Something Keeps Holding Me Rough Mix

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JacobShah

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Hello everyone, I've never posted anything in this category, so I figured now is as good a time as ever.
This song is called "Something Keeps Holding Me" The piano intro is actually "It Is Well".. Has a Christian/Inspirational style to it. This is still a rough mix, so i still have to track the harmony vocals and a few other things. And the lead vocal is a bit pitchy, I threw too much pitch correction on there I think. Please listen all the way through! the intro is actually around a minute so you can skip ahead a bit. Anyway I'll stop talking and let you hear it. Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm only a beginner and rely on all of your input tremendously. Thanks alot guys!

JacobShah - Something Keeps Holding Me on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
 
You said I could skip ahead, but It's actually my favorite part. Very melodic!

I've never mixed this style of music so I can't say much, but it sounds like you're in the ball park. Nice work =)
 
A couple of comments...

The piano is missing some low mids. A few notes pop out as pretty harsh.

The instruments have a fairly lush reverb, but the vocal is bone dry. It doesn't sound natural. You might want to compress harder or ride the vocal. Words here and there get lost. I'd also give them a slight boost during the chorus - it will give the mix a bigger feel through there. The acapella spot lasts too long for me. I'd want the instruments to kick in sooner.

Seems like the band gets a bit off tempo around 3:57.

Intro was pretty long.
 
Thanks for the complement, Cashmere! I know the intro is long, but without the song would probably be under 3 minutes. Which is not a bad thing, but this is how we played it live. I agree about the low-mids, where should I boost it around? I'm going to try working on the vocals today, and as far as the acapella spot goes it will sound much different once the harmony is thrown in there. This song has some really tight harmony. Please keep the feedback coming!
 
Yeah, the vocals being bone dry is kind of ruining the sense of sonic space. Other than that it's a great mix.

My only other problem is that you didn't really do a good job using autotune. I can hear it when it's clamping down on your vibrato and artificially changing your pitch. Either turn down the auto-tune settings, or just try to sing it better.

That or invest in a copy of melodyne if you really wanna tune your vocals.
 
JacobShah said:
I agree about the low-mids, where should I boost it around?
Click to expand...

That's pretty tough to say without having access to the multi-track and an EQ. I would suggest starting with a narrow but extremely high boost at about 160hz. Like a Q of 30 and a boost of 18db. Start moving that boost up gradually from 160 up through maybe 700hz. It will be a weird sound, but somewhere in there it will sound "best" to your ear. Leave your boost at that spot. Then take it down to maybe 4-5 dbs and a fairly wide Q - maybe 3-4. See if that helps. Pay particular attention to those harsh notes that pop out.

Those numbers I through out were just guidelines - don't treat them like a user manual or anything.
 
So to fix the bone dry vocal problem, should I throw some reverb on it? As far as the auto-tune setting goes, well it needs quite a bit of work. The retune speed is at about 35. I always use automatic, because manual has always been hard for me to figure out. Any suggestions? How about the drums? Much work needed on them?
 
You might want to go lighter on the vibrato in future recordings, it gets a bit distracting. The drums work for the song. the toms could use alittle work though. In southern gospel you usually hear the over produced over compressed BIG close miced drum sound so you may want to shoot for that.
 
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