Rope & Gravity - LoFi Americana - is it right or a 'try-hard'

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Whatmysay

Whatmysay

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I took an up front acoustic guitar/mandolin and added some lo-fi drums and synth riff. I know there are purists out there but is it too much?

Any other feedback and thoughts on mix or song greatly appreciated.

Cheers Burt

Rope and Gravity

(c) Burt Crow Nov 2011

1
Got crows in my coffee as black as undertakers as you stand naked and say
you don’t want me shadow dawn on your flesh as you put on your dress
Pre-Ch
A dead man I slump I fall
Cause you wont undress for me no more

Ch
You are the rope. You are gravity
You pull me down like the moon drags the sea
You are the trap door, dropping under me
You are the rope. You are gravity

2
I beg you to stay, but you walk off and nail my coffin and you
Dance on my graveI still want your body as you move above me
Pre-Ch
A hangman you set your noose
To catch me when I fell for you

Ch

Bridge
You were sunshine at midnight
You’re the light of igniting stars
Now you black oil hands
Leave crows in death rows
And gallows in my heart

Ch
You are the rope. You are gravity
You pull me down, down, till I can’t breath.
You are the trap door, dropping under me
You are the rope. You are gravity
 
This is an excellent song. I really like your voice, was that long note for real or did you use some jiggery pokery, that was amazing. I liked the lyrics as well. The lo-fi and synthy things I thought work well and where used subtly. you resisted bringing the drums in until quite late on, which was good, the song really built up. It would have been easy to bring them in a lot earlier, but the impact would have been lost then.
 
Good song - americana and lofi piqued my interest from the beginning. I think the vocal and guitar sound like they're operating in different spaces though - the vocal is earthy and gutsy whereas the treatment on the guitar is a bit more poppy. I dunno, I'd like to hear it sound more rootsy if possible?

I know toad said he liked how the synth was subtle, but I thought it could be a touch more prominent. I liked the distorted backing vocal - nice touch.
 
Thx Toad - note is for real I'm just a loud bastard!

Rob - for rootsy, do you think it is post production or goes back to the recording, or even the playing? Do you mean more picking style?

Thx for listening

Burt
 
Pretty cool song. Definitely has its moments.

I do have a couple nits though.

The guitar and vox are really loud compared to everything except the mandolin. The harmony, synth, etc. are really buried. The synth and harmony also both sound like they could be panned closer to the center.

What was the delay effect on the vocals? It sounded like you had a delay of a whole beat or more? That's a dangerous decision! (It was buried though, so I couldn't make it out very well.)
 
I don't think it's lo-fi in the usual sense, it is a rough mix though. Everything seems really hot and pumpy and squashed hard. Quite painful to listen to at even moderately loud volumes. I'm not an anti compression kind of guy, but I think this is an example of bad compression.
 
Man, great tune and performance. I loved the distorted low backing vox. I also agree with Greg. I think u could even go more lo-fi on the drums to pronounce the effect.
 
Thank you for your feedback

I think I am uncertain about the direction of the song and thus the title of the thread - I will try to do a 'bloody bold and resolute' mix and bring the lo-fi elements up more.

Steve why the danger with long delay if intentional f/x as opposed to alt to reverb? build up? I could just have it on end words?

Greg pls to see I am consistently bad with compression - you noted that on my last mix as well - I use some buss comp - then into a final mix chain of tape saturation emu/Waves SSL G comp (this time with about 4dB gain)/EQ - I then master using Focusrite Pultec/SSL emu/BBE harmonic exciter/Ozone 4 (with no verb or harmonic ex modules on) is it too much?

Elton I think I will distort and EQ drums rather than filter as I think it is the phasing movement in the drums that puts them in a genre too far away from the acoustic of the other instruments and perhaps bring some more cohesion.

Cheers
Burt
 
Whatmysay said:
Greg pls to see I am consistently bad with compression - you noted that on my last mix as well - I use some buss comp - then into a final mix chain of tape saturation emu/Waves SSL G comp (this time with about 4dB gain)/EQ - I then master using Focusrite Pultec/SSL emu/BBE harmonic exciter/Ozone 4 (with no verb or harmonic ex modules on) is it too much?
Click to expand...
Lol! I don't know if it's too much or not enough, I just know it's wrong. But if I had to guess, I'd guess it's way too much. Too many plug-ins, too much processing, too much killing the sound. You're not helping it, you're definitely hurting it. Try mixing without all the exciters and saturators and 5 different compressors and all that other crap and let's see what happens.
 
Whatmysay said:
Thx Toad - note is for real I'm just a loud bastard!

Rob - for rootsy, do you think it is post production or goes back to the recording, or even the playing? Do you mean more picking style?

Thx for listening

Burt
Click to expand...

It's hard to say without knowing how you track, what your guitar sounds like naturally but I think there's too much top end air on the guitar and not enough of the guts. I don't think it's in the playing. I just think that with this kind of music the guitar needs to really drive the rhythm as well as form a melodic part, so that you get a bass drum type thump from the lower strings - that way when the mandolin comes in you get the great texture from the interplay of the two.

What's your mixing chain for the acoustic? I'd keep it as simple and effect free as possible - roll off the eq where the air is and keep the reverb to a minimum. One of my favourite guitarists is a guy called Rainer Ptachek and his sound is kind of what I had in mind. I couldn't find the song I had in mind, but this is a good one and hopefully you can hear what I mean - The Farm

It's your song though, so if you hear the link and the sound is way off the direction you want to take the song, then you are of course free to disregard all the above :p
 
Long delays can be dangerous because it can start to sound bad. Reverb and delay are effects that need some subtlety to their use most of the time.

There's a lot of folk-ish music out there right now that has just insane amounts of reverb (Bon Ivar, Fleet Foxes, etc.) It all sounds pretty awful.
 
the main problem here is the extreme compression on the masterbus. its making everything harsh.
the drums are also confusing me. maybe the mix needs to be revised in general.
nice song & performance btw.
 
Here is latest version and I'm trying out SoundCloud for first time

 
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This is cleaner than the first - much better.

I'd get away from too many effects on your voice. It is really strong and stands alone very well without cheesing it up too much. Specifically at the front end of the song - the delay/reverb whatever it is just seems overdone before the song gets started..... conversely, it sounds good later in the 3:30 area. ..... as a reflection of what has been heard.

Great voice - really dynamite.
 
I listened to the soundcloud version.
Terrific narrative.
I really enjoyed the vocal performance.
THe arrangement is spot on for the song.
The mix is still a little incomplete: the mandlin seems to have uneven levels; the synth is fine; I think the drums could be spread a bit wider acxross the image.
I really like it.
Oh, & as they used to say on Aunty jack: "Knot on left: short & swift. Knot on right: hangs all night".
 
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The new mix does have a better balance.

The vox could probably still come down a smidge, but it's not so bad now.
 
Thank you all

I'll watch the master bus possible just use the ozone and not the other compression emulation. I also pulled back on the gain on the SSL compressor in the original mix down.
 
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