Just finished one, 1st mix (2 months...) Rockinrobby, only 13 years old

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RockinRobby

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Actually, my Scotch is only 13 years old? But I think it's funny when that girl posts that.

It took me two months :-( But it's my 1st mix, any crits or comments appreciated. I changed the original a bit, added a dobro, a mandolin, and a Hammond, but it seemed they were lacking. Also I did not edit or comp the vocals, went for more of a live feel.

It's at the top;

www.reverbnation.com/rockinrobby
 
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2nd remix, I changed the vocal plate, added a stereo panner on the verb, softened the high end on the piano, and brightened the vox a little.

At the top, "The Weight - 2nd Remix"
 
3rd remix, added some brightness to the drums and raised them a titch, and put a stereo delay on the vocals and raised them a weence and put just a bit more pressure on them.
 
The dobro absolutely positively does not sound lacking. You did well to not comp, edit or fuck with the vocals as I think this is a stellar performance. I am a huge band/dylan fan. Your voice works incredibly well on this. You nailed it. As a big fan of levon and his drumming - the programmed drums are bugging me. But you know what, who gives a shit. There are some things going on with the overall mix that I don't understand - but I'll let other folks make suggestions there.

Your point about not editing the vocals - another thing I have found lately is that if I play and record an instrument - guitar, piano doesn't matter which really - while I record the main vocal the net result (for me) is about 10X better. Playing the instrument get's me fired up, and I have a much better feel for how to work the notes around the vocal. or vice versa if I'm doing them together live. Any awkwardness in front of the mic just disappears. Just a thought. The one continuous take thing is an absolute must for me as it's just another form of practice. Play it until I nail it. Move on. Same thing with backing vocals - I record those with another guitar part, or a piano or B3 part.
 
Thanks Chuck, I had some other comments about those drums (mainly the snare) so I have a new mix up with a more muted snare, less room and OH, and compressed a bit more. That and some people were bitc. err um, "complaining?" about my piano sound. But the cover sounds like an upright in someone's basement? So I brought the upright sound out a bit more, and put an envelope on there to help on the chorus where I'm really beating the hell out of it.

And of course I changed the last verse :-) It's not actually a song about Jesus, but many people 'mistakenly' think that it is, but my version w/my last verse makes it one. It's not in your face or offensive in any way, it's basically in keeping with the title, "The Weight..." We all carry one... And the message here is, "he can take it, let him carry the weight." I'm not really that guy? But I felt that's what this song was asking me to do.

Thanks very much for listening and for commenting. I actually just put up RM4 with the tamer snare.
 
Up to remix 7 :-) Some people were saying my snare wasn't "snapping..." so I pushed the transiants on it, NY compressesd it, and added a touch more verb to it. Others complained about the doubled piano track. The cover has an upright sound (basically) so I canned the other pianos I had "blended" with the upright and just went with a straight honky tonk upright sound like they (The Band) did. Probably (hopefully) the last remix. I'm pretty happy with it.

Thanks a pantload to Chuck for listening and commenting, I will definately listen to yours. Getting someone to listen and comment here is "no easy feat from what I've seen historically..."
 
RockinRobby said:
Getting someone to listen and comment here is "no easy feat from what I've seen historically..."
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It helps when you listen and comment on other people's stuff too. Be a team player. I'm not judging you, I'm just telling how things generally work here. Many people here have no problem getting pages and pages of replies. Those are usually the same people that give tons and tons of listens and comments to other people's stuff. Spread the love, dude. :)
 
As for your 7th remix....I didn't hear the first six. For me, #7 aint working well. The drums are faint and being being beaten down by everything else. I can faintly hear the hint of a snare on the left, which is odd. No kick, faint toms, an occasional cymbal, no hats, or anything. The instrumentation sounds decent. Everything sounds kind of mashed together, but not too bad. Vocals are good. I'd say strip it down to get the drums right, then slowly and gently bring things in until it's a solid mix. Sounds like you treated the drums as an afterthought.
 
I dont really have any problem getting feedback. I've met a great bunch of guys here. They are stuck with me listening to every single one of their songs and commenting until they tell me to STFU. I post a lot of stupid goofy shit too. occasionally someone tells me to STFU. Seems to be working out ok so far.
 
yeah, but my two months on this project? Not so much... I comment occasionally on some other songs? But from what I can see, “the vast majority of posters here” post music for comment, receive comments? And move on… I understand why they do so, it’s not a mystery, but it is what it is... I wrote a song by the same title? “It is what it is…” Great song, and an appropriate observation for this forum, "it is what it is."
 
RockinRobby said:
yeah, but my two months on this project? Not so much... I comment occasionally on some other songs? But from what I can see, “the vast majority of posters here” post music for comment, receive comments? And move on… I understand why they do so, it’s not a mystery, but it is what it is... I wrote a song by the same title? “It is what it is…” Great song, and an appropriate observation for this forum, "it is what it is."
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I have no idea what the reference to two months on this project means. I would listen to greg on this. My advice would be to faders down and tear anything you have on the masters off. Take an hour or so to get the drums bass and lead vocal working level wise. Then lock that shit in stone - group and lock those faders. Spend a couple hours mixingi everything else around these without touching them. Walk away. Get a mix the next day and listen to it on some different setups. Go back and make minor tweaks. Repeat this a couple times. You should be in good shape. Some more thoughts - For this song I think your voice, the dobro and the piano should be the centerpieces - in that order. Def use a beat up old upright sound. Don't use the stereo spread on the plug- turn it way down. You don't want a 10 foot wide piano on a song like this.
 
RockinRobby said:
yeah, but my two months on this project? Not so much... I comment occasionally on some other songs? But from what I can see, “the vast majority of posters here” post music for comment, receive comments? And move on… I understand why they do so, it’s not a mystery, but it is what it is... I wrote a song by the same title? “It is what it is…” Great song, and an appropriate observation for this forum, "it is what it is."
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Okay then. It is what it is. Tons of people pop in, yell "hey look at me", and then vanish forever. No doubt about that. The MP3 clinic has indeed gone way downhill in the past few years - in quality and content. This place used to be booming. But, there's also a core of people in here that give and get in equal share though. You ever see threads in here go 5, 6, 7 or more pages? I do. Wanna know why that is? ;)
 
The drums are distant, they soudn like they're pushed way far back, mic'ed from kinda far away or something. Everything else sounds like it's right there, nice and bright. The vox mix sound great, nice job singing and mixing them!
 
Supstar, that's the kind of input I needed :-) I pushed the drums a bit, and basically "completely redid the mix" but now? You can hear the drums :-) Thanks very much, you were spot on.

And thanks for your kind words on the vox :-) Years of choir, bands, then church choirs? And now in the living room. I have a nice signal chain too which doesn't hurt ;-) The U87AI is a singers friend...
 
RockinRobby said:
Supstar, that's the kind of input I needed :-) I pushed the drums a bit, and basically "completely redid the mix" but now? You can hear the drums :-) Thanks very much, you were spot on.

And thanks for your kind words on the vox :-) Years of choir, bands, then church choirs? And now in the living room. I have a nice signal chain too which doesn't hurt ;-) The U87AI is a singers friend...
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as long as you got the kind of input you were looking for lol
 
Yes, I know I'm a bit of a tard when it comes to the mixing, and the drums are "better" now, but unfortunately, my DAW took a bit of a dump last night during a storm and needs a new mama board... I have all of my projects backed up, I'm just hoping I don't lose all of my software, Sonar, all my plugs, etc... Because that will take "several weeks" to reinstall. If I can get it back in tact next week, I'll probably try to bounce that snare again with a bit more lively sound, and blend the two. In the mean time, I'll listen to a few others and try to provide somewhat constructive input and or comment. I know that's not everyone's thing? But hey, it takes all kinds I guess. I don't let it bother me when some do the passive agressive thing. They would sit quitely if we were in the same room ;-) But the Internet makes them 10ft tall and bullet proof, I know how it works and like I said, they really don't bother me :-D

Chuck, pls note, this is in no way directed at you.
 
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Not heard the other 7, but on 8 I'm not a fan of the snare sound, but I know how hard they are to get halfway decent on programmed drums and struggle with it myself, but I also find a little of programming early on a bit clunky - by the time the song's well underway I'm less aware of it though.

Sounds vintage enough and 70s.

Also not a huge fan of the piano sound but everything else sounds pretty sweet. But you know what you're after and have given it all plenty of tweaking, you have to stop sometime.

Re. the "not getting enough listens" thing, I clicked into the thread, read a bit of it, couldn't see a song title (and so didn't know what I was being asked to listen to) and direct link, so clicked onto your site (which I would not normally do if I didn't know you from Adam as it's just click harvesting), picked the top one, saw it was "The Weight" and thought "No, he wouldn't..." and clicked anyway, then heard it was "The Weight" and promptly shut it down again off as I generally have little interest in listening to recordings of covers, especially ones that are very close to the original and particularly ones that change the lyrics and add "Jesus" in at the end, but when I read your posts I went back and had a listen anyway and am giving you some feedback.

You might consider that others like me didn't listen and/or comment for some/all of the same reasons - the number of low level hurdles you put in the path. That's just me, however... it probably doesn't bother most.

Good luck. Do an original and I'm happy to listen up...
 
Hey there Armistice, yes, I agree, when I get my DAW back "if I get it back :-( " I'm going to bounce another/brighter snare and blend it in. I'm working on an original colab that's probably two months out... My DAW took a hit through the DSL line and it fried the mama board, so I'm trying to recover it, but may have to get a new one, which will require a total re-install and in some cases, a repurchase of all of my SW... And I'll be going XP32 to Win7-64. If it happens, it will undoubtedly be some sort of Karmic revenge for some great wrong I have done. Thanks very much for your comments, they were very helpful.
 
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