First Acoustic Attempt

  • Thread starter Thread starter xpunkskaterx
  • Start date Start date
I think that the loud parts of the vocals are at the right level, but the quieter parts are a little buried. Try compressing the vocals to bring those buried parts up to a more audible level.
 
Ditto on the vox per/jimmy's advice. You have an appealing voice...and the tune has an appealing vox melody...but I can't hear it difinitively sometimes. It could also use a little ...like a few db's...reduction around 300 to 500Hz, I think....a lower-midrange EQ trim to brighten it some.

Now, About the rest. If I were to produce this one, I'd unplug the acoustic, do a 3' stereo mic triangle situation, in a room to get some spread and wall reflections. With the chorus effect added, along with the synth orchrstration, the support for the feature vocal a thick taffy of undynamic sound. Real acoustic has harder transients that punctuate the time better on a strum. Contrast. Texture. As an alternative, you could add light percussion..conga/fucci, eg.

You could leave the chorus and delay on the solo guitar, but that particular sound is not so appealing to my ears. Maybe it's a prejudice: it's the combination I hear everywhere at live 'acoustic' performances where a soloist tries to sweeten poorly executed solos. What I'd really like to hear is a musically well crafted theme on a dry acoustic.....something that can stand by itself, and dazzle. It's some extra work, but it vaults a pleasant ditty like this one into a higher level of artfulness.

As for the background synth...I'd try to make some movement in it, instead of just laying on the chords. Not fast or complex....just ascending or descending diatonics, here and there, on the ones and threes of the measures....to play a bit against the tonality. Interest.

Engineerin' interesting musical passages is like fishing: throw a plug into the water and let it sit there, and no fish'll take interest; move it, jig it, make it swim....and the fishies get real hungry, and set themselves on the hooks. The background, as it is, functions as 'fill' mostly....kinda sits there. Unbroken, constant, when it plays Make it 'swim' a little?

And , finally, the feature, and the basic appeal of the tune, is the vocal. I think, as a lot of guys do, you lay on the intro a lot longer than you should; and the breaks between verses are too long, too. The tune lifts off, and gets interesting when the singing happens...but falls down when it rests. There are two solutions: 1-edit/shorten the intro and breaks; 2-develop a strong instrumental theme for the solo guitar to play...as strong and interesting, and attention-getting as the vocal....during the intro and in-betweens.

I like your voice. I like the tune. Reminds me of 'Jars of Clay'. But it has unrealized potential. I'm trying to point you in a direction to exploit that potential. Hope it helps.
 
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