Spider-Man

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TripleM

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Please let me know what you think about this mix and song. Greg was generous enough to do drums on this.
 

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Holy crap. I was just looking down in the bottom corner of WMP and I finally understood your username. Sweet!

This is great Jan, uh I mean Trip...

No really, this is the best track I've heard from you. Great energy and a lot of fun. How exactly did you arrive at that fuzz guitar sound? I've tried to get that before with not so much luck. Greg's drumming is really great on this. Vocals are awesome. I like how your voice breaks up here and there...that adds a lot.

Song is great. Performances are great. The mix is good, but for me, it just sounds oddly tame given the energy of the performances. Nothing really pops, you know? It may just be me, and hopefully others with a better musical vocabulary will chime in and either elaborate or disagree, but it just felt like it should sound bigger. Maybe I just need to crank it? Can't now with others sleeping, but I hopefully will tomorrow.

P.S. - I think the vocals should come up...they get buried at times and they're good - I wanna hear 'em!
 
Drums are too loud. I used to do that too. Mix the collaborator's part too loud out of gratitude. It does you credit, but turn them down.

Great tune. Catchy, buzzy guitar, and everything's better for having real drums. I'd like to hear the lyrics better though, and the reason I can't is... right! Turn down that drummer.
 
heat - hey thanks for the thoughts. I'll turn the vocals up a bit. Or turn some other stuff down. The fuzzy guitar is a Fender strat. They're good at that kind of sound. I wanted something that sounded like the guitar on the James Bond theme, but just a little more distortion. Didn't take long to get with a Strat. I hear you on the "needs to sound bigger" thing. Especially when the guitars and bass kick in at the beginning. I want a big entrance, but they just kind of "merge in." But I seem to be stuck. This was the biggest I could get. Maybe someone will chime in with some ideas on how to get that.

dobro - I'll take a listen on the drums. You might be right. If someone does you a favor, you don't want to bury their part. Two votes for more vox. I can probably get that by turning down the OH's. Thanks for the help.
 
Yup, bring down the overheads and tom tracks. Leave the kick and snare alone. Also try flipping the phase on the snare and kick tracks if you haven't already. Sometimes with my tracks that works well to tighten and fatten the sound. I'd also suggest EQ'ing the toms. Scoop some mids out of them. They sound a little boxy.
 
TripleM said:
heat - hey thanks for the thoughts. I'll turn the vocals up a bit. Or turn some other stuff down. The fuzzy guitar is a Fender strat. They're good at that kind of sound. I wanted something that sounded like the guitar on the James Bond theme, but just a little more distortion. Didn't take long to get with a Strat.
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Thanks. Can you tell me more specifically what you did to get that particular distortion though? OD, Fuzz or other pedal, or just the gain from an amp? I get a little of the James Bond thing from it, but this is less twangy and more crunchy...almost like Day Tripper, but more mid-rangey than that. It reminded me of like the Zombies or the Turtles or something from that era. I've had a couple of strats in my day, but never got them to sound like that...thanks.
 
Greg - I'll bring down the OH's. Tom's too? I was really liking them loud. They sounded really cool that way to me. I scooped the mids out of the big tom, but not the other two. I'll scoop them all. I'll flip the phase on the snare and see what it sound like. Thanks.

Heat - going from memory... It's a Strat going directly into a Mesa Boogie Mark V. No pedals. It was on either the Mark II or Mark IV setting. I used the bridge pickup on the guitar. I turned the treble up high on the guitar (maybe at 7 or so) and turned the treble down on the amp (maybe at 4 or so). That way I got most of the high end from the guitar and not the amp. I had the volume on the guitar at about mid-way, then dialed in amp gain until I got the amount of distortion I wanted. Post recording, there is a little EQ boost probably around 800-1K - maybe 2-3 dbs. But I think the key to sound is to use the bridge pickup, and get most of your high end from the guitar (as opposed to the amp).
 
TripleM said:
Greg - I'll bring down the OH's. Tom's too? I was really liking them loud. They sounded really cool that way to me. I scooped the mids out of the big tom, but not the other two. I'll scoop them all. I'll flip the phase on the snare and see what it sound like. Thanks.

Heat - going from memory... It's a Strat going directly into a Mesa Boogie Mark V. No pedals. It was on either the Mark II or Mark IV setting. I used the bridge pickup on the guitar. I turned the treble up high on the guitar (maybe at 7 or so) and turned the treble down on the amp (maybe at 4 or so). That way I got most of the high end from the guitar and not the amp. I had the volume on the guitar at about mid-way, then dialed in amp gain until I got the amount of distortion I wanted. Post recording, there is a little EQ boost probably around 800-1K - maybe 2-3 dbs. But I think the key to sound is to use the bridge pickup, and get most of your high end from the guitar (as opposed to the amp).
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Cool - thanks! I'll be going to plan B then...no such amp around here! Interesting about the tone settings though...I guess I was hoping you'd say, "I just plugged my guitar into an Ultra Cheap Magic Retro Fuzz Pedal, and it came out like this". That way I could go buy one. Nothing's ever that easy...:)
 
TripleM said:
Greg - I'll bring down the OH's. Tom's too? I was really liking them loud. They sounded really cool that way to me. I scooped the mids out of the big tom, but not the other two. I'll scoop them all. I'll flip the phase on the snare and see what it sound like. Thanks.
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Sure thing. Toms loud is good too! Yeah I'd say keep EQ'ing to clean em up a little. I admit I need new heads. I've been milking these tom heads for way too long.
 
As mentioned, the drum are too loud and even though they sound amazing, I’d turn them down to be more a part of the rhythm section rather than the lead front line. They also sound raw in an unprocessed way. I think you like this from hearing your other works. Personally I like a more polished, studio sound but its personal you know.
I hear strained vox again. The main guitar phrase reminded me of Day Tripper every time it came around and the chorus reminded me of Crazy Train, actually that is a pretty cool mash up.
I listened on a lap top and the sound was really nice in an AM radio kind of way. I could not hear any bass (duh). I imagine you will post updates and I look forward to them.
 
+1 on turning down the OHs. Cymbals are easily the most prominent thing throughout the song. Taking them down a bit should do a lot to clean things up and bring the vox forward.

Cool song too.
 
I don't have much to add here apart from I agree with the others (drums) and I really enjoyed this.

No shortage of energy here! Thanks for sharing. :)
 
manslick, VHS and Steen...

Thanks to each of you. I did a bit of work on this last night. I turned down the OH's. I also backed off the compression on the bass. Heatmiser made a comment about something that had been bugging me too - the mix wasn't popping enough. I think backing off the compression helped a bit. i'm going to try the same thing on the vocals when I get a chance.

I'll get a new mix up over the weekend.
 
Fantastic guitar tone trip - it suits the strong riff perfectly. I don't have much to add that you're probably not addressing already in the updated mix - a little less in the drums and a little more in the vocals. They don't get lost so much, they would just benefit from being a little higher in the mix and with a touch more presence.

I'm sure you've got it all sorted and look forward to hearing the new mix. Nice work - sheesh, you don't log in for a few days and there's a ton of new, excellent quality stuff in here...
 
Very cool, very catchy. I agree with the others (drums), and I would suggest panning the fuzz guitar a little more to the right, or somehow finding some room for it with eq. The bass could be more distinct, maybe rolling off a bit of the low end would help? Very cool song, great vocals and always good to hear Greag on drums.
 
Robgreen and DavidK - thanks for listening and commenting.

THere is a new mix at the top. I took down the drums. Sorry Greg - I left the toms loud. :) I just think they sound cool when they're loud. I took some compression off the bass and lead vocal. I think it puts a little more life in the mix. I added a little chorus to the backing vocals to thicken them up a little bit.

Take another listen and let me know what you think.
 
Second mix is definitely clearer. The vocal harmonies sound really good.
 
Just caught mix2 - it's better.

At first I felt the drums to vocals ratio was still off, but later in the song, particularly when the BGVs came in, it sounded well balanced to me.
 
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