Mis-adventures in lo-fi

[Stratomaster]

Here's a mix I did last night-Not too sure about it today...I'll be back on this late tonight-so give me your mix thoughts. Obvious things I hear: All vocals could come up a notch(though some of the backgrounds are kinda ugly)--I think the L1-maximizer contributed to this-When I try to get some more level out of the file-it just brings everything else up to approach the vocal levels...Sooo, besides confirming the vocals are too low-you guys hear anything else that could use fixing?


www.nowhereradio.com/ultra/singles

Song is called "down"-about a friend of ours real life riches to rags tragedy...

 

[Toki987]

Your a hell of a craftsman. That song has the stuff. I like all the parts you did except for the level of the vocals, and Id like to hear some more drums and bass. Thats a damned good sound you got on that guitar. I thoroughly enjoyed that..

 

[flash2ace]

the guitars sound great. the main vocal sounds good but it seems to me that the somthing in the backing vocal is mixing in and muddying the mix, could be my pc speakers though. your a realy good musician and i can tell your a great guitarist. i like the rythm line to this. has kinda a dreamy feeling to it, the guitars have a rush sorta feeling to them. the song is nicely written. i like the solo, sounds great. nice song here, like i said i have crappy pc speakers and i cant even mix my own stuff wright so its hard for me to comment on others. god bless tim pate.

 

[powderfinger]

sounds pretty dern good...........along with the vocals, i'd bring up the drums some.....it'll give a little more power to the mix cause they sound well recorded.........

nice stuff

 

[twist]

Stratomaster, I like this kind of stuff alot. Kinda reminds me of old old Fleetwood Mac in the "Kiln House" days. The mix is good and clean, but needs a little more bass, the whole thing was kinda midrangy. Loved the song though!

Twist

 

[M.Brane]

I'm getting a Neil Young vibe from this. Only you can sing.

Mix is lacking body, I thought the levels were pretty balanced though.

 

[Pedullist]

the guitars have a rush sorta feeling to them.

Yeah, I thought that too. Not that it's Rush all over, but it kinda 'smells' like it. Obviously, your voice is very high too. But it's only the G - F chords in the chorus, in combination with the descending bass part at 1:19 (Bb - A - G - F) reminds me of Closer To The Heart ("The blacksmith and the artist, reflect it in their art"). It's not a bad thing, though. I'm a big Rush fan...(good for you!)

Anyway, good song! I like the choruses and the breakdowns. Chords in outro are beautiful.

Mix is sounding good, a tad harsh though. The harshness is mainly coming from the vocals. The rest sounds fairly OK: like a good rock trio! (I wish I could record real drums like that!) But hey, is that distortion I'm hearing on your vocals? I never understood what you meant with 'the maximizer changes my mix' but I think I can finally put my finger on it now. I have a feeling that your tendency to mix with lots of highs doesn't work in combination with a maximizer. It maximizes something that shouldn't be maximized. Makes me wonder, how 'honest' are your monitorspeakers?

The massive verb on the snare at 2:38 is very well chosen!

 

[fprod south]

Really good stuff! Dirtier than most of the stuff I've heard from you, but same solid song writing and tasteful playing.

I agree about bringing up the drums, especially in the loud parts. It'll make it more explosive. Bass too.

The backgroung vocals aren't ugly - they sound great and very appropriate to the song. Bring 'em up! I think the lead vocal will sit a little better when you can hear more harmonies.

The left speaker guitar outweighs the right. I'd either balance them - or - lay down another heavy part with a little different tone to pan right and bring the cleaner one to the center.

I don't say this much, but the song could benefit from some more reverb. Mostly the lead vocal, and maybe a little on the guitars.

I like it more each listen...mark of a good tune.

 

[B.SABBATH]

good song.. I was happy to see the lo-fi name again..

The recording is decent, but still something doesn't sound as warm as it used to.. there's just something about this mix that seems cold compared to your earlier stuff.. not harsh, but cold.. I'm sure that makes no sense at all, but I liked the tune a lot! Maybe I'll be able to think of some more stuff as I listen a few more times.. great song..

 

[Stratomaster]

Yo Yo! thanks for your time fellas-I got to work on this some more last night and earlier today-but cakewalk kept crashing!! ---So no remix to post...I wouldnt expect anyone to listen through this again in any case.... If I post a remix I'll send a pm to a couple of you-to check it out..I apologize in advance!

I pretty much took all the advice into account:

1) Lead vocs and bgv-come up-I tried a verb on the lv too-Good idea fprod
2) Bring the rythm section up-most seemed in agreement here
3) changed the eq-which was pretty radical-to try to cut the "harshness" from the LV-good call Peddulist
4) turn the dist guitar down and bring the cleaner one up-again good call fprod-it was kind of unbalanced.
5) As far as stuff like "needs more body"--"sounds cold" "kinda midrangey" hmm don't know what I can say or do about that-maybe with the elements rearranged a bit those things will work out---though i should have added this is an older 16 bit recording-recorded to a tascam da38(drums and guits)-then added to in CW-so that might account for part of the reason it sounds like ass -I've also had to start mixing in headphones for my last batch of mixes-so the translation problems have started all over again(though I hate our 20/20's anyway)

So thanks again for your ears and your time guys-much appreciated----signing out....

-edited to add- **remix is up**

 

[Jagular]

Don't have anything useful to add as it has all been pretty well covered. I think this is a very good song. I like the overall vibe of it. It kind of gives me a 70's rock feel to it for me. I can't quite put my finger on what it remind me of, but it is a fond memory to be sure.

Nice work. I would love to hear the remix even if I can't help that much

Nice work.

 

[TripleM]

I really like the feel to the song. Good ambience IMO. Nice rhy guit part - for some reason I just thought it was cool. Tight harmonies - except for the section begining at 3:12. Maybe it was intentional, but it sounded loose. They sounded perfectly smooth through the "who will you turn to" line in the chorus. I really liked that.

The word "when" at :09 has a little weirdness to it. I suppose you could probably bring up the lead guit in the break just a nudge and get away with it.

Good one.

 

[Stratomaster]

Thanks Jag and TripleM-Nice of you guys to stop in for a listen. Jag you heard the first version of this Trip you heard the remix. My first source says the first version rocked harder--hmm--he's probably right-the electric guitar came down some in the latest version and the harmonies came up....Trip good ears with that "when" at :09--I heard that myself when mixing-I solo'd the vocal track and its one of those creaky voice things-But it does sound like distortion or something I agree-and yeah the bridge is kind of intentionally loose-theres like 6 vocal tracks going on there -it ws tough to organize it all. I was thinking the same as you though-its kind of chaotic....Good ears, thanks.

 

[Doug H]

Skynard fan? :O

This was cool, great guitar riffs.