Factory Joe

Well, it reminds me of some Beach Boys stuff. And that's a good thing! I really like the vocals. Very catchy and nice backings.
I personally would never use that kind of crunch rhythm guitars, but that's just me. Nice song!
 
Very interesting / unique song, Trip. I found myself smiling through almost the whole thing.

Some nits: Something weird with teh vocal freqs. Sounds like some upper-mids that are tweaking a little here and there. I'd try to find em' and tame em. Same thing with the drums. Compression is also pumping a bit in places. Due to the compression, it sounds a bit two-dimensional. Also, the chorus of vocals that come in with the chorus seem to slightly overpower the music. I'd tone those down (only during the choruses, though) a bit. That's about it here. I'm listening through crappy earbuds, but I know em' well. Due to the buds, I couldn't comment on any low-freqs, but I'd like to listen to this again through my monitors.

Thanks for sharing!
 
Agree with the above guitar comments as not really sitting well. Unless, you are intentionally playing the rough against the silky smooth vocals. But I think not.

During the intro there is a droning -A- note through out that irritated me from the get go. Then around 140 the fills on the right sound rough timing wise and the blues lick doesn't really fit. The part during the pre-chorus is nice except for the tone. I'd be inclined to string this or even put piano on it and ditch the guitars all together.

The drums sound kind of garage-like to me, rough and ready tone wise. The playing is fine. Bass is good too but even on my AKG K240 I get a lot of boom.
 
It "sounds" real nice man, but it also feels like it's about 20 or 30 years too late lol. 60s or 70s style? Cool tune man, could use a modern twist though.
 
Thanks everyone.

OK I guess I'll retrack the guitars. I wasn't married to the "sort of bluesy" part on the right. I'll retrack with the original part I did way back when. For the crunch part - I was using Jet's Roll Over DJ as a reference. I actually thought it was pretty close. But just about everyone doesn't think it fits here. So I'll do it with a warmer tone.

I'll look into PI's comments on the vocals and drum compression too.

Thanks again.
 
WhiteStrat said:
A dissenting opinion: I like the crunchy guitars. They work for me! Nice work!
Click to expand...

I like the guitars too, but they're a little fizzy.

It sounds pretty good, but it's a little mushy in the lows. I'd like the drums and bass a little tighter/cleaner. The kick is woofy and the snare is flabby. The vocals are cool but I can't make out hardly any of the words. I think it just needs a good cleanup pretty much everywhere. Keep the crunch in the guitars but lose the fizz, and tighten up the drums and bass and vocals. Cool song though. It definitely fits with your "Steve McQueen" song.
 
As much as you can hear the little nits and clicks in other mixes, I'm continuously amazed at what you can hear. Then this mix is totally in another league with the drum sound and the tinny vocals.
Very cool stuff, and you're the king of retro... needs some 2013 put to it, instead of a garage band kind of recording. Listen to some of those old Monkees stuff and really concentrate on each individual sound like it is a main ingredient.
This stuff done "proper" would get you all the 13 yr olds campaigning you for president.
Keep it up and stay true to this. I wonder what this would sound like if you went to some monster studio with a monster producer. I'd think you have some hits, notched in your belt.
 
The mix (as Greg mentioned) needs more cream in the bottom end ... and the vocals have a bit of a midrange bite, but all in all, nothing is that far off. A little time with an eq is all that's needed IMO.

I'd leave the guitars be.
 
OK thanks everyone. I'll try to get a second mix up in the next day or so.

I think I can de-fizz the guitar. I might make a couple EQ tweaks.

I'll listen to the low end. I wasn't surprised to hear the kick was a little woofy, but I thought the bass was fairly tight. I'm fairly sure I can address both. I'll revisit the snare too.

I can't probably tame the vocals as well.
 
I listened to a couple of seconds of that Pete Yorn guitar. I think with some EQ changes I can get what I have into that neighborhood.

I tried to get to this last night. But I hadda-worka-late, so I didn't get a whole lot of time. I made a couple of adjustments per the suggestions here. I'll try to finish it off tonight and get a second mix up.

I also did a pretty poor job of thanking everyone. Sorry about that. I always appreciate everyone's help. Probably too late now to thank everyone individually. But I am appreciative of the time and comments.

And mix - I don't know why, but I can always spot problems in other people's mixes pretty easily. I can tell you that "a mouse farted at 1:14" in your mix. Then I get to my own mixes, and I overlook lots of things that I shouldn't. I do all the things you're supposed to do (don't listen to it for a period of time and come back to it, etc.). But nothing ever seems to help. It's my curse I guess.
 
I think Yorn plays a 335 and it sounds like a clean guitar and a crunchy guitar mix to me.

As to self mix perception. Can't be done easily. You get used to yourself. Note the comment in K-Dub’s Pretending thread about the Elton mix. I think you have to constantly reference pro stuff but it’s obvious I don’t do that.

$00.02
 
Mix #2 at the top (FJ2.mp3)

I addressed most of the points raised. I de-harshed the lead vocal. This wasn't brought up, but I also removed some low mids from the backing vocals. I think that cleaned up the chorus a bit.

I changed the guitar EQ. It's a warmer tone now.

I removed some low mids from both the kick and snare.

I removed some low end from the bass.

The only thing I didn't address was the guitar part on the right. I'm not liking it anymore. It just doesn't fit. I'm going to retrack that over the weekend.

Let me know what you think.
 
Sound really good to me Trip. Nice levels throughout (Listening to FJ2) The vocals remind me of Squeeze and that's a compliment, I really like Squeeze.

I can't offer nothing new in the way of advice, sounds great here on 2 sets of monitors.

Have you got anything else for me to listen to anywhere on the web? I'd like to hear more.
 
Thanks Mr. Clean. I'm glad you liked it. Squeeze always had cool vocals I thought.

If anyone else wants to comment on mix #2 I'd be interested to hear what you have to say.
 
I think I was the one with the mouse fart in my mix, so thanks again for catching that!

I really like this tune. I remember it from before and think it may only be one of two tunes of yours I've ever heard. The vocal melody is really very nice. I could never come up with something like that. I think the drums and bass sound pretty good in this mix. Sounded fairly tight to me. I'm listening on Sony mdr 7506 phones which are kinda bass-lite, if that matters.

I wasn't wild about the guitar tone as it just sounded too DI or something to me. Kind of flat, not pitch-wise, but in terms of tone. It fits the song in a way, but I would have tried it with cleaner, ringing guitars. The bluesy licks off to one side don't work for this imo. It's just kind of busy and superfluous you know? The tone is also somehow wrong I think.

I'm not great at dispensing advice, but wanted you to know I checked it out and really enjoyed hearing this again.
 
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