The Appian Way

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Welcome home! I like the song. Great singing.

A couple of things stand out. That drum pattern never varies. You've got all these cool changes, but the drum isn't changing along with them. Second, I can't hear the vocal well enough. No clue what you are saying. The mix is too dense with stuff competing with your vocal--guitars, keyboards all seem to be playing in the same register and as loud or louder. You need to create a space for the voice. I'd start by turning the guitars and keyboard down, and panning them wider. That doubled guitar part is too dominant and parks right under the vocal. It should come down.

Composition-wise, the intro was too long for me. There were a lot of parts and changes. It was hard to follow the thread. I need to listen to it a few more times.

Hope you're back to stay. We need you around here.
 
Thanks Ray! Can you hear the vocal well enough in the chorus? So I have a level to aim for.

I kind of completely forgot to throw in some fills so I'll do that, good thing you pointed it out.

I think I know a few parts I can cut to bring down the length, I had no idea how long it was till I bounced it. Thanks for hanging in there haha
 
I thought the way-overdriven guitars sounded pretty cool. But I thought that doubling them was a bit too much fuzz. If you had one of those tracks on one side, and a more defined crunch sound on the other, it might be cooler.

The guitars and synths are crowding out the vocal for most of the song. Your singing voice sounds pretty good. I think I'd make the vocal the star of the mix and not the instruments.

There is kind of a buildup of energy in the 300hz-600hz octave. Maybe even a bit wider. If you take my suggestion of a more defined guitar on one side, and then make a slight cut to the fuzz guitar on the other, I'd bet that problem would go away.

Anyway, make the vocal shine. All you probably need to do is lower the guitars and synth.
 
Thanks triplem, I'll cut one of the guitars and see about that frequency range. I think I know what you mean, there are a few spots that seem congested but I couldn't figure out what to do about them.
 
Is the chorus that part that starts around 2:35? It's the clearest part of the vocal, but I'm not making out all the lyrics. I'd bring that up too, or take the guitars and keyboards down.
 
Are my ears going buggy. I hear distortion on the hats...??? Intentional? That first cymbal at :08 really gets your attention. All the crashes are a bit too loud. But the combination of the over distorted guitars and the distorted hats and the extreme sibilants gives the impression that you're running too much saturation on the main bus. Quite a lot of fizz.

Lot of reverb in the middle section. I assume the off vocal part is supposed to be saying something, but it just isn't catching my ear what that is. Actually I can understand very little of the lyrics.

It's probably just me, but I think with the bass/guitar/drum groove you've got, this would be great with pipes and brogue. :)
 
lol Ken I was seriously gonna make this a St Paddy's day song but I didn't think I could finish it in time.
 
I got a second mix done, guitars panned wider, one of them scrapped, and I did some eq to carve out some space for the vocal. I think it's better, maybe not a silver bullet but improved.

Other random stuff like making the ancestor voices clearer. I couldn't hear the hi hat distortion but I did some eq on drums, hopefully it sounds better. Also cut out a couple minutes of cruft. ;)

I gotta add some variety to the drum patterns yet.

Mix 2: View attachment theAppianWay2.mp3
 
Somewhat clearer vocals, could go further in that direction. Apart from the levels of things, there's quite a lot of ambiance on the lead vocal that makes it recede in your mix. Now that I'm hearing the bass a bit better, it could be doing something more exciting. To me, the number one issue is the lack of variation in the drums. It's not just the absence of fills, but the lack of changes. Since the other instruments are playing along to the same drum pattern throughout the song, the changes in your sections don't feel like changes. There isn't really a break in the energy level or groove. I hear a different chord progression and melody in the chorus, but nothing else jumps out and says "I'm a chorus!" Given that it is a long song--7.5 minutes--the lack of variation becomes monotonous.

If it were mine, here's what I would do. First, shorten it. Maybe abbreviate the second verse, shorten that interlude part where the spears are banging against the shields, shorten the intro. Second, I would find a new drum pattern for the chorus and maybe a variation for the second verse, something different enough to mark a break in the song. Third, I would think about changing some of the instrumentation during the chorus. Finally, I'd spice up the bass a little bit, let it drive the song more, and give it room in the mix to be heard well.

I'm not crazy about the voices in the beginning and the sound effects in the middle, but especially they are too loud for me. The critical question for me is: If I listen loud, what makes me want to reach for the volume knob to turn it down? Those voices do that for me.
 
Listening to the second mix. There's a lot of sibilants on the vocals. There's also something weird about the tone; it really sticks out in the breakdown. Like you cut out all the low end or put on some weird 'verb or something?

+1 on adding variety to the drums. It's a pretty tedious for 5 minutes straight. (minus the breakdown)

I'm ok with the long intro, actually; that's pretty prog.
 
Yeah trying to make the vocals clearer, I cut some lows and boosted around 5k. Sounds like I did too much. . .
 
I think mix #2 is an improvement. The vocal level is louder than before - or everything else is lower.

I still think that when the synth comes in at about 1:47, it's distracting from the vocal. Maybe pan it a bit (more).

There are some pretty strong delay/reverb effects on the vocal. I'd back off those. And yeah some syllables in the vocal get a little scratchy. I might back off that 5K boost a bit.
 
overall is a really cool song, just my 2 cents but the right guitar seems a bit too loud , vocals before the 2.40 mark could easily get 1 or 2 DB, after the 2.40 the closer vocals are spot on balance wise.(EQ wise I'm no expert to give any guidance though :)

I like the reverbs effect on the vocal but then some syllables seems to fade away with it particularly at the of the sentences, some automation might be needed on those points . I like the song though :)
 
Did a third mix, I cut some low-end and messed with levels, bunch of other little things. Not figuring out the eq so I'm just ducking the guitar and synths under the vocal now. :) Warning: boring drums still, I haven't got to them yet.

View attachment theAppianWay3.mp3
 
Sibilants sound better. Vocal tone in general is better. Still maybe too much "sparkle" overall, but I could picture it being difficult to correct without getting too dark.
 
I think mix #3 isn't limited so hard. It de-fuzzes a lot of... pretty much everything. So for that reason alone, mix #3 is better. The transition at the beginning from the sound effects to the song itself is better because it's a bigger entrance. There is a bigger jump in volume at that point.

Vocal sounds better. It's easier to hear.

Big improvement between #1 and #3.
 
is it just me or does the hi-hat have a weird, snazzely (wtf did i just write) harsh sound? there's something in the 1.5-5khz area that's a little fatiguing. it might be across the entire mix, but def sits backs once the hi hat cuts out halfway through. that hat is "rough", i guess. a cleaner, more high pitched, yet quieter sound would help overall, imo. the cymbal has that same quality as the hat...do you have the same processing on the entire drum bus or oh's and hat? '

so, that was all about the cym/hats, everything else sounds really good to me. guitars sound great. vocals are good. and nice job mixing that audio into the mix. that's a cool idea.
 
Thanks for listening Taras!

Yeah I just put all the drum parts in one bus and do eq there. I'll cut a but around 1k and see if that helps. No boost there but I did lift 12k+ a bit, maybe that's what you're hearing Steve.

The drums sound really loud to me on my phone, I'm gonna see about that when I work on that track.
 
Really cool song but I would like the bass louder. Interesting and nice changes. Imaginative I would say.
 
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