SFYII - Retracked - Pre-Vocal Test Mix

[JDOD]

Song I came up with a couple of months ago while working on some lower gain tones.

Re-tracked it and re-mixed it.

View attachment SFYII Pre Vocal Mix.mp3

 

[Bubba po]

This is good. I like the slid octave riffs, the drums are pretty meaty and suit the song well. I think the kick might be a tiny bit woofy, but there's not much I can criticise here, mate.

 

[ido1957]

Mix sounds great even as an instrumental at this point. The last lead solo sounds like you're a tiny tiny bit flat or your intonation is slightly off. Also try and add some vibrato to the ends of the notes in that last solo - you have it earlier on and it makes the guitar sing quite nicely. This sounds like a different guitar than what is used in the prior sections. The tone for me is a little duller, not bad, but it could use a tweak as you do notice a drop in brights at the end.

I listened a couple of times, the last time from a vocalist's perspective, and I'm assuming the lead parts throughout are going to be the vocal melody (prior to the last solo)? This is a real rocker - the arrangement is cool and should be a fun one to sing to. I'll keep my eye out for the vocal version too...

 

[JDOD]

Mix sounds great even as an instrumental at this point. The last lead solo sounds like you're a tiny tiny bit flat or your intonation is slightly off. Also try and add some vibrato to the ends of the notes in that last solo - you have it earlier on and it makes the guitar sing quite nicely. This sounds like a different guitar than what is used in the prior sections. The tone for me is a little duller, not bad, but it could use a tweak as you do notice a drop in brights at the end.

I listened a couple of times, the last time from a vocalist's perspective, and I'm assuming the lead parts throughout are going to be the vocal melody (prior to the last solo)? This is a real rocker - the arrangement is cool and should be a fun one to sing to. I'll keep my eye out for the vocal version too...

The solo at the end was adlibbed - sounded pretty good so I decided to keep it - its possible the guitar is slightly out of tune there 'cos I'd been playing for a while to get some ideas and bending the fuck out of it prior to doing the take.

Yeah, the vocal will probably double the lead guitar or something similar - will be practicing it this week and hope to get a few takes done next weekend.

 

[ido1957]

Yep - regarding the last solo I've done that a few times. My guitar tuning will slip slightly after an hour or so. I try to check it every four or five tracks just in case. Nothing worse than having a good take that is slightly off (Gibsons will actually go sharp sometimes if the nut isn't perfect).

 

[JDOD]

This is good. I like the slid octave riffs, the drums are pretty meaty and suit the song well. I think the kick might be a tiny bit woofy, but there's not much I can criticise here, mate.

Bubba, the kick is actually dry but I think its getting picked up in my snare and OHs which have reverbs on them.
Also, I think the bass might have a bit too much reverb - its a DI with a "guitar room" impulse. Maybe what sounds good solo, sounds a bit too much in the mix.

 

[andrushkiwt]

Oh man I want the drum track to this... There's so many things I'm wanting to hear. I want to hear a really loud bell ride for parts of 2:36, that area. Some fills I'm hearing in places too...oh man. I would have fun with writing the drums on this.

however, really nice work. guitars are sounding nice and dirty. is there any new gear in here?

 

[JDOD]

Oh man I want the drum track to this... There's so many things I'm wanting to hear. I want to hear a really loud bell ride for parts of 2:36, that area. Some fills I'm hearing in places too...oh man. I would have fun with writing the drums on this.

however, really nice work. guitars are sounding nice and dirty. is there any new gear in here?

haha, you're welcome to them. I hate doing drums, I am shit drummer and by extension, shit and sorting drum MIDI.

Nah, no new gear. That's just a 57 in front of my amp but I've been working on my mic placement. One guitar is coil tapped, the other is a humbucker.

 

[andrushkiwt]

is this EZD? if it is, feel free to bounce out all the music onto one track (minus all drums), and put it in a zip folder with the MIDI drums file. That way, I'd have one track with all the music (wouldn't touch it) and one instance of SD going - i believe I can manipulate EZD tracks with SD. Don't see why not. I'd leave mixing the drums to you, if you'd like, but I would def play around with the MIDI file. I mean, what you have is good. It fits well. If you're going to add vocals to it, then it could stand on its own as it is. If it's going to be a rock instrumental, those can usually afford more flexibility in drum patterns. So, up to you. lemme know! I'm in a lull this week and just working drums at the moment for 2 tracks - not much else going on. It could be fun.

 

[JDOD]

is this EZD? if it is, feel free to bounce out all the music onto one track (minus all drums), and put it in a zip folder with the MIDI drums file. That way, I'd have one track with all the music (wouldn't touch it) and one instance of SD going - i believe I can manipulate EZD tracks with SD. Don't see why not. I'd leave mixing the drums to you, if you'd like, but I would def play around with the MIDI file. I mean, what you have is good. It fits well. If you're going to add vocals to it, then it could stand on its own as it is. If it's going to be a rock instrumental, those can usually afford more flexibility in drum patterns. So, up to you. lemme know! I'm in a lull this week and just working drums at the moment for 2 tracks - not much else going on. It could be fun.

That would be great if you would mate, its all EZD - I've no idea how to export a MIDI file - but it can't be that hard. The song will be getting a vocal track over the next couple of months. The lead at the end will be reduced slightly and will have some minimal vocals over it too.

 

[andrushkiwt]

That would be great if you would mate, its all EZD - I've no idea how to export a MIDI file - but it can't be that hard. The song will be getting a vocal track over the next couple of months. The lead at the end will be reduced slightly and will have some minimal vocals over it too.

ooooh, i'd rather not then if there's vocals coming. I wouldn't know how they relate to the instruments. The phrasing and song sections are important to that. I might end up thinking one section is a musical break when really it is a bridge or one-off part or something. No worries, thanks for originally agreeing though! Can't wait to hear the final version w vox. good tune there

 

[JDOD]

ooooh, i'd rather not then if there's vocals coming. I wouldn't know how they relate to the instruments. The phrasing and song sections are important to that. I might end up thinking one section is a musical break when really it is a bridge or one-off part or something. No worries, thanks for originally agreeing though! Can't wait to hear the final version w vox. good tune there

No worries - I'll just leave it as it is for now - I have a little more to do with the drums - not MIDI edits - just the reverbs and shit to make them sound better. If (when I eventually complete the vocals) you fancy a go, give me a shout.

 

[andrushkiwt]

No worries - I'll just leave it as it is for now - I have a little more to do with the drums - not MIDI edits - just the reverbs and shit to make them sound better. If (when I eventually complete the vocals) you fancy a go, give me a shout.

ok sounds good

 

[TripleM]

Overall I thought this sounded pretty good.

It depends to a large extent on what you're going for.

I'm not hearing a whole lot of low end. At times the guitars get a bit on the thin side - but not horribly so. I love the amount of gain you dialed in. Again, it depends on what you want, but that sounded great to me.

Levels of things in the mid and upper ranges sound good. Myself - I don't think there is quite enough bass and kick.

Lead guitar thingy on the right side at ~3:00 didn't do anything for me. A bit simplistic.

 

[JDOD]

Overall I thought this sounded pretty good.

It depends to a large extent on what you're going for.

I'm not hearing a whole lot of low end. At times the guitars get a bit on the thin side - but not horribly so. I love the amount of gain you dialed in. Again, it depends on what you want, but that sounded great to me.

Levels of things in the mid and upper ranges sound good. Myself - I don't think there is quite enough bass and kick.

Lead guitar thingy on the right side at ~3:00 didn't do anything for me. A bit simplistic.

I've got a low shelf on the guitars as I have suffered with a bit of dark muddiness in the tone before - I think I've dialed that out with my mic placement now and have just got the low shelf in there from force of habit - I'll remove it and see what I think. Cheers. Greg's mentioned this to me too.

I need to do more work on the drums.

The lead at the end - the more times I listen to this the shitter I think it is. I sat at home and jammed on it for a 5 minutes then adlibbed a take - I need to actually right something here and leave some space for minimal vocals - I do like the slowed down riff at the end.

Cheers anyway.

 

[Robus]

Guitar tones sound good, rhythm especially. The guitars are a bit loud, notably the one on the left doing a kind of rhythm lead thing. For example, just after 1:00, when that left-panned guitar comes in with your main lead hook, you want your listeners tuning in, not turning down. I'd like to hear more bass. All these suggestions apply to the instrumental mix only. I understand vocals are coming. I agree with 3M on the guitar solo. Your shorter lead lines make melodic statements and are memorable. The solo noodles.