Lonely Avenue - A Ray Charles cover

[Tadpui]

I got a wild hair last night and started this project, a cover of Lonely Avenue by Ray Charles (1956). I debated on whether to just stick this in the pre-1960 thread or start a thread here in LHAL. I figured I'd put it here since I'll likely be doing more work on it. I started this less than 24 hours ago so it's still young. I'll probably retrack the lead vocal (cuz Ray Charles I ain't) and I'd like to take another swipe at the guitar solo since this one is pretty uninspired. And I'm trying to convince my wife to do the backing vocals instead of me, which would be a great touch.

Anyways, here's what I think is the only mono mix I've ever done:

20230317 Lonely Avenue-001.mp3

[rayc]

a) LOVE the mononess
b) it's cool - I like you bvox.
c) the guitar may be a wee bit,loud behind the lead vocals - but only a smudge.
COOLness.

[Tadpui]

Thanks @rayc , much appreciated. I'll work on the guitar tone more and hopefully be able to get it behind the vocal a bit more. I was playing with an amp sim and got in the ballpark of a tone I liked. Then I switched to a real amp and a mic, and I haven't yet gotten a handle on the tone and how to shove it in the same speaker as the rest of the mix. Cheers man!

[Manslick]

Sounds authentic lofi. Good groove. Good mix.
Good work.

[vomitHatSteve]

c) the guitar may be a wee bit,loud behind the lead vocals - but only a smudge.

I might go the opposite direction myself. I feel like the guitar itself is getting a little lost under the bass and kick

[Tadpui]

Thanks @Manslick! Cool to hear that you got a lo-fi vibe out of it. I've spent about 25 years with the original from 1956 so that's the only way I hear it in my head, and trying to emulate that has been fun and informative. Cheers!

[Tadpui]

c) the guitar may be a wee bit,loud behind the lead vocals - but only a smudge.

I might go the opposite direction myself. I feel like the guitar itself is getting a little lost under the bass and kick

Yeah I can hear it both ways. I didn't automate anything in the mix (yet) so I was trying to play softer during the verses so the little turnaround and the solo would be just about right. The whole mono thing is pretty new to me, so trying to get things to fit will be a learning experience. I'm hoping to find a less fizzy guitar tone that'll allow me to turn it up a bit in the mix without being overpowering, so I'll see how that quest goes. I've been trying to mimic what the piano does in the original, which is barely audible. So that must have influenced my fader finger Thanks for the listen and the suggestion!

[JD01]

Sounds like a good authentic mono mix, the guitar sounds a bit quiet to me. But then given the mono-ness it might cloud everything if you brought it up.
The bass guitar seems really loud and dominating.
Fancy trying a stereo mix?

Vocals sound great on this.

[Greg_L]

I think this is a fantastic mono mix. It sounds like it's supposed to - a band in a room. Well done.

My only nit is the vocals are a little dry and up front compared to the rest of the mix.

[Lt. Bob]

guitar should prolly come up a bit ....... otherwise the mix sounds good to me ........... guitar solo is fairly coo and the tone is nicel.

The whole thing sounds pretty 'white' though.
Maybe turn up the 'black' on the drum quantization

[Greg_L]

The whole thing sounds pretty 'white' though.

[Tadpui]

@JD01 you may be right about the bass. Although it might be the kick that's making the bass seem even louder. I upgraded to a larger kick (from a 20" to a 22") and holy cow is it way deeper and louder. I'll dial back the kick and see if that takes away some of the thunder of being locked into the bass. And I might carve some 120Hz out of the bass and see how it sounds. Thanks!

@Greg_L I struggle with this on vocals, especially when I've done these kind of "retro" mixes. I accidentally saturated the vocal with compression on the way in and I kinda liked it so I kept it. I thought that'd help fatten up and blend in the vocal but it didn't. When I tried more room reverb on the vocal, it got weird and nasaly. I'll try a couple more things with it and see if it'll blend in a bit better.

@Lt. Bob hahaha that's all the swing and soul I have available! I was hanging on for dear life on the drums just to get it locked in with the bass. Everything was recorded to a drum machine originally so it's pretty locked to the grid/metronome. I'm afraid if I try to do it without a machine, it'd go from "too time-aligned" to "recovering from a head injury"

[Greg_L]

@Greg_L I struggle with this on vocals, especially when I've done these kind of "retro" mixes. I accidentally saturated the vocal with compression on the way in and I kinda liked it so I kept it. I thought that'd help fatten up and blend in the vocal but it didn't. When I tried more room reverb on the vocal, it got weird and nasaly. I'll try a couple more things with it and see if it'll blend in a bit better.

Slapback dude. Hit the vocal with some slapback delay then reverb. That's the vintage trick. It'll sit. Your vocals are good. They just need to melt into the mix a bit more.

[TripleM]

I agree - I love the mono mix. It fits.

It sounds great. My only nits are like the others - just levels. Lead vox a bit hi. BGVs a bit low. Rhythm guits a bit low.

But otherwise I thought it was great.

[Tadpui]

Slapback dude. Hit the vocal with some slapback delay then reverb. That's the vintage trick. It'll sit. Your vocals are good. They just need to melt into the mix a bit more.

Thanks man, I'll give that a try! I've had bad luck with slapback vocal delay, but after watching Joe Gilder fiddle with it, I think I can do better than I have in the past with it. I'm still dialing it in so it's not too conspicuous, but I'll keep at it.

@TripleM thanks! I'm sitting down now to make some tweaks. I'll probably sleep on them and render another version tomorrow.

[Greg_L]

Thanks man, I'll give that a try! I've had bad luck with slapback vocal delay, but after watching Joe Gilder fiddle with it, I think I can do better than I have in the past with it. I'm still dialing it in so it's not too conspicuous, but I'll keep at it.

Just one quick repeat. That's the trick. If you get it right a slapback delay makes damn near anything sound vintage.

[Alison]

Love it! You sound so young ("young" is better than "too white" in my humble opinion. Singing the blues comes from living the blues). All the playing is excellent, also in my very humble opinion. Well done!

[Tadpui]

Just one quick repeat. That's the trick. If you get it right a slapback delay makes damn near anything sound vintage.

I dialed in one repeat, I'm still playing with the delay timing. I'm sitting at 120ms right now and I think I like it. I hi-passed it at about 150Hz and lo-passed at about 3.5KHz. It's close, but I'm still fiddling. The blend is really touchy...it goes from inaudible to waaaay too much really quickly. I'll get there though!

@Alison thanks so much! I don't have a very "bluesy" voice so there's only so far I'm going to get doing a faithful cover of Ray Charles

[rayc]

Did you try the slapback preset in ReaDelay? It's good.