Sisters song again... tried to pan things out a bit... any thoughts?

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TheGreatBongChicken

TheGreatBongChicken

Musician who mixes
So... as much as I am a mono mixer by nature, I have tried to pan things out in the song. Didn't really make any instrumental changes, but through an autotune on her voice slightly, we will probably do another take soon though... put some stereo delay on her voice to get it "bouncing around" as some of you said. Brought down that ride cymbal everyone was complaining about... and brought up the overall level of the vocal, tried to thicken it out and get rid of some of the sibillance.

So... if this totally sucks and is worse than before.. sorry. But just be honest, if it's really good same thing goes. I'm not used to doing much panning... so hopefully this worked out ok.



-James'
 
JamesDude :D

Sounds good man. ;) Not sure what the other mix sounded like but this works well. Maybe a little more separation of a couple of the guitars and maybe bring the snare up a skosh with a bit more crack to it. The "crack" may just be a little high end lift or a low end cut. Dunno.

peace mang :drunk:
 
I didn't hear the previous one, but this sounds awesome... I like the pan as is right now but you could try a little more open, but i like how is right now. The guitar sounds great, i also like the drums, is not the sound i would search for, but it fits perfect for this song.

Great Job!!
 
It's sounding good.. This is definitely a step up from the last since there is more panning. Don't be too scared to experiment. :P
 
Dude Zero man, I checked out your MySpace... it's pretty sweet, I'm not sure if you've ever heard of them but your music and voice kind of remind me of PFR.

Anyway, thanks for the input there bro. Much like you, I play all the instruments too! Although in this one I had a friend play piano aside from the part where she sings the chorus really quiet... kind of like a bridge. Anyway, yeah... I guess I am happy that nobody has said anything bad about it yet. But I'm not gonna hold my breath just yet... I know that this is a critical bunch, so I'll give it some time for now.

There was one mix a while back though that people gave me lots of compliments on, but they almost all hated the song! ha ha... that "what's going on" song. :-p I got to be honest though... that one has grown on me! Oh and Austin bro, thanks for the kind words! The guy who played/wrote the Piano part in this is named Austin too and is the same age as you!

-James'
 
Did you play the drums, James? The timing is so good.. I wish I could play half that well. heh
 
Like the mix.
Like the instrumentation.
Love her voice.
This is a very radio friendly mix...definitely something to aspire to.
Nice stuff.
 
Yeah, I played the drums. I have been a drummer since 2001 or so, and an electric guitarist since 2000. I've been playing bass as a separate instrument from guitar since like 2004ish... Only been seriously recording for about a year... the first few ones I put up on here were really pathetic, but I thought they were awesome. It's like, I posted them on here thinking everyone would tell me I was amazing and ask me for advice... ha ha... quite the contrary, and I'm glad they were hard on me! I took their advice seriously, and while I'm not a pro yet or anything... I know these are better than my first ones.
 
Yeah, I played the drums. I have been a drummer since 2001 or so, and an electric guitarist since 2000. I've been playing bass as a separate instrument from guitar since like 2004ish... Only been seriously recording for about a year... the first few ones I put up on here were really pathetic, but I thought they were awesome. It's like, I posted them on here thinking everyone would tell me I was amazing and ask me for advice... ha ha... quite the contrary, and I'm glad they were hard on me! I took their advice seriously, and while I'm not a pro yet or anything... I know these are better than my first ones.

Very cool. Time really gets away. When I look at "2000" I have to remind myself that, yes, that was TEN years ago. :O yikes.

I wish you were a little closer, I'd request you to drum for my tracks if you were.

Quite the story of humility there, with you coming here thinking people would bow down to you and finding out it wouldn't happen at all. hahah.
 
Wow!

A lot of times guys post a remix, and it sounds like the first version.

Did sis re-sing this? If not, did you pitch-correct the track?

The snare thing...the level is right during the verses..but lacking in the choruses...might be an error to gin it up throughout.

The work is astoundingly better. You tamed the drone R. The vocal being leveled up might have fixed that??

The vox' recorded sound is two dimentional...compressed a lot? If there were a way to breathe some breath, and that certain something, into it...yeah, man.

Love the panning, levels and mix...maybe a bit mo' 4k+ eq..from +1db to as much as 3db at the terminus at 20k

The song is real, real close to a pro job. Congratulations. Y' done good!!!!

...and the playing is real good, too. Oh yeah...the arrangement is real good, too.

NICE!!!

ps....been listening to this over n' over for about 30 minutes, now....and I'm very impressed by the countours and hookishness in the lead vocal melody....and the synergy with the lyric. She's a natural. I love her voice and melodic gift. Sweet and unpretentious...something about the way she sings and sounds conveys a vulnerability...the way the lead actress in 'Casablanca"...Ingred Bergman....did with her acting. Y' just wanna give her a hug and tell her everything's gonna be awright. In other words, you're a lucky SOB to have her....between the two of you, no telling how many radio gems you could write for yourselves, or other artists. Wicked potential.

So much great stuff being posted, lately.


pps...I'm still listening to it......no fatigue after, like 30 plays..I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!
 
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Wow, that really means a lot! And to answer some of your questions... yeah, I messed around with the drone R guitar, it seems that I pulled a few frequencies. And no, she hasn't sung it again yet but I did add a slight autotune pitch corrector to her voice. I do plan on her doing the vocals again though, I've heard her do it nearly flawless in person. As far as the compression on the vox... yeah, I probably should lighten that up a bit, I put on a lot of compression initially... and the lack of breath might be the low pass filter. People had mentioned sibilliance, so I put a low pass filter but I think I brought it all the way down to 7 k or so... probably a bit too much. I'm still new to using those, I use high pass filters all the time but never even thought about low pass. So... probably if I lessen up the compression ratio on her voice and raise the lowpass filter on her voice to something like 9 or maybe even higher... that might help the vocals?

Snare... hmmm.... I am hessitant to bring it up in the chorus just because I don't want to kill a good thing, but I'll see what I can do.

Honestly that message is really encouraging, and hopefully it will encourage her too because she doesn't think her music has any potential! She thinks she just needs to go and get a normal job and stop wasting time with music... :-\ the reactions I've seen from people I have showed this to have been very encouraging though.

Also, I did sharpen up the kick... I added a lot of 2-5k to it to bring out the punch, it had a lot of "boom" before but not the "click"

-James'
 
Hey guys, wondering if anyone has any specifc tips for mastering this... I am not the best at it, but a radio station is interested in playing this if I give them a "radio-friendly" master copy.

This might mean I need to change a few things in the mix... comparing it to some stuff of the same genre I guess it's still a little mono-ish... I just have a hard time with panning. But any specific ideas on what to do to the master EQ to make it work for radio?

Also, any general thoughts on the mix are still appreciated.

-James'
 
Well....here's what I know about 'radio friendly'....from a guy in the biz. It sounds scary, but essentially means that the tune is on a CD, in CDWAV format, 44.1/16, and conforms roughly to the overall frequency contours of professional recordings......with a straight-line roll off ,starting zeroed at 500Hz...reaching -3 to -6db @20k....along which the average amplitude of the levels should be.

The bass end usually is along a track that continues that line, above 0db, going leftward from 500Hz....at the PEAK AMPLITUDE. [it's hard to 'average' or take snapshots of averages down there...so use peak amplitude along that line to judge]

And the master shouldn't be uber-compressed or levelled up....nor does it have to be: radio stations have devices that mash everything to their particular broadcast spec anyway. It can be a dynamic, sweet-sounding thing. If it's a quality broadcast FM station, it'll sound real nice.

Just make a nice sounding master.

It's a good idea to run several recordings on your platform...known, well produced pop tunes like this one....and LOOK at the overall frequency graph as they play. Take some snapshots....look at the averages above, and the peaks below 500. That'll give your ears a checking reference...if the average contour across the frequency band in the paragraphic for your master LOOKS off the farm....you get a heads-up that, maybe, you should break and re-assess. Use the LOOK and the SOUND together to get you in that radio-friendly zone.

I do this on every master. I have to...my hearing is whack. But it's a good habit, anyway.

That's what I know!

ps...I would be really hesitant to change levels and pans ...ANYTHING...in the mix. That is a sa-weeet blend you stumbled onto. IMHO. Please don't try to improve it...without saving all the original mix parameters.

pps..the info source is a guy with 15 years of having his stuff broadcast on TV and radio. I asked him the same question a couple years ago...all anxious n' all. He just kinda laughed. It's scary when y' don't know what that is. And it applies for any broadcast medium...including these mp3 masters on this forum.

ppps The station will let you know when the tune airs....hook up a reciever to your gear, record the signal, if you have the opportunity. Throw it on your platform, and look and listen to what they did to it. Instructive.

PPPPS: If the station is out of your range, maybe one of the guys here can record it for you...along with the DJ's intro...and you can post it in it's entirety here...a little memorial to one of the early successes of one of our own! Scary, huh? How's it feel to have an "OH SHIT!" moment? :^)
 
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Wow! This really sounds professional. I like the sound of the song and arrangement. The singer has a great voice, sounds natural, but I think that there shuold be more sparkle and brightness in the voice, probably a compressor issue. Other than that, GREAT!
 
Wow! This really sounds professional. I like the sound of the song and arrangement. The singer has a great voice, sounds natural, but I think that there shuold be more sparkle and brightness in the voice, probably a compressor issue. Other than that, GREAT!

i completely agree!
 
Yow.
Remind me to bug jeffmaher for advice. The man is a plethora of helpful information.

By the way, jeffmaher is dead on about this song. I played it four or five times when I first heard it. You did a great job playing music for this song -AND- mixing this song. I hope I can get to a point somewhere near that down the road.
 
ha ha.... when I first read that I thought you said "By the way, JeffMaher is dead..."

I was like... "dude... that sucks"

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm working specifically on the voice right now, I'll repost it soon in hopefully the final version.
 
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