The Acrobat's Wife - opinions please

In my opinion bass is too loud. Snare sounds awful, also i can't hear kick. But toms are great.
You should make a bit of mastering because this tune is not as close to the listener as it could be.
But overall is really good, nice piece of music ;-)
 
Your songs are always interesting and I enjoy your singing. Honestly, I've heard better mixes from you in the past. This needs some work.

As already noted, there's no kick whatsoever and on a song like this, the bottom end should be the driving force. I don't think the bass is too loud, but I think it's very narrow in range so it seems boomy. It could stand to be opened up quite a bit.

One bit of advice I learned here at HR and always try to pass it on is to start with just the kick, Bass and lead vocal and get them balanced and sounding good together. Then bring in the snare and match levels, then everything else to support the kick, bass and vocals.

Is there feedback around 2:00?? Is that intentional?

Good song!!
 
Interesting piece....sounds like you like Lou Reed ;)
I think the thing that needs fixing is the drums and the voice could use some ambience to meld more with the rest, 'cos it sounds too much on top of everything else. Very good song.

Joey :)
 
Cheers

The bass actually distorts in parts, so I think I have EQed too much top off it and it isn't great sound and also surging in places despite tight compression - will possibly re-track it - as it was recorded 3 years ago on an older set up. Then I'll have more EQ choices to let it sit better with foot.

I think as I listen back I must have hit 'the foot' fader as it was at a better level I'm sure before I compressed.

Thanks Chilli - yes I remember reading that as an approach and is well worth giving it a go. I mix using multi-bus compression for colouration and some control - so I have tended to work snare & foot into the drum bus - then add kit with bass into a rhythm section bus. The methods are not mutually exclusive with a bit of mute buttoning could easily be worked.

Snare awful? Sound, level or both?

Agree with ambiance level - both lead and slide have a lot of spring 'verb which is what I want and think I lost my way with the whole reverb aspect of the mix. The long verb I choose had to much colour and muddied the mix - so will either choose new Hall or EQ muck out of verb bus.

Thank you all for your comments and positives about the song itself.
 
The guitar is haunting, I like it. Vocals are pretty good too.

The ride cymbal is horrible.. truncating badly.. I'd find a better sample and add some reverb. Really sticks out to me. The snare is too harsh, not sure if this sample could be rescued with some EQ and warmth..

A real drummer using brushes would be perfect for this song...!
 
Nice haunting song. For me, it sounds very much like Starsailor - Vocals, piano, the whole arrangement. That's a good thing.

Reverb is good for haunting sounds, but I think you have too much. You get used to it as you listen to the song but it sure sounds a bit daft when the song starts. I really would take it all off and start again. And too much reverb changes the sound of everything, so you have to wind back all your EQ settings as well.

Would like to hear it again when you have sorted that out.
 
It reminds me a midi snare. Maybe add a bit reverb to make it sounds more natural. Yeah, that might be good!
But still like this tune, really, really nice!
 
+1 on the snare comments.

The vocals sound a little strange. Like the high end has been cut off or something.

Nice song overall though. I enjoyed it.
 
wow - like this song a lot. Must have taken a bit to record all the parts. The writing is strong and the arrangement is great. The mix is pretty close, maybe lower the vocals a tad but generally it's good. Probably my favorite of the songs I've heard today...
 
Love the title. Very interesting. Song is interesting too.

I agree that the bass is too loud. I agree with the comments about the snare.

Vocals are pitchy in quite a few places. Both lead and harmony vox. Vocal recording has a low mid buildup. Hurts the clarity a bit.
 
Thank you

For comments - think I will go for re-record on bass and ac g - as these were done on old system and there is some distortion/peaking on both tracks which I tried t EQ out.

Vocals also probably need a retouch. I think in my fervour to clean out frequency I brought the top down too much

Thank you for positives on the song itself, one of those ones that very much wrote itself.

I wanted the sound to be something between Ode to Billy Joe and Wicked Game, so think I need to do a lot more critical listening. The original had strings instead of piano and slide - perhaps revisit that idea as well.

Will have a goo this weekend and post soon.

Cheers

Burt
 
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