TheGreatBongChicken
Musician who mixes
Hey guys, I've just finished a first mixdown of the song and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts.
-James'
New song by my sister... what do you think of the mix?
Hey guys, I've just finished a first mixdown of the song and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts.
-James'
studioplayer
Forever learning
Nice voice. A slight lack of confidence and ever so slightly off key in a few spots but really sweet sounding. Lots of potential. 
Some of the words are a bit hard to make out due to the sibilance. Could be clearer. The music sounds good. Nice simple groove. Nice tune.
Dave
Some of the words are a bit hard to make out due to the sibilance. Could be clearer. The music sounds good. Nice simple groove. Nice tune. Dave
jeffmaher
New member
You're the engineer and ..the drummer, too. Right? 
Who wrote it?
Nits....the high-note 'U2' droning R is used too much...and sounds too cutting in the high end....and is too loud. I'd pull it back and shave the hard highs off it....and edit it a lot...save it for the choruses...and especially eliminate it on the verses where it buzzes like a fly around the vox.....in favor of louder block chord comping on the acoustic piano. A little thinner in the thin parts=more dynamic entry into the choruses.
The acoustic and piano could be brought up generally.
The vox needs some delay bouncing around like the other instruments....I think it's almost loud enough, but needs an ambience-widened footprint to compete and be 'present'.
She's got a real nice voice. With experience and confidence and a little OJT, 'pitch control'....she'll have something really nice thing going for herself.
Who wrote it?
Nits....the high-note 'U2' droning R is used too much...and sounds too cutting in the high end....and is too loud. I'd pull it back and shave the hard highs off it....and edit it a lot...save it for the choruses...and especially eliminate it on the verses where it buzzes like a fly around the vox.....in favor of louder block chord comping on the acoustic piano. A little thinner in the thin parts=more dynamic entry into the choruses.
The acoustic and piano could be brought up generally.
The vox needs some delay bouncing around like the other instruments....I think it's almost loud enough, but needs an ambience-widened footprint to compete and be 'present'.
She's got a real nice voice. With experience and confidence and a little OJT, 'pitch control'....she'll have something really nice thing going for herself.
TheGreatBongChicken
Musician who mixes
Thanks man, I'm gonna be gone for a few days but when I get back I'll remix the song. And to answer your question, yeah... I'm the drummer, bassist and guitarist. I had a friend play piano, he came up with that intro riff thing. My sister wrote the song though, so all credit goes to her for that.. I think I'm gonna put a slight auto-tune or pitchshift on her voice, or maybe have her do another take?
jeffmaher
New member
A nice piece of writing!
Thinking about it, I'd approach a mix fix by pulling back the bass and drums and drone guit [nice drumming BTW...and good bass] and leaving everything else where it is...then seeing how that works.
The prollum is that the mental image I got was of the singer standing in the midst of a giant drum kit, dodging the sticks..afraid of getting whacked...and a bass player in leapard tights and big hair thrusting himself at her on each downbeat...and she was a little unnerved by it.
Put the cans and bass back, I think, and you'll be 99% 'there', IMHO
Thinking about it, I'd approach a mix fix by pulling back the bass and drums and drone guit [nice drumming BTW...and good bass] and leaving everything else where it is...then seeing how that works.
The prollum is that the mental image I got was of the singer standing in the midst of a giant drum kit, dodging the sticks..afraid of getting whacked...and a bass player in leapard tights and big hair thrusting himself at her on each downbeat...and she was a little unnerved by it.
Put the cans and bass back, I think, and you'll be 99% 'there', IMHO
PoeticIntensity
MagicJones.com (is a website)
I was pleasantly surprised by this tune. Really well done. Good arrangement, great sounds, and all-around pleasing.
Sounds like her voice could use a bit more mids in her tone. This is probably because of the sibilance issue. Tone-down the sibilance, and it'd work nicely to fatten up her vocals.
Drums sound nice, but they're a bit too "mono"-ish for my taste. I'd widen up just a bit. Great playing, by the way.
For the rest, I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but it seems like the piece is a bit disjointed throughout. I'm not sure what's causing me to feel that way, either. The drums are tight, as well as the other instruments. No nits there.. So... I'm not entirely sure what's making this song seem "un-gelled" to me. I wish I could be more specific, but bottom line is this:
The song rocks, but somehow the mix is making the song and / or instruments seem disjointed. I hope that helps.... ugh, I hate it when I can't explain myself better.
Sounds like her voice could use a bit more mids in her tone. This is probably because of the sibilance issue. Tone-down the sibilance, and it'd work nicely to fatten up her vocals.
Drums sound nice, but they're a bit too "mono"-ish for my taste. I'd widen up just a bit. Great playing, by the way.
For the rest, I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but it seems like the piece is a bit disjointed throughout. I'm not sure what's causing me to feel that way, either. The drums are tight, as well as the other instruments. No nits there.. So... I'm not entirely sure what's making this song seem "un-gelled" to me. I wish I could be more specific, but bottom line is this:
The song rocks, but somehow the mix is making the song and / or instruments seem disjointed. I hope that helps.... ugh, I hate it when I can't explain myself better.
dewhitt
Dave DeWhitt
Two thoughts...
Hi James,
I just listened and I really liked this song a lot...tons of potential. I agree with PoeticIntensity that something seems to be missing, and there were two things I thought I would do if I was wearing the producer hat that would make it stronger for me. Btw, definitely take this for what it's worth, I'm really new at this stuff
First, I'd spread out the acoustic guitar wide left and right in the beginning to open up the middle for your sister's voice. Things seem pretty stacked up in the center, and I think her voice is great and could use a little space to shine.
Second, I think the chorus is really good, with a good phrase and melody, but it doesn't seem powerful enough. My thought is, for the first chorus especially, try some strong accent guitar chords to really bring out the power of the phrase. For example, when she says "Give me one moment" strum a strong Gmaj chord when she says "moment". I'm picturing a slightly distorted guitar sound, but overall pretty clean. Then a strong Cmaj when she says the word "pull" (at least I think that's the word..."a moment to pull around your love" ?) in the next phrase, and so on. My ear was dying to hear those chords there and I think that would strengthen the chorus a lot. Again, if it were me, I'd just make sure that those strong chords are panned somewhere other than the middle so that they don't step on her voice.
Great song!
Best Regards,
Dave DeWhitt
Hi James,
I just listened and I really liked this song a lot...tons of potential. I agree with PoeticIntensity that something seems to be missing, and there were two things I thought I would do if I was wearing the producer hat that would make it stronger for me. Btw, definitely take this for what it's worth, I'm really new at this stuff
First, I'd spread out the acoustic guitar wide left and right in the beginning to open up the middle for your sister's voice. Things seem pretty stacked up in the center, and I think her voice is great and could use a little space to shine.
Second, I think the chorus is really good, with a good phrase and melody, but it doesn't seem powerful enough. My thought is, for the first chorus especially, try some strong accent guitar chords to really bring out the power of the phrase. For example, when she says "Give me one moment" strum a strong Gmaj chord when she says "moment". I'm picturing a slightly distorted guitar sound, but overall pretty clean. Then a strong Cmaj when she says the word "pull" (at least I think that's the word..."a moment to pull around your love" ?) in the next phrase, and so on. My ear was dying to hear those chords there and I think that would strengthen the chorus a lot. Again, if it were me, I'd just make sure that those strong chords are panned somewhere other than the middle so that they don't step on her voice.
Great song!
Best Regards,
Dave DeWhitt
TheGreatBongChicken
Musician who mixes
Hmmm... it seems like I'm getting a pretty solid consensus here and from other people I've showed the song to that it needs two main things... widen out the mix a bit, and bring down the overall level of the drums.
I think I have this fear about panning... like, that it will sound great in stereo but horrible in mono. I have always tried to produce mostly mono recordings... maybe I need to start to step out into the world of panning? That "what's going on" song was one of the first ones where I really panned things different in each channell.
Does anyone know of an inexpensive overhead mic? I really need to get some, as it stands I'm micing the whole drum kit with sm58's and nothing else, I just took the globe off from them aside from the one on the kick so the air wouldn't pop it... in fact, I used an sm58 for everything I recorded aside from the vocals, just used an MXL large diaphram condenser mic that someone gave me. The thing is, I'm having a hard time widening out the drums because I have no overheads really... I did add in the MXL mic as a room mic to pick up cymbals and hi-hats and add a more natural sound, but it seems as if aside from toms, I can't do much widening with the drums.
The most logical option seems to be to pan the guitars and piano around... any thoughts on panning a piano? I've kind of allways thought of it as an instrument that should generally stay mono, but then again I have always tended towards mostly mono mixes.
I will take into consideration all of these comments and post a new mix in a few days probably... I need to take a brief break from recording, I did that one in two days and I was also working on four or five others as well. Just too much in a short period of time, I think I kind of exhausted my ears.
-James'
I think I have this fear about panning... like, that it will sound great in stereo but horrible in mono. I have always tried to produce mostly mono recordings... maybe I need to start to step out into the world of panning? That "what's going on" song was one of the first ones where I really panned things different in each channell.
Does anyone know of an inexpensive overhead mic? I really need to get some, as it stands I'm micing the whole drum kit with sm58's and nothing else, I just took the globe off from them aside from the one on the kick so the air wouldn't pop it... in fact, I used an sm58 for everything I recorded aside from the vocals, just used an MXL large diaphram condenser mic that someone gave me. The thing is, I'm having a hard time widening out the drums because I have no overheads really... I did add in the MXL mic as a room mic to pick up cymbals and hi-hats and add a more natural sound, but it seems as if aside from toms, I can't do much widening with the drums.
The most logical option seems to be to pan the guitars and piano around... any thoughts on panning a piano? I've kind of allways thought of it as an instrument that should generally stay mono, but then again I have always tended towards mostly mono mixes.
I will take into consideration all of these comments and post a new mix in a few days probably... I need to take a brief break from recording, I did that one in two days and I was also working on four or five others as well. Just too much in a short period of time, I think I kind of exhausted my ears.
-James'
mixmkr
we don't need rest!!
the "wince" factor is too much in the midrange. No low end and the rhy gtr is brimming with the attention in that freq. area too.
VERY nice tune and vocals. And yes...she's too low in volume. The focus is her and the lyrics. Nobody cares about Christian drummers!! .. seriously, make it more a vocal "up" mix, spread it out as mentioned, get the kick down around 50Hz happening and more bass around 100Hz. Roll back the rhy gtr, as it's competing with your cymbals and even the vocals.
Lots of potential with this. The mix is the weak point and fortunately that's the problems and not the musicianship or song. What's going thru the mics is fine... fix it going into the recorder.
VERY nice tune and vocals. And yes...she's too low in volume. The focus is her and the lyrics. Nobody cares about Christian drummers!! .. seriously, make it more a vocal "up" mix, spread it out as mentioned, get the kick down around 50Hz happening and more bass around 100Hz. Roll back the rhy gtr, as it's competing with your cymbals and even the vocals.
Lots of potential with this. The mix is the weak point and fortunately that's the problems and not the musicianship or song. What's going thru the mics is fine... fix it going into the recorder.
joeym
New member
Very nice voice! I didn't think there were any special pitch issues, but if you can, go back back and fix the little parts. Yes, the backing gets a little overwhelming at times so you should pull it back and let her voice take centre stage. Real nice song!
Joey
Joey