Made in China

I like this one a lot, Bowie. :^)

If it were mine:

After 20 seconds of intro, I think a downward modulation...say, to F#- from A- [to be raised back at some later point in the verse cycle...say, 0:40; or held off until the chorus] would be boffo! Shift the power down, then accelerate the pump....gets rid of the kinda sameness of tonality.

The chorus is ripe for an off-beat , clean soul guitar 'chink'...think SRV on China Girl. Except on the ands, instead on the downbeats,

At 2:00 there's some thick orchestration. I think you should move it to the wings.....center is crowded with mash. Wings are vacant....dynamic spread of the field!

I'd also withold the bass after the breakdown [3:22] until it comes slammin' in w/ the drums @ 3:43.

Bowie almost always included a lot of dynamic changeup in the vocal spew, too. Way low and whispery...to snotty, in-yer-face: "just you shut your mouf"" kinda 'attitude' stuff. I'd re-sing it in pancake makeup...and strut a little. :^) Help with dynamic interest.

Real good. Some sparks on the drums would be cool, too. And some stronger, more pointed instrumental figures later in the song.

Like it a lot. I think a little more work can put it over the top.
 
Oh yeah, very Bowie and that's good in my book....
Jeff hit a lot of things already with regard to arrangement and panning, I would compress the snare alittle bit more but that's just my taste. Good tune.

Joey :)
 
Haha thanks guys. Bowie huh. Can't say I have problems with that reference :D
I might push some stuff to the side in the middle part, it does feel rather crowded in there. Anyway, glad you liked it.
 
I wouldn't have said Bowie until about 2:25. Then it does start to sound like him.

I really like the syncopated change-up around 3:00.

During some of the heavier parts, the constant crash cymbal fills up a lot more sonic space than it probably deserves. I'd turn that down a bit and maybe turn up the guitar instead.

Overall, a pretty cool song.
 
The ultrasquash "mastering" is absolutely killing this mix. It's either too compressed, or the mix wasn't ready for "mastering" to begin with, or both. It's one dimensional and pretty harsh. The busy parts are a mash of sound with no space or breathing room. This thing should be full of dynamics. It's isn't. You hear that snare? It's there, but it's lifeless corpse has been compressed into a pancake. Go back to the drawing board on the mix and go easy on the master bus compression and limiting.
 
Monkey Allen: yeah I like lots of bass. Shouldn't be too loud though, I'll run it through my monitors again. Thanks for listening.

Greg:
Thanks for your input. These songs were a learning process for recording and mixing. Along the way I discovered eqing, compressing, limiting, etc. Hearing what you could do with those I agree that I probably went overboard because it was all new. Next time around I'll use them more sparsely and subtly. That said, I don't master (I barely know what it is). Unless putting a single limiter on the master bus is mastering (guess it is huh?). The drums are neither compressed nor limited (the bass is though). One question, could you expand on "This thing should be full of dynamics"? I read that all the time but I'm not clear as to what it means exactly. Thanks again man, I'm here to learn.
 
I think it means there should be more of a contrast between loud and quiet parts. If you look at your track in a waveform it's pretty flat. Not completely...but it's still flat...which means I suppose that a lot of the peaks have been cut off/ limited. So the difference between the quiet and loud parts is not far...any worse and it would be a mush of basically uniform volume for the whole song. This is a style anyway. People love it. I think that sort of thing sounds a bit rough. Dynamics means the range of volume. If you have no contrasting dynamic...then it's like listening to loud white noise...to use a pretty over the top examlpe. Anyway...this is my understanding. I'm not an expert.
 
Something in the bass mix isn't working for me... Whatever you're tuned to, the 5th of that (B if the song is in the key of E) resonates and rattles loud as hell, needs some eq'ing or something, IDK what... The E's are low and smooth, the higher notes are ok, but in that B/C range, it's just too loud.. I thought the subs in my car were gonna blow :D No other nits from me.
 
singlespeak said:
Monkey Allen: yeah I like lots of bass. Shouldn't be too loud though, I'll run it through my monitors again. Thanks for listening.

Greg:
Thanks for your input. These songs were a learning process for recording and mixing. Along the way I discovered eqing, compressing, limiting, etc. Hearing what you could do with those I agree that I probably went overboard because it was all new. Next time around I'll use them more sparsely and subtly. That said, I don't master (I barely know what it is). Unless putting a single limiter on the master bus is mastering (guess it is huh?). The drums are neither compressed nor limited (the bass is though). One question, could you expand on "This thing should be full of dynamics"? I read that all the time but I'm not clear as to what it means exactly. Thanks again man, I'm here to learn.
Click to expand...
Cramming one song through a limiter is not mastering, but for our purposes, taking a single raw mix and making it loud as hell as a finished product can kind of be considered a halfass kind of "mastering". That's why I always put "mastering" in quotes. It's not really technically mastering, but it is sort of. Whatever the case, this mix is pretty compressed. I have to ask, why do you have a limiter on the master bus? Is it to control clipping at the master bus? If so, you're mixing too hot. Turn everything way down. You don't need to mix loud with the faders. Bring them down so things can breathe and have headroom, and if you need it louder, turn your monitors up.
 
Greg_L said:
taking a single raw mix and making it loud as hell as a finished product can kind of be considered a halfass kind of "mastering". ... I have to ask, why do you have a limiter on the master bus?
Click to expand...
I was tired of having to turn the volume on my stereo up when listening to my songs and then forgetting it and almost blowing up my speakers when playing a cd. It just seemed I had the choice between volume + clipping, no clipping + low volume, or limiting + volume + no clipping. But apparently also + ruining mix.
 
singlespeak said:
I was tired of having to turn the volume on my stereo up when listening to my songs and then forgetting it and almost blowing up my speakers when playing a cd. It just seemed I had the choice between volume + clipping, no clipping + low volume, or limiting + volume + no clipping. But apparently also + ruining mix.
Click to expand...

Okay so you want loudness. That's fine, but you need to get the mix better first. A bad mix "mastered" is a nasty thing.
 
I liked the bass tone. Real cool.

I'm hearing a crackle every now and then. A couple of spots are at :03 and :44.

The high end of the cymbals is a little sizzly and abrasive.

A little pitchiness in spots. Some bobbled notes.
 
Needs a hook.

I like the song okay, but I think the vocals could be delivered with more urgency. They are all head voice and no chest voice. Push some air.

It's a little better @ 2:30

I like the break. The guitar is working against the rhythm section for the part though.

Interesting stuff all around.
 
Very interesting...glad I checked this out (a bit late - sorry).

Your voice is pretty unique...reminded me of various british singers from the '80's but deeper and smoother or something. I found the first couple of minutes were dragging a bit but then all kinds of stuff started happening and I really enjoyed the 2nd half quite a bit.

Mix-wise it seemed a bit squashed when you brought all of the elements together later in the song. I guess if it could be a cleaner mix with more air I think that might work better for this sort of tune.

I dunno...definitely interesting - thanks for sharing.
 
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