my first song! need advice please
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Posted on May 13, 2006 08:37 pm
Mikendher
muffin
Member Since: May 13, 2006
Here's the song:
UPDATED VERSION: www.savefile.com/files/3015338
www.savefile.com/files/2884147
I'm looking for any advice at all, especially on the vocals. Should I take out the distortion? Add more reverb? I want the vocals to sink into the mix.
I'm happy with how most of the instruments sound. Is the fade-out at the end akward? Does the shift in the song work well?
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May 13, 2006 09:06 pm Hey man, I like the song. On to my iPod it goes.
First thing I suggest is to pan some of those vocal lines that you have in the middle. Also at 1:50, when the ooh's come in, maybe making them undistorted would make a nice impact.
Also, do you have distortion on the reverb in the ooh's part? Something there is making my eye twitch.... lol.
I'm still undecided on having distortion throughout the whole vocal line. Maybe a few more listens will make up my mind.
Love the change, and I think the vox sit very nicely.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 13, 2006 09:12 pm I'll give it a listen tommorrow and let ya know what I hear.
Noize
May 13, 2006 09:14 pm Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, the distortion is on the reverb. Should it be the other way around? The only reason I added distortion is because my singing is very nonaggressive, but the song is powerful, so I wanted the vocals to be powerful also. If I take distortion off, it just sounds not powerful enough.
Anyway, thanks again!
May 13, 2006 09:37 pm Try a hard limiter instead
www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-master-limiter.php (100% free)
It might make your vocals sound a bit more powerful.
Try making a mono send to your distortion plug in, and a stereo send to your reverb plug in. Mix to taste and see if it helps.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 13, 2006 11:11 pm I have to agree with CS here. The vocals could use maybe a milder type of distortion. Just something to wamr them, not distort them so much. The hard limiter he listed a link to can be driven a bit hard to get a fuller warmer sound from your vocal parts without driving them into distorted sounds. The main vocal wasnt bad, but I have to agree that the ooh parts were bit too distorted.
Nice song by the way, interesting melody yet simple. I did notice a couple of plinky sounding notes in the piano part. Didnt catch the time they hit on. If I get a bit more time this weekend I will try and pinpoint them for you.
But liked the song for sure. A little practice on your singing and you could get the power up without having to resort to a distortion pluggin.
Try the tricks CS listed above and you might be surprised what it will do for the vocal.
Noize
May 14, 2006 12:00 pm The hard limiter was just what I was looking for, thanks for the advice! It worked well for the main vocals, but not for the oooh part. I think I just need to record that part again. Just for clarification though, did you mean hard limiting the amplitude, or hard limiting for the distortion. Both seem to work well anyway.
I panned the "the sun" part and added echo, and took of the distortion. It sounds a lot better that way. There's still a lot of things I need to do before I'm happy with it, but this was definitely helpful. Any advice on the oooh part? I think mabye I should record it when I'm farther from the mic, and get more than 2 voice tracks for it, to make it richer and add space.
What did you mean by plinky piano parts? Like you can hear the piano key striking? I listened through and couldn't catch what you were talking about.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 14, 2006 01:39 pm For the oooh parts you might do as you thought and record a couple of tracks of it. Then maybe use a multi voice chorus to thicken it up a bit. That does wonders with parts like that, as well as lead vocal lines too. Dont over do it on the lead vocal though as it can be easily overdone.
AS for the plinky pinao parts. I am talking about hitting an extra key, wrong note slightly when playing. I think it is in the faster part after about the 2:15 mark os so. Its not really noticable, and I'm sure most wouldnt even hear it.
Did you use a realy piano for this? It might just be me as well, who knows.
olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
May 14, 2006 02:51 pm I couldn't get it too download or play, sorry.
Dan
May 14, 2006 04:01 pm The link is still working fine for me. You have to click download on the first page and on the second...
Yeah I used a real piano. The multiple voices thing is REALLY working well. Eventually I will post an updated version.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 14, 2006 05:40 pm Then the plinky sound my just be coming from the pinao itself then. Maybe a slightly out of tune note or something.
May 14, 2006 06:18 pm Oh definitely. My piano is very out of tune. That's definitely it. It hasn't been tuned since 1994 (which will be remedied in a week or so).
May 14, 2006 07:34 pm A real piano, nice! Awesome recording of the piano then.
May 15, 2006 04:20 pm Alright, I've changed quite a bit. Here's the updated version:
www.savefile.com/files/3015338
The only part I'm uncomfortable with now is the "oooh" part. Suggestions?
May 15, 2006 08:35 pm Oh man, that sounds 1000 times better.
Suggestions: Turn the piano up in the intro?
I love the use of the distortion just before then ooh part.
I think the ooh part sounds really good, you just need to make it quite a bit quieter, so it sinks back into the mix.
Good stuff man. Two thumbs up.
May 16, 2006 11:55 am I only just realized that the ooh part is out of key... did anyone else? I might have to redo that part (and it took so long to get right!).
Yeah I definitely need to make that part quieter too.
May 16, 2006 04:10 pm This sounds like someone stuck Death Cab for Cutie in the same room with late-90's Built to Spill and told them to record something! I like it.
The ooohs are indeed kinda out of key. You can kinda go two ways here...either re-do it, or don't. (Duh!) It's sorta neat from a harmonic dissonance perspective...particularly since it dissolves into that neat "faster" outro that finishes the song. However, it might fatigue the listener after more than a few plays...I dunno. Artistic license on that one, man. You kinda gotta go with what you think is gonna be best for the song.
I'm not wild about the distortion just before the ooohs, honestly...but I think I would be if you maybe had a doubled vocal, an octave lower, with a similar distortion on it. As it is, it's really up there in the high frequencies.
Overall it sounds really good though! Nice job.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 16, 2006 08:41 pm Yep, agree with CS, much better. Have you tried adding any chorus to the ooh part yet. That will help fill it out a bit.
mac74Show me to the beer....Member
Since: Mar 23, 2003
May 17, 2006 10:44 am sorry, not working for me.
May 17, 2006 12:08 pm the link or the song? The link is working as far as I can tell...
I'm going to rerecord the oooh part, because I don't want the harmonic dissonance. I'm hoping to get it right without adding chorus, because that's way it's genuine... we'll see.
May 17, 2006 08:06 pm Alright, here's an updated version:
www.savefile.com/files/6678612
I tried redoing the oooh part... but it lacked the punch of my previous attempt... it was too plain. I realized that the harmonic dissonance was actually making it sound better (at least to me), so I merged the previous vocal tracks with my recent attempt. Now the oooh part has 16 vocal tracks, hah. I think it sounds good (better at least). I also undistorted the remaining small distorted vocal thing: "we don't care, don't you care", and changed/added a couple small things. I tried adding different drum parts, but it never sat quite right, so I scratched that. I also tried redoing the bass and the "on fire" part, but couldn't improve upon them. Let me know what you think.
