Take a listen to our song "Leave", mixing advice?

[GhostOfMe]

Hey everyone,

Let me know what you think, be as harsh as ya want (or let us know what is good about it). I'm hoping this post will be a huge learning experience. The only side note I can offer is that we plan on updating microphones in the summer. Thanks for any and all advice/opinions you can offer...

Here's the link for "Leave":

If that's slow or doesn't work, try here:

http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/3084/3084218.html

 

[erichenryus]

man, this totally sucks. you should quit right now!!!



just kidding. welcome to the board. vocal could come up a little bit. singing is nice. i think you might do something more harmonic with the second voice. try a third or a fifth or something like that. it sounds a little one dimensional singing the same melody twice.

if you have multitracking ability, try doing the backups twice panned left and right.

the whole mix sounds a little mono to me. could use a little spreading.

thanks for posting.

 

[GhostOfMe]

Yea, we record through CEP2, so I can work on expanding the sound. Should the two tracks of back up vocals be panned 100% left and right?

I believe the lead vocals are to the right (15) and then the back up vocals are to the left (20), and the lead to the left (15)

The guitars are both dead center, if I recorded it today, I would have spread them out left and right. I'm just not incredibly knowledged on good panning technique's yet.

As for the chorus, I know what you're saying with thirds and fifths, but I don't know exactly how to correct that...my knowledge of music theory ends after understanding basic ideas and theory. But we could work on different harmony through trial and error.

 

[matty_boy]

Ghost:
This is a good song. I believe what enrichus was talking about is trying to sing the second verse a third or fifth interval away from the pitch of the first verse (correct me if I'm wrong) The first verse is sung in A#, so that would mean to sing the next in D (a third above) or F (a fifth above).
The guitars could be panned differently and it would open the mix up a lot.
As a rule Lead vocal is right in the middle unless you are trying for a different kind of sound that one normally hears. As for how wide to pan harmonies, my only advice is to try a few different things and see what sounds good.
I gotta say, the lead guitar part at the very beginning sounds really good.
Keep it up, work with it and repost. I really like this song.

 

[erichenryus]

yeah, just try singing something that's different than the lead vocal and see what happens. here's some panning tricks to try.

send the lead vocal right up the middle like a fullback, then take the backups and record them twice singing the same thing and pan the separate tracks hard left and right.

for the guitars, either record with two mics or try recording the same thing twice and hard panning the tracks.

those are pretty standard stereo tricks around these parts.

repost after trying some things and we'll all tell you someting different the next time

 

[A1A2]

hey, this is a pretty clean track. about the background vox, try this and see if you like it.


double/triple track the bgVox, hard pan them, and cut out some (quite alot) dbs from low to mid, then boost a little around 2-3khz, then add some "chorus" and reverb/delay.

Sit the lead vocal dead center, and this should give you a nice Eagle's sound

panning wise, I would try lead vocal center, bgVox hard left/right, guitars 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock.


AL

 

[GhostOfMe]

I'm going to assume hard pan means send them to each side to the fullest possible. right?

Also, as for two guitars in a song, is it better to set them off at equal distances left and right, or is one usually closer to the middle? Or is the tendency something else?

In the last post it's recommended to try:

"guitars 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock"

was that personal preference, or an somewhat of industry standard

 

[A1A2]

i would say personal perference. There is no set rule, so, just try them out and see which one you dig. Hard panning is full left/right.


AL

 

[GhostOfMe]

Thanks al for confirming the not-so-amazing knowledge I have for the term "hard panning"

Matty Boy, how do you figure out what key the vocals are in in the chorus? Is it similar to guitar, where you can take a look at the first note sung and that's usually the key? (sorry if that was completely off), so that if I wanted to sing it in D, I would play that D note to get it in my head, and start singing on that note?

Thanks for the help

 

[TripleM]

I'd say listen to erichenryus ('cause he's been listening to me ). No he probably hasn't. But I think it's good advice. If you're having trouble picking out a harmony part, use a guitar as a guide. If you're singing over an A chord in the melody, find other "non-A" notes in the A chord and sing them as harmonies. Just hold those notes as a starting point. Change the harmonies when the chord changes (and pick those out on a guitar too).

I like a lot of this recording. The doubled melody lines with different voices doesn't work all that well though. Follow some of eric's advice and the song will come to life. You have a nice voice BTW. Good guitar sounds too.

Send the lead vox down the middle, pan the low harmony to one side, the high harmony to the other. Double track everything. Maybe triple up the lead.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Good job.

 

[GhostOfMe]

just so the credit is directed to the right person, my friend (John) is the lead singer, I'm back ups and lead guitar. Then my girfriend also sang a bit on the chorus and such.

We're only developing our "sound" and I think harmonies are gonna be one of our big challenges. Could someone point out some good examples, or maybe post some of your songs with a back up voice singing a harmony based on 3rds or 5ths.

It may be easier for us to here an example. The song is played with a capo on the 3rd fret. What I was trying to ask earlier is, if I find the note that the lead singer starts with in the chorus (A#), does finding a beginning harmony start with playing the relative third note (D) and singing the chorus starting on that note? Or am I completely off.