Holding On To Jesus II

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BroKen_H

BroKen_H

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Second attempt on another of my songs. Strings were TOOO much, bass was too loud, may have over-compensated, but here goes...



Have no idea how the silence at the end got so long :confused: Got that much sorted...:D
 
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Nice song! The drums sound a bit muffled and the mix in general lacks some clarity (guitar). I like the vocals and the panning, very nice. Sometimes some vocal parts sound a bit loud, perhaps put a compressor/limiter on it? Great job!

Oh yeah, the final mix can be a bit louder. If I look at the waveform you already maximised or brick-limited it, so, pump it up! ;)
 
Thanks for the listen.

Guess I should look at the drums (again). It should definitely be an improvement over the original.

Guitar parts are actually coming from my brother and my playing needs to be a bit muddy :D

I've got all the comps off for now, cause I was mis-using them on the initial mix (thus the II). The only compressors used at all were Selig Limiter (which is not really a limiter) on the vocals and as a master. It's difficult right now as my DAW takes over volume control and my 220W/channel speakers blow you out of the room at full on. I'll kick the maximizer back on and get the pump.
 
Some significant performance issues. Things get off tempo quite a bit. Vocals get out of sync with each other. Vocal pitch issues as well.

There's a chorus in there that I didn't care for.

The high midrange is a little bit harsh - across the whole mix. The mix is also lacking in the low end.

The guitars cover up the vocal in quite a few spots.
 
I think this song mainly needs EQ. I think that should fix most of your problems.
 
TripleM said:
Some significant performance issues. Things get off tempo quite a bit. Vocals get out of sync with each other. Vocal pitch issues as well.

There's a chorus in there that I didn't care for.

The high midrange is a little bit harsh - across the whole mix. The mix is also lacking in the low end.

The guitars cover up the vocal in quite a few spots.
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Appreciate the input! Thought I had all the vocal issues worked out with a razor and a straightedge. I'll take another look.
There is no chorus of any kind anywhere. Have to look for phase issues, I guess.
The eq is my main concern right now. When I listen in my new environment on my new speakers everything sounds like I want it to. Just like other recordings. But after I posted this, I listened in my car and the midrange is whack. I'm going to have to figure out what's wrong in my room. Doesn't make sense that it can stand up (minus volume) to other recordings in my room and then sound bad elsewhere...ah the nature of the game...
Vocal level issues (2nd note) I'll be working on that today. Funny, when you sing it and mix it and know what it sounds like, you can be blinded to little nuances that others see as blatant problems :D
 
My main comment would be the vocals, like they are on top of each other. Maybe sort out the arrangement first, then come back in and get the vocals to sit right. Could be the timing issues mentioned in previous post.

Also, I didn't think the bass was too high, but it did have some rumble. Maybe just get that tamed and the level will be easier to work with.
 
Yeah, the L and R vox are pretty out of whack with each other throughout. You can comp that, but it's probably best to retrack.
The two vox on the right sit with each other pretty nicely though.
 
DM60 said:
My main comment would be the vocals, like they are on top of each other. Maybe sort out the arrangement first, then come back in and get the vocals to sit right. Could be the timing issues mentioned in previous post.

Also, I didn't think the bass was too high, but it did have some rumble. Maybe just get that tamed and the level will be easier to work with.
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Thanks bud. Getting it sorted this afternoon. Going to try to post up a new version. Should be over the top of the old, so you'll need to listen and all the previous comments will look strange...:D
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Yeah, the L and R vox are pretty out of whack with each other throughout. You can comp that, but it's probably best to retrack.
The two vox on the right sit with each other pretty nicely though.
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Really appreciate it Steve. Somehow my vocals got reverted. Had to start all over with the razor tool. Got the levels close to right again. Listen one more time if you would...
 
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Two things that caught my attention. The flanger issue (thanks for that! Found some out of phase in the vocals and fixed it (I hope)).
EQ on the drums. I pulled the treble down because it sounded to high, but I see that that was an error, so I put it back.

Thanks for all the input, everyone. I'm reposting the song on soundcloud and should sound better...
 
Sounds like I may have over re-compensated on the stupid strings again, though. I want them to be noticed, but not overbearing. Can't seem to find that balance. I've scooped out niches for all the different tracks in the 300-700Hz range and I'm still not happy with the way the two guitars play with the vocals. Hopefully my brother will get me some tracks that aren't my lousy playing...:laughings:
 
Hey Broken,

Couple of things I noticed. The drums sound over-compressed, to the point that those hi-hats sound like they're distorting. Either that, or they're over-EQ'd so I'm hearing over-cooked high's. Either way, they're over-something.

I think I remember on another song of yours that you might think a song needs more processing than it does. You don't have to use every "mixing technique" out there just because you can.

Also, the vocals don't need to be doubled all the way through, in my opinion. Especially since they're not synced up together very well.

I'm pretty sure that if you stripped this down as far as number of tracks and amount of EQ'ing, compressing, and just general processing, Jesus would love you a lot more. :)
 
RAMI said:
Hey Broken,

Couple of things I noticed. The drums sound over-compressed, to the point that those hi-hats sound like they're distorting. Either that, or they're over-EQ'd so I'm hearing over-cooked high's. Either way, they're over-something.

I think I remember on another song of yours that you might think a song needs more processing than it does. You don't have to use every "mixing technique" out there just because you can.

Also, the vocals don't need to be doubled all the way through, in my opinion. Especially since they're not synced up together very well.

I'm pretty sure that if you stripped this down as far as number of tracks and amount of EQ'ing, compressing, and just general processing, Jesus would love you a lot more. :)
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Straight up to the point! :D So, center the main vocal and do away with the left double? I've shut down all my compressors except the Selig's on the vocals and master and a 2:1 1176 on the master bus, so it's got to be the amount of EQ I've done to the drums. Maybe I'll just kick the eqs off. They may be somewhat compressed as they're SSD samples...Thanks man!
 
First of all, I'm glad this didn't offend you. it's a joke I just HAD to make. :D
RAMI said:
Jesus would love you a lot more. :)
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BroKen_H said:
Straight up to the point! :D So, center the main vocal and do away with the left double? I've shut down all my compressors except the Selig's on the vocals and master and a 2:1 1176 on the master bus, so it's got to be the amount of EQ I've done to the drums. Maybe I'll just kick the eqs off. They may be somewhat compressed as they're SSD samples...Thanks man!
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Well, since I'm not there, I can only speculate, which is what I did. So, it's possible that your drum samples just sound like that and it has nothing to do with any processing that you're doing. But are you saying you have 2 compressors on the master? And this is before mastering, which will most probably involve another compressor in the form of a limiter? Just that alone sounds like a ton of compression to me, but like I said, I'm not there, so I don't know how much is EQ, how much is compression and how much is just the natural sound of stuff. I don't think you have to take all the EQ'ng off the drums, just add what is needed.

As far as the doubled vocals, again, you don't have to go the other extreme and take one track away completely. But you can always experiment with volumes. Both tracks don't have to be the same volume. One can be lower than the other, just for support.
 
Selig is called a leveler, but is actually a curve compressor. Haven't seen anything like it anywhere else. But it's not really a limiter (suppose it could be used that way). The 1176 is the master bus compressor on the 9000J. Running the 1176 at 2:1 and -15dB threshold and the Selig a 0dB makeup on a 15dB curve (but mostly dry). This thingy:


Okay, will play with the volume on the L main vocal and bring the main vocal toward the center and see how that pans :laughings: out.

:D Jesus always loves me :D That's why I'm always happy!
 
I'm still hearing swirliness. Flanger/Chorus/whatever-it-is... If it were me I'd just get rid of it. It doesn't enhance the song, to me it hurts it.

I'd second what RAMI said about the over compressed drums. The cymbals are really sizzly. If there is any EQ on it, I'd pull a lot of it (or maybe all of it) out. It might bring out the guitars and strings more too, since they won't have to compete as much with them. But still think the guitar is just a bit too harsh in the upper midrange.

The kick and the bass are not sharing the low end too well. The kick is much more prominent.

I also caught a bit of crackle at 1:00.
 
BroKen_H said:
Running the 1176 at 2:1 and -15dB threshold and the Selig a 0dB makeup on a 15dB curve (but mostly dry).
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This means absolutely nothing to anyone but you. The threshold is irrelevant because it all depends on how loud your track is. So, having a threshold at -15 doesn't mean that it's going to compress less or more than if I had the threshold at -25 or -10 on my mix. My mix might be coming in at a different volume before the compressor, so the threshold for one person's mix is a sort of irrelevant. Same with make up gain. Make up gain has nothing to do with how much compression is happening.

Just personal opinion, I think you're using too much processing in general, and too much compression in particular.
 
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