Minimum Wage v2

Dwayne C

New member
Hey everyone. I'm posting my first song ever with me actually singing lead. I've gone about as far as I can with what I have to work with, so I'm just looking for tweak ideas.....because I am so ready to move on but don't want to wipe this off the board until it's finished.

The drums are electronic on 2 tracks so I can't mess with them much. I'm using a TC M2000 with a med plate and chorus reverb. The leads have a TC D-Two. I'm out of channels of decent compression. Here goes ....

https://soundcloud.com/dwayne-carlson-1/minimum-wage-v2/s-Gn422
 
Great groove.

Love the lead guitar licks. Lead tone is nice. Lead solos are very nice.

The rhythm tone is a little on the fizzy and thin side. It gets swallowed up by the rest of the tracks.

I'd lower one of the doubled lead vocal tracks. It should make it sound a bit more natural. When the "gang vocals" come in during the hook, the vocal level as a whole gets too loud.

The bass sounds nice. I think you could probably compress it a little harder. It gets lost in the mix in a couple of spots and it's a bit too loud in others.

The snare could use a little more snap to my ear. Does the kick have a big low end boost? Or a big cut in the 500hz range? It sounds kind of odd. Ride cymbal sounds nice. The rest of the cymbals sound a little thin.

I like the tune. Real good rocker.
 
The guitar in the intro sounded weird to me. Some kind of phase-void thing (I just made that term up) creating a vacuum in the center. Maybe it's one guitar part, and if so, maybe track a 2nd guitar part and pan them to each side a little. Or, if you have some kind of effect on it, maybe try it without.

Lead vocals are leaning left and my OCD brain likes vocals symmetrical and in the middle. backing vocals can be spread evenly across the stereo field.

I thought the drums could come up in a big way and balanced across the stereo field. Bring the beat and drive the song. A song like this should having drums driving everything. A good rocker.

Lead guitar sure does sound nice. I'm guessing you're the guitar player. The song sounds like a guitar player mixed it. :D
 
Fun tune, cool. Do you have the lead vocals panned more to the left, and the drums favoring the right? If so, consider centering them.

Peace
 
You guys are hearing the 2nd vocal track panned slightly left. I'll center it and tuck it under a bit to blend them a little better.

I originally had 1 track I did with a tube-mic, the Groove Tubes GT-66. I like it on my voice but it was a bit too clear for this song when I started mixing. So......I doubled myself with the venerable SM58. I like them together and have bben messing with how much of each to use. I believe if I do as mentioned it will sit even better.

And while I'm at it, I'll compress the bass just a tiny bit more.

Thanks for tweak tips guys!

And.....yes, I am the guitar player. I've actually been working on lowering my drums in mixes just a little bit based on a bunch of my reference material. These tracks with these V-drums are .......................in dire need of finishing so I can move on.
 
Nice tune! I feel like the guitars are too low/behind as compared to the drums and vocals so I would either bring the guitars up or lower vocals and drums and bring everything up. Also agree with the bass compression. Also the drums sound a bit too bassy/lower midrangey.
 
I really dig the tune. Here's what I am hearing:

Rhythm guitars are really thin and weak.
Bass has some great lines and runs, but is a lot of low end rumble and the runs are not that clear. Maybe the all the bass needs to come up?
Vocals are too far left and right...too much stereo and distance. Just my opinion.

Great song though and very catchy. Great job
 
mostly echoing others comments here. intro guitar sounds thin and makes the mix a bit lopsided. vocals to the L is odd and throws things a little more off balance. i can see what you mean about the vocals being "too clear". i'd suggest maybe a saturator and some really hard compression to see about gritting them up a bit. they are clean as heck as they are now.

by the way, i can hear a TON of guitar picks. click click. lol.
 
I heard the clicks this morning after letting it rest. I'm pretty sure it's actually the bass. I am soooooo sick overnight, ugh, so I'll let it rest for today, soak in the suggestions and finish it off after I feel better. Damn, this came on out of nowhere.

I tried re-amping the guitar but it didn't work. I'm gonna redo it through my Rivera. What do y'all think? Les Paul sound, strat sound, or ASAT Deluxe SH?
 
Sorry if I missed it, but are you EQ'ing the guitars at all? If so, reset them and just roll off some of the low freq and leave it and mix it that way. If it doesn't sound good, chances are your amp EQs are off or mic positioning is off. I have found that recording the guitars just as they are and not doing much to them gets the best overall tone unless your going for something out of the ordinary. Once I set my amp up I very rarely adjust anything on it so I have a consistent tone. I don't use any pedals either, just straight Marshall gain! With that said, you can never go wrong with a LP! Haha but a strat may sound pretty good with this style you have.
 
Good tune! The mix sounds pretty good to me-I don't care much for the tone of the left guitar as others have also said-The beginning is slightly awkward-it seems like the bass is doing the classic JohnPJones riff how many more times? but doesn't finish the riff...The hesitation right before the singing is a little off-everyone coming in on the 1, sounds like the drums come in a second early? Maybe not fixable....I like the solo tones and the singing, I just noticed the left vocal thing. I like the sound of the vocals just fine-I think the drums could be pushed up a bit and the rhythm guitars with it and center the vocals. Overall-the song is coming across well, maybe just a few tweaks to give every instrument and voice it's place. Good riffage!
 
by the way, i can hear a TON of guitar picks. click click. lol.

That's the biggest thing I'm noticing. I'm pretty sure it's bass too since it's so pronounced in that first bass roll(?) at the beginning.

+1 on the left leaning vocals, thin rhythm tone, and really good lead tone.
 
Timing issues of various sorts at 0.15, 1.05 - one of your vocal lines is out at 3.13. Can't really hear the spoken words well enough at the end. Your "big" chorus vocals need to be pushed back in a lot. Your fade out is uneven L/R to no particularly good effect. Your attempt at double tracking the lead vocal doesn't come off particularly elegantly because of pitch issues here and there - I'd push one of them back about 5dB or so.

I'm also a bit confused, lyrically, by the seeming contradiction of there being no time for living but you're not able to get enough hours. Plenty of time for living I'd have though, just not enough money...
 
This is a cool tune.
my observations:
the lead vocal is a little too hot in the mix and the rythym guitars are too low and don't have much meat to their sound. the back up vocal need to come down to better blend with the lead vocal.
 
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