We Don't Give It Away by Sarah and Me

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Thanks Robus, I guess SoundCloud changed how private links work. . .

I replaced it with a straight mp3.
 
Given the amount of comments you make on others' tracks, I'm surprised nobody has commented yet on yours.

A good start. The vocals are well recorded and performed. Sarah is right in that Stevie Nicks range on this one--that's a good thing! I think the arrangement drags a bit. The singing is mostly in your lower registers. It never really jumps up to create more excitement. That rhythm guitar doesn't vary enough. The guitars are in the same octave, I think. In any case it seems like there is a lot of stuff piling up in the same midrange frequencies as the lead vocal, giving your mix a bit of a dark and congested sound. Best example of the lack of variation is around 0:40, where you go from your verse to the chorus for the first time. There's not much of a change in the groove or energy level at that point. Maybe take the lead vocal up an octave, if your range permits. Maybe move the guitar up an octave. Or add a keyboard hook. Nice guitar solo.
 
Thanks for listening robus! Yeah the guitars are just double tracked and use different amps. Maybe I can bring one of them up, I'm not sure I could hit a higher register on the vocals. See if I can come up with a variation on things for the chorus too. Maybe one solution could solve both problems. . .
 
Have Sarah do a high harmony in the chorus.

Just listening again. Most of the song would sound better without that rhythm guitar. It grooves really well in a couple of places, like under the solo at 1:05. Mostly it feels kind of leaden. I would drop it except for those couple of places, and track something that doesn't make itself the center of attention so much.

Your vocal is getting masked. Especially where you drop down into your speaking voice. It needs more space to sit in.

Bass sounds good but too low. What is it?

The mix is midrangy. Low end is weak.
 
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Hm not sure I'm ready to retrack so much to be honest, it would be like writing a different song! Still maybe I can rearrange the rhythm guitar so there's not so much energy in one place.
 
A real cool vibe. I like the song a lot.

The canned drums stick out a bit as an issue. First the snare is really loud and has a ton of reverb that doesn't fit the rest of the mix. The kick is tough to hear. The pattern is repetitive.

The vocal is lacking some low end. It sounds over-EQd to me. Lots of words at the end of lines get lost. Watch mic technique. You might be able to do something with volume envelopes, but mic technique is the better solution.

What was done to the backing vocal? Sounds almost Chipmunk-ish. Pitch shifting or something?

The rhythm guitar is lacking some lower end too.. It's slightly dull as well.

I think the lead guitar could come up a tick or two.

I think the mix needs a bit of work. But as I said, I really like the song.
 
Thanks man, I was kind of battling the room on the vocals but it sounds like I overdid it. The background vox I used eq and reverb on, no special effects, might be eq issues on there causing the chipmunky stuff. In fact sounds like I should ease up on the high pass filtering overall.

Drums are always a challenge, I just got the samples and that's it. :/ So it'll probably always sound like a machine but I can definitely fix the levels.
 
Yeah, the big things that stuck out to me were the lead vox dipping too low in the verses and getting buried and the chipmunky effect on the BGV.

Pretty cool song in a lot of other ways tho.
 
I think its a really good song. I agree that the snare needs to be toned down. The main thing I noticed was the lead vocal was trying to sing below their range. The low notes didn't have any vocal power behind them and got lost in the mix. In my opinion if you want to stay with that melody you need to go up at least a whole step with the key of the song. I think the melody is great but just a little below your vocal range. I have been there done that too man...
Putting a song in a key that makes sure that dreaded high note will be very easy to hit. Then I struggle with the low notes worse than I would have the high note.
:)
fantastic tune man!
 
Okay, I think I got some of the issues sorted, drum levels, no more chipmunk sound lol, no more dipping on the lead vox, fixed some reverbs. I think I got a bit more difference between verse/chorus but admittedly not a whole lot, still figuring that out. Big thing is I redid lead vox. Also swapped bass amp, I think you should be able to hear it better.

Still missing that warm full sound I love in like the low mids I think. . . gotta work on that.

View attachment weDontGiveItAway4.mp3
 
The vocal isn't masked like before. I see you ditched the spoken part. I kind of liked it, though I understand why you did what you did. Maybe more bass?
 
There wasn't a spoken part before, just a part that was so low I could hardly sing it heh
 
Yeah, the lead vox is definitely much better on this one. Seems to have more energy for it too.

BGV is still a little weird, but that sounds like it might just be her voice.

Next thing I'd recommend addressing would be the drums. They could use some more variety to sound less canned.
 
Listened to the new version. I like the lead vocal better in this one. Clearer and more upfront. I like the lead guitar/riff better in this one.

The BGV's still have a chipmunk sound. I guess that's just what they sound like.

I liked the guitar better yesterday. Not sure what you did with it. But I liked it better in the first verison. There also isn't anything to balance it out on the left side.

Drums are OK but not stellar.

And I still really like the song.

EDIT: went back and listened to the version from yesterday...

You had a guitar on the left yesterday to balance the one on the right. That's what I liked better about the guitars yesterday.
 
Thanks for listening again guys. I took out one guitar so I could add in the other during the chorus, just to differentiate verse/chorus a bit more. I didn't take the time to center it yet, maybe that'll help a bit. In the next version. . .
 
the v4 one is better, buddy. vocal is vastly better on it. I'm not sure if that's the new or old one because I just dl'd the mp3s.
 
Listening now to new one. here are some random notes on the fly.

- sounds a little unbalanced and a little flat. drums sound kind of mono and a panned a little left while the main guitars are panned a little right....
- vocals sound good.
- song sounds a little lifeless...kind of like a home demo.
- drums are a little monotonous...same thing just over and over with a hand full of odd quick drum rolls panned hard left.
- song sounds like it has potential, but it's not my favorite mix for these reasons.
 
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