in a pawn shop for $10. i think since they are so high output they just clip like that easily and i just left it because i couldn't redo the vocal (i had to yell to sing that, and my neighbors' hit the ceiling with a broom) and i kind of liked it and felt it added to the emotion of that section. but i could be way wrong and it's just bad clipping. if the entire thing was clipped i'd fix it but it was like 1 or 2 seconds so i left it. thanks for listening to it though and for your feedback
 
I like your singing. They vocals are a bit too wet for me. Did you use a click track or metronome? I hear some timing glitches on the acoustic.
 
Robus said:
I like your singing. They vocals are a bit too wet for me. Did you use a click track or metronome? I hear some timing glitches on the acoustic.
Click to expand...

thanks robus for saying you like the voice.

i programmed a drum track but it was just a snare hit on the 4 beat. i wanted to make it like a prison work song so on the 1 beat i hit the bass guitar and let it ring (through the 2 and 3) and on the 4 i cracked the snare (it's in 6/8) so it would have that back and forth thing like a work song. there's no other drum except that one snare on the 4 each time. i programmed some tempo changes too. so it was hard to keep track of all that and i just did the best i could. like i said it was all one take...maybe two on the guitar.

i kinda lost the work song feel when i added all the instruments. i'd really like to understand that more and how to bring it back out. the beat does make me swing back and forth a bit, but it lost that call/response of a work song that it had before i added the instruments.
 
That's interesting. I'm hearing it in 4/4 at about 125 BPM. I didn't notice the tempo change either. If you got a sudden tempo change, you might make life easier by recording the different parts separately. If it's a gradual increase, you've just got to feel it I guess.
 
Robus said:
That's interesting. I'm hearing it in 4/4 at about 125 BPM. I didn't notice the tempo change either. If you got a sudden tempo change, you might make life easier by recording the different parts separately. If it's a gradual increase, you've just got to feel it I guess.
Click to expand...

hi robus.

It's 6/8 at 90bpm and the final two verses when the vocal gets loud are 93bmp, and they gradually increase up to that. The hard drum hit is on the 4 beat
 
I hadn't heard this Beck song before, it's really cool. I think I'd have re-recorded the vocal to get rid of the clipping as it just sounds like digital clipping to me too, but if you're fine with them, that's your call.

The only other thing that struck me was that it's a rootsy kind of song, but the guitar you got is pretty jangly. I'd have preferred something a bit more earthy sounding - probably experimenting with the mic placement, playing the part harder etc.

I like the general lazy style though.
 
those are good observations rob. my acoustic is awful like $50 bad guitar. i used and onmi mic to record it and my thumb to strum it because the attack sounds bad and booms. i also had to eq it to tame it. i can mess with the eq and undo all that and see if it sounds more roots than country but it's a really really bad guitar in a bad room, so that was all a compromise.
 
Sounds good, levels seem nice except the drums are a little hard to hear at times. I'd bring them up, snare a bit less than the rest.
 
easlern said:
Sounds good, levels seem nice except the drums are a little hard to hear at times. I'd bring them up, snare a bit less than the rest.
Click to expand...

thanks easlern that's nice of you to listen and comment. there is only one drum in the song the snare on the 4 beat in 6/8 time. there are no other drums. the 1 beat has just a bass guitar note.
 
Haha that explains why I was only hearing the snare. . . thanks man.
 
easlern said:
Haha that explains why I was only hearing the snare. . . thanks man.
Click to expand...

no problem easlern.
i was trying to replicate a "work song" or "prison song" and have the bass hit on 1 as the "call" and the snare hit on 4 as the "response". it worked until i added all the instruments, then it kind of fell apart. :/

i was kinda hoping someone could give me tips on how to mix it more like a prison song. maybe i need to bring bass and drum way up and all the instruments way down.
 
a prison "song" is more like a chant or choir effect over the timed hit of the tools (usually done by the prisoners to keep themselves entertained while doing awful work, and never on beat, fwiw, because with so many prisoners you will always have early and late hits), so it makes sense that when you bring the instruments in that feel gets lost or buried in a mix. prisoners didn't have organs, guitars, slides, etc. but i still feel that rocking motion of the beat, which is cool and a success. to make it feel more like a prison song you'd leave the bass guitar where it is and leave the drum hit in, and then just do vocal over that. so take all the instruments out. you'd probably want to harmonize the vocal with a backing vocal, though, i hear a low organ in there...or the slide guitar..either might provide enough harmony but each changes the mood. the slide would fit better with a prison song. once you add acoustic guitar playing chords the feel will entirely change to a more traditional folk/blues song.
 
mod, please delete this last comment i bumped old thread, should have made a new since i need opinions on two mixes now.
----
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top