Mix critique please?

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McMajik

McMajik

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Hey guys!

I've been getting really into home recording for a while now, and I've got a couple of finished(ish) mixes of songs , and I was wondering what you guys think. I mean, I can hear that they're not perfect, but I can't quite put my finger on what could be improved.

Ben Tidy - Commuter by McMajik on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (The vocals are out, I know, but the guy couldn't sing)

Wasting Love final.mp3 by McMajik on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (Again, the vocals are out, but I can't sing either :p)

The drums are sampled, the keyboards are VSTs, and the bass is an octave dropped guitar, but the rest is real (Hey, I was working within my means)

Any critique would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Listened to Commuter.

Aside from the singing, the song sounds pretty good.

I couldn't hear the bass on my laptop so no notes there. The gutar tone is too fuzzy for me but if you're going for a retro fuzz sound then you nailed it.

The snare sounds very good to me and I like the loud cymbals. Piano sounds good.

The mix sounded balanced on my laptop.

It's funny, the singer kind of grew on me and there about 2:58 he hit this vrey nice falsetto note.

Keep at it.
 
Thanks! You have no idea how much that means :D

Funny thing about that falseto note, it was really weak and he couldn't hold it or end it naturally. Hence the reverb fade. :p
 
The music sounds good man, but the singing on both tracks is pretty bad. The guy from commuter sounded like he was at least trying to sing in key. The guy from Wasting love sounded like he has to be singing bad on purpose because it was so freaking off you would have to be tonedeff not to notice it and keep singing anyway.

The music sounds pretty good, but then you guys go and fuck it up by singing LOL!!!!

I'll give you the best advice you'll ever get on this board, brother. Spend the $20 dollars to buy a copy of "Singing Coach Unlimited" software. You can get it on Amazon for around $19.99 plus shipping lol. You install it on your computer and it will walk you through the process of learning to sing in tune. In a few weeks of you could be pretty decent at singing if you put the time into it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1YBFM3C2420FHV62NVH3

I used it myself and it was very helpful. I'm not the type of guy to take real singing lessons so I got to get some help in the privacy of my own home instead of feeling like an ass publicly with my shitty singing.
 
I listened to commuter . The mix sounded decent. The compression on the mix before the drums seemed a bit hot, the piano just clogged it up, but once the rest came in it sounded fine.

The singing on the other hand, erm.. take foulphil's advice definitely!
 
Like the other reviewers I thought the instrument bed was pretty good.

The vocals, however, are quite pitchy. Maybe find a collaborator?

Little pop at 1:22. Couple more in other spots. Watch out for those.
 
I agree with what's been said. Another option for studio work is vocal tuning software. It won't help you live, but it can be really transparent if done right for studio tracks. If you want to, send me a wav file of the vocals and I'll tune 'em up for you and send 'em back so you can see if you like it or not.
 
I think the timing was all over the place. could be tighter.
 
"ben tidy" is very nice. i like the drums. the intro is nice too. i can hear that you make music for a long time. keep up the good music. maybe u can return the favor and leave me also some feedback on my music? just click on my signatur
 
Thanks, guys. I know the vocals are out, I was struggling to hit the notes, it was more about getting a track down than me trying to be a vocalist. Foulphil, I'll definately look into that software though, thanks!

Fred: I put loads of fast attack, slow release compression on the middle of the piano to get a swell effect. You think I overdid it? If you meant the subway sounds, then...yeah, I probably did overdo it a bit. Thanks! :p

TripleM: I hadn't noticed that. Thanks! I know there's a bit of fizzle on the vocal track elsewhere (Stay away from M-audio cards, the drivers are unstable :p), but I'm not sure where that one came from. Perhaps it was a dodgy cut between vocal tracks.

TheChickenMaster: You mean the start of Wasting Love? Yeah, that's pretty bad. Or did you mean somewhere else? I thought the rest of both of them was okay timingwise.

HDProduction: Actually, I've only been into recording at all for about three years now, two and a half at the time these were done. I'll take that as a compliment, and I left feedback on your thread. :p
 
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