pdlstl
New member
I don't know why I can't get this mix right.
It's so simple, Vocals, acoustic guitar and upright bass.
Help!
Earl
Gypsy Rover
It's so simple, Vocals, acoustic guitar and upright bass.
Help!
Earl
Gypsy Rover
pdlstl
New member
^
B.SABBATH
New member
very nice tune here..
you gotta take it easy with that auto tune.. it sounds like a great performance but the vocals sound very artificial.. almost synth like.. the vocal sound could hit the ears a bit softer.. really nice song though!
you gotta take it easy with that auto tune.. it sounds like a great performance but the vocals sound very artificial.. almost synth like.. the vocal sound could hit the ears a bit softer.. really nice song though!
chrisharris
King of Bling
lmao...don't mind B.SABBATH...he hears autotune in the early Elvis recordings too. 
I am soooooo glad Sam pointed me towards this. First, her voice...like a cross between Nancy Griffith and Natalie Maines...
Picking - Damn, that's nice.
Mix - I've got a couple of ideas, but before I dish out the amateur advice, I have to say that I am very VERY impressed by this performance. What's the story? You picking? Singing? Both? Who's the fem?
Okay, the first thing that hits me is that she's about 12 feet away from the mic...and the guitar is right in my face...the picture I'm getting is that she's standing behind the picker, which is just backwards to me. It's more of an EQ thing than a volume thing...see, I can tell that guitar was recorded pretty close, and it's got some nice lows in it, and her vocal just doesn't have any lows in it at all...ergo - guitar seems closer than she is.
I really love the guitar...no complaints really if her vocal were closer. As is, I'd probably cut some lows out of it or turn it down a bit (and pan it a little) to get it out of her way, but SHEEESUS it's nice.
Now, I can also tell that she probably HAS to back off the mic to keep from breaking stuff, lol. I have a daughter that has a similar problem, lmao. Do whatever it takes to get some proximity on her voice when you track it...turn the preamp to zero...or off, or whatever, lol. Just get her a little closer to the mic.
The mix is super mono - I know there are only 3 elements, but you might pan the guit and the backup off of center to get a little separation. For most people, I'd suggest making a duplicate of that guitar track and panning the two with a little delay between them, but b/c of the way this was played, I think that would just get blurry and suck...I'll save that trick for my guitar tracks, which are already blurry to begin with.
You may have a new stalker in me, btw...cowtown's not that far from home to me. If you can, I want you to listen to one I've got up right now. I won't hijack your thread by posting a link, lol...but it's one I did with my daughter yesterday. One of the mixes is right to me...proximity on the vocals, etc. Lemme' know what you think, and maybe we can trade ideas from there.
BTW - If you can't tell, I loved the living snot out of this
I am soooooo glad Sam pointed me towards this. First, her voice...like a cross between Nancy Griffith and Natalie Maines...
Picking - Damn, that's nice.
Mix - I've got a couple of ideas, but before I dish out the amateur advice, I have to say that I am very VERY impressed by this performance. What's the story? You picking? Singing? Both? Who's the fem?
Okay, the first thing that hits me is that she's about 12 feet away from the mic...and the guitar is right in my face...the picture I'm getting is that she's standing behind the picker, which is just backwards to me. It's more of an EQ thing than a volume thing...see, I can tell that guitar was recorded pretty close, and it's got some nice lows in it, and her vocal just doesn't have any lows in it at all...ergo - guitar seems closer than she is.
I really love the guitar...no complaints really if her vocal were closer. As is, I'd probably cut some lows out of it or turn it down a bit (and pan it a little) to get it out of her way, but SHEEESUS it's nice.
Now, I can also tell that she probably HAS to back off the mic to keep from breaking stuff, lol. I have a daughter that has a similar problem, lmao. Do whatever it takes to get some proximity on her voice when you track it...turn the preamp to zero...or off, or whatever, lol. Just get her a little closer to the mic.
The mix is super mono - I know there are only 3 elements, but you might pan the guit and the backup off of center to get a little separation. For most people, I'd suggest making a duplicate of that guitar track and panning the two with a little delay between them, but b/c of the way this was played, I think that would just get blurry and suck...I'll save that trick for my guitar tracks, which are already blurry to begin with.
You may have a new stalker in me, btw...cowtown's not that far from home to me. If you can, I want you to listen to one I've got up right now. I won't hijack your thread by posting a link, lol...but it's one I did with my daughter yesterday. One of the mixes is right to me...proximity on the vocals, etc. Lemme' know what you think, and maybe we can trade ideas from there.
BTW - If you can't tell, I loved the living snot out of this
joro
The Pie Guy
very nice...Chris got it....I don't hear autotune myself....but my ears suck....these guys know so much more than I do...ya know?
....very powerful, emotive and dynamic vocal performance...
I like this man.....is it G-A-D Capo on the second?
nice picking...
kudos,
Joe
....very powerful, emotive and dynamic vocal performance...
I like this man.....is it G-A-D Capo on the second?
nice picking...
kudos,
Joe
chrisharris
King of Bling
I'm thinking I've heard something from you before; like a bluegrass thing with fake crowd noise maybe? It was pretty cool, but I don't remember hearing this singer
...I have to quit gushing here, lol. Just remembered that I thought this would sound even cooler with a moaning fiddle somewhere back there. That's the key, you know...when a mix isn't working, just throw more crap on it until it "jels," lol.
...I have to quit gushing here, lol. Just remembered that I thought this would sound even cooler with a moaning fiddle somewhere back there. That's the key, you know...when a mix isn't working, just throw more crap on it until it "jels," lol.
B.SABBATH
New member
I knew you would like this..
just out of curiosity, is there auto tune? I would like to know if I'm really hearing things..
just out of curiosity, is there auto tune? I would like to know if I'm really hearing things..
T
The Ghost of FM
Banned
I don't know even what auto-tune is, being an analog kinna guy but all I know is, I loved this tune!
It has a wonderful, down-home comfortable feeling to it and the performance was honest and superbly performed.
Regarding the mix issues, it sounded like you were too far away from the Mic when you were singing. Moving in a little closer would probably give you the proximity effect to fatten up the bottom end of the singing.
The guitar and bass sounded fine. Full and smooth all the way through.
Try to re-eq the vocals to add a bit of bottom end, cut a bit around 1.5khz to scale down the mid raspyness and maybe add a bit of 10khz shelving to smooth out the vocal.
If that doesn't work, try re-doing the vocal with a different Mic. Maybe the one you used to record the acoustic guitar with.
Good stuff!
It has a wonderful, down-home comfortable feeling to it and the performance was honest and superbly performed.
Regarding the mix issues, it sounded like you were too far away from the Mic when you were singing. Moving in a little closer would probably give you the proximity effect to fatten up the bottom end of the singing.
The guitar and bass sounded fine. Full and smooth all the way through.
Try to re-eq the vocals to add a bit of bottom end, cut a bit around 1.5khz to scale down the mid raspyness and maybe add a bit of 10khz shelving to smooth out the vocal.
If that doesn't work, try re-doing the vocal with a different Mic. Maybe the one you used to record the acoustic guitar with.
Good stuff!
pdlstl
New member
Chris,
Yes, I had posted the bluegrass thing before. Was playing around with the crowd noise thing.
Check out this thread too. There's a bit more about the story and another song there.
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96787
B.SABBATH,
No you're not hearing things. There is auto-tune but it didn't do a whole lot of correction. Her vocals stood pretty well on their own.
BTW, if you check out the thread above, there in no auto-tune on it. Of the 12 songs we did, I believe this was the only one I used Antares on.
Here's a link to a quick mix sans the auto-tune.
Gypsy Rover (no auto tune)
Will work on the mix later in the week to get the vocals more up front.
Thanks all,
Earl
Yes, I had posted the bluegrass thing before. Was playing around with the crowd noise thing.
Check out this thread too. There's a bit more about the story and another song there.
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96787
B.SABBATH,
No you're not hearing things. There is auto-tune but it didn't do a whole lot of correction. Her vocals stood pretty well on their own.
BTW, if you check out the thread above, there in no auto-tune on it. Of the 12 songs we did, I believe this was the only one I used Antares on.
Here's a link to a quick mix sans the auto-tune.
Gypsy Rover (no auto tune)
Will work on the mix later in the week to get the vocals more up front.
Thanks all,
Earl
powderfinger
New member
Very nice........the acoustic sounds great.....how was that recorded? what effects?
I would bring all the vocal tracks up quite a bit, they are being dominated by the guitar right now........
I would experiment with different ways of micing the upright bass, right now I can hear bass but none of the nice instrument sounds that make a, upright bass such a unique instrument........
I would bring all the vocal tracks up quite a bit, they are being dominated by the guitar right now........
I would experiment with different ways of micing the upright bass, right now I can hear bass but none of the nice instrument sounds that make a, upright bass such a unique instrument........
pdlstl
New member
powderfinger,
Everything on the 12 song album was recorded with an AT 4033 except the banjo which was an AT 4041.
Not all of the songs have banjo. Gypsy Rover obviously didn't. But check in my post above to link to another song from this three-piece group.
Thanks for the nice comments on the acoustic. Just a single 4033 about 12-14" out and aimed at the 12th. fret on an angle a little back toward the soundhole. No effects other than EQ.
BTW, this was recorded in my living room which has ZERO sound treatment.
Earl
Everything on the 12 song album was recorded with an AT 4033 except the banjo which was an AT 4041.
Not all of the songs have banjo. Gypsy Rover obviously didn't. But check in my post above to link to another song from this three-piece group.
Thanks for the nice comments on the acoustic. Just a single 4033 about 12-14" out and aimed at the 12th. fret on an angle a little back toward the soundhole. No effects other than EQ.
BTW, this was recorded in my living room which has ZERO sound treatment.
Earl
chrisharris
King of Bling
No. I'm not listening to any more of your songs until you listen to mine.pdlstl said:
Okay, I'm kidding.
She's a rare talent at 16 or 26 or 86. Same vocal "distantness" on that track, though. Don't get me wrong...it's kinda' reminiscent of the performance style in the genre...sharing mic's, singing in a circle, etc...so if that's what you're shooting for, you're done. It's funny that Blue Bear mentioned Alison Krauss in your other thread...I keep a copy of "Lucky One" at the ready at all times b/c it's just soooo well done. It's in my winamp player right now b/c I'm trying to get close to a vocal reverb used on that track, lol. I know Allison sings about 3 inches away from the most expensive mic in the universe, lol. Have you tried that yet? lol.
Anyway, everybody's pretty much saying the same thing, I think...no proximity on her vocal, PERFECT proximity on the guitar. It doesn't sound like it was EQ'd out of her vocal...it sounds like it was never there to begin with.
Oh, I agree with the bass comment too...I forgot there was one on the Gypsy tune.
pdlstl
New member
Chris said, "Anyway, everybody's pretty much saying the same thing, I think...no proximity on her vocal, PERFECT proximity on the guitar. It doesn't sound like it was EQ'd out of her vocal...it sounds like it was never there to begin with."
Okay, I need some direction here.
Her vocal was tracked at about 8-12". All that was done to it was a little (I guess too much) high end boost was added.
How do I get it more upfront?
This was my first real tracking session, so I'm definitely still learning.
Thanks,
Earl
Okay, I need some direction here.
Her vocal was tracked at about 8-12". All that was done to it was a little (I guess too much) high end boost was added.
How do I get it more upfront?
This was my first real tracking session, so I'm definitely still learning.
Thanks,
Earl
S
sloop
Active member
Mix is easy to fix
Bring up the Vocals--man they are well behind the guitar. You might try processing the guitar in stereo, drop it back in the mix and bring the vocals.
I agree with the autotune. Some of the vocal breaks are very hard. I don't think she needs it, try not using it on her.
Bring up the Vocals--man they are well behind the guitar. You might try processing the guitar in stereo, drop it back in the mix and bring the vocals.
I agree with the autotune. Some of the vocal breaks are very hard. I don't think she needs it, try not using it on her.
MC Gitarz
New member
Such a talent - loved the voice and the guitar playing. I like Sloop's advice the best - I'd try that. Indeed the vocals are too far behind the (very nice, clean, metric) guitar playing. (mic'd well,too I might add.) I'd like to hear more bass - both in volume and walking rhythm.
I have no idea what autotune is - but if it's a contraption to correct pitch I'd sell it and let her sing more. Her voice is gorgeous and emotive. I'd love to hear that rehearsal - over and over again.
D-loading the tune from the other thread - more to follow I'm sure.
I liked this a w-h-o-l-e lot!
Milan
I have no idea what autotune is - but if it's a contraption to correct pitch I'd sell it and let her sing more. Her voice is gorgeous and emotive. I'd love to hear that rehearsal - over and over again.
D-loading the tune from the other thread - more to follow I'm sure.
I liked this a w-h-o-l-e lot!
Milan
MC Gitarz
New member
Yep - I was right - no autotune needed (if that's what it does.) She really enunciates well. The word 'yard' at the bottom of her range comes across perfectly both in pronunciation and pitch. Just my two cents, mind you, I'm kinda like Ghost of FM - an old "like my analog - real - sound."
J
jeffoest
New member
I'm really enjoying this one! Great vocals.
I don't know if it's bothering me that the vocals are a little behind the guitar - it almost makes it sound more 'homey' - perhaps at the expense of sounding a LITTLE more amateurish - but this kind of works with type of folk song, you know?
Although I'm sure a more up front vocal would be nice too since I love her voice
Great stuff!
Jeff
I don't know if it's bothering me that the vocals are a little behind the guitar - it almost makes it sound more 'homey' - perhaps at the expense of sounding a LITTLE more amateurish - but this kind of works with type of folk song, you know?
Although I'm sure a more up front vocal would be nice too since I love her voice
Great stuff!
Jeff