My best mix so far (I think)

[gotpop]

Hi,

I think I've had a real breakthrough with my recording and mixing skills, so I thought I'd see if anybody had any thoughts, positive or negative, about my latest effort, a powerpop song I wrote with a friend of mine called "Jennifer's Sunrise". (My friend's the lead vocal, I did all the instruments and background vocals).

http://stevenlebeau.tripod.com/songs/jennifer2007.mp3

I guess I just wanted to get some feedback on my nascent recording/producing/mixing skills (i.e., does it sound amateurish? does it sound good? should I keep trying?

-Steven

[hughindigo]

Great tune man, very catchy. I'm not going to comment on mix quality because I just listened to it on the built in iMac speakers.... however, the last "Jennifer" sounds like it was edited too short. It comes out as "Jenni."

I really enjoy the tune.

-Jerry

[punkrockdude]

I think it sounds really good. If I heard it on the radio or at someones place I would believe it were a pro engineer that recorded it.

[Dave Stanley]

Yep, sounds great man. Nice, great clean tones, well balanced.

I especially like the mellow sound snare. Totally suits the song.

Good job indeed.

[JohnDavisNYC]

hi. sounded pretty good. I thought the sounds were all well captured and sat pretty well together. I felt like the guitars were a bit soft, leaving the vocals and drums a bit exposed, which drew my attention to the fairly aggressive midrange in the vocals and the attack time on the snare drum. It sounded to me like a software compressor on the snare due to the slightly annoying 'tick' on the leading edge... maybe a slightly longer attacktime would allow for more of a 'snap' or 'thwack' than a tick.... those are small details, though, and personal taste... my main suggestion (unless you agree with me on those points) would be to try a guitars up mix. the guitar tones and parts are nice, but don't carry the tune with much sonic energy.

a little more verb overall might be nice, too, as it has a slightly seperated feeling to the overall sound that I associate with ITB mixing.

after my thoughts, I would be curious to know what you used to record and mix this track... it does sound rather good, just being nit-picky.

oh, and I like that it isn't too loud and has plenty of dynamic information.

cheers,
john

[mjau]

I like it - well balanced mix that breathes nicely. I agree about the vocals being a bit mid-rangey, and (on my crappy work computer speakers) the kick feels a little congested...maybe scoop some low mids out? I dunno - could very well be the shitty speakers I'm listening on. Either/or - mix works well for the song, so very nicely done.

[doyoucompute]

I think it sounds good. I agree about upping the guitars a bit, but I personally like midrange-y vocals.

[fortune 500 company]

I actually agree with both sides on the vocals, meaning I think they are annoyingly midrangey and kind of harsh sounding when not backed by the rest of the arrangement (so, only the first 15 seconds or so) but then sit fairly well when everything else comes in. If it was me I would get rid of whatever eq or whatever's making them that way, just for that intro section and leave them as is for the rest of the song.

[gotpop]

after my thoughts, I would be curious to know what you used to record and mix this track... it does sound rather good, just being nit-picky.

Okay, well, here are the gritty details:

Recorded/mixed completely in Logic Pro 7.

The guitar was a Fender Telecaster with EMG Pickups (yuck) through my MOTU Traveler and straight into Amplitube and Guitar Amp Pro.

The bass was my Line6 Variax bass set to imitate a Rickenbacker 4001 (I doubt convincingly).

The drums are...DFH Superior. I programmed the "beats" myself.

Mellotron Strings are Gforce Mtron.

The lead vocal was my friend singing into a SM7B, backing vox were me through some mic I don't have anymore--can't remember which one, either a Rode NT1A or an AKG C3000B. I think it was the Rode...

Monitoring during mixing was through HS50M speakers in an untreated dining room. There are llamas from Cost Plus World Market on top of the monitors.

I don't know if this makes it more impressive or not, but it's all true...

[high five]

Yes, it sounds great... I wish any of my recordings sounded more 'polished' like that. I think the snare could use a little more clarity, except there's some yucky snap on every hit that was mentioned before. I like the bass tone, are you compressing that? The strings are sublime, they don't distract at all but if you listen for them, they sound good. I've been meaning to get MTron for a while. I'm also curious how you processed the background vocals if at all... just EQ, doubling? They sound good! The first/only thing that really stood out was the harsh vocal, for some reason it really bugged my ears. Agreeing with what someone else said, if I heard this somewhere I would've figured it was done by a pro. PS: There's one chord during ".. into a beautiful day, jennifer's sunrise..." that really caught my ear, nice work!

[gotpop]

The background vocals (seven tracks of them!!) were sent to a stereo bus where they were panned, highpassed and limited. I didn't compress or EQ the individual tracks.

The bass is compressed--well, that's understating it. The exact chain for the bass is: EQ->Amplitube->Limiter->Comp->EQ->Silver Comp, but each compressor is working very very lightly each time, shaving off the peaks a little at a time.

I really agree with the harsh vocal thing, and it took me a while but now I can hear the snare thing as well.

I'll post the new mix here, so stay tuned...

[gotpop]

here's the newest one: http://stevenlebeau.tripod.com/songs/jennifermix2.mp3

Enjoy!

[LeedyGuy]

First, I love the song, and I love the vocal sound. The backup vox are sweet too.

I know this isnt about the mix, but I think after the bridge you need to vary the guitar part or add something additional? Bring back the strings maybe? Some overdrive leads punctuating the vocals a la Sympathy for the Devil or something?

I think the snare sounds tick artifact that we're all hearing is the result of a gate that is set with a too quick attack. I have gotten that with the Waves Gate before...but I could be wrong.

-Ken

[Dan Wallace]

The balance is great, and I like the amount of reverb you've used. The backing vocals, drums (good job with the DFH's!) etc...sit really well. The strings are really cool. I love that you put them to the right and just had them for the one section. Very tasteful and effective, as is the whole arrangement.

Some things that bothered me (I listened a couple of times, on HD280 headphones, and tried not to be nitpicky, these things stood out):

The first time he sings "Over time" there's a click underneath. I think someone else might have pointed that out.

Right before the drums come in there are a couple of pops on the left side.

The first time he sings 'Step back" it sounds like the word "step" has been re-pitched and/or is a little over edited. At 1:28 there's another weird edit where the word "but" comes in too soon. And someone else pointed out the last "Jennifer" gets cut off.

That's the main stuff that stood out mixing wise.

I like the guitar as is, but making it louder once the drums kick in wouldn't hurt.

Regarding the vocal, I'm in the camp of it needing some tweaking. It's actually the only thing in the mix that doesn't work perfectly for me. He has a good voice but there's a lot of natural grain in it, and ironically I was going to suggest maybe trying an SM7, which it turns out you used. It either wasn't the right mic for his voice or you're accentuanting the grain in the eq (or from distortion due to compression?), or he wasn't singing into it in the way that's best for his voice on that mic. The backing vocals came out really well, though, and aren't at all grainy sounding. Was he further from the mic on those? Is it because he's staying more in his high range on the backing? Maybe there's less grain there. Did you try his lead on those backing mic?

Anyway, those are my impressions. I think you've really done an excellent job all around with this from writing to mixing.

[gotpop]

Thanks for the feedback, Dan.

Are you referring to the second mix I posted or the first? I think it would have been a good idea to post the new mix on its own thread...

To answer your questions, the lead vocal was my friend, but I sang all the backing vocals. My friend has a nice voice (it's usually not that hoarse, but it was the end of the day, etc.), but he has, shall we say, severe pitch issues... Much of the time he was as much as a 1/4 step flat or sharp, sometimes a lot more.