mellow acoustic tune

[SnakeDog5050]

Hey everyone, here's a short acoustic tune about how we kind of keep memories alive through the songs we write.
I'm wondering how it turned out, like the mix and music. Also if such soft vox work out at all for me

lyrics, mp3, and streaming here: "A Memory"

Any feedback/criticism is much appreciated. Thanks

 

[XLR]

Sweet sentimental tune. Nice sound on the nylon string lines. Very pretty ending. I think you can sing the softer style well.

 

[ido1957]

This is more than an acoustic tune - it's a Snakedog production...

Cool waves, birds and flutes.....

The vocals could use some de-esser or less high eq - they are kind of ess-y.
I would maybe dry them out a touch too - they seem a bit removed from the guitars - especially noticeable during the leads.

Excellent job on the vocals, and I really like the melody lines you've written.

The rhythm guitar playing is really nice too - strumming and fingerpicking.

Very nice songwriting SnakeDog.....

 

[Dogman]

Sounds pretty good Snake...yep, work on cleaning the vocals up some. You might need to roll some highs out, or actually use a de-esser. Try rolling the highs off first, and when you put verb on them, if you can, don't have the verb on the highest stuff...just the mids and lowers. Might make them sit a bit better.

Small issues though...tune overall is nice. Good playing as always man....Nice sounds.

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Tim - thanks a lot, that means a lot to me coming from the acoustic master around here

ido, Dogman - thanks guys, I notice what you guys are talking about and I'll try all your suggestions. I'll try to even out the lead and the vox too. Listening back I realize I recorded the rhythm and vox together farther away from when I recorded the lead, so I'll try to balance out the room sound.
I played all the sound effects on my midi keyboard, good to know they aren't too cheesy Thanks again guys, glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Anfontan]

Nice song there Snakedog, the panning with the wind is a cool effect but they need to be a bit quieter-they almost cover up some of the vocals. Thats about the only nit I could uncover, it turned out good!

 

[Monkey Allen]

Agree about the desser on the vocs....also, for me the effects of the ocean are a bit loud from time to time...even though I kind of appreciate that this is probably what you want...for me maybe less is more, in terms of volume anyway. btw, I just read a few posts up after I listened to your song...I never would have guessed the sfx were midi. I assumed an effects tape.

Psycho Llamas in Space on Acid is pretty cool too

keep on truckin'

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Hey Tony and Monkey, thanks guys for checking out the tune and reviewing. Haha, I actually originally did a vocal take that had parts that I didn't like as much so I tried to have the waves cover it up a bit, then I did a new vocal take and forgot to lower some of the waves I'll remember that when I remix this (with de-essing too). It was actually kind of neat using the midi keyboard for the sound effects since I could play the effects at any note and adjust the volume as the song played. It helped the effects flow with the song better IMO.
Monkey, thanks for checking out psycho llamas too, that's probably one of my fan favs to play, I'm actually working on an extended "dance remix" of that one too Who knows how that'll turn out...

 

[faderbug]

ok, i'mtyping this while listening. this is pretty cool man! nice tune, those acoustics sound very decent. i like the effect of the wind and the naturesounds mixed in. i do think they're too loud - oh the song just ended short but that's ok, i don't like the "we have to have 4 min at least!!!" principle. when it's done it's done.

ok, so the wind sounds came to a sudden stop and that was pretty ugly tbh!

and yes as said before the vocals could stand out more, both in audibility and comprehensivity.

this is very cool stuff you know, i'm giving this a couple more listens and check for reposts.

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Hi faderbug, thanks for the listen and interest in the song. Yeah I kinda liked the song short and to the point. I'm digging this nylon string guitar I've borrowed so I'll probably do a few more short ones that could equal one long one Alrighty, so I read your review earlier today before I worked on a remix of the song so hopefully I addressed some of your suggestions. I'll be back with that in a minute...

 

[detuned6]

The vocals sound far away from the mix.

 

[SnakeDog5050]

The vocals sound far away from the mix.

Thanks for commenting. I'll remove all verb from the vocals to see if that helps... be back in a bit

 

[ido1957]

I may have jumped the gun but I saw the tune was uploaded today so I went for it! LOL

Much better mix Snakedog - the ess-y sound is pretty much gone. You've made everything a bit nicer sounding/even.

The vocals are still a bit low especially when the music rises in volume. Perhaps eq carving might help. Try boosting the vocals in a specific spot (somewhere between....250-1K) and reduce that on the other instruments.

That will give the vocals a bit more low mids too which I think they could use....

The vocals/melody are really nice on this and I'd like to see it brought forward a bit more....

Really liking the tune man.....

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the help so far, I used everyones advice and updated the song. This is what I did:

- all midi effects are 2dB lower
- ran the de-esser on the lead vox
- lowered the high frequencies on the lead vox a tad
- took any verb off everything

Ido - thanks for the second listen! Good to know the ess-y sounds have left. Listening to the old mix and new mix back to back I really notice a what you guys were talking about. Actually, right after you posted I updated the mix again dropping all the verb on the vox, so hopefully that cleared them up even more than the mix you just heard. I'll keep messing around with it

 

[ido1957]

Ok - let me have another listen and I'll get back to you .....

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Ok - let me have another listen and I'll get back to you .....

Thanks ido. Haha, you're really on top of things, that second mix was only up for like 10 minutes

 

[ido1957]

The vocals are better on this latest mix. I'm not missing the reverb - it sounds like you do have some on the mix (or is that totally room?) Whichever... it has some ambience.....

The vocals are better - much clearer. Except when they get tromped(?) on by the lead guitar. I think its because the lead guitar has more bottom end tone and your lighter vocals can't compete. The leads are super though keep 'em! Maybe pan them a touch or eq a touch....I'll let you listen and see if you can hear what I mean...

Continue to enjoy this with every listen.....very good song....

 

[SnakeDog5050]

The vocals are better on this latest mix. I'm not missing the reverb - it sounds like you do have some on the mix (or is that totally room?) Whichever... it has some ambience.....

The vocals are better - much clearer. Except when they get tromped(?) on by the lead guitar. I think its because the lead guitar has more bottom end tone and your lighter vocals can't compete. The leads are super though keep 'em! Maybe pan them a touch or eq a touch....I'll let you listen and see if you can hear what I mean...

Continue to enjoy this with every listen.....very good song....

Cool the vocals are sounding better. Yep I dropped all verb, so anything you hear is totally room sound. Excellent suggestions, thanks. I'll come back and try some new things later with that lead when I have fresh ears, I think I've heard this a few too many times in the last hour or so

 

[Dogman]

I think that's better. The vocals have a slight oldtime effect, and it fits.

Much better dude...I don't have any specific seuggestions. If you fatten the vocals up some, with a little more bottom end, the may sit better, but then they won't have that effect like now. Kind of depends on what you want from that. I like it as is, as it's a bit more unique.

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Thx dawg for the second listen. I think I'll keep the oldtime effect going. I guess I was kind of trying to set a different mood with that. I'll mess around again when this is fresh and see how it sounds other ways (and adjust that guitar ), but I think if wanted to do soft vox like this again I'd have to learn how to track them a bit better since a lot of the EQing and adjustments I did to the track was to calm down extra noise and de-essing , computer fan, etc....