Tell Me What You Wanna Do

dachay2tnr

dachay2tnr

One Hit Wonder
Some fresh meat, boys.

The last one I posted was about the death of a relationship. This one is more about the birth of one. A bit more upbeat, and almost reached 3 minutes (almost :) ).

Thanks for listening.
 

Attachments

  • Tell Me What You Wanna Do 11-26 (2).mp3
    5.3 MB
Last edited:
The clean guitars sound great. I like the bass too.

The vocals sound a bit dryer than the rest of the tracks. But the vocals were nice and clean.

The drum sounds were almost a bit techno. They didn't seem to fit. The snare was very crispy. The tambourine was a bit overused. The drum programming could be better humanized in spots.
 
Really good song dachay2tnr. Catchy melodies, good chord structure, the whole 9 yards. I agree with TripleM about the drums. The kick is kinda hit and miss, sometimes it's quite loud, and then it just vanishes.
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Much appreciated. FWIW the drums are a real drummer. Not sure why, but I seem to get comments on them being programmed on quite a few of my posts, and I’m still not sure what the issue is. 🤷🏻‍♂️

They’re played live and captured via MIDI. I can understand comments about “sounds,” as I use the recorded MIDI to trigger software sounds. So that’s a choice on my part. I do that to give me more mixing flexibility. Otherwise I‘d have to record the drums as a 2-track stereo track directly from the Roland V kit. That wouldn’t give me any ability to deal with each drum individually.

Eric, the MIDI recording also captures velocity, so any unevenness in the kick is how it was played. I can edit that though, so I’ll take a look see.
 
I really like everything. Sounds great, but it seems something is missing or needs something. Do you think push compression would push it forward a bit more? Just spitballing as it is a very good mix, just thinking ... :unsure:

Good stuff.
 
Generally real good. The mix is reasonably balanced and there's nothing about the tones that puts me off. I agree that there's something missing and that compression might help. I also think there's room to push the low end, but don't overdo it. The kick is probably what I'm thinking. I assume the drums are constructed from loops. I get that it's how things have to be done in a lot of home studios, but it's the hardest thing for me to like about the recording (though they actually sound decent and work okay for the song).
 
dachay2tnr said:
Eric, the MIDI recording also captures velocity, so any unevenness in the kick is how it was played. I can edit that though, so I’ll take a look see.
Click to expand...
Totally. I battle this myself, as I also record MIDI via an e-kit into a DAW. You should have some way to adjust the velocity either at the drum module itself, or after, inside your DAW, or a bit of both. In Superior Drummer, I can adjust things much like this video, with a 'curve':

www.youtube.com/watch?v=csEK4DlEd2s

I also adjusted the velocity on the module itself, and that helped the drummer tremendously. I was getting unevenness as well, and it was no fault of the drummer. E-drums can take a lot of tweaking and they don't translate like the real thing. Pretty close, when dialed in though.
 
Thanks again for the input.

BT - I don't get Beatles... but I'll certainly take it. :)

DM60 - Sorry, don't know what push compression is. I know what a compressor is. And I use multiband compression in mastering. Help me learn.

BSG - Do you mean just bringing up the volume on the kick?
 
@dachay2tnr just make the master compressor hit sooner or use a higher ratio bringing up the lower and pushing down the top. Give a bit more "in your face" feel.

If it doesn't sound good to you, then keep it the way it is, but it would give it a more updated sound. I think it would help in the overall mix. Just an opinion. I have a personal like of things pushed forward. But not too much, then it gets crushed.

Just use a limiter at the final stage and you will see it hit the compression, increase gain to make it either hit more or less. I think a little more will IMO, help the mix.

Hopefully that helps.
 
dachay2tnr said:
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Much appreciated. FWIW the drums are a real drummer. Not sure why, but I seem to get comments on them being programmed on quite a few of my posts, and I’m still not sure what the issue is. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Click to expand...
i almost fell into that trap. I guess the drumkit sounds a bit artificial, that gives it that robotic feel. Plus there is not much dynamics in the drums.
Nice track apart from that.
 
Thanks again everyone. Seems like the drums are the primary issue here. I’ll take a harder look at them. Changing to a different sound kit is relatively easy. Getting more dynamics is a bit harder. I mean I can edit the velocity on each hit, but I worry about making it sound more artificial than less. However, let me see what I can do.
 
Eric Malone said:
Totally. I battle this myself, as I also record MIDI via an e-kit into a DAW. You should have some way to adjust the velocity either at the drum module itself, or after, inside your DAW, or a bit of both. In Superior Drummer, I can adjust things much like this video, with a 'curve':

www.youtube.com/watch?v=csEK4DlEd2s

I also adjusted the velocity on the module itself, and that helped the drummer tremendously. I was getting unevenness as well, and it was no fault of the drummer. E-drums can take a lot of tweaking and they don't translate like the real thing. Pretty close, when dialed in though.
Click to expand...
I’ll take a look at his module. It’s on the low end of Roland’s offerings. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. The drummer is clueless regarding MIDI. He has the kit tweaked the way he wants for audio, and that’s really all he cares about. My problem is the only way to record his audio is as a stereo track. That doesn’t give me enough latitude for mixing as you can’t access the individual pieces in the kit.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Ah, it's an e-kit. At least you got the MIDI so you're not locked in to the balance or sound of the kit.
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Yeah, the MIDI gives me a lot of flexibility after the fact. I can rebalance the entire kit if need be. Add reverb where needed. Etc. Etc. And even fix minor timing issues - which I usually try not to, unless very egregious.
 
OK men. I tried to incorporate your feedback into a remix. The biggest takeaway for me, was the unevenness in the kick drum. You guys nailed that. While the velocity on the hits were mostly in the 70s and 80s, there were some over 100 and others under 65. I tried to tame the outliers to make the track more even. Then I also raised the kick in the mix.

I used the same kit - although some of you didn't like it. I tried some others, but this to me fit the song the best.

I put a little compression on the entire drum kit as well. Added just a tad more reverb to the vocals. And eq'd the bass to fit with the other changes.

I think it's better, but interested in what you all think. TIA.
 

Attachments

  • Tell Me What You Wanna Do 12-12.mp3
    5.3 MB
mark skinner said:
This mix sounds much tighter and smoother. The guitars seem to be glued together better in this version as well. Well Done..
mark
Click to expand...
Thanks. Didn’t touch the guitars, but as Newton said, each action has an opposite and equal reaction. IOW, every time I move one knob some other shit changes. 😁
 
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