I Believe In Everything...

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Robertt8

Robertt8

Well-known member
Well, I've cranked out yet another tune for your critiquing and or bashing. It's a nice short one at 2:45. As usual, it's my typical mix of acoustic guitar, vocal, drums and bass.

I'm not sure if I'm getting enough separation from the instruments...

SONG: I_Believe.mp3
URL: http://bob.birdsallinteractive.com/

Enjoy!
 
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Yo... Robertt8 :)

Very nice tune I must admit !!! I wonder why no replies so far, maybe most of listener here prefer streaming than download. Anyway, this one is absolutely cool :cool: I'm enjoying it :)

Okay, I don't have any comment about the song, except two things...

1. Although the lead vocals it self I found fit the song perfectly, it would be very nice to add background vocals on some spots. I guess you get the idea...
Did you sing the song ? You're very lucky, your voices color match the genre you picked, IMHO :)

2. The side stick is abit too loud & clear compared to the snare. I mean while the snare sounds placed in the distance, the side stick is very close to the audience. It would be good to mix 'em little bit closer in distance terms (similiar reverb, etc...). But I believe it's only minor issue.

Overall, nice work, keep goin' dude :)

;)
Jaymz


ps. Some electric guitar on the right place won't hurt also :D
 
Listening to it in a couple of cheapo head phones. Sounds very good to me. I could really hear this one coming out of the radio. It's a good song, good voice, good sound. The mix doesn't sound perfect, but at this level, I don't think I'm the one to point out what could be done differently.

Very solid work. Keep it up!
 
Does this tune seem a little "hot" to anyone? I was screwing with the "excite" feature, but I thought I didn't use it, but now that I listen, I wonder if I accidently left it on during transfer...

JAMES ARGO: Hey Thanks a lot! I appreciate the kind words! I was thinking about doing some backing vocals in parts, but I figured I'd wait and see what people had to say. I have a tendency to do too many vocals, or doubling the vocal track through the entire thing. And Yeah, that's me singing...and guitaring, and bassing, and doing the drum programming (unfortunately). It'd be a lot easier to have a band I think. I'll check out the stick hitting thing. I think I'm having panning issues with my Boss DR-770. I've got to figure that out too. Thanks!

MESHUGGAH: Thanks again for the comments! I can almost never picture my tunes being on the radio, so I'm glad you can. I'm a little worried that everything is kind of at the same level...voice, guitars, bass, drums. Thanks!
 
Hi

Song and perfomance, esp. vocals, are excellent. I hesitate to offer EQ advice , because I have some hearing loss, but to me the high end on the whole mix sounds overemphasized.
 
Nice song. I liked the flow. I liked the chord progression. I liked the "I believe in everything" concept. Nice singing voice.

Yes it's very hot. It's pegging things during the parts with more energy. It's enough to affect the sound (in a negative way). Makes it a little muddy.

Some little things here and there you might want to check out such as some "extraneous mouth sounds" at :16.

Good job overall.
 
QUINCY: Thanks for responding! You know, that's kind of what I thought as well...I think it has that "harsh" feeling to it, and I'm not exactly sure why, I've only got some mild effects on the vocal track, and the rest is naked. Anyone else hearing this? and if so, is there an obvious solution?
 
Whoa...TripleM, You kinda, snuck in there while I was replying to Quincy... Thanks for clarifying that. How would you suggest making it not as "hot"? Just turning the levels down during mix, or is there some EQing I can do?

Oh, yeah, you're the first person to mention the mouth noise...I'll see if I can get rid of it in the next mix.

Thanks!
 
Robertt8 said:
How would you suggest making it not as "hot"? Just turning the levels down during mix, or is there some EQing I can do?
Click to expand...

Well there's this huge thread posted by SLuiCe going on now. There is considerable discussion on this very issue. I'd suggest finding and reading it all the way through. I think everyone here has learned at least a little something from it.

But anyway, now that it's tracked, you'll need to do some cuts somewhere. I think it's a combination of EQing (you need to make some room for the vox), compression (so the loud parts aren't blaring away), and probably just moving some faders down (probably on individual tracks, any aux busses, and the master).

Again, read the thread and see if it gives you any ideas.

One of the central themes to the thread is, particurlarly if you're recording digitally, is it best to record everything as hot as possible and slide all the faders down? Or is it best to record everything a little less hot and give yourself headroom without having to move the faders down.
 
Thanks TripleM! I'll dig up that link and see what I can use out of it.
 
I think there's more than enough separation there, in fact I dfound the guitars a little too hard panned. It sounds pretty crowded in the high freq range to me, maybe it would spread out a bit with less of a high end.

Could be mixed a little better but it sounds great the way it is.
 
Awesome BOB

Bob, I'm totally new to home recording so there's no way I can offer any technical critique. That said.

DAMN, I loved it!!! You've got alot of talent. The song as a whole is perfect to me. It all reminds me of Lou Reed. Keep it up! You're an inspiration!
 
Okay...like all your tunes, I just freaking like it. Your vocal style is a lot like another guy that hangs out here (I'm almost positive I've said this before, b/c it's super similar to my ears), but his username is "powderfinger," ... where's his damned page...hang on....(this is the part where I realize that you don't actually have to wait for anything, lol)...

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1642&alid=154

Listen to every song on that page if you want a treat. It's all good, and I have no idea what either of you guys listen to, but I wish I'd heard more of whatever it is when I was growing up, lol.

Okay, now I have to get all "mixy" on you. This is totally pinned to the ceiling on the top and the bottom...Actually, I'm not getting "harsh" at all...it's totally "warm" on my system...but I can tell that it probably will sound drastically different on a lot of different systems, b/c it's just not very balanced from an EQ standpoint. Okay, now I know jack shit about mastering...this has been recently proven to me in one of my own threads, but the EQ sounds PERFECT to me before the bass kicks in...the bass TONE, I actually like a lot, but you need to roll off the low lows from this mix...or maybe NOT add all that subsonic stuff in after the fact, if that's what happened.

My best guess, it needs a rolloff of the lows big time below about 125Hz, and when you do that, you'll find that the high end is gonna' be super accentuated, so cut it until it sounds good again, lol. The overall effect, obviously, will be a general boost in the mids, but you should have plenty of low mids left to keep it warm...it'll just be clearer. I'm so freaking lame at the EQ stuff, but my goal, always...is to make it sound "decent" on a bunch of different systems...none of my crap ever sounds "great" on anything, lol...but It usually sounds the same to me in the car and on the boombox and in the cans and on the monitors, which is the best we can hope for, I guess. It's funny, I've got one up right now that I've ZERO Eq'ing on, and a lot of people like the way it sounds, but I know that it needs some carving in order to work the way that I want it to work...lol...I'll do that OUTSIDE of the clinic :D :D

Guitars sound is SUUUWWWEEEET.

later man,
Chris
 
Last thing...I could be totally wrong about this, but my guess is that the people who are hearing the really accentuated high end are hearing it b/c they're listening on something that doesn't have a lot of low end response. That's what I'm talking about with the "drastically different" sounds on different systems. Basically, it's what will happen to the mix when you yank the lows out of it...(accentuate the top end).

You probably already know this, but I like feeling like I know something sometimes, so....if you look at most commercial pop/rock tracks (leaving hip hop aside for the moment), the EQ "curve" is more like a shelf below about 63Hz, and above 16K. I'm convinced this is done in order to make the mix sound similar whether you're listening on computer speakers or through a kicker box, and it works.

BTW - What are you monitoring with, b/c this actually sounded pretty damned good on my monitors, but I'm almost positive it won't in the car, lol...it reminds me of the sound I get on some of my mixes before I EQ them at all...it's fun on the headphones and it's great if you listen on the same monitors that you used when tracking...but, unfortunately, 99% of the world is hearing music on 4" desktop speakers these days, lol.
 
DOUG H: Thanks for the feedback! I've kind of developed a love affair with strongly panned guitars (usually at 3 and 9). Thanks for the high advice. I've got to figure out how to EQ my stuff.

KEVINTRAN: I'm glad you dug the tune! It's nice to be an "inspiration"! Thanks! This is the first time I've ever gotten the Lou Reed comparison but thanks! Also, the guitars and voice were all done with a Studio Projects B1 through a simple AudioBuddy. The Bass and Drums (boss Dr-770) were directly plugged in.

CHRISHARRIS: Thanks for listening and the detailed feedback. It's funny you mention that my stuff reminds you of your own sound before EQing it, because I don't touch the EQ...Mostly because I don't know what the hell I'm doing there. The last time I screwed with it, the mix ended up sounding all sorts of messed up...WAY worse than when I started. Since then, I haven't touched it. Do you have any advice on where to learn about EQing? It's one thing to read about it, and another to actually hear how doing this or that helps. Do you typicaly mess with the EQ on each track? or the final piece as a whole? I just don't the first thing on how to improve the sound. I'm good at making it sound crappier though! Also, I hate to admit this, and I know I'm going to get roasted for this, but I've been using (wince) headphone to monitor. Then I run it through my stereo, car stereo, computer after I burn a copy. I currently live in a one bedroom apt with 2 people...We each have a room, so my space and volume is limited (not that I need to crank it up but...). But enough excuses, I'm moving out in a couple months so I can probably get a pair. Unfortunately they'll probably suck with what I can afford, but what can I do? Anyway, Thanks for the feedback!
 
MY headphones don't have much bottom, not much top end either, basically they are just really shitty, heh.
It wasn't so much the overall eq, but I sort of thought I heard a lack of separation too. Most of the instrumentation is pretty crisp and bright. I'd still consider at least trying out some low pass filters on the reverb or something like that.
Chris called it tho, it sounded better on my speakers.
 
Oh yea, I dl'd all your other songs and have them in my music collection. Talkin' Smack is my fave. "Robert Tait" I'll be looking for the name in music shops across the country one day.
 
RE-MIX

Okay, I've re-EQed this whole damn song, so HOPEFULLY things sounds clearerand more separated. I've pulled out a lot of bass...so I hope there's enough there. Please let me know if you think this version is better...

SONG: I_Believe_in_Everything2.mp3
URL: http://bob.birdsallinteractive.com/

The original song is still there (I_Believe_in_Everything2.mp3) for comparison.

Thanks!
 
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