There's a difficult patient in the clinic - please help

  • Thread starter Thread starter Garry Sharp
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Garry Sharp

Garry Sharp

Lost Cause
If you can - I'd appreciate it.

This is definitely a "please help" rather than an "aren't I clever" post :)

Aside from the fact that this is not really very conventional I am clearly struggling with (before any other problems you tell me about):

- Some serious harshness in the female lead vox
- Bass presence. This song is written around a bass riff which unfortunately is played high up the neck and is straying into other instruments' EQ territory. Well, there aren't any other instruments apart from a bit of guitar, but it's in vocal territory as well. The bass part is important but I'm struggling to give it some prominence without masking everything else.

The music is a bit odd, by the way, this is not mainstream commercial oriented stuff, so if you hate it feel free to say that as well.

The song is called Marbles, MP3 is here: (it's the first on the list)

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=2045/singles
 
Wow, that's harsh ;)
Sounds like when I tried to sample a pen writing on paper, and cranked up my old behringer preamp too much - I got similar treble artifacts then. What pre-amp / mic did you use for vocals? The only remedy I can think of a the moment would be to smear it out with some reverb along with some lo-pass eq. But I don't really think it would save the track as such, unfortunatly. It sounds like a bad mp3! (no offence meant)
The bass sounded alright to me, though I see your point. Try to give it some more attack at around 1, 5 Khz or so.

Apart from all this: great song! I really enjoyed this. Finally something new..
 
Thanks for listening Ragata. She was through a Rode NTK and a Focusrite Trakmaster. Small room with soft furnishings and a quilt hung up behind her.

I dipped some EQ on her at around 3k, obviously didn't work. Shame, she has a lovely voice, I just haven't got the hang of recording it ......yet :)
 
could you repost this with...

no eq whatsoever...
no compression.
A good general balance of the instruments.
Bring the drums up, bass down and vox about the same.
thanx Garry.
 
xfinsterx said:
could you repost this with...

no eq whatsoever...
no compression.
A good general balance of the instruments.
Bring the drums up, bass down and vox about the same.
thanx Garry.
Click to expand...

Will do, tomorrow evening (UK time)

Thanks for your interest.
 
xfinsterx

I have a file ready as requested. Out of space on Nowhere so can I e-mail it to you?

Cheers

Garry
 
I've also posted a slightly amended version, same link as above - I think it's a bit less fierce now!

If anybody else is brave enough I would appreciate any other feedback.
 
I think it's a real cool tune man, strange yes, mainstream no, but still pretty cool. Yeah that's pretty strange how the vocal sounds, can't say as I can help you with that as I have similar troubles with getting vocals right (as you say yet). The bass line is great and I guess maybe it's my deadphones, or the whole streaming thing but I think maybe just some panning of each instrument could provide some seperation, and bring out the bassline a bit, and maybe even some reverb, though that may take away from the sound you're looking for. Anyways, good stuff.

laj

And hey if you get a second I just posted a new track in the clinic (Jars, Bells, and you), not to mention some new ones and any thoughts/ideas would be great.
 
Thanks laj. Guitar and BV is panned quite wide already, but I'm nowhere near getting this right.

Gonna listen to yours now.

Garry
 
Ok. I just joined in listening to your newer version I guess. How were you drums cut??? Seems the proximity of your overheads to the sanre is TOOO distant. Almost sounds like you have 3 mikes. 1 for Kick and 2 somewhere in the room.

Yes Vox is tooooo birght and overly edgy. That is that Rode sound I despise so much. LOL

Vocal lacks definition. Might wanna be real conservative when using your vocalmaster.
 
Bryan - drums are samples, Drumkit From Hell. When you render using that programme you get seperate audio tracks for each drum mic, plus overheads and a stereo room (ambience) mic, which you then mix to taste. I had the direct snare mics mixed down and the OH's up, which you spotted. Hmmm...if I ever get past the vocal problem I'll rethink that one.

Interesting about the Rode sound. The singer loves it - but it sounds much gentler when I played her the track on our domestic hi-fi.

Thanks for listening and posting.
 
Hey Garry.

I think that this is a new version, right ?

The vocals sound much better in this one. I thought I listened before and the vocals sounded a little boxy to me.

I like the bass line. Keep in mind that I'm listening on headphones right now, so when I get home I will try to give you better feedback on the mix.

I like the tune, but the only thing I can critique right now (damn headphones) is there seems to be a bit of timing issues with the guitar and the bass. Are the drum tracks loops or single hits ?

I'll give her a listen when I get home tonight and try to listen to the mix

Cheers !

Dave
 
Dave - thanks. Drum tracks are single hits, played in from a keyboard, not quantised or anything. Was trying to keep the timing edgy, not to let it settle down. Just experimenting, I suppose.
 
this generally sounds alot better than the first version i heard/I love the song too.

Keep workin Garry, sounds good.
 
Thanks Mr Finster. Listening to it twice was beyond the call of duty!
 
Garry Sharp said:
Thanks Mr Finster. Listening to it twice was beyond the call of duty!
Click to expand...
meh..I like the song garry....

Thats plenty of good reason..
Ive heard it more than twice.
 
Hi Gary,
You have already re-mixed....a comment or two...from the pie guy on the mix man...
try a high cut on the fem vox and add a touch more room (verb) to her...bring up the harmony vox a little too man....
Very cool bass riffage dude...I hear screaming distorted guit on this....spotty...ya know?
There's a bad little fuzz buzz at 20 seconds in man...it's that change up on the bass riff...

I likes it man...

and I like pie too :eek: :D ;) :cool:
 
Hiya Joe - haven't heard from you in ages. I was wondering what to have for lunch and now you've decided me ;)

Glad you liked it - just because I've remixed once doesn't mean I can't do it again, when I get helpful comments like yours. Some songs just happen straightaway - like that cool Sundown one xfin posted - others need tweaking and tweaking, endless patience and perfectionism, and I think Marbles is in the latter category.

Also, I've had other comments that the drum timing is just too disconcerting, and that the feel of the bass / vox break in the middle is not right. So I'm gonna do it all over again. On the bass there is too much finger noise and no tenough depth to it, so I'm gonna rerecord with my fretless, which has flatwounds and a through neck, see if that's better (bit nervous about intonation though).

Great feedback man - award yourself a pie on me :)
 
I couldn't decide if I liked this song....I listened to it 4 times in a row trying to decide. I got no mix comments, because my computer speakers don't really help much with that. I did think the jangly guitar was a little out of place somehow, but I don't know if it was a tone or a timing thing or both or neither. Glad I could help.
 
Garry Sharp said:
Hiya Joe - haven't heard from you in ages. I was wondering what to have for lunch and now you've decided me ;)
Click to expand...

lol!
Go with the fretless man...and after 50 thousand takes...it'll be just fine :D

I've been around man....
just keeping my head down....ya know?

duck and cover.....duck and cover....lol! :D

Take good care and be well man...I will be watching for the re-track/re-mix Gary,
Joe
 
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