Man, the feedback I've gotten on here has been so helpful. Again I'm asking for some feedback on another mix. Like I stated on the last thread I posted, if you're just gonna crap on my mix without being helpful or providing guidance, don't bother please, but I would love to hear what some of the humbly helpful people on here think of this track, thanks in advance!

This is a simple little test video I did for it just to try and convey more realness to it, but don't mind the crappy video ha,ha I just want to know where the mix sits currently (one thing I have done since posting this video is add a Desser and light saturation to the vocals).

 

Beautiful song !

Maybe you can turn down the breath noise a bit in the DAW.

 

i'm not expert just checking how much of compression did u do on the vocals?

 

Nice song as a whole.
If I was to be picky I would bring the vocals forward 1 or 2 dbs.
Question: is the acoustic guitar (sounds like 1) recorded direct using the piezo?
Piezo pickups are always a giveaway.. they never sound like a "true" acoustic.

 

1. Reduce the breath with a downward expander before you compress it.
2. The acoustic part (up to 3:20) should be lower in level (and have way less vocal compression).
3. The vocals get drowned in the last part. Also there's quite a bunch of reverb.
4. The kick is distorting in an unpleasant way.
5. Mix lacks low end and fullness ~ 500Hz.
6. To achieve -1TP (for the ogg file) I needed to reduce the level by 3.5dB! You should use a TP limiter or better one if you already have.

But I like the song.

 

Hey RLV, really beautiful Ballad!

And as with the precedent song, you have put a lot of creativity on your guitar parts: I do like your surprising arpeggios and unusual chords put in the middle of your different phrases and progressions, I think this is a part of your signature, the other part being the expressiveness of your voice, congratulations for all that!

1°) For this song, I'd dare to say that you really have to work on the lows, there is a lack of... this impression could be better expressed with an image: If you'd wanna build a tall tree, you have to first elaborate and build solid, big, stable roots, so that the tree will have no problem growing up to the sky.

So is your mix: it lacks "roots" in the orchestrated parts. This impression is enhanced by the fact that the upper highs are really maxed, far too much IMHO, because doing that you lose a big part of the warmness given by the guitar, to be more precise: this "Aural exciter"-like sound is in contradiction with the warm direction given by the main arpeggio/rhythm guitar sound and of course by your voice (which also could deserve more warmness as well).

Perhaps this "roots" part of your song could be really enhanced by introducing low (sub?) and long strings(-like) notes playing the fundamentals of your chords, it could be (for example, many possibilities here) a contrabass / tuba / cello sound taken from an orchestral sample library, or even a Moog Taurus-like subbass, or...

...You could also put more presence, amplitude and sustain on your bass guitar parts (which could be modified to favor the lowest notes?), there is really an infinity of possibilities here, whatever you decide to do I think we should really "feel" the basses on your last choruses, this could give to your voice the "booster" it needs to "take us off the ground"...

...Not all the time of course, only in the important moments, to reinforce the impact of your choruses, and to add more drama / impact to your song. This is particularly important as we approaches the end (around 3:20), when the drums (which also could deserve more warmness, sorry... ) enter.

So to sum up my - amateur - advice: I'd suggest less exciter, more warmness, more roots.

 

Last edited: Apr 23, 2022

Nice job, I like it! So many of the songs people put up here are in an electronic vein, it's nice to hear something a bit more organic now and then.

I would lighten up on the effects applied to the vocal particularly in the first minute of the song. I think what you want there is more of an 'intimate' feel as you introduce the song, too many effects get in the way of that. I'd pull back on the reverb/echo, and when I'm listening casually and hearing compression it usually means there's too much compression. I'm not clear if that's you doing the singing and mixing (this is the first time I've heard any of your stuff here) but singers mixing themselves have a tendency to either have their voice too low in a mix or they bury a vocal in effects. Once the arrangement started to fill out the vocal effects didn't really bother me, it's just in the first minute of the tune.

Again, nice work. I look forward to hearing how it progresses.

 

@BEAT16

Thanks a lot! Didn't even catch that the breathes were so prominent, thanks!

 

@samsome

I didn't use an extreme amount of compression on the vocals, just one 76 being pushed a little, but nothing crazy.

 

@peghead

Thanks a lot!
I believe the vocals needing to be turned up/brought forward is in part what others have mentioned about them not being warm/full enough, I think once I do that, the loudness will be there... hopefully.
The guitar is actually an electric, just clean. I did it on an acoustic at first and didn't like how it sounded with the rest of the arrangement.

 

@No Avenger

I usually go through and edit out the large breathes, I forgot to do on this one, but will attend to that first thing.

The levels of the guitars/vocals could be better agree, thanks for pointing that out.

For the last part of the song, where I have 4 separate vocal parts going at the same time (2 mains with a harmony on each) I wanted it to sound a little chaotic to finish out the song which started so simple and peaceful, though I guess I could make at least one of the vocal parts the dominant and more forward, nice suggestion.

The kick distortion, I had edited a preset I use for my drums on heavier stuff and didn't think to remove the distortion from the kick for this softer song, so glad you noticed that!

Adding a decent amount 300 - 600 hz into the mix really made it sound nice and full and more present, thanks for the tip!

You know, I stopped setting a TP of -1 when I started using a different limiter and never even thought about it, I'll have to set another limiter on their, doing nothing but controlling TP to make sure I won't be getting any distortion when the file gets further compressed down the line.

Thanks a lot!

 

drums are too distorted and sound cheap. i like the vocal pushed a little bit in the back, gives that 90's grunge feel. good mix alltogether. i would redo the vocal, sounds a bit out of tune and the drums..

 

@Amore_de_la_Vida

Thanks a lot!

Thanks for pointing out that the highs being exaggerated are taking away from the fullness/warmness of the sound. I think that the whole track needs/needed more 300 - 600 hz in order to balance the curve and bring out the warmth and fullness of each element in the track as you mentioned, as in doing so, I noticed a world of difference in the sound.

With the bass and feeling it throughout the entirety of the song, I usually but a good low end control/compressor on my bass but forgot to on this, I think that may help keep the bass evenly present throughout the track, I will have to see. I had actually added a cello to the track as you mentioned but it just didn't sound right (to me), but maybe a sub just to fill in the really low lows could do the trick? I'll have to fiddle with same things and see, thanks for the suggestion!

The last choruses I wanted to sound chaotic and not quite upfront in regards to the vocals, I guess just an artistic choice, though I guess making on of the vocal tracks stand out a bit more might still work.

No need to be sorry haha, I really really appreciate your feedback and the fact you are being helpful and directional is so important to me, so thank you!

 

@vuldegger

Thanks for the feedback. As for the drums, hmm I don't know, I know the kick was a bit distorted but the rest I'm not sure what ya mean.
And I can assure you, as the singer, the vocals are in tune haha. I use guitar tuners on my vocal tracks, I'll put the vocal on a loop and watch the tuner to make sure each note is on pitch, and if they aren't, I record it again haha. Maybe you just don't like the sound of the vocals? which is fine, its all subjective, but I can guarantee you they are in tune.

Thanks a lot!

 

@Bennett.Jackson

Thanks a lot, I used to make more electronic music myself (which I don't have a problem with) but I started to get sick of it and wanted to hear/make more organic sounding music.

You are absolutely right, one bad habit I have as the singer is putting too much reverb on my vocals, it never seems to fail no matter how many times I make the mistake and correct it.

Thanks so much for the feedback!!

 

Just a - short - note to say that your idea to put chaos at the end of your song is really great and could bring the "something else" which is always very welcome in songs like yours.

So here is another amateur suggestion: imagine that you direct all your vocals - including the choirs - on a parallel bus (ex.: a send mixed with the main bus), then, on this side bus, insert and start to play with several (multi-)delays, each with very different settings, the goal being that all these delays together sound very "random" and "chaotic" (as a starting point: deactivate the "sync to tempo" setting of all the delays, and set them only by ears).

Then imagine that you raise (automate?) the level of these bunch of delays very progressively and slowly at the end (Starting around 3:20), so that the very last notes of your voices are completely drown in the chaotic repetitions...?

= > EDIT: If the result does not sound good enough for you, you could also add a Phaser / Flanger at the end of the FX chain (on the side bus only. It gives: Vocals -> parallel bus -> delay -> delay -> more delays!... -> Phaser), that you raise progressively too, I mean that more you approaches the end of the song, more the Phaser / Flanger is present.

(There's a Scorpions' song like this, on their very first album (only the last part is interesting, starting 39:01), which ends with a loads of phaser on the master, and the impact of this FX alone on the song is really amazing!)

IMAHO an essential thing to retain: this "chaotic" FX chain shouldn't intervene before the first note of your drums. Perhaps I'm totally wrong, but I see this as a "surprise", so it must not come too soon.

If it's not satisfying, you could try the same trick with a guitar solo, or with different samples, synth FX, fret noises, screaming guitar larsens / feedbacks... Here again, a world of possibilities, but I'm sure you'll find the perfect, original, inspiring one!

(Speaking of inspiration, I was thinking about different live versions of "Whole Lotta Love" of Led Zeppelin where (starting 1:50) Jimmy plays with a Theremine (a very antique synth) and Robert plays with echoes during a very chaotic song's middle, and above all to "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" from the Black Sabbath's masterpiece album "Sabotage", where the final chorus is progressively drowned by crazy laughs which become prominent at the end.)

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2022

The top dynamics sound different.