It's time for church...

[WhiteStrat]

If you're demon possessed or otherwise allergic to things related to Christianity, move along.

This is the friend of a friend--I never met the guy before he drove 400 miles to record in my studio. I'm glad he drove down--he was a cool dude and we had a great time in the studio. This is the first track of a few. He was very dialed in to his synth patches, which was new for me. This is the first of a few tracks. The others will have real drums and guitars and bass. But this first one has a lot more synth parts than I'm used to. The mixing process was different for me, so let me know what you think:

 

[Greg_L]

Besides the noise in the left channel at the very beginning, I thought it sounded fine, and sitting all the way through it maybe scored me some points with the big man, so thanks for sharing.

 

[dreib]

I need points too so I listened... I thought it sounded good, maybe tighten up the vocals in the choruses, sounded a little dis-shoveled there?

I wonder how Jesus would mix this, thats the real question isnt it?

 

[DavidK]

Sounds very good. When the vocalist is in the low registers, some of the words get buried. I suggest boosting the lead vox by 2db and turning the synth pads down the same amount. Worship music needs crystal clear lyrics. The song itself is very nice.

 

[Mr Clean]

I will echo the above post. The vocals lose themselves sometimes, for me, when the pads rise. The recording and execution sound great.

I won't comment on the song as I don't do Gods, Bibles or owt like that. Not my scene.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Thanks for the input guys. Mixed this one late and didn't crank it up enough. Adjusting the vox and pads right now...

 

[Manslick]

Guitars sound great. Did you do that?

Agree above about the vox should be tighter. Tiny pitchy too.

Sounds like you have things dialed in there at the White Strat studio. It must feel good to have people making pilgrimages.

Could not resist. The devil made me do it.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Thanks, Manslick. I agree the vox are the weak spot, but that's the guys voice. He's a musician and pastor and I think his audience knows that about him. I ran a bit of Autotune on him, but too much sounded funny. In any case, sometimes it's best to have a dude sing his own songs--at least he's got some feeling.

And no, I didn't play the guitars. It is of course, my patented WhiteStrat acoustic guitar recording method (which he really liked). Thanks for the kind words about the overall sound!

 

[guitar zero]

Bob, Love the acoustic guitar sound. You always do well with that. The synths sound good. Overall, I like the mix. At about 0:23 it sounds like the guitar and piano(?) get a little off beat with each other for a measure or two. Also, at the end the back up vocals (around 3:39) seem to have too much dynamics (at least for my taste). I wonder if smashing the heck out of them and cutting some high end there would smooth it out a bit and create some space? I love the fact that Greg is commenting on this mix from "the eye of Satan's butthole". Priceless.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

+1 on the low vox getting a little buried.

I'm also noticing a distinct lack of a bass guitar playing 8th notes on a I V VI IV pattern. I don't think you can really call a song Christian if it doesn't have that!

I'm not stoked about the split vocals around 3:40 (the tag). The lead vocal isn't deviating enough from the melody to make it seem like a lead. It sounds more like he just sang it wrong.

 

[mixmkr]

Nice... I think the vocals are a little dry as compared to the music and the bg vocals need some separation from the main vocal, which panning would help a lot, but probably nothing when listening in mono of course. It's almost like some certain places, a comb filtering wants to happen, by the stacking.

Fantastic gtr sounds.

Btw, Jesus would want YOU to mix it how He led you and gave YOU the abilities to do...and 1 or 1000 listens wouldn't gain any points. If that were the case, that simply means that there is something we can do thru our actions and therefore Jesus' death on the cross wasn't needed. <--- as much as I'll say about that, but since others quickly made a personal comment about it...or what they believe or feel...I'd express mine.

 

[PoeticIntensity]

Hey Bob! Thought I'd take a listen... Sounds good overall.. Something about the vocals makes me twitch a little. Maybe they're a little too bright? Not sure. The choruses definitely are a bit muddled vocal-wise - a few of the voices are off-time, but doesn't sound bad! Thanks for sharing.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Hey Bob! Thought I'd take a listen... Sounds good overall.. Something about the vocals makes me twitch a little. Maybe they're a little too bright? Not sure. The choruses definitely are a bit muddled vocal-wise - a few of the voices are off-time, but doesn't sound bad! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks dude--I'm tweaking the vox on this one right now (wanna get 'em right before I move on to the other two tracks he recorded). When you say "a little too bright" do you mean the main guy, or the backup vox in the choruses? I've got a slight bump in the lead vocal that I thought added some clarity. I've tweaked the background vox--less highs, more mids. I just wanna know what you're hearing before I post a new version.

 

[PoeticIntensity]

Thanks dude--I'm tweaking the vox on this one right now (wanna get 'em right before I move on to the other two tracks he recorded). When you say "a little too bright" do you mean the main guy, or the backup vox in the choruses? I've got a slight bump in the lead vocal that I thought added some clarity. I've tweaked the background vox--less highs, more mids. I just wanna know what you're hearing before I post a new version.

I'm not entirely sure what I meant. I just listened to the song again through some different headphones, and it sounds just fine, as far as the vocal brightness levels go. Sorry about that.