Off the Spring - Movement 1

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seafroggys
  • Start date Start date
Seafroggys

Seafroggys

Well-known member
Well, here it is folks, more or less the final mix of the first movement of my album. I may still tweak it a bit in the next week or two, but I plan to ship the master to Discmakers on the 13th.

I did some master EQ, high-passing at 30 hz and doing a small high shelf at 11k for a little bit of air. I also applied TesslaPro to tighten things up a tad. That's all the "mastering" I plan on doing.

Anyway, here you go.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7784321
 
Dunno....it's a bit hard for me to give an opinion here. But I'm gonna try to be objective. The arrangement is pretty interesting, befitting of a rock opera. Instrumentation is pretty good. Mixwise, I don't think much of the drums, they lack clarity. The voices are pitchy in a lot of places. The mix gives me a feeling averything is so far away, but the voice is way in front. I think the mix could be better. In my opinion, EQing a whole mix is always tricky, it's better to get EQ the different tracks right. Song-wise the song just confuses me, it seems to go nowhere and is just ...well...strange, but as I said, it's not a style I usually listen too, so that could be me. Hope this helps.

Joey :)
 
joeym said:
Dunno....it's a bit hard for me to give an opinion here. But I'm gonna try to be objective. The arrangement is pretty interesting, befitting of a rock opera. Instrumentation is pretty good. Mixwise, I don't think much of the drums, they lack clarity.
Click to expand...

This has been fixed, they were kinda weak, especially compared to the other songs.

The voices are pitchy in a lot of places.
Click to expand...

I'm not known to have an accurate ear (tradeoff for perfect pitch) but I don't really notice any intonation issues, aside from one specific place which is obnoxiously loud in this mix. That issue has been fixed.

The mix gives me a feeling averything is so far away, but the voice is way in front. I think the mix could be better.
Click to expand...

Good job with telling me suggestions (EDIT: that came out kinda negatively...I'm just a sarcastic person in general...understand that I mean it in jest). I did fix the "up front" vocals in the intro by pouring some reverb onto it. I'm not a fan of reverb, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

Song-wise the song just confuses me, it seems to go nowhere and is just ...well...strange, but as I said, it's not a style I usually listen too, so that could be me. Hope this helps.

Joey :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think the song going "nowhere" would be, quite literally, the last compositional critique I would ever expect from somebody.

Anyway, thanks for the listen! Have some rep!
 
Last edited:
i think this very ambitious. The vocals are bit too upfront in certain parts. I think some people get caught up in hearing songs that are verse chorus verse bridge chorus and this kind of music kinda get disregarded as unlistenable. i, however, dig it. And i think you can find a crowd for this type of music. Are playing any shows with this music? If you find the right scene i bet you'd do pretty well. good luck. i wish stuff like this was taken more seriously, but like i said people are too comfortable with verse chorus verse stuff.

good luck
 
greyharmonix said:
i think this very ambitious. The vocals are bit too upfront in certain parts. I think some people get caught up in hearing songs that are verse chorus verse bridge chorus and this kind of music kinda get disregarded as unlistenable. i, however, dig it. And i think you can find a crowd for this type of music. Are playing any shows with this music? If you find the right scene i bet you'd do pretty well. good luck. i wish stuff like this was taken more seriously, but like i said people are too comfortable with verse chorus verse stuff.

good luck
Click to expand...

That could be true. Thank you for digging it. New mix up, mostly just fixing the vocal mix.
 
I listened to the song. Musically & vocally it's just not my cup of tea. From a recording/mix perspective it sounded muddy to me. Not much separation in the stereo spectrum between instruments, like they were only slightly left and right of each other. Also sounded very dry to me, especially the drums and keyboards.

Get the vocals on pitch and spread things out in the mix and see how it sounds to you then. Just my 2 cents.
 
Some of the vox are up front as expected in an opera - others seem a little lost.
I def. hear some pitchiness - I don't mind as I'm a fan of Atonalist works like Pierrot Luniare - but other seem to find it makes the piece a little more difficult to scope.
The arrangement does seem a little muddy - lead instrument/vocals stand out but much of the rest is blended.
There's not a lot of narrative given the chosen form - it's a leap from the scant threads offered to the 5min plus mark. I didn't get enough of it to navigate the music that came after.
I like a lot of it - I probably need more context to "get it".
Well done so far.
 
TheStickman said:
I listened to the song. Musically & vocally it's just not my cup of tea. From a recording/mix perspective it sounded muddy to me. Not much separation in the stereo spectrum between instruments, like they were only slightly left and right of each other. Also sounded very dry to me, especially the drums and keyboards.

Get the vocals on pitch and spread things out in the mix and see how it sounds to you then. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

Opps, dialed in way too much bass. My ears must have been fatigued.

As for the record, my rhythm guitar and organ are panned about 85% across from each other, the drums and piano are stereo panned hard left and right, lead guitar and synth go all over the stereo field, and vocals and bass are center.

There's not a lot of narrative given the chosen form - it's a leap from the scant threads offered to the 5min plus mark. I didn't get enough of it to navigate the music that came after.
I like a lot of it - I probably need more context to "get it".
Well done so far.
Click to expand...

I hear you. Yeah, a lot of it is in the context of what follows. This is merely the opening chapter of the story, maybe even the opening page. Since this was originally a soundtrack to a film, chunks of the story was told through visual storytelling. Since I dropped the film aspect, people have to make their own conclusions from the lyrics and music provided.

Oddly enough my dad understood the majority of the story when he listened to about 80% of the album last week, so I have hopes there. As long as it is not as vague as Tommy was, I'll be in good waters.
 
Okay this is the final mix, straight off the pre-master that I sent to replication. I figured it was at the point where it was the best it would ever get. Sure it could be better, but I could be chasing after the perfect mix for weeks without really getting anyway, so here it is.

The CD, Off the Spring, should be out in about 4 weeks on CD Baby.

For those of you too lazy to check the first post: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7784321
 
So, I've been following this thread since about the time you started it, listening along as you've altered the mixes and being completely incapable of adding anything to the discussion. I was on the fence as to whether I even liked it (prog rock, rock operas, all that usually goes over my head).
Then today, for whatever reason, I listened to it through headphones for the first time. Holy Hell, this shit makes me wanna get stoned and lie in a field! Or, barring that, listen to it again on better headphones.
You really have done a great job, and I look forward to hearing the final product in toto.
 
Haha, never dreamt in a million years that this could be considered a pot album. Hehe, I'll take that as a compliment! Kudos!

Anybody else? Of course, its too late to take criticisms now, but I'd still like to hear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top