Jenny Jones, New song

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Robus

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EDIT: Thanks for the comments Bruthish and CMolina. I'll pull this since it seems to be on this forum that a track will get all the response it's going to get within a day or so of posting.
 
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It has some real potential. The crits I have: I think the bass needs to be a little tighter. Maybe high pass/roll off the bass in the sub frequencies. It has a cool bass line but just seems muddy down low.

The vocals are inconsistent and if I didn't have the lyrics in front of me it would be very hard to know what your singing about. Some words drop way out and some are clear. I get the way your trying to sing it and it does fit the song, but you will probably have to re-track one section at a time to get consistent vocal sound. Your timbre and volume changes throughout.

I didn't hear much change musically between verses and chorus. If it were my song I would want the listener to hear the difference between the two. Whether its a tempo change, instrument change, singing in a higher tone, or adding strong background vocals, something needs to signal that we have reached the chorus and I don't really hear that here.

All my opinion of course...its a good song, I just think you need to work on it some more to take it to the next level.
 
It sounds good to me. The vocals are quite inconsistent, like Bruthish just said...but it could be the songs charm, IMO. You could try to use a compressor to make the vocals more even.

I loved the bass and guitar tones and the drums sounds good also (the snare in particular).

I cant believe I'm actually going to say that....but you could bring the volume up just a bit, its kind of too low.
 
Thanks so much for those comments. I agree with all of them. This vocal track actually was comped together from a number of takes. That might be the source of the inconsistency. Rather than try to re-record it, I'll probably go through the track and insert volume changes manually to try to get consistent levels. I struggle with vocals more than all other aspects of the recording process put together, due to the limitations of my voice. I've been working to improve my singing, but realistically, the best I can hope for is to demo the vocal line accurately. I would really like to hook up with a singer. Mix-wise, it figured it probably would be too bassy but wanted to get some feedback and perspective. Thanks for the suggestion about differentiating the chorus more. I'll give some thought to how I might go about it.
 
CMolena said:
It sounds good to me. The vocals are quite inconsistent, like Bruthish just said...but it could be the songs charm, IMO. You could try to use a compressor to make the vocals more even.

I loved the bass and guitar tones and the drums sounds good also (the snare in particular).

I cant believe I'm actually going to say that....but you could bring the volume up just a bit, its kind of too low.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Do you mean the overall volume?
 
I didn't hear the original mix, but this sounds good to me. Really nice song, and I love the guitar tones.
Concur though that the vocals are a bit wandering, and low-key. It works well in the beginning, but I wanted to hear them "toughen up" in the chorus. They are sort of submerged in the mix throughout, which dilutes the payoff of the chorus.
Again, nice song... reminds me a little of the Finn Brothers.
 
One small nit - The vocals have a weak spot in the very beginning but they pick up just fine as they progress.
The rest of it is good in my ears - The doubling on vocals and the harmonies work really well together. The balance is good and the panning decisions are really working for me.
 
Cool use of reverb. That sounded excellent.

Piano sounds pretty nice. Clean guitar sounds quite nice. Very tasteful guitar playing. Nice singing voice.

Vocal is quite clear. It's a bit behind the instruments.

The low end is a bit out of control. The bass is very boomy. I would check the 80hz - 140hz area. It's really ringing out.

Drums sound canned. But they worked OK. Cymbals were swishy. Might be SC mangling them. Check the orignal to be sure.
 
I like it. Very Bowie-esque vocal.
I'd mention the bass, but Trip's already hit it. I love the tone. Fits the song well.
Parts jump out at the right places. Very well mixed.
 
Thanks for all that. Specific frequency tips are VERY helpful. I'm just learning how to mix. Also, the environment I'm monitoring is untreated for the time being. It's hard for me to gauge the low end. After playing guitar for a long time, I've gotten excited about bass over the past couple of years. So all the songs I've been writing lately are bass-driven, and my impulse is to want to hear a lot of bass in the mix. But I know I must restrain myself... Sill learning!
 
Something weird with the snare. Kind of flat, maybe over compressed. I'm not sure what is going on with it. Is it virtual drums?

All else sounds good to me. I like the clean guitar riffs. Pleasant tones and adds nicely to the song.
 
The drums sounds are samples. I built up the MIDI drum parts by hand pretty much from scratch. Time consuming, but it's hard to find loops that give the right amount of swing that I was looking for. I may need to upgrade to some higher quality samples.
 
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