Original tune: The Honeymoon Flops

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Thekesslerboy

Thekesslerboy

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First recording of a song I wrote a while back but never got round to playing in my old band, or recording it. Pretty simple, only three chords, but I had fun experimenting with backing vocals on this one. Probably overdone it, but I was playing around. Made up some things on the spur of the moment and went for some notes I had no likelihood of reaching and no business attempting! A few clumsy edits in there too as I tried to shorten it after the fact after the recording was locked. Just another bitter, twisted, loser in love song! Grateful for any thoughts.


Nine months later remix.
 
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THE HONEYMOON FLOPS



The ceremony is over

And the circus has begun

Dared to ride the tiger,

Said “I do” and now I’m done.



Darkness has descended

And your friends have run off home

The fun and games has ended

And at last we are alone.



My heartbeat stops

My jawbone drops

Love lies bleeding on the rocks

As the honeymoon flops.



I can’t escape the feeling

That your mind is not all there

You’re studying the ceiling

Like you wish you were elsewhere



My heartbeat stops

My jawbone drops

Love lies bleeding on the rocks

As the honeymoon flops.



Your humour is unusual

You’re laughing through your teeth

You put the fun in funeral

Your bouquet was a wreath



My heartbeat stops

My jawbone drops

Love lies bleeding on the rocks

As the honeymoon flops.​
 
Feels like the back up experiment worked out good. Was easy to hear all of the different parts nicely. I had a bit of trouble with the sound of the snare though, it was too sizzly and distracting. I did like the high end sizzle on the lead guitar I think that worked well
 
BTStudio said:
Feels like the back up experiment worked out good. Was easy to hear all of the different parts nicely. I had a bit of trouble with the sound of the snare though, it was too sizzly and distracting. I did like the high end sizzle on the lead guitar I think that worked well
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Thank you very much. The drums are just a repeat loop from the Boss BR-800. I haven't got into programming parts yet, I just set the beat, pick a pattern and play along to it. Probably about 4 guitar parts on here, not including the bass and lead. Tried to pan them over more than usual to let them breathe. I always overload things though! Thanks for listening.
 
Thekesslerboy said:
Thank you very much. The drums are just a repeat loop from the Boss BR-800. I haven't got into programming parts yet, I just set the beat, pick a pattern and play along to it. Probably about 4 guitar parts on here, not including the bass and lead. Tried to pan them over more than usual to let them breathe. I always overload things though! Thanks for listening.
Click to expand...

Speed mix - surprisingly difficult to mix - Tell me what you think.

 
Wow that was quick! I like it. The drum sound is massive at the beginning, probably because you are using better production and have been doing it longer. The main vocal sounds more distorted than before. That's probably a problem with the source material. I always tend to record everything too high. I am trying to fix that in future. I have to use what EQ I can to smooth it out but am not always successful. You've certainly blended the vocals better with the backing vocals. They are where they should be - in the background. The instruments also sound a bit clearer and crisper. That's always what I'm aiming for.

Were there any obvious things you fixed that I should try to avoid in future?

Thanks for doing that. And thanks for saying you like the song. That means a lot. I'm more of a songwriter than a performer. Cheers, Papanate.
 
Thekesslerboy said:
Wow that was quick! I like it. The drum sound is massive at the beginning, probably because you are using better production and have been doing it longer. The main vocal sounds more distorted than before. That's probably a problem with the source material. I always tend to record everything too high. I am trying to fix that in future. I have to use what EQ I can to smooth it out but am not always successful. You've certainly blended the vocals better with the backing vocals. They are where they should be - in the background. The instruments also sound a bit clearer and crisper. That's always what I'm aiming for.

Were there any obvious things you fixed that I should try to avoid in future?

Thanks for doing that. And thanks for saying you like the song. That means a lot. I'm more of a songwriter than a performer. Cheers, Papanate.
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You are right about the vocals - they are distorted slightly - part of that was in the recording - but part of that was an artistic choice on my part - I’ll put another mix with clean vocals to compare - The drums I used a slight bit of compression with a Convolution Reverb to get them big - the Bass I substituted in - the Jangly guitars were distorted with the first set flat lining on the mix - I had to run it through RX11 Advanced to clean them up - I dropped the big distorted guitars all together -I EQ’d most of the parts such as the guitar and bass - bandwidth limiting them so they would walk over anything - and I aligned and somewhat tuned all the vocals to blend together right - there was a lot to do to mix it right - mostly just listening for the correct balance - and a lot of vocals to get into the mix. I will do the mix again - see what you think.
 
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Here is the mix with vocal clean - well as clean as they will go - I took the drums into a Springsteen 1980s sound - and I took the lead guitar part and centered it instead of Stereo Spread - took down the Reverb on the vocals too - let me know what you think - It’s a Fun Song to mix - great lyrical hook - Honeymoon Flops!
 
Nice one! It's getting better by the minute. This is the original recording length and is over long. I cut out some repeats and instrumental verses after doing it, and will basically cut out a minute and half from it.

I get too attached to long outros, but less is more sometimes.

I only have Nero wave editor for that, so I do it by eye and by ear. It's a bit hit and miss but I don't want to be totally in the computer. I know the BR-800 is digital but it still feels like an old school porta studio.

Thanks for the attention and all your efforts.
 
Thekesslerboy said:
THE HONEYMOON FLOPS



The ceremony is over

And the circus has begun

Dared to ride the tiger,

Said “I do” and now I’m done.



Darkness has descended

And your friends have run off home

The fun and games has ended

And at last we are alone.



My heartbeat stops

My jawbone drops

Love lies bleeding on the rocks

As the honeymoon flops.



I can’t escape the feeling

That your mind is not all there

You’re studying the ceiling

Like you wish you were elsewhere



My heartbeat stops

My jawbone drops

Love lies bleeding on the rocks

As the honeymoon flops.



Your humour is unusual

You’re laughing through your teeth

You put the fun in funeral

Your bouquet was a wreath



My heartbeat stops

My jawbone drops

Love lies bleeding on the rocks

As the honeymoon flops.​
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Great lyrics and phrasing! ?
 
I like the song a lot. It thought it was really good.

I like the vocal experiments that you did. I caught some pitchiness in the vocals here and there.

ORIGINAL MIX
I wish the guitars had a bit more bite to them. They're not quite present enough in the mix.

The snare was a bit thin and slappy.

The low end was a bit weak.

"SPEED MIX"
Much fuller louder mix

Snare and kick are much improved. The attack of the kick is a bit distracting. But it sounds good.

Low end is at a perfect level IMO.

I'd like the vocals to be down the center during the verses and panned during the chorus.

Not a huge fan of the stereo delay on the lead guitar. The tone on it was nice tho.

Still think the rhythm guitars need some bite.

CLEAN VOCAL CHAIN MIX
I think I like the character of the vocal distortion more than the "clean" version believe it or not.
 

Revisited this one nine months later and learnt a lot in working with the Boss BR-800, so I'm interested in your thoughts on the update.

I've learnt how to punch in and out mistakes. I've learnt how to copy and paste small parts from other sections of virtual tracks to fix glitches. The Boss guitar to bass emulation has a habit of adding ghost notes here and there. Fixed all those then realised the tone was too distorted anyway so redid the bass, using GR-55 bass emulation which is more reliable.

Removed the distorted rhythm guitar, and added two cleaner ones panned left and right.

Redid the solos, and added harmony run-out melodies.

Learnt how to edit tracks in the Boss, i.e. move whole sections to eliminate over done repeats, and tighten it up. It's still 5 minutes long but I did remove 90 seconds of verse instrumentals between sung verses. Previously, I was doing that manually in the computer. Not with a daw, just with Nero WaveEditor. Sections were moved around manually, with trial and error to get them to line up, and they didn't always. Doing it in the Boss using the measures, means parts are moved and placed seamlessly as long as you use the same measure numbers. For example, grabbing sung verse at 16/01 and moving it to instrumental verse at 08/01 places it seamlessly with no blip or jump, and tightens up the song.

Using the above, I've tried to eliminate out of tune backing vox by pulling better takes from earlier or later. No new vocals recorded, just tweaked what was already there.

Replaced the one pattern drum beat with a programmed one with ins, verses, fills etc. Realised that the Boss defaults to a "hard" drumbeat no matter what pattern you choose, but you can switch to other more natural styles within the same pattern.

Still some things to do. Harmony solos come in too hot so I need to tweak them. Vocals might still be too distorted. Levels of lead guitars could be looked at. Overall mastering volume and tone? Other mixing pointers? Thanks all.
 
Thekesslerboy said:
View attachment 150427
Revisited this one nine months later and learnt a lot in working with the Boss BR-800, so I'm interested in your thoughts on the update.

I've learnt how to punch in and out mistakes. I've learnt how to copy and paste small parts from other sections of virtual tracks to fix glitches. The Boss guitar to bass emulation has a habit of adding ghost notes here and there. Fixed all those then realised the tone was too distorted anyway so redid the bass, using GR-55 bass emulation which is more reliable.

Removed the distorted rhythm guitar, and added two cleaner ones panned left and right.

Redid the solos, and added harmony run-out melodies.

Learnt how to edit tracks in the Boss, i.e. move whole sections to eliminate over done repeats, and tighten it up. It's still 5 minutes long but I did remove 90 seconds of verse instrumentals between sung verses. Previously, I was doing that manually in the computer. Not with a daw, just with Nero WaveEditor. Sections were moved around manually, with trial and error to get them to line up, and they didn't always. Doing it in the Boss using the measures, means parts are moved and placed seamlessly as long as you use the same measure numbers. For example, grabbing sung verse at 16/01 and moving it to instrumental verse at 08/01 places it seamlessly with no blip or jump, and tightens up the song.

Using the above, I've tried to eliminate out of tune backing vox by pulling better takes from earlier or later. No new vocals recorded, just tweaked what was already there.

Replaced the one pattern drum beat with a programmed one with ins, verses, fills etc. Realised that the Boss defaults to a "hard" drumbeat no matter what pattern you choose, but you can switch to other more natural styles within the same pattern.

Still some things to do. Harmony solos come in too hot so I need to tweak them. Vocals might still be too distorted. Levels of lead guitars could be looked at. Overall mastering volume and tone? Other mixing pointers? Thanks all.
Click to expand...
The initial listen I’d say the Vocals are way to crowded and stacked - and they aren’t in time at places - the guitars are better - but there is some kind phase thing happening - better job with the Drums!
 
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