Have a listen, if you like.

[Chris Shaeffer]

I have a tune that I would really appreciate some feedback on. It is, without question, the best mix that I ever produced on my old (pre-digital) gear and I'd love to hear what those with more experienced ears notice in it. I wonder if we will hear the same problems.

http://artists2.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Chris_Shaeffer

The song is called "Day Dreaming" and I humbly apologize that it is 6:45 long (6.4Meg). Its got a number of different sections though, so I hope it isn't a boring 7 minutes.

I also have a special concern that I'll post later- I don't want to bias your ears before hearing it. I also remember how I recorded it (about 3 years ago now) so I can post that, too.

Thanks in advance! I deeply appreciate all that I have learned here and this opportunity to share the results of some of my work with other sets of ears.

Take care,
Chris

 

[Ray J]

Chris,

I like the tune. I thought it had some nice chord voicings, really jazzy and the bass fit well, on the jazzy part. The change caught me by surprise and if I heard the tune a few more times I think the change will begin to make more sense. Nice effort, I'm not gonna comment too much on the production because I'm doing the real player thing for this one.

Nice work, Chris

Ray J

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Thanks for the listen, Ray!

Yeah, the sudden change still bothers me. At the time, I couldn't get the drum machine to do what I wanted it to and sound anywhere near good. Its abrupt the first time and worse at the end. I'm rerecording it soon and I'll make that smoother.

Songwise, I wanted the different sections to reflect the emotions behind the lyrics, but I'm not sure how well I was able to capture it.

Thanks again for taking to time to listen and tell me what you thought.

Also, I just realized that no one should expect folks to download a long song like that twice, so here's what I'm concerned about.

I have almost no high-mid to high pitched hearing- lost it in a noisey incubator at birth and never realized it until about 2 years ago. My friends have pointed out some problems with my mixes that I account for now, but I'm wondering how the high end sounds. I'm told it sounds fine, but I'm not sure how critical those folks are really trying to be.

Take care,
Chris

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Hey I really enjoyed this. It's got a real classic feel to it. I really like how you change into that misty mountain hop thing and then use that riff throughout the rest of the tune.

I didn't find any of the changes to be that awkward.

It's hard to comment on the high end, because the recording itself was kind of muddy, and the drums were kind of destroyed. I don't know if that's a result of the actual recording, or the encoding or what.

Good song!

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Thanks for the feedback, Slack! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Yup, the muddiness came from the recording- that is one of the things I needed to verify. At the time I didn't know how to compensate for not hearing the highs, so most of my tracking was full of lower frequencies. That's what I'm used to hearing so that's what went on tape.

It is also 12 tracks recorded on a 4 track using a VCR to externally bounce. I did my best to pre-mix those bounced tracks, but...

Thanks, this is exactly the feedback I was hoping for. By verifying the mixing problems that I can now hear I'm figuring out how to compensate for my funky ears. Kinda like ear training. I've got some newer stuff that sounds TONS better since I've started learning how to do that.

Take care,
Chris