"Ride" --> how do you feel about the midgets?

J

Jessica_X

New member
Hi everyone,
It's been a couple months since I've been on here, I've been learning Logic X and the new flex pitch (which is great!) I'm about 75% done with several songs, so here is the first. This is the best I could do right now and I'd appreciate any feedback.

https://soundcloud.com/jessicazin/ride

So here's what I hear and don't like:
The drums have too much reverb, but they are an audio loop and I don't know if I can do anything about it. I like the drums and would hate to have to replace them. What do you think?

I've only read some very general articles about EQ so I just generally don't do anything with EQ. If anyone could give a specific suggestion on a way that EQ could benefit this track I'd appreciate it!

How to the midgets strike you? It was sort of done out of necessity...long story.

Thanks for any thoughts!
 
Hey.
You've got a bit of an epic thing going on here so I don't think the drum reverb is a big problem. I'd run with it. :)

I definitely want to hear a lot more of the vocals though. The verse vocals were a little bit too quiet but the choruses were way down.
I get that it's tough to judge if you're the singer. Few people want to hear their own vocals right up front.
You sound good though, so go for it.

With regard to eq, it's a tool to use if/when you hear a problem. If you don't hear problems don't use eq. ;)
Quite often I find myself having to cut the low end/low mids out of vocals to let them cut through the mix.
You may or may not have that problem but it's hard to tell because of how low the vocals are right now.


Overall, very original and creative. I'm glad I checked in on this one and glad you shared it.
 
A really cool, original song. Well recorded, I thought.

Regarding EQ, there is no substitute for trying things out. Solo you vocal, put an eq plugin on, and try playing with it.

A common useful technique is to apply a high pass filter to acoustically recorded instruments to remove low frequency "garbage" below about 100hz. Certainly instruments like vocals or acoustic guitar might benefit from this. Bass guitar or kick drum would require different approaches because they have a lot of low frequency content you want.

One may to make vocals cut through and sound more "modern" pop-y is to apps a boost in the 2-3 kHz region. I bet adding 5db in that region as a broad boost would help with some of the issues mentioned above.
 
Thanks a lot for the feedback Steenamaroo and Jamie.
I'm glad to hear that the drums sound fine to you, they sounded good to me but sometimes I worry that something ONLY sounds good to me!
I will definitely turn up the vocals. That can be really hard for me to judge.
I am also going to experiment on cutting some of the low end from the vocals and see how that changes how they sound in the mix.
Thanks a lot for the encouragement, it means a lot to me as a I work in near-total isolation at my kitchen table!
So great to hear others' thoughts.
 
What a cute song, are those real midgets? or children? I thought it was very creative, unique.
 
Jessica_X said:
Thanks a lot for the feedback Steenamaroo and Jamie.
I'm glad to hear that the drums sound fine to you, they sounded good to me but sometimes I worry that something ONLY sounds good to me!
Click to expand...

That's certainly not the case. You've some impressive sounds going on here. :)
Keep it up!
 
There are some really cool parts to this song. I love those piano runs in the verses. I love those vocal, "bum bum's" in chorus.

I'd pay attention to the vocal cadence. It didn't always seem to fit the instrumental tracks. Just some clunkiness in spots. There are words here and there (especially in the chorus) that get lost. You might be able to fix this with compression. A vocal retrack with better mic technique would be a better method (but more work).

I guess that Flexpitch thing was the effect I was hearing in the chorus? The "bum bum's" seem shifted down, which worked fairly well for me. The main vocal line in the chorus seemed shifted up, which gave me an "Alvin and the Chipmunks" feel that I didn't care for.

There was quite a bit of reverb on the backing tracks in general. That made a lot of things mush together.
 
Ok...about the midgets...so what happened was this song was out of my range in the chorus. But I didn't want to change the melody because I really liked it. So I sang it down 3 half steps, and then pitch-shifted up using flex pitch in Logic X. But then it had some weird effects here and there from such an extreme pitch shift. So I midgitized it to hide the flaws from the original pitch shift. I figured because it's a carnival song it sort of fits.
I'd prefer it if I could sing it well, straight, but I can't! (It really sounded terrible.)
It makes me happy that PDP wondered if maybe there were real midgets or children!
Thank you Btyre and Steenamaroo.
TripleM: thanks a lot for your thoughts. I am thinking that the clunkiness you're talking about is in the verses? I tried to make it kind of conversational, like this person doesn't really give a @*# about "singing". I thought it turned out well but could you give a specific example, like a word or phrase that you thought didn't work?
I agree about the chorus. I will try raising the volume, and then I can also bring up the volume of specific words that still aren't coming through. Maybe I will back off on the reverb in the chorus too.
 
I really like this too. I think it is a great little "arrangement of strange"! Very original. I really like Carnival/Circus music personally, something I've written a lot of.

The only thing I would change would be the volume of the drums and give them a little more definition. They sound good but very distant in places. Personal taste thing though.

Top banana in my book. Really enjoyed it, 3 times. :thumbs up:
 
This is a good song! Reminds me distantly of "Klaatu".

Your verse melody is descending as it heads to the chorus, but your vocal power also tends to attenuate as you get lower. I would bring the vocals up a tad overall, but particularly as you get into the lower part of that melody. You're lucky to have a good voice to work with.

I think the stuff in the chorus (the midgetistic stuff) is great! I'd bring that up a bit as well. The drums sounded boomy on my crappy computer speakers, better when I put it on my studio monitors. Not sure the reverb is really a problem, except through crappy speakers. . .:listeningmusic:
 
I like that you liked the melody enough to keep it even if you couldn't sing it in your range. I don't like that you altered your voice to accommodate the song. I'll be the odd-man out and say I don't like the midget effect. I hear your range during the verses and can't imagine you can't sing the chorus naturally. I think you can.

My suggestions.
Bring the vocals up.
Turn the piano down
Bring the drums up.
See what you got after that.

I like your song. It's got potential and I think you can do it justice. :)
 
Thanks so much for the additional opinions.
Mr. Clean: Thanks. I like that phrase! I will look into places where the drums need to be louder, a couple people have mentioned this now.
Paddedcell: I'd never heard of Klaatu. Listened to a couple of songs on youtube. Cool! I agree I need to bring up the volume of the lower parts. I did bring it up some but not enough. Thank you. I'm glad you like the midgets, because I don't think I have a better alternative.
Chili: Thanks for the vote of confidence but I assure you I can not sing this song! I am also not sure I like the midget thing...lesser evil kind of thing. Thanks for your comments!
 
I came late to the party. Some really good unique stuff here. I agree with most of what Chili said as well as some other comments. I am not sure I would have a realistic judgment of the mix without hearing the main vocal part where it needs to be. Other than simple advice of compression and eq, I couldn't really say exactly what I would do without the track in front of me.

That being said, well... If interested I would love to play with the tracks myself. I love a unique challenge. :)
 
Here is the track screenshot. Send me a PM with your email addy...

:)
 

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  • Jessica tracks.PNG
    Jessica tracks.PNG
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Ok, I played with it for a bit.

When I first opened it up I said '39 tracks!?!?!'. WTF?

But then I later realized why.

I took a bit of a different approach here. Not sure if you will like it Jessica, but it was fun. :) I learned from it as well.

I would still love to add different drum track to the tune, but I just don't have the time tonight.

Anyway, here it is...
 

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  • Ride Jimmy Mix R1.mp3
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I would actually like to hear the vocals before you pitch corrected them. I can likely do a bit better with Melodyne Editor. I think we could make the chorus more realistic. I am not sure the main vocal on it needs to be that high pitched actually. I would rather hear your real voice in a lower register than a rendered sound. Though it is interesting the way it came out in the end.

Blah blah. Not my song. I'll shut up now. :)

I really find this very cool as it is Jessica.
 
Huh. Clearly a FAR superior mix. I want to learn how to do that. The vocals are much more clear. And in general all the vocals seem a little smoother, less rough and amateurish sounding. Going back and forth between my version and your version, wow.
I'm not sure how I feel about the change in arrangement on verse 2. It sounds good, less frenetic. My last couple of songs (and possibly the next couple I finish, I think) are turning out to be verse-chorus-verse-chorus, build-build-build-build END. Not always the best formula.
A lot to think about. Thanks for doing this.
 
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