Treehouse

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GuitarLegend

GuitarLegend

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This is a very humbling experience, posting your own work amongst talent so hot that you get suntanned from it. But I would like some opinions from expert ears on the level I have attained thus far.

This recording is an original by my 16yo student who sings and plays all the instruments in this recording. All I had to do was mix it. Your comments on how to improve it would be most welcome.
 
The vocals are way out of key a lot of the time, though I'm wondering if that isn't intentional or the way it is meant to be done, based on the overall style it wouldn't be surprising. Doesn't make me like it any less if it is intentional, though.

The acoustic guitar doesn't sound too bad though I usually prefer they have more body to them. There's like no kick drum in here at all, which I think would make the drums sound better as a whole if there was. The chimes/xylophone or whatever else there is in there all sound good and are well balanced. The bass guitar could use more depth (not more volume, just taking up a bit more of the low mid sonic space).
 
Thanks Trevor, I was never able to get her to sing in key but I did play with Antares Autotune and it cleaned it up a lot. However, she shot me in the head for that... hmmmm

Listening to the drum track, the kick drum is definitely there but a touch low. I didn't mic the drums fully which perhaps I should have. I had two mics, one over the left side, one over the right. A third on the floor might have done the trick but I thought the bass guitar would kind of fill in for it.

I appreciate your comments... can't do much about her singing but given that she did everything in this song, its a fair spread of talent. Just gotta pick something and do it well.

This next recording is a cover by the same student of a Tegan and Sara song, "Call It Off". I agonized over including the second vocal part that I think should not have gone into the original but since it was there, we tried to imitate it to the best of Filippa's ability. Thanks for listening
 
Hello: I like it ! Care to share what you did to the vocals? I like the way it seems to come from the back. At least on my system. The bird stuff could be lost. Pia is lost in the gtr.
 
The vocal sounds like it has a chorus/doubling effect with way to much detune in it. Try a straight doubler. The timing is off and most distracting. It sounds like the guitar wants to rush the tempo but the drums are lagging. The sounds/tones are actually pretty good. The singer may need some coaching but I like her voice. Nice song ideas.
 
Thanks for the comments and critique - its all good.

The vocals in Treehouse were not pitch corrected but some post-processing with chorus and level adjustments were done. I didn't apply much detune. I just wanted to soften her vocals. She could certainly use some coaching but she has such great range and seems to do a better job as a live performer than in recording.
 
The voice sounds too much like tin can to me. Don't care much for the bird whistles. Drums are too harmless, acoustics could have some more definition and brilliance to them. The song itself is a little boring, there's no change, same riff the whole way thru, but you're not responsible for that. Needs some tweaking IMHO.
 
To echo what has already been said. The vocals are the main issue here - unless you are going for a sound where the vocals sound heavily processed. Vocal doubling is always good, but something tells me she wouldn't be able to sing each line the exact same way she had sung it before.

Using chorus, etc. on the vocals is fine if you want to beef them up, but dial down the wet mix so it's barely noticeable. If you can easily hear it in the full mix, then it's too much.

I think for the tone of this song close intimate vocals would sound really good.
 
Call me a traditionalist, but I found the doubled vocal to be very distracting. I want the vocal to be hitting me in the forehead for the majority of a song, and if you want to double it for effect here and there, thats fine. I would much prefer to hear the instrumentation spread out through the stereo spectrum. Try doubling the guitar instead of the vocals. Then add a 10 ms delay to one side to get a psuedo stereo effect, or just double track them. Also try panning some of the secondary instruments (xylophone or piano) slightly off center left or right. Bass, snare, and kick (more volume) need to stay dead center though. I could get a much better sense of the instrumental mix if it was spread out a little. I think there are some good sounds here, but its just hard to separate them with the panning that way.

Obviously the vocal isn't perfect, but I think the doubling magnified the problems. If you just used a single track dead center, then you could use autotune to nudge the melody in the right direction. If you really want to double the vocal, I wouldn't hard pan them.... as I said, lead vocals anything but dead center drives me nuts. That doesn't mean that a harmony part can't be panned though.

I think there is some potential here, and I would love to hear an updated version.
 
Thank you for the comments, I really appreciate your point of view. I am new at the mixing business and like to know if I am going in the right direction or need to tear it down and start again.

This is the recording with the original unprocessed vocals. You might see why I thought some processing was required.

...and I killed the bird...

Did anyone check out Call It Off in a previous post in this thread?
 
On Treehouse - I liked the vocals on the original better than with all the effects. guitar was OK, but lacked a little detail. I lied the bass on the original better.

On Call it Off - The vocals were recorded too hot I think. They're distorting on the louder notes. I noticed the same thing on the original of Treehouse, although to a lesser extend.

The singer needs to work on pitch on some of the higher notes. She hits most of them flat.

edit - I like some of the instrumentation - bells, strings etc.
 
I found this girl's vocals difficult to get a good balance - she drops off volume on the lower notes and then hell breaks loose on the higher ones. I am not sure what to do with this one but I dont want to quit. I just want to know what to do with it. I am a computer programmer by trade, a guitar teacher part time, guitar player most of the time. Recording is something I enjoy but dont know a whole lot about. Willing to learn.
 
GuitarLegend said:
I found this girl's vocals difficult to get a good balance - she drops off volume on the lower notes and then hell breaks loose on the higher ones. I am not sure what to do with this one but I dont want to quit.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you need to use a compressor (if you aren't already) to reduce the dynamic range of the vocal track to the point where it sits nicely in the mix. There should be a ton of info in the mixing forum on compressing a vocal track.
 
I tried using the compressor but no matter what I understand about the process of compressing a track, I dont seem to be able to get any results from it. I know what it is supposed to do, its just not doing it.

I went through the song previously and took all the louder parts and reduced the gain on them. It brought the whole track into a reasonably constant level. Then I applied some chorus to soften it and you guys didnt like it. So I am still learning
 
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