New Tune - Rough Mix - Feedback Requested Please

[dewhitt]

Hi All,

It's been awhile since I've posted a new tune for review, mainly because I've been overhauling my home studio and getting everything I needed to record real drums. I finally have a new track at the "almost finished" stage, and I'd love to hear some feedback on the drums and bass in particular, but any feedback is welcome. The track is called Stranger in a Strange Land, and I've copied it up to Mediafire for download since it's just a rough mix.

Edit: New mix is here: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9833285

Let me know what you think.

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[Klarky]

G;day, great song. Hard to say but from my monitors id say;

the kick and bass don't quite sit together in definition for me, the click of the kick is overiding the bass line definition. try running through with just bass and kick and eq them to bring a little bit more crunch to the bass.

Snare tuning seems a little out and not quite snappy enough for me but you have preserved some low mids on it well.

Hats are drowning the mix for me a little to much and the vox needs to sit high in the mix. Theres a good voice and lyric there but its a little lost esp with those hats belting out.

Cymbals and toms sound great here.

I remember when i first recorded real drums lol Keep havin fun overall I think the sound is fantastic.

 

[dewhitt]

Hey Klarky,

Thanks for the listen and the feedback. I'll definitely keep those points in mind as I remix and try to finalize it. Now, if someone could just tell me how to keep mixing the same song over and over without starting to hate it with a passion, then I'd be all good

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[PDP]

The Kick sounds a little boxey, the low mids overall sound a bit muddy to me. You might consider doing more with your high pass filters to clean it up. Nice singing/vocals but they get stepped on during the verses. I hear to many things on the same frequencies.

 

[dewhitt]

Hey PDP,

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I will take a look at EQing some things around each other so they aren't stepping on each other so much. I was hearing the same thing in my first mixes, so I ended up just cutting a bunch of the stuff I had originally recorded in that part. Believe it or not, there also used to be four different low synth pad and moog-type things in there, and some other textural guitar stuff and some random industrial-style effects. It was really sounding like mud with all that there! I also just realized that I had accidentally left a compressor on the main outputs which I was just playing around with, and I think I'm going to remix without that. Hopefully I'll have a new mix up soon.

Thanks again,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[RobbieL]

guitar sounds nice and warm but like PDP said, everything seems bunched up between 100 and 800hz. i would also do away with the reverb effect on the lead vocals at the very beginning.

excellent performance though. reminds me of three days grace.

 

[dewhitt]

Thanks Robbie,

I just copied up a new mix here: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9833285

I didn't do too much with carving up the individual EQ frequencies, but I did compress the vocals a little to try to get them to ride a little higher in the mix. Also added a little drive to the bass guitar and brought the hats down some in volume. I think it's a little better.

Next mix, I'll dig in and tackle the low mids on the individual guitar and bass tracks and see if there's room to notch some things out for the vocals to sit better in that space.

Thanks for the listen and the feedback.

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[kcearl]

Not on my monitors to give this a detailed listen, dunno if Id spot all that much in truth...sounds good to me, solid performance, vocals seem just a bit too loud which leaves them on top a little....drums sounded good to me though they faded a little during the busier part, lacked a little crispness/separation

overall it seemed to lack glue during parts but that could be the vocal level..some nice effects too..catchy wee number

but again take all the mix comments with a pinch of salt

 

[Greg_L]

I'm Eighteen!

Sorrry, those first chords sounded like I'm Eighteen by Alice Cooper.

Not bad. The vocals are a little loud. They might be a little harsh in the mids, or it might be that they're just too loud. It's really hard to listen to at high volume. There's some mud in the bottom end. A little more kick/bass seperation would be good. The kick is a little fluffy for this style song. Tighten up the bottom. The drums are getting buried at times. The snare and toms could come up some. Don't let them get buried. When you think the drums are too loud is when they're just getting right. Watch your panning and EQ's with all that shit going on. Guitars, bass, and kick are conspiring to make a mud pie.

 

[dewhitt]

Hey Greg and KC, thanks guys, I was hoping you'd both give a listen! Sounds like I bumped the vox up a bit too much this time. I'm thinking now I'm going to remix and start by trying to find the offending harshness in the mids and maybe if I can just tame that a little then they will sit better without changing much else. I'm also going to have to do a complete reset on the levels and bump everything down in order to get the drums up where they need to be. I'm pretty much topping out at 0dB with all the drums in now because I'm an idiot and didn't leave myself enough room when I started mixing

Greg, I never listened much to Alice Cooper, but yeah, I went out and listened and that's really close. Doh! I hate it when that happens. Luckily the songs diverge from there, so I think it's still ok.

Thanks very much for the suggestions!

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[dewhitt]

Ok, thanks all for the comments. Here is a new mix that I think is getting closer. I took all the levels down ~2 dB but left the drums where they were to get them louder. Also pulled a little 800 and 1600 Hz out of the vocal to try to get rid of some of the harshness in the mids. I played with the kick EQ to try to tighten it up too. I'm not hearing as much muddiness anymore, but let me know if it still needs work.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9833285

Thanks!!!

Dave
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[Greg_L]

Yup. Way better.

 

[dewhitt]

Thanks, Greg. I appreciate it!

I just uploaded the latest mix to soundclick and updated all the links in this thread. I'm still looking for feedback, so if anyone else has comments, I'd love to hear them.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9833285

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[sharonclowe]

nice work! Vocals sound great. This is gonna sound incredibly picky...the only thing I thought might help build more of a rush into that part when it goes into double time (the lines "win this war tonight")...is just a few more beats or hold the note a fraction longer before it speeds up. Probably not doable at this stage. No big deal. I really like the transition back into the slower tempo!!

 

[dewhitt]

Actually, it's very much doable The guy who played drums on the track is a good friend of mine and we've been talking about rerecording a few things he's not happy with. Also, I'm waiting on a bass track from another friend who lives out in California (I'm in Delaware), and I'm planning to replace my mediocre bass track with his, which should be good, cause he's a stellar bass player. So, bottom line, it's not done yet, and I am famous for changing things a million times before I'm happy.

That part you mentioned also bothers me. I actually threw that whole middle section in there initially as kind of a joke for one of my friends who is big into Iron Maiden. He listened and jokingly said I should throw a Maiden-style break into the middle section, so I did it with no intention of keeping it. But, now I kind of like it I'm not sure it's really channeling Maiden, but it's about as close as I'll ever get...lol.

When my friend comes back over to retrack drums, I might spend some time with him trying to figure out a better transition into that middle section. It's just a little too abrupt as it is. Of course, I may just end up writing a completely different bridge too

Great feedback, thanks!

Dave
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[Tobe]

Fantastic Dave

 

[dewhitt]

Thanks, Tobe. I appreciate the listen!

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[Klarky]

Sounds great Dave. Personally I love the maiden lead break, think it brings an excellent dimension to the entire track. My only only fuss now would lie with the stabs at the end of the lead break they seamed to get sucked up really really hard by compression, maybe its intentional ? but you've said you'll be re recording anyway.


Anyway I'm in pressed anyway this my first week on this site and first listen to what others are doing here. Fantastic!

 

[dewhitt]

Hi Klarky,

Yeah, isn't it cool to see so many people getting such good results from home studio recordings? I love the collaboration that happens on this forum too, you'll see people working together on tracks, mixes, etc, and imho, that's one of the best things about this.

It's interesting what you heard with those guitar stabs. I've been a little frustrated with my guitar situation because my only electric right now is a strat, and it's just really not that suited to the style I'm writing/recording in. Plus, I'm not using a real amp, but rather a Line 6 toneport with Pod Farm. In the past, I've struggled a lot with this setup, trying to get a heavy sound without too much annoying distortion. For this tune, I tried something a little different than I had in the past - neck pickup on the strat, with an amp simp that has the distortion turned waaay down. I think it sounds decent. However, for those stabs, I was getting a lot of extraneous string noise, palm noise, just general noise...and they weren't sounding clean. So, I went in and silenced as much of the in between parts in Logic as I could. I'm pretty sure that's what you are hearing because I think it sounds a little unnatural, and almost like a compressor or maybe a gate grabbing it and clamping down hard. I will probably try to rerecord that section to see if I can get it better without having to resort to editing the waves after the fact. Hopefully, that will help cause it's been bothering me too.

Welcome to the forum, Klarky, and thanks for the feedback!

Best Regards,

Dave DeWhitt
http://www.soundclick.com/davedewhitt

 

[maximusbs]

Welcome back Dave! I always dig your stuff. Most of the nits have been addressed and the mix sounds real good. The real drums sound nice; all that studio remodeling has paid off. This tune strikes me as a bit of a departure for you and it's great. I like the arrangement - how you held back on that first chorus 'till halfway (I would've blown my wad and gone full bore), nicely done.
Of course, I love the Maiden break w/ harmonized leads (way cool). You know how I tend to nit your lead tones? This time you nailed it! It's a bummer that you have to do all you do with a Strat. and a 'baby' POD! Nothing wrong with a Strat, but it's nice to be able to turn to a LP when really want to clobber something! But you've done quite well. If you can swing it, find a way to get Amplitube 3, or even 2. I've been hearing (and producing) some amazing and convincing tones.
Your vocals are spot on, as usual. Oh, yea, btw, nice shredding man! You see, I have 8 guitars, and I can't play any of them half as fast and clean as you worked that lonely Strat!! Freakin' sweet! You must have played the panties off the girls back in the day, huh? Ah-ha, I guess you burnt through all your axes! Alright, I'm getting stupid now...(getting?)....
Well done, u-rok, make more!

Brad