New Original Tune (by my 15yo daughter): Masquerade

[Flyguitarfish]

Here’s a cool one by my 15 year old daughter. She wrote the whole thing, sang, and recorded all the parts, except for the drums which I recorded. Here’s the first mix and I’d love to get your thoughts. We’ll probably add backup vocals. And she wants to add real cello…even though neither of us play! She’s pretty ambitious!

So here’s Masquerade…

 

[dobro]

Vocal low notes are getting lost and hard to hear. So... more automation and parallel compression?

Cool song and delivery.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

She's good - interesting.
Sparse orchestration. Maybe that's a good thing, so you hear the voice.
Wonder if a bit of pitch correction experimenting would do anything.
That's a cello in my hand there, but I'm not remotely competent at it.
You can get great cello sounds by playing on a keyboard with the right sampled cello voice.

 

[mark skinner]

Very Cool ! For a first mix this sounds very nice to me. I'm hearing passages in her vocals that tell me she is a Fantastic natural singer and she will only get better. (not to mention her writing skills). I can hear after a few listens what a cello would add to this. For now though , I think bringing the bass guitar up a little would help it some.
When the song progresses and you still feel it is lacking something .. hit me up and I'll do some cello for you. I've got quite a few songs on SoundCloud and SoundClick with cello backing you can check out. Enjoyed it .. mark (mark alan skinner)

 

[Flyguitarfish]

Vocal low notes are getting lost and hard to hear. So... more automation and parallel compression?

Cool song and delivery.

Agree. I’ll see what I can do to get those quieter notes heard. Thank you!

 

[Flyguitarfish]

She's good - interesting.
Sparse orchestration. Maybe that's a good thing, so you hear the voice.
Wonder if a bit of pitch correction experimenting would do anything.
That's a cello in my hand there, but I'm not remotely competent at it.
You can get great cello sounds by playing on a keyboard with the right sampled cello voice.

Thank you for the input. I can put some subtle pitch correction on a few notes to keep it natural.

We have a 1/2 size cello…I think she’s wants to figure out how to play a simple part for a few sections. Why not?! She already plays piano, bass, guitar, oboe, and some drums!

 

[Flyguitarfish]

Very Cool ! For a first mix this sounds very nice to me. I'm hearing passages in her vocals that tell me she is a Fantastic natural singer and she will only get better. (not to mention her writing skills). I can hear after a few listens what a cello would add to this. For now though , I think bringing the bass guitar up a little would help it some.
When the song progresses and you still feel it is lacking something .. hit me up and I'll do some cello for you. I've got quite a few songs on SoundCloud and SoundClick with cello backing you can check out. Enjoyed it .. mark (mark alan skinner)

Thank you for the input. Maybe I could bring up the bass and scoop the upper mids just a bit to leave room for the vocals while filling in the low end a bit.

I’ll let you know about the cello!

 

[famous beagle]

This is so very good for a 15-year old - how great to be able to share this with her! Mix sounds pretty good to me so far - nothing really sticks out that hasn't already been pointed out. The only constructive criticism I can offer is in the writing - or the performance of the writing I suppose: it tends to sound a bit on the square side, IMO. I think it's the tendency to really pound on all the downbeats with the vocal melody instead of adding some syncopation a bit here and there. It sounds a bit lumbering because of that. Not there's not a bit of syncopation at times - there is - but I think it's just with the instruments playing that straight quarter-note rhythm a lot and the vocal really landing on that beat 1 a lot, it gets a little square to me. Like I said, it's really good (especially for someone her age), but that struck me a bit.

 

[Flyguitarfish]

Ok, so here’s where we’re at (finally found some time to work on this together). She added more harmonies. I put some guitar chords and simple lead accents to fill it out. Lots of Automation.

Mixing thoughts? Thank you!

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

Outstanding. This sounds really good. Well done - you should be very proud.

Just for fun.... please tell us about the vocal chain: microphone, preamp, interface, processing on the way in - or ITB? What kind of environment was she in as she sang these parts?

 

[Flyguitarfish]

Outstanding. This sounds really good. Well done - you should be very proud.

Just for fun.... please tell us about the vocal chain: microphone, preamp, interface, processing on the way in - or ITB? What kind of environment was she in as she sang these parts?

Thanks! Very proud. She has 1 more song ready to go and still another partway written. She officially has the songwriting bug like me!

I record vocals through an ADK Z67 into an Empirical Labs Mike-e channel strip (basic light compression, with high pass filter and saturation engaged) and into a Clarett+ Octopre (synced to a Clarett+ 8pre) into Ableton. In Ableton I use basic EQ, subtle SoundToys MicroShift, a little SoundToys SpaceBlender reverb, Waves CLA76, another simple EQ, and Waves de-esser. Oh, I also corrected a single note up a half step at the beginning with waves tune (activated just for that one note). Don’t tell her!!! She refuses to use any sort of pitch correction…not that she needs it! I’m so jealous of her pitch!

I have a small basement recording studio with 1.5” thick acoustic panels on the side walls around the room just to grab the reflections. The room’s pretty crowded with drums, guitars, and 5 amps so those probably help with reflections, lol!

The backup vocals are doubled and panned about 20% R&L. I pull some highs out of those so they don’t compete with the lead vocals as much.

But trust me, it’s the source. I don’t sound nearly as good when I’m recording my own voice!!!

Note: One cool thing about the ADK. Instead of spending $4000 for a new one, I found out that they mod their old version to the current model specs (new diaphragm, new tube, new transformer, new hand wiring, and PCB). So I found an old ADK TT Area 51 with a power supply and case for $350 and sent it in for the mod that cost $750. So for $1100 you get the same mic…if they’re still doing mods! But that mic smokes (in a good way!) and is so detailed, smooth, and mid forward it just cuts through even dense mixes with clarity. My go to mic for vocals for sure and I’ve tried quite a few.