Roll Um Easy (Little Feat / Lowell George cover)

[keith.rogers]

This is one of my first home recording efforts that I still had on SoundCloud, and mostly forgot about, but thought I'd dust off the GarageBand project and remix very lightly in Logic Pro. Maybe brought the vocals more forward than everyone's taste, but about all I did was add some slightly different EQ, and used the Logic compressors, and Ozone for the output track EQ and limiting (again, light touch). Different reverb, using Logic's "Space Designer" and this [IR] says it's a "Small Space - Live Stage" and both tracks send to the same reverb bus/aux.

Because it was GarageBand, it was 16-bit tracks originally, with the guitar and vocal done separately. Based on the time and my review of Sweetwater order history, I'd guess both tracks were recorded with an AKG C214 through and M-Audio C600 interface. This would have been done in our (untreated) "office" space back then.



And, I'm attaching the original SoundCloud file for comparison - apparently I uploaded an MP3, and I can't open the GB project as-is, since it's such an old version (hence the conversion).

 

[TripleM]

Nice song. Not sure if you're looking for comments, but in case you are...

I thought the acoustic guitar was a little cloudy. A lot of energy in the 1K range and not a lot of top end.

A couple of pitchy spots in the vocal. Other than that, well performed.

 

[keith.rogers]

Thanks. yeah, pitchy vocals are my thing, or more correctly, I was never a singer, period, and starting a wee bit late in life, so my (and my audience's) best hope is probably autotune .

I will give the guitar a closer look - didn't do much EQ, but I might have had strings that were several years old on that box, too.

p.s. MP3 Mixing Clinic is *for* feedback. Don't be shy, but be kind

 

[dobro]

The pitchy vocal works on this one - it's on the notes you're reaching for, and that's natural. I don't think it detracts.

The mixes: I like the guitar sound on the earlier mix a lot more. Vocals about the same.

Nice tune.

 

[keith.rogers]

The pitchy vocal works on this one - it's on the notes you're reaching for, and that's natural. I don't think it detracts.

The mixes: I like the guitar sound on the earlier mix a lot more. Vocals about the same.

Nice tune.

Thanks. I looked at just the intro/outro guitar parts in a couple of "meters" (YouLean Loudness & Audacity spectrum) and the frequency/spectrum is really about the same, but the old GarageBand version clearly has a bit more compression and make-up gain, judging from the curves and dynamic range. The reverb change is fairly obvious, to my ear, at least. Don't have the old MacBook so can't pinpoint it, but I might tinker with the compressor when I get my desk cleared off...

 

[RedStone]

Interesting things happening in this mix ... but totally workable I think. A bit of tuning would do wonders ... just transparent tuning. So many singers (including myself) struggle with being pitchy as we hit notes, then we level out. But I like this song. It's good.

Here's what I found ... the mix lacked "space" to me. A tiny bit of room verb to give the mix a feeling of being performed in a live setting seemed to help, and brought some pleasing stereo information into the mix (at least to my ears). There is also a lack of clarity in the upper mids and extending into the high end. Wiiiiidddee boost centered at 3khz did it for me.. Also a secondary boost at 12k and a roll off of the very top end .... There was sizzle up around 16-18k.

In the low end, there's a lot of 200-400 happening, but that's also the style I think. The guitar sounds like it had a resonant high pass filter on it? It sounds fine to me overall with some clarity added, but just a wondering.

Here's the audio example to go along with all that ... might have overdone the roominess part, especially if that type of tone wasn't your original intent.

 

[keith.rogers]

Thanks @RedStone!

Well, I sure don't hear anything at 16kHz+, probably more like 10kHz+, but I usually have both high and lowpass on because I know there's really no content I've captured in those ranges, and the HPF is necessary because there's usually an AC or fridge compressor grinding away, and room and whole-house fans going almost 24x7 it seems, but was there resonance introduced from that HPF, I don't know...

Anyway, I did add more reverb, and some minor EQ tweaks in the upper mids - did this on the already mixed file that was there before - don't really want to futz with this mix, but let me know what you hear. (The SC track has been updated. Your MP3 is about 2dB LUFS louder than the original, so a bit more "in my face" than I generally go with something this simple, but it gave me another little nudge. Thanks again.)

 

[RedStone]

Thanks @RedStone!

Well, I sure don't hear anything at 16kHz+, probably more like 10kHz+, but I usually have both high and lowpass on because I know there's really no content I've captured in those ranges,

Np There is almost always content above 16khz from the vocals, and 16k and above is where the acoustic guitar gets its shimmer.

It's always challenging when there's ac issues

A power conditioner could help with that. Fridges (big and small) are a mortal enemy of good tone haha

A hum remover can sometimes deal with 50/60 cycle hum too, letting you go a little easier on the high pass filter. But always is a creative choice in the end of what sounds best to you