Selene - New MT Original

[musicturtle]

Back when we had a two chord song challenge, I took Henry David Thoreau poem and put it to music.

I am adding to that for my EP project.

I adapted his poem "The Moon" to fit with the following music.

This is my first stab at a mix so any and all suggestions are appreciated.

[rayc]

I had to look him & it up.
Lovely work Tony. Lovely arrangement too.
COOOOOL harmonies and a fab job.
I quite like some poems put to music. I was introduced to this one in 1971 by a mob of music/theatre/lit people who performed at out high school. I think it rather beats Stevie Nicks' version at least.

[Armistice]

NIce work MT. Nic vocal melody and harmonies. I can't really hear it properly as I'm nowhere near my studio.

Is the sort of white noise I'm hearing at the end part of that phased synth pad thingy? I'd consider turning the pad down just a touch and putting a big reverb on it - but as I said, I'm listening on my laptop speakers so it's all a bit lofi and perhaps that would be a bad move...

But nice song, singing and playing.

[paulman]

Listening on my studio monitors, not AirPods. This is beautiful. The vocal needs to come out more, I have trouble making out the poem. Not sure if just a level boost or compression would be what it needs, but I suspect compression because of how softly you're singing.

This is a personal preference, but if it were my mix I'd bring that synth out slightly too, make it more vivid. Unless you want it subtle. I've done that too, it's good either way.

All the performances are great, it's a really nice track.

[vomitHatSteve]

That's pretty.

I like the synth pad.

As far as ways it could be improved... maybe the vocals are a little dark relative to the guitars. And there seems to be a bit of a noise floor lingering throughout. It sounds like it might be some high-end noise on the synth since it lingers after all the other instruments drop out.

[Armistice]

it might be some high-end noise on the synth since it lingers after all the other instruments drop out.

That's what I was hearing at the end, I think. I'm back home now so hopefully I'll download it and listen on proper speakers tomorrow.

[musicturtle]

Thanks @rayc ,@Armistice , @paulman and @vomitHatSteve

New mix in the original post. Cleaned up the vocals some and leveled them out better.

The pad does have phase element to iit that adds some noise/background effect. I think I like though. Gonna let it sit for a few days and see if I feel the same.

[musicturtle]

@Armistice and @vomitHatSteve

Listened today, and yes the phasey pad needs to go. Sounds too much like noise sometimes and takes away from the intimacy of the song.

Gonna cut that and retrack some of the vocals.

[vomitHatSteve]

I do like the pad. I think the noise is just distracting

[musicturtle]

I do like the pad. I think the noise is just distracting

Gonna keep a pad in there...juat something with less phase.

[Armistice]

I do like the pad. I think the noise is just distracting

Gonna keep a pad in there...juat something with less phase.

I often do stuff that people only become aware of when I mute the channel. It's there but you're not particularly aware of it until it isn't there any more. Low levels, big room reverbs are good for giving "float" to sparse arrangements - I never thought the phase pad was wrong, just too loud and dry...

[musicturtle]

Gonna keep a pad in there...juat something with less phase.

I often do stuff that people only become aware of when I mute the channel. It's there but you're not particularly aware of it until it isn't there any more. Low levels, big room reverbs are good for giving "float" to sparse arrangements - I never thought the phase pad was wrong, just too loud and dry...

I will try that. I do like the sound...but it's weird the noise is much worse on the higher pitches. Just need to do some fiddling around with it.

[Armistice]

I often do stuff that people only become aware of when I mute the channel. It's there but you're not particularly aware of it until it isn't there any more. Low levels, big room reverbs are good for giving "float" to sparse arrangements - I never thought the phase pad was wrong, just too loud and dry...

I will try that. I do like the sound...but it's weird the noise is much worse on the higher pitches. Just need to do some fiddling around with it.

I'm not sure if you've played with multi-band compression? You could set a narrow band around whatever frequency that hiss is which would lower the volume of that band when it gets above a certain threshold - useful for minimising issues to do with specific frequencies like this. I use ReaXComp in Reaper to do this sort of stuff - not sure if you're a Reaper guy though. It should leave the actual pad sound largely unaffected.

If you do reverb it up a bit, you'll probably want to EQ the reverb to cut out before that frequency is hit, as well, or else you'll bet more of it. The "Abbey Road" trick with a LPF set just south of whatever the frequency is.

Bit of tinkering and it could all come together.

[musicturtle]

I'm not sure if you've played with multi-band compression? You could set a narrow band around whatever frequency that hiss is which would lower the volume of that band when it gets above a certain threshold - useful for minimising issues to do with specific frequencies like this. I use ReaXComp in Reaper to do this sort of stuff - not sure if you're a Reaper guy though. It should leave the actual pad sound largely unaffected.

If you do reverb it up a bit, you'll probably want to EQ the reverb to cut out before that frequency is hit, as well, or else you'll bet more of it. The "Abbey Road" trick with a LPF set just south of whatever the frequency is.

Bit of tinkering and it could all come together.

I use Cubase, but they have a multiband compressor of course.

I tried and it worked. I actually did quite a big cut on the stuff above a certain frequency and the noise is gone. But the nice phase effect is still there. Added a bit of reverb to it as well, cleaned and warmed it up nicely. Thanks for the tip! I use the Abbey Road trick on most of my reverb channels nowadays too.

Gonna re-track the vocals sometime this week and will post a new version.

[TheTestingYak]

good choon brav