Whatsup audiosex!

I've been working on recording + producing an EP for my singer/songwriter buddy and would love some input or advice on how the mix and master sounds so far. I mostly produce my own trap / electronic music, so working with a talented singer and an acoustic guitar has been a learning experience

I know this is a bit off from having that "professional polished" sound, but hopefully you guys think I did the song justice. I'm still working on final touches, but maybe you can confirm im heading in the right direction or that the track sounds at least passable

thank you!

 

Thanks for sharing. The mix for this genre will benefit with a better choice of dynamics. Understanding macro and micro dynamics will be beneficial to you if you are into this musical genre. Also, instrument placement and right choice and use of FX needs improvement. As it is mixed the song is too "2 dimensional." BTW, nice song. Loved the lyrics.

Edit: It is a catchy tune. You listen to it a couple of times and it gets stuck in your head. You got something good cooking. Don't burn it.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2021

really nice job. there is a charm in the "grunge" feel of the not so tight played notes etc.

if you could reduce the amount of un-tightness though with a 20% or correct a little bit the tuning (or wrong keys) of whatever instruments are sounding a bit to weird it would be perfect.

 

@tr3v0r94 Do you mind listing your front end for this particular song?

 

As to my taste, not really. I'd used way more natural sounds when it comes to the drums, I'm missing a HH, ride and cyms and the instruments sound to thin. Furthermore, I wouldn't use that delay but a nice ambience reverb for the vocals.

Not a matter of taste is the boominess of the bass.

But I must agree to @The Pirate, nice song.

 

It's actually pretty good. Just needs volume automation on everything as can get a bit too mechanical for me.
Maybe some hall reverbs or something to add shine to the top as not much up there.
Bass is bit out the gate.

 

I really like the song and the style.
However there is something not quite right with either the tuning of the instruments, or there are some notes that are not in key that makes the listening experience less enjoyable.

EDIT: Just listened again. It is REALLY good. But fire either the guitarist or the piano player and re-record those parts.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2021

Not too bad, it's passable.

As others have said already, the main instruments have a wonky tuning, a bit too off. Either correct this (re-record?) or exaggerate the wonkiness, so that listeners perceive it as a deliberate choice. Eg use a tape plugin with wow and flutter.

Take the delay off the singers voice and use a nice room Impulse response instead, the free Morevox 2020 IR collection (still available?) has good ones, I think inside the Groville pack. Generally add some ambience, slight reverb. You could also use Dragonfly Reverb Early Reflections module on the snare.

Use more panning to place sounds in the 3d space (eg guitar 50 to the left) and add some volume automation for less static overall impression of the song.

Is the bass fully mono? Add something like RBass tuned to the fundamental of the bass and then turn the volume of the channel down a bit, so that the bass is more subtle, but still cutting through prominently.

At the end / beginning of a new section (eg chorus) add some accent by playing a crash cymbal, tom fill or shortly pausing elements except for the main melody etcetera.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2021

woah, thanks everyone for taking the time to listen and comment! @The Pirate Thank you! Definitely not used to all the nuances of producing this genre, I tried my hand at panning/placement without overdoing it but I'll keep at it! As far as effects, use them more sparingly? For gear used-

Shure sm7b w/ cloudlifter
Motu ultralite mk3 while recording, upgraded to a twin Apollo x
Taylor acoustic through radial D.I. into interface
JBL 305's
DT990 Pros

@No Avenger Thank you! used addictive drums but mightve gone over board with drumshaper Any suggestions on the boominess? always been a musician first and started learning production out of necessity, I still have a lot to learn!

@Stuck In The 80s thank you thank you! my friend will be stoked to hear all this. We used addictive keys / keyscape but didn't wanna push the quantizing so hard, you think it sounds too loose? The guitarist is also the singer, and neither of us are masters at keys but we tried! I always find it hard to get tuning perfect when mixing real guitars with software instruments. Really appreciate the notes!

 

Im listening on a laptop, so can't really judge mix quality, but the song as a whole has a cool feel to it. I like the song when looking at it on the whole. I completely agree with "Stuck in the 80s". I'll even go so far as to single out the keyboard player/pianist. It's too repetitive for me, and I wonder if you just threw it in there on top afterwards. Also, whether you did or not, there's a bit too much dissonance between that and that and the guitar at points, especially towards the end where it just doesn't work at all, IMO. And, I single out the pianist because the guitar playing actually sounds fairly decent and has some variety to it that makes it interesting. Either way, one of them falls out of key and stays out for too long or too often.

I am a little nicer though in that I won't say fire him/her..., just perhaps back to the drawing board on that part :P But with that taken out of the equation, the song seems cool!

 

Can I get the stems and give it a try too?

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2021

The freq range below 100Hz is dominated by the bass. I would distribute this range equally between bass and BD (lower the bass, raise the BD). This would give the track a more stable low end. If then the BD's low end still isn't prominent enough, lower the bass here even more.
The boomieness is caused by the to high level below 100Hz, this would be reduced with the step above and by the too high level from 100 - 200Hz. Here I would use a static EQ to lower it a bit (still a few dB) and a dynamic EQ to tame it even more.
Then I would give the bass more growl freqs to make it nicely audible. For this the range is pretty wide, namely 400 - 1200Hz and you'll have to find a freq which fits best to the snare and the vocals.
Since ADD are my to-go drums, I can help you with this too, but this break the mould in this thread.

 

love the song. not too fond of the recording. for all the reasons already mentioned. bass is too boomy and to prominent. the keys just don't seem to work at all and actually make the guitar sound out of tune at various times. definitely worth taking time to fix.

 

@tr3v0r94 This song is built around the vocals, therefore, the vocals need to breath and sit perfectly in the mix, in front of the drums and guitar. They sound way too dry which clashes with the vibe you are trying to transmit to the listener. This genre calls for the use of reverb. The lack of reverb was noted by @No Avenger . However, you need to strike a perfect balance. To be clear, you don’t want your vocals neither entirely dry nor too wet. When the vocals are too wet they move too far back in the mix which is contrary to what you want for this genre.

 

Less is more!

 

@The Pirate @No Avenger im writing all this down no avenger is getting a little bit over my head but ill take a look at the frequencies and try to balance them to the kick! There's some pro-r on the vocals but ill look into the impulse the other lad mentioned and see how it goes! most of what I know is just in the box or recording rappers but im trying to pick the right sources to continue to learn from! the most important goal for me is to at least get the point of the song across, hopefully sounding better than complete "amateur".

I really appreciate the input from everybody. the fact that you at least enjoyed the song is a compliment to me! I'll keep going along and post the ep when it's all finished here

 

Great tune, but I would personally turn down the volume of bass a lil bit and put more compression on drums so they smack more

 

@tr3v0r94 Sorry, but I just ripped off your track. You should have written ©, not (C).

 

So your next song will sound like Randy Newman and Prince? I look forward to that.

 

Interesting. In England if somebody is a great individual, one-in-a-million, we say "when he was born, they broke the mould".
Interesting when other cultures utilise phrases differently.