Unwritten Chick Code

R

Robus

New member
I love the song, 3M. Good lead and harmony vocals. Performances sound tight. Great tone on the rhythm guitars (doubled?). Mixwise, the guitars are a bit loud for me. They are drowning out your bass, and to a lesser extent your drums. I'm hearing rather than feeling the bass.
 
Chili

Chili

Site Moderator
Heya. Good song. Sounds like everything is well played, sung, etc.

Sorry, I can't get past the doubled guitars. As Robus implied, they need to come down, and not by just a bit. They dominate the mix (but they do sound good).

Looking forward to hearing another mix soon. :)

BTW: Great title. I wonder what the lyrics are.... :D
 
Atkron205

Atkron205

New member
Vocals sound better, as has been said, the guitars could come down a bit. It was a fun song to play,thanks!:D
 
Nola

Nola

Well-known member
hey triplem, regarding the mix the one thing i think needs fixing is everything is too dry and everything sounds upfront. the vocal sounds the farthest away, which is a weird situation. i'd raise the drum, lower the guitar, and raise the voice. i think some judicious reverb could help with space, too
 
T

TripleM

Well-known member
Thanks for the help everyone. There is a new mix at the top. All I did was lower the doubled rhythm guitar. I *may* tweak the reverb - I know it's dry. I just hate reverb (there *is* some there believe it or don't).

Please listen to mix 2 if you have a few.
 
R

Robus

New member
Guitars could still come down. To be honest, I'm not crazy about the doubled guitars period. They dominate your mix and pull attention away from everything else, plus are playing a rhythm that doesn't vary much throughout the song.
 
Dr.SpringReverb

Dr.SpringReverb

Dieser Hund
Somehow i get a subtil Beatles vibe from this.
I have no problems with the loud rhythm guitars and the dryness. I'm not really a fan of doubled tracked guitars though.
I'm not much of a help here. :e But maybe an additional contrasting instrument would be cool. Like, a tambourin. Yep.
 
T

TripleM

Well-known member
Thanks again guys. For guitar loudness I did an A/B with a Weezer tune I like, for both mixes. The relative loudness of the guitar was about on par with that on the first mix. And the guitar is lower in mix 2. Personally, I don't think I'm going to lower it.

As for the "sameness" of the instrumentation that a couple people have brought up, I originally had a 2nd guitar part (and Atkron could attest - it was in the mix he tracked against). I just ended up hating the part, so I muted it. But Dr. SR got me thinking, maybe some hand claps in the 2nd and 3rd verses. I might give that a try. Take me a couple of days tho.
 
VomitHatSteve

VomitHatSteve

Hat STYLE. Not contents.
I'm listening to mix 2. I agree that the guits are probably still too loud and up-front. Maybe the "closeness" is more the problem than the volume. More distortion or verb on them would help move them back a bit.

I might nudge down the bgvox a little too. They sound good, but they bury the lead.
 
ido1957

ido1957

9K Gold Member
Seems the main concern is the rhythm guitars. The guitars/vocals level is perfect during the chorus.
I don't know - you could try adding "something" to distract from them, I often throw a lead guitar that comes in and out between vocal lines.
Or just take them down a hair during the verses. To some extent you as producer have the final say so go with your gut.
Anyway the song is cool and the arrangement of chords/vocals is excellent. Performance is right up there as always.
 
T

TripleM

Well-known member
VHS and ido... thanks guys.

ido - thanks for the observation of the difference between the verses and choruses. Also - the idea about throwing in a lead guitar with licks in between vocal lines. That's exactly the idea I had - and had mentioned in an earlier post. But no matter waht I did, I couldn't come up with anything that didn't suck. I'm sure there is a good guitar part out in the ether, I just can't pull it out.
 
fat_fleet

fat_fleet

Swollen Member
Sheesh, this sounds pretty good. I think the guitar level is fine, but perhaps the drums could get nudged up in certain places, like when the harmonies come in during the chorus, but mostly it sounds real good.

Nice playing all around, the harmonies sound really tight. Reminds me of the Figgs (who are awesome).

If it were me I'd add a 2nd guitar to fill space during the verse, but I trend toward density (leave no space unfilled!)
 
Manslick

Manslick

Road
Well it's really freaking loud. I spun it on a new system at work that I'd never played music on and it sanded off what was left of my short hairs.

I got no suggestions other than roll your volume knob back in advance.

The tunage is classic 3M and I said it before that I could pick you out of a hit parade any day.
 
T

TripleM

Well-known member
Fat Fleet and Manslick - thanks for the listen. It's really not super loud compared to the commercial stuff put out these days. It's probably -13 to -12 RMS. I suppose the guitars make it seem louder than it actually is.
 
T

TripleM

Well-known member
OK I did a lot of playing around with this, after considering everyone's advice.

I tried adding some handclaps. But I didn't like them.

So I dug out the original "accent guitar" part I had in. After I removed some mud, I decided it wasn't so bad after all. :D

I did some fader riding on the guitar parts, and added in a bit more reverb. I lowered the BGV's per VHS's suggestion.

There is a new mix at the top, for those of you kind enough to indulge me for a 3rd time.
 
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