Emergency Advice! (Wedding Song Must Finish Tonight!)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robertt8
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Robertt8

Robertt8

Well-known member
Okay, I finally finished recording...please advise as to changes. (I can still mess with effects and mixing at this point. I'm not about to re-record anything else).

SONG: Unmistakable.mp3
URL: http://bob.birdsallinteractive.com/

Thanks!
Tait
 
- in the beginning, there are some timing problems with the two guitars; then you seem to have some pitch-difficulties especially with those 'uh's, I mean both - main voc and bgv

about the composition - I'm missing a part(bridge) wich imo is necessary; also I think you could replace some of those 'uh's and 'lala's with a piano, short guit part or something, except those in the chorus where they belong. But, remember, this is just my opinion, so your song is probably perfect, and I'm just talkin s**t.. :)

anyway, I liked it! :D:D

harry
 
Robert-

Sounds pretty good, I'm sure it would go over - even if you made no other changes. :-)

Since you cannot re-track any of the parts, maybe you should consider leaving a few parts out until later. The timing is a bit shaky in the beginning of the song. Perhaps you can start the song with just the strummed guitar and bring the other two in once the vocals start?

Do whatever you can to reduce the reverb sound on the vocals. It sounds like you have a small room setting and too much of it. The character of the reverb on the vocals doesn't match the sound I'm hearing on the guitars. My feeling is that the drier sound on the vocals will sound better, but, if you love the sound you have on the vocals, then add a bit of that reverb to the guitar so it sounds like they're in the same room.

Try panning out the background vocals more - to spread it out across the stereo field.

Be encouraged!
 
Yeah the timing issues are there. I think the suggestion to take one out is probably best. The guit on the right side seems to be the culprit. I think you could probably just cut it in the intro. And you could perhaps sneak in when the vox enter. Or else you could slip it in at :13 - but there is a minor sync issue after that. It's a matter of whether you want to live with that one or not.

I thought the "ooo's" were just fine. They could I think be brought up in the chorus.

A bit of verb on the vox (or a bit more) would be nice. Nothing big - short predelay and short decay etc. I think it would sound better on this song.
 
Pretty cool

Like others have said, timing in the opening is off. Vocals are a little dry for this song. I also think running the rythm guitar through a stereo pedal set wide, slow and fairly deep would give the piece a real edge.

I don't really mind the ooohs, maybe do a little something on guitars instead.
 
This is waaaayyyy too late for a suggestion like this but it's your fault for posting so late :)

IMO this song would be killer with a slower tempo, it seems to start slow but to my ears it picks up, maybe it's the instrumentation and vocal line doing that to me. A soft piano panning against the left guitar would make it more "weddingly".

Anyways, I'm making up words now, I'll leave it at that...
 
Your running late dude!! :) My thoughts are.... turn that rythymn guitar on the left down a little bit and bring it back in toward the center a little, its way to far outside the rest of the mix and its a little too strong for the soft singing. I`d raise the vocal up some more so the articulations are very understandable. Remeber you know the words so you dont have to hear them as well.. You`ll make momma and the girls cry..
 
Thanks for responding people!

I'm actually re-burning it right now and will post soon with many of you're suggestion in mind. Hopefully it's a bit better. Second off, this was one rushed freakin song. I basically wrote it and recorded, mixed in a period of like 36 hours. I wouldn't say it's actually even finished. I'm not even sure If there's really a chorus in there...oh well, if they got my balls to the wall, they kinda get what they get. but then again, this is like my whole family so I don't want it to suck anymore than I can help it.

I might be able to get away with another take or two if I play my cards right...
 
OKAY...TAKE 2

Okay, here's the second mix. Hopefully I've fixed some of the issues...

lemme know...

SONG: Unmistakable2.mp3
URL: http://bob.birdsallinteractive.com/
(the old one is there there for comparison if you need)

I think if I need to bring up the vocals I can always give it another hit.

Thanks people!:D
 
Wow, nice recovery! #2 much improved. Like the way you brought up the little guitar intro and centered it.
 
Wow, big difference

That was fast! The second one is really nice. Well done on such short notice!
 
Thanks for helping people (although I'm not sure what the hell Kramer is talking about). I know I was kind of left with few options once I did the initial recording. Trust me, if I had more time on this song it would be considerably different...hell, I might have even added a chorus! Perhaps I'll come back and revamp this the way I'd normally write a tune, but right now I feel like smashing it to piece and dancing on the little broken cd parts. I've got a nice smack ready for my family when I get back to Chicago.
 
this will probably do ok.

One thing I can say from experience, is that I used to play along with pre recorded CDs a lot, and I found what sounded good in the studio sounded lousy thru a PA. I almost always nixed the reverb for the PA and made sure the vocals where clearly audible.

This is kinda late for this, but my take on this is that I had to kinda struggle to get the meaning out of the lyrics (and even really hear them EASILY) without having to concentrate on the singing only. I think the "older generation" may end up thinking some similar thoughts, but a couple of newlyweds and their friends out to think you are the "ONE" for doing something so special.

Good luck!... and drink some champagne and get laid for us all now and bring back the stories!! (unless you are married too... then take it to the cave!!)
 
ROCKR56: That's what I figured...however, If someone left a message every time I spelled something wrong, they'd have to get a new server just for my bad spelling alerts.

MIXMKR: Thanks. Just to give everything a more uniform sound, I reverbed a bunch of the stuff the same. It sounded really naked without it, and I typically use little to no reverb anyway. Now just watch is sound like crap when they play it...oh well, I'm gonna be so trashed anyway, it's not gonna matter (by the way, no wife...girlfriend though). I tried doing songs that were slower with more recognizable lyrics, and they all kind of sounded lame. I just couldn't bring myself to it. So instead they get a half finished song with no chorus and words they can't understand.:D (that'll show 'em!). Maybe I'll walk around speaking gibberish. That way they'll think I'm from some foreign country.:p
 
Robertt8 said:
MIXMKR: Thanks. Just to give everything a more uniform sound, I reverbed a bunch of the stuff the same. It sounded really naked without it, and I typically use little to no reverb anyway

yeah...like I said, you'll probably be ok...and besides the attention is really going to be on the bride and groom anyway...or the sexy bride's maid that has the exceptional cleavage!!:eek:

The venues I played along with a CD usually had their own reverb (like a church..eh?) and the artifical reverb kinda took the "punch" out of the recording, if you know what I mean. I also NEVER compressed anything for that same reason. It's like you don't need "smoothness" when the room is doing it for you. I even avoided stuff like the L2 maximizers and the like. All it did was make things louder, but actually less punchy, I thought. So...I used the volume knob on the PA! (and everyone left!!) LOL!!~~~!!
 
Mix 2:

Live sounding gtr... with compression??? Hmm... one is generally used to create MORE distance, and the other LESS... hmmm...

Vocs have sort of a peaky "edge" to 'em... almost sibilant.

Good performance. Nice hook! And BGVs.

Slow dancing to this? Hmmm... I guess so. Maybe with a rose held in the teeth... then the Mambo... or the Tango... or something else dramatic and Mexican :p

GOOOD job for so little time. Good luck with it!!


Chad
 
MIXMKR: Hey! thanks for all the help! All great advice! Hopefully it sounds OK.

PARTICIPANT: Yeah, there's an average dose of compression on those guitars...as well as everything else for that matter. I was a little worried about the vocals being too peaky like you said...I seem to get that a lot, and it seems to get worse when eq is applied through the stereo. How do I counter that? with reverse EQ? Just turn down the highs a bit? also, thanks for the kind words! I wasn't really thinking of people dancing to this. I actually didn't know exactly where it was going to be used when I started writing it. Actually I think it's supposed to be played after the best man's speech or something, so I don't think anyone's going to be dancing then...but you're right...all my slow songs come out depressing, and that just doesn't work for a wedding. Thanks for the reply!
 
robert,

i got your pm ....check yours.

i think this is very nice.....i'm listening to #2......i love the guitar sound......very cat stevens sounding tone where you can almost hear the pick sound.............

the vocals are nice......there are just a couple points where the seem a touch pushed (sounds like you could easily nail them though, it might be more of a breathing thing...pushing till the end...whatever).....very solid mix, and it keeps the attention well despite being just guitar and vocals
 
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