Fleetwood Mac Cover (Acoustic)

A

auburncatfish

New member
This is my 1st cut at a set of cover and original songs I want to put together for an "album" of such songs. The concept for the whole collection is going to be simple, stripped down, acoustic songs done in my style. Only a few tracks to each song - guitar, voice, maybe a 2nd guitar or voice or ther instrument. I realize this makes analyzing these mixes somewhat difficult because there's not much to grade, but also these are suprisingly diffiuclt to record for much the same reasons. I guess I'm really looking for people who might have some experience/know-how on these stripped down concepts to give me some pointers on how to improve mix-wise, and generally sound-wise

This is a rough 1st cut, I know I've got some pitch problems with my vocals that I'll need to patch up and likely re-record, but I'd like to get some feedback before I get further down the road on this 1st song. Thanks for the feedback,

Andrew

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8599959
 
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I'm not very experienced here..but since no one else seems to be willing to check it out, I will give it my best shot..;)

I'm not sure, I understand your concept of stripped down recording is..or why you think it so hard to record..or be critic'd.

My own concept of stripped-down-recording, would be recording a song, that originally had more than just the melody(voice and one instrument)...in other words, a full bodied song...or whatever the song was originally and stripping it down to bare basics.

Stripping that song down, would be the most simplistic of songwriting form?

SOoooo..I am assuming, you would like suggestions on the mix of voice and guitar?

Mix wise..levels of voice and guitar seem to be okay, but a lot of headroom..sounds like you are in a large hall singing. If you are wanting the stripped down recording, then why not take away any effects and record straight and simple?

Question...how did you mic and what sorta room did you record in?

I know you didn't really want any comments on your performance, but if you don't get that down, then the mix won't matter anyway. You will just have a well mixed, poorly performed song.

I know this by my own experience, only I could never get the mix well mixed either...:D
 
A couple of things. The acoustic sounds very muddy, too much low mids (300hz?? maybe) and not enough highs. Micing an acoustic is no easy task. Check out the Guitar section, WhiteStrat put up a tutorial on how he does it and gets great results. It is a stickie at the top of the section. I would also suggest double tracking the acoustic and panning each 50% left and right to add more depth.

Definitely dial back on the reverb for the vocals. It adds a lot of sibilance and doesn't feel like you're singing in the same space as the guitar.

About the arrangement (not the performance); when you do a cover, especially one of a popular song, you've got to bring something to the song. Just doing the campfire strum-along doesn't add anything interesting for this song. The slower tempo, the single guitar makes it drag on and does not captivate your listeners.

hope this helps.

btw: I fixed the link in your first post. :)
 
Much thanks for those of you commenting on this. I'm a bit rusty at all this as I'm sure it shows, but I can see some things taking shape here with your comments.

true-eurt said:
Question...how did you mic and what sorta room did you record in?
Click to expand...

I used a Shure SM58 for both the guitar and the vocals. Working in a small office in a condo with hardwoods floors and a rug. Strung the mic from the ceiling fan.

I do have a condensor mic that I might try in the 2nd go round.

The vocal performance is not good on this version. I thought it was better, but apparantly, not. That's ok though I think I can nail it eventually. In next version I think I'm going to ratchet the song down a half step to hit that nasty falsetto note that's been haunting me. I think I have an ok voice, but my range is pretty brutal.
 
Chili said:
A couple of things. The acoustic sounds very muddy, too much low mids (300hz?? maybe) and not enough highs. Micing an acoustic is no easy task. Check out the Guitar section, WhiteStrat put up a tutorial on how he does it and gets great results. It is a stickie at the top of the section. I would also suggest double tracking the acoustic and panning each 50% left and right to add more depth.

Definitely dial back on the reverb for the vocals. It adds a lot of sibilance and doesn't feel like you're singing in the same space as the guitar.

About the arrangement (not the performance); when you do a cover, especially one of a popular song, you've got to bring something to the song. Just doing the campfire strum-along doesn't add anything interesting for this song. The slower tempo, the single guitar makes it drag on and does not captivate your listeners.

hope this helps.

btw: I fixed the link in your first post. :)
Click to expand...

I'll work on the mic arrangement. I wanted the guiatr to sound kind of dark on this, but looks like that was overdone. Maybe I'll try the condensor on the guitar here. Any tips for a small office.

I will dial back the vocal reverb

The campire thing - Yeah I see the problem you're talking about in terms oif arrangement. But not much of an escape plan here. Seems like any solo acoustric song could wind up sounding that way. This one maybe moreso because of the simplisitic chords and progression. I'll work on that idea, and see what I can drum up for the next version. I'll post here when I get something together.

Thanks again and keep any ideas flowing.
 
i love fleetwood mac and i like your cover. i hope you don't think this is rude, but if your looking for ideas this is the only cover of dreams i've liked so far, maybe it could help? i don't know

[video=youtube;<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/1vMiLfH1NcQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/1vMiLfH1NcQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>]video[/video]
 
Hey there, you probably don't need this, but if you want a female vocal, I'm always willing to help out! I haven't heard this yet, but will listen this evening.

Have a great day!
Kirstin
 
hi kgirl:) i hope you don't take this wrong i think you are a wonderful singer but are you sure your the one to tamper with such perfection?
 
First of all, dial back the reverb, as everyone has said. It seems like you are going for a close intimate vibe for the song. If so, you will have much better luck with reducing the reverb, and micing the vocal on the closer side to reduce room ambiance. The more ambiance (natural room ambiance, or artificial) you add, the further away you will seem.

Also, you are getting a lot of low mid, and not enough treble on the guitar. I would try to condensor mic first, as it will capture a lot more of the high frequency detail.

I like recording acoustic guitars in stereo, especially in a situation where its the main instrument in the song. It will widen up the stereo image and create some space for the vocal to sit in the middle. If you don't have a stereo pair of mics to record the guitar, you can double track them.
 
The previous posters pretty much cover my feelings too. Double the guitar, split it L/R and reduce the reverb. :)
 
You need to control the room and how much you let in to your recordings. Do you use a vocal booth? If the room doesn't naturally sound good, it's better to eliminate the room to a large extent and add delay etc afterwards.

Use decent mics and experiment with position when recording accoustic guitar to find the sweetspot. If you're using 2 mics, watch for phasing.

Main thing is to capture a clean recording of a good performance. The rest is just plugins :D
 
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