Pop ballad what do you guys think?!...

[carlosguardia]

I just finished mixing a pop ballad that I wrote with a friend who's a singer and wants to get a hit to sound in Costa Rican radios. We decided to start out, sort of testing the water, with a short simple ballad that I composed, arranged and recorded in a week. I'm quite happy with the results, although, of course, the drums suck because they're soundfonts instead of the real thing. What do you guys think of this one?!!

www.nowhereradio.com/carlosguardia/singles


Carlos

 

[wfaraoni]

Carlos, I liked the telephone opening, done very well.

I don't know about the lyrics though, sounds like theres a lot of feeling, could it be about someone missing someone, maybe?, give me another chance, maybe??? Dunno, cause I don't understand Spanish very, very Nice vox to my ears, though that echo at :40 doenst light my fire

I personally dont think the sound on the distorted Guitar fits the overall feel of the song, then again what do I know , It is a little upfront in any case. Id definitely tame it down some. I did like the lead burst at 2:45 very cool.

Bass, keyboard and drums all sound very good to me as well.
Nice mixing


Others do have better ears but sounds very clean to me.

Peace
Bill

 

[chrisharris]

I really like the vocal sound a lot.

He's cramming too many syllables into the verses...sounds kinda' rushed and wordy, but...lol; since I have no idea what he's saying, you can take that criticism as nothing more than ignorant first impressions...still; I think the overall "vibe" is important, and he sounds like he's got too much to say.

The other thing that stuck out was the distorted guitars...the idea seems okay, but they sound very dry and direct and small...totally out of place with the rest of the tune with the spacious reverb and stuff.

Nice sounding song.

 

[a_super_critic]

I just finished mixing a pop ballad that I wrote with a friend who's a singer and wants to get a hit to sound in Costa Rican radios. We decided to start out, sort of testing the water, with a short simple ballad that I composed, arranged and recorded in a week. I'm quite happy with the results, although, of course, the drums suck because they're soundfonts instead of the real thing. What do you guys think of this one?!!

www.nowhereradio.com/carlosguardia/singles


Carlos

song takes too long to get to the point. AABA. I would drop the phone intro... So cliche' it hurts.

Vocalist has potential. When he does his mmm mmm stuff, tell him to get up close to the mic and really tame it down. right now it sounds like he is just busting through another take. it needs to sound like he just did it for the first time.

 

[TripleM]

I like your singing voice. Good mixture of instruments (one expection noted below). I liked that distorted rhythm guitar that comes in around 1:16.

I can't understand the words, but I also got the sense that there's a lot of stuff crammed into a fixed amount of space.

The acoustic guitar solo, while nice sounding, for some reason did seem to fit into this song.

I think that harmonies during the chorus would really sound great. I'd definitely put them in if it were my song.

Lots of clipping going on throughout the song, but the guitar solo that comes in at 2:43 really makes the song clip noticably.

Nice big reverb on the whole thing. Not my cup of tea, but I think it worked well on this song.

Two sugar-coated thumbs from Trip.

 

[bdbdbuck]

Carlos,
I think you did a good job. I personally like your guitar playing and you didn't disappoint me here. The electric lead did seem a little out of place, but what do I know! My wife works with a spanish girl and I'm gonna try to get an interpretation. Mix sounded pretty clean to me and pretty much everything appeared to be in the right place. Overall, I'd ante up some stars for ya!

bd

 

[WATYF]

Not a bad recording man... (aside from the aforementioned crappy drums ) I don't even mind the DI'ed finger-picked acoustics much... although a nicely mic'ed acoustic would've been a little more pleasing to my tastes. Thought the elec. gits were a tiny bit thin. The acoustic lead would sound much better if it wasn't DI'ed.

Decent recording over-all....


...but I couldn't understand a word of it...???

what's up with that???











WATYF

 

[carlosguardia]

Thanks for the feedback!!! Now, to answer/elaborate on some of the comments:

The lyrics are supposed to sound crammed... you know how sometimes you want to leave a long message in somebody's voicemail and you only have a short period of time to say all you want to say?! Well that's the idea trying to be portrayed in the verses; maybe it didn't come across clearly or maybe it's the language barrier. BTW, the lyrics are about a guy who is debating between staying with his girl and having a regular 9-5 job or following his dream (and in turn leaving the chick, cause she wont support his dream) of being a rock musician.

About the distorted guitars, I'm not too thrilled about the sound myself. I mean, I dig the tone but it doesn't suit the song too well; I tried to put the guitars a little further back with some reverb and they now sound more adecuate.

The telephone is extremely cliche but that's exactly what the song is after... it's a really cheesy ballad that attempts to reach a very pop audience; not exactly my genre of music to compose or arrange but in an attempt to diversify I agreed to engage the "challenge".

We did try to add some harmonies in the choruses but they sounded way too cheesy... I didn't want to go THAT far... we tried, harmonies in thirds, sixths, fourths, counterpoint, but didn't get anything that sounded like it could sweeten the song. Any suggestions for possible harmonies over the chorus' melody??!!

I'm not too sure why MMM got clipping in portions of the song... I have to add that I tried to "MASTER" the song using Wavelab 4.0 and the Izotope Ozone plugin, and then a little compression so that it wouldn't clip but then again... I have only a rough idea of how to "master" something.

finally, WATYF, great ears you have man, I don't know how you figured that the nylon string acoustic/electric was DI'ed but indeed it was. The guitar is a beautiful sounding and looking spanish made Admira with a cutaway and a half-sized resonance box and I would've preferred to mic it or mic my Yamaha CG-100A (or even both and then pan them) but as I said, it was a project that was done quickly and with the idea of having it just as a "thermometer" of what my friend (the singer who wrote the lyrics and the vocal melody) and I could do as far as pop ballads...
Given the quite positive feedback that we've received we're going to give it a second shot with a new song; this time with real drums and more time and dedication to the production, recording, arrangements, mixing and "mastering"

Again, thanks for the reviews.

Carlos