Wonderwall

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GuitarLegend

GuitarLegend

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Yep, I know everyone does it but nothing wrong with comparing techniques.

I used a 12-string acoustic on a single mic for the main guitar and a 6-string acoustic for the fill-in bits. Drums, bass and strings are synthed, vocal is me

View attachment AlanLowe-Wonderwall.mp3
 
Couldn't have picked a more cliche song if you tried ;)
The first thing that I noticed was the vocals seem a little disconnected form the rest of the song. The instruments gel nicely with each others, but the vocals don't. It's sounds like karaoke. I'm not sure what you can do to fix it, but maybe turn them down a tiny bit, and just a hint of reverb may make it better. Other than that, the guitars could be pushed up a little. The drums, not sure if you're going for that programmed feel but they don't sound real at all. If that's fine with you, then great. But if you want a more realistic feel, experiment with the snare and try to make the patterns sound less mechanical. The rest sounds okay to me.
 
An aquaintance wanted to record this song. Said he performed at a party and the crowd loved it. They suggested he record it and he asked me.

Then he didnt turn up, due to illness (he said). About to move residence so it was really the last chance he would have but it wasnt to be. I had set up for it and I got hungry so I thought I would record the damn thing myself.

Thanks for the feedback. I experimented with the drums in every respect. I had recorded it several times, each time not liking the drums very much. I went through 50 snare drums to find one I liked and its the one you dont like but thats how it goes.

The vocals... the level of the vocals is constant throughout but the backing is lower during the first verse. I realized that but felt that I would push it through and see how it turns out.

Lets see what I can do about the points you raised. Thanks again for the input
 
I don't think it's the snare sound, I think its that every hit sounds the same level, especially in the fills. Can you drop the volume on some of the hits, make them more ghost notes kind of thing, build the volume on the fills, like a short crescendo. Overall, pretty good, it's alway hard rating covers, you've always got the original in find.
 
toad_uk said:
I don't think it's the snare sound, I think its that every hit sounds the same level, especially in the fills. Can you drop the volume on some of the hits, make them more ghost notes kind of thing, build the volume on the fills, like a short crescendo. Overall, pretty good, it's alway hard rating covers, you've always got the original in find.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback but I did that extensively... I spent hours modifying the velocities on the snare hits for the purpose of taking that machine gun sound away... maybe I havent got it right but I have the right idea. I thought it was ok but thats the reason for putting it up here - to get other ears on it.
 
This is a section of the sequencer showing the variation in snare velocities. I gotta come up with other ideas on this... or record real drums all the time. My drums are elsewhere atm so I am kinda stuck with the sequencer for a while. But I got lotsa drums in this package ... theres gotta be one that works

snarevel.webp
 
Is it possible you've put the snare through compressor that's undoing the dynamics? Just a thought?
 
I didn't compress the drum track by itself. I have found a better snare drum though...

I did use a mastering tool called Boost11 to bring up the final mix but I don't hear any change in the sound of the snare

Boost11.webp
 
tough song to cover as its such a classic

vocals seemed too dry and sit on top a bit...I think youve got a delay on them?? maybe fiddle with that and try to drop them in a bit


the drums are very programmed sounding but youve use a sequencer for acoustic drums, theyd be better drawn in, or recorded in, the piano roll...its not just velocity that you have to worry about, there are also miss hits, slight rim hits, timing issues...a regular sequencer isnt going to cut it, theres no groove


other than that is a good clean mix, theres good separation and spread, nice work
 
Agree that the vocals are sitting too far on top of everything.

Drum sounds are pretty nice. They get a little "programmy" in spots.

This guy killed with that? Easy crowd.
 
Not a fan of the dull string sound of the 12 string, and the vocals could sit farther back and im a fan of compressed vocal sound. and the vox seem a bit dry to me. and im missing those harmonies ;)
 
The vocals are on top of everything in the first verse, after that it should be sitting about right. At least thats how I mixed it. I am not sure about dropping the level of the vocals in the first verse so I think I may have to bring up the backing.

I guess it depends on the audience and their relationship with the performer as to how a song comes over. Radio stations are surviving on songs that were hits 50 years ago. If its a good enough song, performed reasonably well, you could get good responses from anything
 
Thanks again for the feedback I replaced the drumkit and applied a few tweaks to address the issues that were raised.

As far as the vocals go, I listened to the original and found their vocal level was way higher than mine so I decided to leave it alone. I didnt know what to do to make it better. If I started lower in the mix and brought it up when the backing gets louder, you would hear it. And if I brought the backing up louder for the intro and dropped it later, you would hear that too. I wanted to see how they did it in the original and I feel I haven't actually gone backwards. So for now its just a drum modification.

View attachment Alan Lowe - Wonderwall 2.mp3
 
obviously you have Sonar, with the Boost 11 . I use it almost exclusively for limiting, with NO compression...or for drastic effects. Use your Vintage channel or even the Sonitus stuff on the 2 buss, as I think it won't alter stuff nearly as much. I even use the free Reacomp (reaper) and it's nice cause you can easily do the parallel compression with it.
 
mixmkr said:
obviously you have Sonar, with the Boost 11 . I use it almost exclusively for limiting, with NO compression...or for drastic effects. Use your Vintage channel or even the Sonitus stuff on the 2 buss, as I think it won't alter stuff nearly as much. I even use the free Reacomp (reaper) and it's nice cause you can easily do the parallel compression with it.
Click to expand...

Hi mixmkr... I do use Sonar X1 but in this latest recording, I didnt apply the Boost11 at all. Most of the time I use the Sonitus stuff but again, not on this latest mix. I didnt see the need for it
 
Ok, I see what you are talking about. I have to go out and I was in a hurry (bad bad). Although I didnt apply Boost11, there was a touch of limiting when I mixed it down. This is the waveform for the wav file from which the mp3 was made. I will post another one with a little less clipping...

wave1.webp
 
Just a few tweaks here and there with various levels, no compression added to final mix. I didnt touch the vocal levels because it seems to match the way they did it in the original and the backing level comes up after the first verse anyway.

View attachment Alan Lowe - Wonderwall 4.mp3
 
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