where the rockets go

  • Thread starter Thread starter fprod south
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Great song! Damn, I really liked this. You know, I dig what you were going for with the "transistor radio" vocal thing - I do that all the time too - but as it is, the vox just sound kind of thin, and I think you should either try for a more classic "normal" vox sound, or commit all the way to a lo-fi thing. It's sort of in the middle right now.

Right on, man. Great song. I was so into the tune I didn't even really notice the niggly little mix stuff, and that's *way* rare for me when listening to tunes on the clinic.

Chris
 
Thanks everyone for listening and your comments. I remixed it based on what you guys all said and mostly seemed to agree on.

I brought the cymbals down a touch. I didn't bring them too far down because I feel they carry any of the excitement the song has. I compressed the lead vocals a little harder and brought them up a little. I also gave them some of their low end back. I boosted the background vocals, the snare and the toms. For anyone interested
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2146&alid=-1

powderfinger, the drum mics are listed in my reply to erichenrys above. The pre amps are from the digi 001 and a Tascam D-1000 mixing board. I put some compresser and gate on snare to try to get a little "pop" to it. And I removed most of the stuff from the tom mics when they weren't playing. And dobro's right, the most important part is having a friend who is a good drummer ;).

Welcome back Pedullist! We missed you! (synth?? :eek: But seriously, I trust your judgement :)) I'll email you when I get the ftp thing figured out again.

freshears, it's a digi 001 built in pre for vocals. Miked with an sm58.

Thanks again!
 
I like the vox level much better now. And actually, I'm gonna retract my complaint about the "thinness" of them. I've listened to this song several times today. One of my favorites, tune-wise, that I've heard here. Just a beautiful sad song.

One thing: at around 1:42 the music (guitar?) gets a little boomy - not low end boomy, sounds more like around 1k maybe? I'm totally just guessing - and overwhelms the vox a little. It's really the only sonic boo-boo that leaps out at me. But it is noticable.

Have I mentioned I love this song?

Chris
 
Vocals sound better IMO-I couldn't really tell the difference in the drums-but they sounded good to me. Love the mood/feel of this song-the effected guitars are really excellent-they add great texture to the song. Has your effect head guitarist ever tried bowing the guitar?? I bet he would looooove it.

So you use a tascam tmd1000???? Thats the same board I/we use-wacky--it only transmits a 20 bit signal which kinda sucks...I guess I kinda sorta don't mind it too much....

On a personal note-hope to have the cd done soon--the singer seemed to think moving his equipment out of my apartment across town would get the cd done faster:rolleyes: soon soon.

Great song-keep em coming.
 
Hey, Groucho - I gotta ask you about this (fprod, I'm not hijacking your thread, honest :D).

Chris, you said: "I like the vox level much better now. And actually, I'm gonna retract my complaint about the "thinness" of them. I've listened to this song several times today. One of my favorites, tune-wise, that I've heard here. Just a beautiful sad song."

I think it's a great song too, and aside from the vocals being a tad low at first, I thought the mix was fine. But what I'm interested in is how you changed your opinion about what originally struck you as 'thin' vocals on the first listen. Not on this tune, but a similar thing has happened to me so many times - something seems out of place on the first listen, but after five listens, it sounds okay. Other people report a similar thing sometimes.

So, my question's about that first impression: is it trustworthy? Or is it a case of needing a few listens to 'learn' the song and its sound?
 
Really cool stuff fprod. I loved the ambience of the whole song. I'm on headphones, but I'd have to agree that the drums and vocals need to come up in the mix. This is definitely a keeper though.


Twist
 
Sounds really good. Get those vocals up. I also wonder if the cymbals are spread a little wide for this. They sound great though. The whole recording is nice, as is the song. I want more vocal. I don't necessarily mean a pop vocal mix, but just a little more so I'm not straining.

Nice job!

Tom
 
fprod.......

......excellent tune man!!! I really dug this. If there is a way to bring the vocs up without making them sound too forward, it might be a good idea. I didnt think it was bad this way though. The distant vocs kinda added to the surreal vibe of the tune.

I really like the song.... great writing man.

gw/5
 
Thanks again!

I guess the consensus is I still need more vocals. The drummer heard this and wants to redo the glock notes because some of them are dead sounding. So I'll revisit this and get the vocals up some more. I'll check the stereo spread of the cymbals to see if bringing them more center allows me to bring them down some. While I agree that they're too loud, so far when I've brought them down more than this the sound of the song gets pretty dull.

Thanks everyone for listening!
 
Yeah... seconding the "Bruce" comment... that "Whoa.... I'm on fire" song, crossed with "Even Better Than The Real Thing"... and some heavy breathing for effect :)

This is the type of song that's difficult to critique on the mix... so much going on, and the lyrics pull you in and make you concentrate on 'em. Good subtle backup vocals... more level on 'em? I'm hearing a buildup during the choruses around 250 Hz... maybe some rolloff on guitar? Or it might just be fine as-is.

I love that off-beat drumming. Definitely agree on the "real drums" comments. Kick drum could use some more definition... kinda lumpy (searching for things to pick on here ;))

Really very enjoyable. Thanks for posting


C
 
dobro said:
Hey, Groucho - I gotta ask you about this (fprod, I'm not hijacking your thread, honest :D).

Chris, you said: "I like the vox level much better now. And actually, I'm gonna retract my complaint about the "thinness" of them. I've listened to this song several times today. One of my favorites, tune-wise, that I've heard here. Just a beautiful sad song."

I think it's a great song too, and aside from the vocals being a tad low at first, I thought the mix was fine. But what I'm interested in is how you changed your opinion about what originally struck you as 'thin' vocals on the first listen. Not on this tune, but a similar thing has happened to me so many times - something seems out of place on the first listen, but after five listens, it sounds okay. Other people report a similar thing sometimes.

So, my question's about that first impression: is it trustworthy? Or is it a case of needing a few listens to 'learn' the song and its sound?
Click to expand...

Well, I think that sometimes we're putting these songs under such a microscope that we're literally *trying* to find things that we can say need changing. In other words, the first few times we listen, we're not really listening the way we normally would - as in: just listening to the *music*. We're listening hyper-critically, for *problems* and we're gonna latch onto things that, sonically, sound a little out of the ordinary.

Fact is, lots of my favorite records would probably be ripped to shreds here in the clinic (can you imagine if Captain Beefheart posted here?: "dude, play with a metronome..." "I hear intonation problems...")

But then, after a few listens the idiosyncrasies sometimes start to feel right, especially if they support the song in some way (even if they're not "correct" from some "ideal mixing" standpoint).

Chris
 
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