Unring the Bell...take Prozac first

J

Jessica_X

New member
https://soundcloud.com/jessicazin/unring-the-bell-work-in-progress

Alright, so...I'm ready for some feedback on this.
There are lots of things I don't like about this one but this seems to be the best I can make it right now, so I'm hoping for some new ideas.

The #1 thing I don't like is that in the chorus, my voice sounds buzzy and harsh and bleating when singing the lead vocal line. I've tried a bunch of different things to fix/get around this but nothing has worked (EQ stuff, singing the main melody line an octave up). I think that this is just a bad register for my voice, esp. when holding long notes like that. Any ideas? (I ended up making the lead vocal line too quiet, I know, because I hated the sound of it so much.)

This is the first time I've tried using EQ and compression. Watched some Youtube videos, and then basically flailed around a bunch.

I am happy with the lyrics, melody and arrangement. But feel free to comment or criticize that also. Thanks for your time...
 
Bass is heavy. You have a great voice, but I don't think you use it enough. You really should have more variation. Chorus seems pretty lively, but you could probably put more singing into the verse. It has some potential, but as it is right now, hard to get past the soldier like presentation.

Hope this helps.
 
The keyboard that marks time is very muddy.
The bass is a little blurred.
The voice sounds over processed.
The song's great, the melody woks for me.
It may be the arrangement - thetop end stuff all seems to work - the tubular bells work well, the voices work.
I think you might need to sort out the mids and lows then try mixing again.
 
Sounds good overall to me, I would like to hear just a bit more treble on the vocal though. Can't comment on the bass/sub frequencies but the rest sounds okay to me.
I love the song, it has a quite unique vibe and it's not something that I usually listen to but still it's very enjoyable.
 
I really like the song. The only thing I didn't like was the song of the bells at the beginning. A good sample of some old Church bells would sound better in my opinion. They sounded OK in the mix but not so much when exposed. I agree the bass is a little heavy.

The song style reminded me of a song called G.I. Blues by Carter USM.

Good stuff :thumbs up:
 
Thanks for the responses.
DM60: Huh, I liked the verses, but had a problem with the chorus voice parts. Very interesting to get the opposite opinion!
rayc: Thanks for this, I think I agree about the muddiness in the keyboard and bass. I am a little too addicted to reverb. I cut it back a bunch from what it was originally, because I noticed that that bass line part was too indistinct. I will experiment with cutting back the reverb to almost nothing there. Overprocessed voice...maybe it's my double tracking that you aren't liking the sound of? I sang it twice (obviously? I don't know) and it does sound kind of weird. I think I like it, and I definitely like it better than the other options that I tried.
wiryawan: Thanks for the encouragement on the song overall. That means a lot to me because I know I suck at mixing and performing, so if my songs suck too, then all is lost. I will experiment with getting more treble into the vocals (I wonder if you're referring to the verse, chorus, or both).
Mr. Clean: Thanks. I believe you. (The bells sounded awesome to me.) I will look for a sample that sounds more authentic than my midi keyboard. I just listened to the G.I. Blues song...awesome! That is going on my current playlist.
 
One thing I noticed is an imbalance of vocals on the chorus. The one on the left is dominant. Song is very cool though!

Hmm. Care to play Jimmy mess with mix again? :)
 
I really like the vocals in this one, they sound terrific to me. Is that like a chorus or some sort of stereo effect on the lead vocal? They sound nice and wide. Great harmonies too, really tight. I'm listening on a really dark 4.1 system, so the high end is lost on me but this sounds really good.

I wouldn't mind hearing more of the instrumentation (except the keys), but then again I don't want to hear the vocals get covered up either. The keys sound a little canned, but not bad. Overall, great job!
 
I didn't notice that at all Jimmy, I'm sure you're right.
I am going to try to do another mix soon taking some of this feedback into account. I have a terrible tendency to leave things 90% done that I need to overcome.
Of course you can mess with it. I will send you the tracks via dropbox when I have time.

Tadpui: Thanks! I sang the vocals in the verses twice (actually I sang them about 50 times probably and then did two comp takes). Then I spent about a billion years editing them for pitch, timing, and other issues. They are panned 10 to the left and 10 to the right.
 
Hey sounds really nice and our voice is very pleasing, delicate, but present. I like the song very much. Yes, piano sound could be better.

I Don;t mind the vocal mix a all in the chorus or anywhere.

I am not someone experienced in this style of music, but if i had any personal suggestions (I say personal because I mean if I could sing and wrote something like that, your arrangement might be exactly what you want i mean) I would build a bit more dynamic in the song as it progresses in the track.

For example, when the bells come back in or even before I am wanting to maybe step up the vocal range and let it go a bit more. Not to scream as I get this is not that style, but more to a soulful blues twinge while keeping the overall controlled feel of the song. I would bring the drums up and have some more dynamic drumming there synched with your bringing up the dynamic.

Just one suggestion as for me the all sits in one place throughout, which is a good place, but maybe this suggestion could add some energy build but with the same feel u were going for.

Just an opinion that might be totally off base and uninformed as a non singer and again I really do like it, only reason to comment.

Great job.
 
JX,
I took the libery of recording from the streamer a chorus from your track. I popped it into Reaper & simply applied the ReaEQ Mud Free preset.
I was going to fiddle about & try for perfect but realized taht's silly on a recprding af a streamer. the result of applying the preset says enough about tweaking a few spots anyway. It OVER did the EQ but it is a preset afterall & they yend to overemphasis their role so that people notice that they actually have done something. The link will take you to it.
If you applied the preset to just the piano and maybe tightened up the bass with a compressor or threw a bass manager (Stanford?) across the bottom end you may find excellent results/
 
Hey, the mix quality here sounds streets ahead of previous songs I've heard from you - so it sounds like you've made some impressive progress recently.

Love the melody, vocals and arrangement. You have a really nice stereo spread going on too -quite hard panned elements keep feeding in throughout without sounding like they're sticking out and I enjoyed how that worked.

The mix doesn't sound like it's far off to my ears. My only issue is around the bassline. Is it played on the keyboard? If so, I'd try and get a real bass on there if you can to bring some more warmth and better tone to the low end of the mix.

Well done though, this is really good :thumbs up:
 
Ok, messed with the mix for a while.

I at first said to myself '36 tracks! WFH?' But they were organized quite nicely. I really had fun with this. Thank you.

It not often I get to play with something completely out of my norm and just enjoy a great vocal track and song. Mostly with rock guys that just want to be loud...

Anyway, first off I noticed some issues with your vocal mic. It is picking up a bunch of 'pops' with your voice. Mostly mouth noises as in when you go to start a phrase and your tongue leaves the roof of your mouth. I manually edited out around 50 of these on the 7 vocal tracks. It is not so noticeable until compression and eq are added to get the air out of your voice. This may be an issue of keeping hydrated and maybe the type of pop filter you are using. Otherwise the recording sounded great. Oh, there were some sounds in the background where you may have been bumping the mic stand. It gets lost in the mix, but it was something I had to edit out at points.

I am just stating the things that I noticed that will make things easier for you in the future. Overall, I think the song is really friggen good. I am now a fan. :)

Oh, and I noticed you have your lyrics wrong on your Soundcloud page. 'An Open Door'. lol! Sorry, I am anal like that. :/

Here is what I came up with. I tried to not listen to your original mix and just do what felt right to me for the song. Again I will give you details as to what I did if you like. I just had fun doing it. :)
 

Attachments

  • Unring The Bell.mp3
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Last edited:
After comparing our mixes, I wonder if I should have gone 'darker' with the mix. If that is even a word. :confused:
 
I just realized I forgot about a comp on the master bus I had on the template I used for this. Thought it sounded squished.

Here is the mix without it.
 

Attachments

  • Unring The Bell Jimmy 2.mp3
    9.2 MB · Views: 26
Listened to the original mix for a bit, then on to Jimmy's. Really like the song and I think Jimmy did it the justice it deserved. While listening to the original mix, I could hear a lot of potential; Jimmy was able to bring out the best of the song.

So, this is kind of a unique opportunity to learn. You know what went on with your mix and the results you got and now you can ask Jimmy what he did with his. Hopefully, he didn't throw down the gauntlet of pro mixing but rather, he kept it simple. I'm willing to bet the biggest difference is the listening environment. Treating the room goes a long ways towards getting a good mix.

Great song. Very original and creative. Lovely voice. Hope to hear more from you.
 
Chili said:
Listened to the original mix for a bit, then on to Jimmy's. Really like the song and I think Jimmy did it the justice it deserved. While listening to the original mix, I could hear a lot of potential; Jimmy was able to bring out the best of the song.

So, this is kind of a unique opportunity to learn. You know what went on with your mix and the results you got and now you can ask Jimmy what he did with his. Hopefully, he didn't throw down the gauntlet of pro mixing but rather, he kept it simple. I'm willing to bet the biggest difference is the listening environment. Treating the room goes a long ways towards getting a good mix.

Great song. Very original and creative. Lovely voice. Hope to hear more from you.
Click to expand...

Yep, I kept it quite simple. A couple of plugs as enhancement for bass and piano, but for the most part it can be done with stock plugs.

Oh, and the 'Micro Shift' that I love...:)

I only hope that I can be of help to anyone here. I'm not even sure my mix is what she is looking for.


I just added guitars to the last verse cuz I'm bored. Realized I need to play more. I can ride a bike, but playing guitar-I need training wheels. I'm a drummer/bass player...


This is not my baby. It is Jessica's. She is the one to decide where to go with this. I just had fun messing around with the song. It is a pleasure when writing and performance are there. :D
 
Bass & piano are much clearer in Jimmy's #2.
The "strings" ostinato is a little strident but not an issue.
What's Micro Shift?
Cool song - I only just notice Big Ben in the intro - where were my ears?
Nice job Jimmy.
 
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