Two New Songs: "Down" and "Take Me Away"

[jguitar_tm]

My buddy and I started a little project. We're done with two songs, "Take Me Away" and "Down". I previously posted an unfinished version of "Take Me Away" in another thread "How Does This Sound?" The final version has been mixed better, some parts retracked, and vocals have been completed.

Take Me Away by Joel and Sam Music on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

The second song, "Down", was tracked and mixed in about three and a half hours.

Down by Joel and Sam Music on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Tell me what you guys think! What can we improve on? We're not going for super professional quality, but would like to get the most out of what we are using (Logic Express 9 and an M-Audio Fast Track. With a condenser mic of course)

 

[markalexander]

Hi, took a listen....

Ok...'Take me away'. Main issue is the Drums....needs a bit of eq, some top end, and maybe some compression to bring the low end out a bit. The drums need to be a lot tighter with the bass. So needs some editing!
Maybe a bit more bottom end on Bass too.
The rest of the mix isnt too bad,,just needs some minor tweaking.
Liked the song tho, some really good ideas, and nice rocking guitars!

'Down'....sounds pretty spot on to me as is.....might bring the vox up a bit if was me, and maybe a hint of compression on bass just to tighten things up, but down to preference really.

 

[jguitar_tm]

Hi, took a listen....

Ok...'Take me away'. Main issue is the Drums....needs a bit of eq, some top end, and maybe some compression to bring the low end out a bit. The drums need to be a lot tighter with the bass. So needs some editing!
Maybe a bit more bottom end on Bass too.
The rest of the mix isnt too bad,,just needs some minor tweaking.
Liked the song tho, some really good ideas, and nice rocking guitars!

'Down'....sounds pretty spot on to me as is.....might bring the vox up a bit if was me, and maybe a hint of compression on bass just to tighten things up, but down to preference really.

Thanks for the feedback man. Yeah, I'm far from a good drum mixer, but I'm learning more as I go! And I also made them manually with a keyboard so that explains the tightness issue. I'm glad you like "Down", I was really glad with how that one turned out.

 

[NL5]

I'll echo the same sentiments as the previous poster. Take me away has some pretty serious timing issues, and the drums sound very fake.

Down, on the other hand is a pretty groovin little song. I would work on the sound of the main acoustic track. Bring it more forward, and present - as well as getting it out of the middle. The overdubbed acoustic part that comes in sounds pretty great -- really digging it. You need the main acoustic part to sit like it does. The shaker sounds really muddy and distant. Put some more life into it as well. I think getting the main acoustic out of the middle will give the percussion some room to breathe as well.

Nice work.

 

[jguitar_tm]

I'll echo the same sentiments as the previous poster. Take me away has some pretty serious timing issues, and the drums sound very fake.

Down, on the other hand is a pretty groovin little song. I would work on the sound of the main acoustic track. Bring it more forward, and present - as well as getting it out of the middle. The overdubbed acoustic part that comes in sounds pretty great -- really digging it. You need the main acoustic part to sit like it does. The shaker sounds really muddy and distant. Put some more life into it as well. I think getting the main acoustic out of the middle will give the percussion some room to breathe as well.

Nice work.

Thanks a lot for your comments!

 

[chandlerhimself]

On Take me away quantize the drums. There are parts where they're out of rhythm. I seems like a nice song, but the drums need to be fixed first, then work on the balance of everything else.