First time posting here. Opinions

  • Thread starter Thread starter cygnus
  • Start date Start date
cygnus

cygnus

Member
soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11620410

This is the first cover song I ever recorded. It is from the "good ole days".
Triumph's Ordinary Man from Allied Forces 1982.
It was recorded on a Tascam 2488 NEO and completed "mastered" yesterday.

Thanks for listening.
 
Guitars and Keyboards sound really good to me. The drums and bass don't sound to bad either, but the vocal doesn't sit in the mix to well. The long delayed vocal towards the end sounds a little strange too, but overall the mix sound really good.
 
Thanks for the feedback!! When you say the vocals don't sit well, do you mean they are too loud or to soft compared to the rest of the mix? Or, is it more of an EQ thing?
The first version had the vocals up a bit, and I thought they stuck out too much. I wasn't completely satisfied with the singing performance, so I thought they would do better a little lower in the mix, and this is the result.
The delay on the vocals during the break is on the original recording by the artist, but it is a slower delay -- @ 1.5 seconds. At the moment I didn't have a delay effect that could go over 1 second so I had to settle for 750ms. Compromises........
 
Sounded pretty good. Welcome to the board.

Some suggestions...

In the first part of the song, the guitar is covering the vocal. I would either raise the vocal or lower that guitar. Maybe cut the guitar around, I'm guessing, 4k. That might help the two sit better together.

I think the bass is really loud. Compare your bass level with that of a professional mix and see if you agree.

The overall mix level varies considerably over the song. I turned the thing up early, only to have to turn it down later. The different sections should be in a little better balance.
 
Nice delivery, but the guitars are masking the vocal, especially in the beginning before the other instruments come in. If you want the vocal to cut through a bit better, there are various things you can try. Turn it up. High shelf filter it up a bit between 10 and 12 K. Parallel compression. Things to try. Maybe all three.
 
I think maybe its an eq thing, but I'm not the person to talk to about vocals. Basically at some parts it seems to stick out and at others it's getting buried. It also doesn't seem to be meshing well with the rest of the song for whatever reason. Take my advice with a grain of salt, but the background sounds like a really good backing track, but the vocal just seems like it was put in there without being mixed with the rest of the track. Try some eq or like someone else said maybe some compression tricks. If you can get that vocal to sound as good as the rest of the track you'll have a great song on your hands.
 
Thanks for all of the replies and feedback. The biggest problem I had with this mix was the lack of automation. I just didn't have enough fingers to adjust all 24 faders manually.
Yes the bass is too loud, but that is because I like the way it sounds and it didn't really cause any masking issues in my opinion so I left it the way it was.
I used a stereo flanger effect on the vocals during the intro and have them panned wide to take advantage of the stereo effect. The rest of the vocal track is dead center. I think that is why it seems a little lost in the intro. I probably should have raised them up a bit during the intro.

TripleM
As far as a consistent level through out the song, would you suggest using a compressor during the mastering phase to even out the levels or riding the faders during mixdown?
 
cygnus said:
TripleM
As far as a consistent level through out the song, would you suggest using a compressor during the mastering phase to even out the levels or riding the faders during mixdown?
Click to expand...

Try both. But I'll bet riding faders will work better.
 
In my opinion, the song is great, but the issue effecting the vocals could be a lack of/not enough compression. Try lowering the threshold, shortening the attack, increasing the ratio, and any combination there-of. The result should be a track that you can turn up louder without it sticking out unpleasantly in the mix. Just watch out for siblance, and have a de-esser ready for when the compression brings those S's up in the mix.
 
OK here it is. I took everyones advice to some extent and here is the new and improved version.
I guess this should be called ExtraOrdinary Man.
I think I got it right this time. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for listening.
soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11620410
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top