Now I Understand

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BroKen_H

BroKen_H

Re-member
Working on another one. A few vocal lines I'll need to redo when I get my throat back, but otherwise, let me know what you think.



Lyrics: (If anyone cares)
Part 1
When I was alone in here
Trapped with all my doubt and fear
I lived a life of torment and despair
Never thought I would awake
From a nightmare that I couldn't shake
Though I tried it all seemed so unfair.

I was trapped inside my mind
Couldn't speak I was so blind
I can't see it I can't understand
Muddy thoughts that I would make
Self delusion that I wasn't fake
So I lied to keep my thoughts in hand

Mass confusion all around
Can't see up, don't know what's down
Muddle up the thoughts inside my brain
Tried to wrestle with myself
But found I must be someone else
Batty, crazy, mad, nuts, or insane

Someone spoke a word so real
A way, a truth that was revealed
When Your light shined in my heart
A light that flushed out all the dark
Now I think I finally understand

PART 2

So many nights alone that I have cried
From my anger and my pride
Lost, alone, and oh so scared
Never knew I was prepared
Then You wiped away my tears
Calmed my nerves and all my fears
You gently lead me by the hand
And now I understand

You were the one who came along my side
Never left me, never lied
You pulled me from the depths of sin
When you came to live within
Now you wipe away my tears
Calm my nerves and all my fears
You gently lead my by the hand
And now I understand

I'm not the one I was before
Your love gave me an open door
And when my knees fell on the floor
You broke off my chains
Now I live inside Your love
Your spirit flowing from above
Descending on me like a dove
Now I'm born again
Now I understand
Now I understand

PART 3
For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
 
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I'd back off on the 12-16kHz range, there's too much harshness up there, especially on the acoustic guitars, also watch the 'boom' at 200Hz on the outro acoustic guitars, I'd probably add more reverb too if it was me, otherwise good.
 
Thanks Ben! Very specific problems. I love that reverb. I thought I'd overdone it, already. :) Be glad to add in more of that!
That 12-16k? is that what's making the hats so hard to tame as well?
I've been concentrating on keeping the mud out from 300 down, didn't catch that...thought those acoustics had HPF on. I'll have to look, cause they are pretty boomin'.
 
Maybe the guitars are a little bit loud and that gives the impression that the whole mix is harsh. I think this is a pretty good mix.

The vocals sounds good to me...did you double them up? It sounds kind of doubled, but at the same time its a very natural sounding vox.

Nice work, man.
 
Thanks CM! The only vocal effect is a stereo widening patch on a dual pitch shifter, slightly modified so it's not quite as pronounced as the original preset...been turning those guitars down all afternoon. Then I realized there was an automation on the bus fader.....:laughings:
Sometimes, when you've been recording for 18 hours in 2 days, you miss the obvious. :)
Anyway, do you mean the acoustics/electrics/or both?
 
I guess the acoustic its the one that striked me the most.

Yeah...I know what you mean...sometimes its really refreshing to take a break while mixing, but at the same time its really fun to keep on tweaking everything, lol.
 
:)

Not so much on the tweaking with this one. Guess I spent the time recording good tracks, because it was CAKE to mix. Only about 2 hours invested this afternoon. Faders up, a few HP Filters, little bits of EQ, a lot of C1-L1 and Polar, and voila! Slap on a tape/saturation/glue compressor/tweak EQ/limiter at the master buss and done!
 
Good playing. I like the sound of that acoustic guitar though you might tame the edginess of it a little. However, I think it is too loud. It's more prominent than the vocal. There's something up with the vocal. Sounds roomy, maybe. I'd make the same comment about the heavy electric guitar when it comes in. Good sound, louder than it needs to be. I'm not hearing much bass. I trade a couple of dBs of guitar for as much of bass. Your drums are getting lost under under the electric guitar as well. Notice how the overheads disappear apart from the occasional crash? I can't hear any hats at all. The kick and snare are also low there. The harmony vocal is off in the section that contains that line "wrestle with myself."

It's a good song. Lots of energy in the vocal and instrumental performances.
 
Too much reverb or whatever it is that makes the vocal sit outside the mix.
The picked acoustics is bright bright bright.
The punctuating percussion is too puncturing.
Good beginnings
 
I love the song and message. Great job on the lyric...well crafted. I like the arrangement a lot. The way the music is soft when the lyric speaks of the despair, before God, and the power chord rock kicks in when God comes in...very cool! It conveys the power of God very well. I agree that you need to tweak the eq on this in various areas but I'm listening on a cheap set of phones so I can't really give accurate advise on specifics.
It's an awesome song brokenH.
 
Robus said:
Good playing. I like the sound of that acoustic guitar though you might tame the edginess of it a little. However, I think it is too loud. It's more prominent than the vocal. There's something up with the vocal. Sounds roomy, maybe. I'd make the same comment about the heavy electric guitar when it comes in. Good sound, louder than it needs to be. I'm not hearing much bass. I trade a couple of dBs of guitar for as much of bass. Your drums are getting lost under under the electric guitar as well. Notice how the overheads disappear apart from the occasional crash? I can't hear any hats at all. The kick and snare are also low there. The harmony vocal is off in the section that contains that line "wrestle with myself."

It's a good song. Lots of energy in the vocal and instrumental performances.
Click to expand...


Thanks! I practiced for about a month on some of the parts (one I've been toying with for 8 years). Guitar is not my strong suit, so I appreciate it when my hard work makes someone smile. Yes I may be too proud of it, probably need to back it off. I doubled the bass with the piano, so I probably inadvertently sucked it down too far. It sounds really good under there. Getting that nice bi-amp growl I want. Ok. Drums up...I also need to actually play them. Those are just looped placeholder. No variations, just tweaked to sound a little more "real". Wrestle with myself through Mad, nuts or insane has a psycho plug to make it sound a little out of whack...it was intentional, but the more I hear it, the less I like it...it's easy enough to pull off. Now I think I understand has the same plug on it.
 
rayc said:
Too much reverb or whatever it is that makes the vocal sit outside the mix.
The picked acoustics is bright bright bright.
The punctuating percussion is too puncturing.
Good beginnings
Click to expand...

It's always funny to get the different perspectives and try to correlate them as a list of what's wrong and right.
The reverb issue is funny, because another comment (elsewhere) said I should use more of the same to bring the vocal into the mix, so maybe the other comment meant to put it on the rest of the mix, but the vocal has the least.
Correlating your next two comments with what I've already gotten, gives me that you're hearing too much 12-16k, like Ben and another (elsewhere).
I love the sound of that reverb, so I'll have to pay a lot of attention after a break to what it sounds like.
Thanks for the listen, and the good words. Yes, I believe pointing out what's wrong are good words. I really appreciate it.
 
jimistone said:
I love the song and message. Great job on the lyric...well crafted. I like the arrangement a lot. The way the music is soft when the lyric speaks of the despair, before God, and the power chord rock kicks in when God comes in...very cool! It conveys the power of God very well. I agree that you need to tweak the eq on this in various areas but I'm listening on a cheap set of phones so I can't really give accurate advise on specifics.
It's an awesome song brokenH.
Click to expand...

Wow! I love it when someone hears what I worked so hard to bring out. Thank you.
Okay, so overall. There's too much shimmer and it's making certain things piercing: drop a lot of the 12k and up.
The guitars are boomy at the end and too loud at the beginning (and middle).
The bass and drums need to come up. (which will likely come out when I drop the guitars).
Find the balance in the reverb.
Some don't like the shaker, but I need it for the "snake rattles" in the beginning. I'll probably drop it off the end and just ride the bell there and use it more sparingly in the beginning.
Put some actual drums in there with actual variation.
Can the psycho vocal thing...

This is probably the easiest looking revamp I've ever had. My skills are getting better. :) No one has said "overcompressed" or anything like it, so that's a real plus. (watch for the next comment to say something about compression! :))
 
I had much the same thoughts as Robus. The acoustic guitar sounds pretty nice. Certainly clear. It's a bit brittle. Maybe a notch cut somewhere around 2500hz. Maybe back off the reverb just a bit.

What I can't figure out is what is going on with the lead vocal. There is some sort of delay/reverb processing that is hurting it. I don't hear that same sort of thing on the acoustic guitar, so I'm guessing it's something you're adding post tracking. I would change that quite a bit. Shorten the pre-delay, tame the early reflections, shorten the decay. Some pitchiness is going on. Some notes sounded like they were below your range.

Hey that crunch guitar sounds pretty cool. Drums sound good through that section. That whole section is quite cool.

Shakers were a nice addition.
 
I've got the same basic thoughts as others on this one.

Acoustic guitar sounds good, but the high end is brittle. I'd try just a gentle lowering of everything over 5K to start with, and see if that works - don't want to lose all the clarity of it.

Vocal - during Part 1 it sounded too distorted (tubed) to me for the rest of the mix (but that's a personal choice). The sound of the vocal, throughout the song, makes it stand apart to my ears - I don't know if putting all the tracks through the same reverb buss (not the master) would help, or if a little EQ and comping would help too. I don't think the backup vocal added much, it was weak in the mix.

Now that you say the drums are just a loop, fine - go ahead and record them. All I could hear was the kick, and a little snare and highhat/crash at times. Bass could come up too.
 
Hey Broken. OK, I got your PM, so I guess I have to comment....hehe. :D

I don't know if you've re-worked it, but what I hear sounds pretty good. I like the high end on the guitar, but like others have said, maybe dial it back a bit.

I don't think it's over-compressed, but I do think that it's pretty dense, so when the drums come in, it's almost as if there's no room for them. Like so many home recordings, the drums seem like an afterthought in the mix, rather than having them up there driving the song. It's like they're the last thing you're trying to cram into a suitcase.

Also, the vocals...I can't put my finger on it. They're loud but distant, if that's even possible. It sounds like
they were recorded with a room mic 10 feet away from your mouth, but then cranked up. A little too room-y for my tastes. But your singing is good on this. The mix is good too, other than the few small issues I mentioned, which are pretty much all just personal preference as opposed to absolutes.
 
TripleM said:
I had much the same thoughts as Robus. The acoustic guitar sounds pretty nice. Certainly clear. It's a bit brittle. Maybe a notch cut somewhere around 2500hz. Maybe back off the reverb just a bit.

What I can't figure out is what is going on with the lead vocal. There is some sort of delay/reverb processing that is hurting it. I don't hear that same sort of thing on the acoustic guitar, so I'm guessing it's something you're adding post tracking. I would change that quite a bit. Shorten the pre-delay, tame the early reflections, shorten the decay. Some pitchiness is going on. Some notes sounded like they were below your range.

Hey that crunch guitar sounds pretty cool. Drums sound good through that section. That whole section is quite cool.

Shakers were a nice addition.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the positive words! I'm posting a remix based on the info so far. Pulled some things out (shaker at the end, psycho , random pitch thing on the vocals.) Pulled a general 12k shelf off, scooped some mid out of the voice, backed off all the guitars so the words are understandable. New mix sounds much better.
 
mjbphotos said:
I've got the same basic thoughts as others on this one.

Acoustic guitar sounds good, but the high end is brittle. I'd try just a gentle lowering of everything over 5K to start with, and see if that works - don't want to lose all the clarity of it.

Vocal - during Part 1 it sounded too distorted (tubed) to me for the rest of the mix (but that's a personal choice). The sound of the vocal, throughout the song, makes it stand apart to my ears - I don't know if putting all the tracks through the same reverb buss (not the master) would help, or if a little EQ and comping would help too. I don't think the backup vocal added much, it was weak in the mix.

Now that you say the drums are just a loop, fine - go ahead and record them. All I could hear was the kick, and a little snare and highhat/crash at times. Bass could come up too.
Click to expand...

Getting compliments on a first mix is new to me...thanks so much.
Here's the funny thing: all the tracks are run through the same reverb. I keep hearing lots of comments on the vocals sounding out of space with the rest, but I'm thinking it must be something else. There's no distortion on the vocals; only a small amount of saturation on the final bus, so I'll have to see what's up there as well. Well, maybe the new mix with scooped vocal mids will help...we shall see. :)
 
RAMI said:
Hey Broken. OK, I got your PM, so I guess I have to comment....hehe. :D

I don't know if you've re-worked it, but what I hear sounds pretty good. I like the high end on the guitar, but like others have said, maybe dial it back a bit.

I don't think it's over-compressed, but I do think that it's pretty dense, so when the drums come in, it's almost as if there's no room for them. Like so many home recordings, the drums seem like an afterthought in the mix, rather than having them up there driving the song. It's like they're the last thing you're trying to cram into a suitcase.

Also, the vocals...I can't put my finger on it. They're loud but distant, if that's even possible. It sounds like
they were recorded with a room mic 10 feet away from your mouth, but then cranked up. A little too room-y for my tastes. But your singing is good on this. The mix is good too, other than the few small issues I mentioned, which are pretty much all just personal preference as opposed to absolutes.
Click to expand...

Yes I have. Remix will go up soon.

There's the drummer! You are absolutely correct in you analysis of the drums on this song. The entire song was laid out and the only percussion was the shaker...which some love and some hate, (but that's the nature of music). The drum line you hear is a place marker for something later, but SSD/Reaper is not responding well for me since the Win10 fiasco...Someone asked me about that (elsewhere) and I told them, "Steven Slate wasn't returning my calls right now." So I may have to get serious about finding out what's going on there as well. Even if the drums are fake, they still sound better if I play them in via the e-drums in the corner. :D

Hopefully the new mix is solving a bit. Recorded the vocals at about 6" from my 2001, just like always. Must be in that pesky Polar thing. It's magic when I get it right, but I added a second one to get the psycho backup (which failed), so that also may be affecting things negatively. There's a couple of lines I need to retrack on the vocals as well. I wrote the lyric and sang the line within 2 hours, so little of it's perfect, but my voice is getting stronger and easier to manage...remember my mixes from 2 years ago (let alone 5 when I first found this place :eek:)?
 
Since a majority of people like the sound of my acoustic playing recently, I think a rundown of my (super simple) system might be in order.
I point an MXL 2001 in front of the 12th fret at about 10-15 degree axis (toward, but not at, the sound hole). This has been my system since I realized pointing one of my 57s at the hole and just having the 2001 pointed at the neck was not as effective. No effects, no eq (although I had to scoop out some 200Hz on this one to kill the boominess at the end. Highly recommend the 2001 for anyone looking for a clean guitar sound. It really works...my brother, who seems to know a bit about guitars, says having a Yamaha FG335 providing tone is a lot of the key. I've told him I'd trade him, but so far he hasn't given up his 60s issue Dove yet...:laughings:
 
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