Lost On The River

[Knopfler Fan]

My very first posting of music on the internet for all to hear. Please be gentle.

The song is called Lost On The River by Hank Williams SR.

Please give me your comments.

BTW, a big thumbs up to SLuiCE for that wicked song-- puts mine to shame that's for sure!


KF

http://www.nowhereradio.com/knopflerfan/singles

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Well it needs work on all levels, but it's not horrible or anything!

1) You need to get yerself a guitar, because that keyboard isn't cutting it....if that's a real guitar then you made it sound like a casio keyboard! The piano sounded ok to me, though a little muffled.

2) The vocals were ok, but I have a feeling you were too concious of that little recording light. It needs a lot of emotion and less thought. Your voice wants a different microphone...are you using a dynamic now? A lot could be done to help the vocals with compression and reverb (ESPECIALLY reverb)....they are very small as they are now.

3) Overall you could have mixed a LOT louder than this. I'm all for dynamics, but I had to seriously crank up the volume to hear this one. It will come with experience, and when you get better sounds you won't be so shy about mixing them like you want them to be HEARD.

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Stratomaster]

Good song-not familiar with the original-so it was nice to hear this.

As far as the mix-the balance between the vocals and the instruments is good. Though the mix has a shrunk kind of sound (that i'm all to familiar with from my own stuff). Though its hard to identify whats missing-my first guess is its a little shy in the bottom end-or maybe to much mids action-my listening environment is less than optimal (and this is mp3) so....

The performance for the most part is good-I heard a few things--The first word of the song is off pitch-(it's always the hardest thing to just get started)-Around 2:20 the word tomorrow sounds a little shaky in pitch and rhythm. But other than that its a nice heart felt vocal performance. The guitar work is nice-It could have used a little more "accenting" in my opinion ie. the opening riff-the notes are played at such a constant volume its hard to tell where the turnaround is-but thats just opinion of course. I thought the mandolin part was cool (was that a real mandolin?)-I like the way its placed in the mix. Piano sounded good too.

Anyway-don't get the wrong idea-I enjoyed this alot-(on about my 10th listen)-I just had nothing better to do than tell you everything i heard .

 

[Stratomaster]

1) You need to get yerself a guitar, because that keyboard isn't cutting it....if that's a real guitar then you made it sound like a casio keyboard! The piano sounded ok to me, though a little muffled.

Yikes-I was thinking there's something kinda un-guitar like about the playing-but if I missed the fact that this isnt a guitar at all-i need my ears checked. Looking back at equpiment used-wow-Amazing you could do a tune like this with just a keyboard.

edited to admit my shame.

 

[Knopfler Fan]

Thanks for the constructive comments. It's hard to fool the ears with "fake" instruments. If only I could play guitar.....

I did have problems with the overall volume. The microphone used is a cheap dynamic mic plugged directly into the Fostex MR8. The mic line was set to max. Since the MR8 does not have phantom power, I'm a little reluctant to purchase a condenser mic at this time.

Any suggestions on what other dynamic mics I should use, vis-a-vis my vocal style? The good people at the Microphone Forum suggests the Shure 57 or 58, but the person at the local music store suggests the Audio Technica ATM41HE or AKG D880. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your comments.


KF