Sometime Soon - new tune

[Armistice]

No, not a wry commentary on when I'd get this finished - that's the title. And it's not even the song I was talking about in the other thread. That is yet to come. I've been working on this one for a while.

It was also written using a particular sound on a particular pedal, in this case a reverse delay. Shorter, poppier, soppier, and slower than anything I've done for a while. Just turned out that way.

As usual, I've listened to it in my crappy listening environment so much I can no longer tell whether the mix is good, bad or indifferent.

Sometime Soon

(PS. When I play the file from any source on this laptop - file on USB, file on computer, file on web on Dropbox - I hear a glitch at 0.50 - I think it's just this damn Beatz card thing, as the glitch definitely isn't there in the same rendered MP3 on my recording PC - let me know if you hear it pls)

Your thoughts appreciated, as always.



Sometime Soon

Well I think that you should know, I think I have to go
There's a better place out there, sometime, somehow, somewhere
Hey, I'm leaving, hey, I'm leaving
Hey, I'm leaving, hey, I'm leaving
Sometime soon

Well this whole place is just full of sad endings and I haven’t even found where my life starts
It’s time to chase the sun, it’s time to pay the piper, it’s time to break each other’s hearts

And I know you have to stay
I wish it wasn’t that way
I wish you wanted more
I thought you did before

Hey I’m leaving, hey I’m leaving
Hey I’m leaving, hey I’m leaving
Sometime soon, sometime soon

And I really hope that I’m not running from this darkness to a greater darkness still
I have to find a way from here to the rest of the world, there’s no time left to kill
Have to see the big lights and the poets and the dreamers, have to see what this guitar and I can do
But you know I’ll miss you, I’ll miss you, I’ll miss you, I’ll miss you, I’ll miss you

[JD01]

Cool noises at the start
At 21s it starts sounding exactly like Armistice.
I think the vocal is actually a little loud and the lead is a bit dry when it comes in - it's really close. Sounds great with the verby chorus and all of the backings.
Now at 1:28 the vocal seems to quiet, I think the clean guitar here is too loud.
Love the choice of chord at 1:48 followed by the weird reverse echo/delay thing.

I think the guitars are a bit loud around the three minute mark too, just around "there's no time to left to kill" by the time of "I'll miss you..." it sounds right again.

Good song though, mate.

[rayc]

No glitch for me.
Vox either too loud or too forward - feels like your singing at the back of my head.
It's really happening by 1.40
A little de essing and plosive treatment here & there maybe.
There does seem to be a little more happening in my left ear in terms of repeats/echo and strong lines but that could be my hearing.
David, I like it a lot. Needs a little Mel9 maybe? (Sorry, joke Joyce).

[Armistice]

Thanks guys... yeah, thought they might be a bit too loud. Sound perfect in my monitors but I don't have them in a particularly good spot and it's always hard to get a balance - when I listened from another room I thought "Shit, too much!" Happy to turn them down a touch, but I'll leave it alone for 24 hours to recalibrate the ears.

I saw another Mel 9 on FB ray, $350, I think this one was. They get snapped up pretty quick. I'd love one but I'd probably only use it once!

[Lt. Bob]

vocals remind me a lot of Frank Zappa .... the voice actually sounds quite a bit like him and he always mixed his vox very forward so you could understand the lyrics.

It does seem a bit too loud on this though.
Everything sounds pretty good to me but the recording is sorta boomy sounding on my system .... like everything together built up around 300-4--hz and there's just too much energy there ..... no particular track .... just the overall sound.
And, for me on my system, it obscures some of the nice detail.
Maybe the verb?
maybe try a verb with less bottom end?
Not sure but (again on my system) it bothers me.

But nice tunage .... nice composition and the interplay between the parts makes me listen deeper to get all the juicy goodness ...... right up my alley!

[vomitHatSteve]

+1 on turning down the vox a fair bit.
I also don't hear the glitch.

I like the new guitar effects at the beginning.

Other instruments seem balanced relative to each other. Bass and lead lines that follow each other are playing especially nice.

I did hear a glitch at 2:51. Sloppy vocal edit?

[Armistice]

Thanks Bob and VHS also.

I've put a new mix up, just quickly before I'm off to work. Pulled a bit out at 350 via mastering EQ, found the vocal glitch (VHS) and minimised it - can't eliminate it as it's not a glitch, its on the take - may have to dig up another take if it's still audible. Turned all the vocals down about 3.5db.

I hear the left thing ray, but too complex to deal with before work - will also inspect the verb and see what it's doing with the low/mids tonight too.

Cheers

[Armistice]

LOL. Not sure that did the tune any favours. I'm going to have to reset the vocal and play with the automation tonight, and try some HPFing on some of the guitars, methinks.

I'll get to it tonight....

[Greg_L]

I think it sounds pretty good. Good guitar tones and effects. You kind of sound like Lou Reed.

I think the vocals get buried a bit when the big chord rhythms come in.

Set your vocal level for those loudest parts, then drop em down or automate them down during the quieter parts. Make the loud parts your benchmark. That's where it all needs to sit right. During the quieter parts you have more leeway on our vocal level.

[Armistice]

I think it sounds pretty good. Good guitar tones and effects. You kind of sound like Lou Reed.

I think the vocals get buried a bit when the big chord rhythms come in.

Set your vocal level for those loudest parts, then drop em down or automate them down during the quieter parts. Make the loud parts your benchmark. That's where it all needs to sit right. During the quieter parts you have more leeway on our vocal level.

Thanks Greg - yeah, I've got the actual main vocal fader low but some of the automation sections at max on the envelope in those sections where it's a bit lost - so I've gone about it the wrong way. So I'll have to up the main fader overall, get it right in the loud bits, then reduce the envelope in various places to get it right.

Cheers

[Greg_L]

Thanks Greg - yeah, I've got the actual main vocal fader low but some of the automation sections at max on the envelope in those sections where it's a bit lost - so I've gone about it the wrong way. So I'll have to up the main fader overall, get it right in the loud bits, then reduce the envelope in various places to get it right.

Cheers

Right. You've done it backwards. Any ol way will work, but as you can see, if you run out of headroom you're done. It's easier to turn down than turn up....usually sounds better too.

[Armistice]

Hokay... have done various things as mentioned by you lot above - new mix at original link. Hopefully a bit stronger.

Cheers

[JD01]

Much improved, mate. I still think the vocal is a bit dry in the first verse.
Verse 2 the vocal is now a touch quiet. On "sometime soon" when you say "soon" its almost totally drowned out by the chord. But throughout the verse you're pretty quiet - the singing is great in this verse too.
Verse 3 the level is right now, 'cos the song goes quieter again.
The ending bit, I think the vocal is a touch quiet, not by much though.

Its good though, mate. I'm looking forward to when I have enough material to compile the "Stalking Horse EP"

[Armistice]

Much improved, mate. I still think the vocal is a bit dry in the first verse.
Verse 2 the vocal is now a touch quiet. On "sometime soon" when you say "soon" its almost totally drowned out by the chord. But throughout the verse you're pretty quiet - the singing is great in this verse too.
Verse 3 the level is right now, 'cos the song goes quieter again.
The ending bit, I think the vocal is a touch quiet, not by much though.

Its good though, mate. I'm looking forward to when I have enough material to compile the "Stalking Horse EP"

Thanks JD - well that's #7, #8 on the way. #1 needs work but the rest I'm OK with. Few more and it's an album, not an EP.

I'm in a tinkering mood, so I did some more work on the vocal volumes. But that's enough for one day!

I haven't quite worked out what to call the structure, because it sort of goes verse 1, chorus, other bit #1, verse 2, chorus, other bit #2 in my head - but I think I worked out what you meant.

[JD01]

Cool. Stalking Horse is the first one I heard. I think this is the 3rd track I've heard since then.

Yeah. I'm calling the chorus the bit with all the harmonies but also a kind of post chorus bit that I'm calling a verse before all the lead guitar with the reverse delay comes in.

[Lt. Bob]

much mo' better ..... you got rid of that 'boom' that was bothering me ..... a way clearer mix .... vocals sit way better.

Nice .....

[vomitHatSteve]

Vocals are still feeling pretty forward and loud at times. "Sometime soon" seemed especially loud.

I think you have a lot of room to scale back the harmony vocals without losing them. They're the main thing that tries to bury the lead vox in the chorus, so if they were down, the lead could be too without losing coherency.

[WhiskeyJack]

Hey Armi, Got a little bit o time in the basement and thought i'd get caught up on all the ear candy

Right off everything sounds really full and not a lot of holes in the mix. it's a nice textured mix all across the board. Purely out of curious interest how many vocal tracks did you do for those "Heyyy parts" I like how everything is sitting in it's own space but it gels nicely. good job.

The vocals seem to pop out at me in place more often than they should. It could be whatever treatment you got goin on for them to give them space. When they are verse vocals they sit nicely and sound really good but when things get a bit more energized they pop more. Gives them a slightly uneven feel.

Other than that good job buddy. The wait was totally worth it.

[TripleM]

I agree the vocal is loud. But both the snare and guitars still kind of get in the way. I'd just turn down the snare. Then I might clear some mid-2Ks out of the clean-ish guitar. It just seems a bit cluttered in the mid-2Ks.

Bass sounds nice.

I like the way the guitar parts move against each other. That was cool.

[Armistice]

Hey Armi, Got a little bit o time in the basement and thought i'd get caught up on all the ear candy

Right off everything sounds really full and not a lot of holes in the mix. it's a nice textured mix all across the board. Purely out of curious interest how many vocal tracks did you do for those "Heyyy parts" I like how everything is sitting in it's own space but it gels nicely. good job.

The vocals seem to pop out at me in place more often than they should. It could be whatever treatment you got goin on for them to give them space. When they are verse vocals they sit nicely and sound really good but when things get a bit more energized they pop more. Gives them a slightly uneven feel.

Other than that good job buddy. The wait was totally worth it.

Thanks WJ.... to answer your question - there are 5 parts to the harmony, 4 tracks of each part, with a main track L & R and the other two about 10dB quieter L & R as well. So, 20! In the end I mixed them and rendered a stereo wav and reimported it as I was just forever fiddling with the individual tracks...

Not quite sure what to do with the vocal - it has reverb, perhaps too much, and a delay on it, which I ramp up a little in the "spoken" sections - maybe I should "unramp" it...