Hey ya'll. Been working a new job with crazy hours since January, and in my limited time have been working on this track for my band's next release. It's mixed and mastered as of last night, but we may retrack the vocal intro with a click so we can get the timing on point. And so I can sing my part better. I'm singing the highest part and it's really fucking hard to sing it with good tone. And I don't know what happened with the acoustic guitar track, but I cannot get it to sound good. I may have her retrack it with my guitar, or at least try out some different picks or something. Those are things that can be retracked and plugged back in without any drastic changes to the mix or master settings, so I think it's time to come out of my hole and get some objective feedback. I struggled a lot with the synths at the end and making them work well with the bass and kick, but I think I got something that sounds pretty cool. I set a clipper to where it only does subtle coloration during most of the song, but at the end when everything is louder it really kicks in and marries the guitar and synths and low end in a way I had struggled to achieve. At least I think so at the moment.
I think this is the first thing I've posted here that isn't just me. All I'm doing here as far as performance is lead guitar, backup vocals, and synths.
Cold Wind
Re: Cold Wind
I'm not sure I'd retrack the intro, honestly, it sounds like a bunch of people standing together singing with the almost inevitable timing disparities, and that makes it sound human. I think it sounds great.
My recent excursions on acoustic guitar have me doing some pretty extreme EQing to get it to sit in. There's some mid frequencies that could do with a cut to make it a little "nicer" I guess. I actually think the electric that comes in is a little harsh and middy and overly driven and doesn't sit well, but what you could do about that depends upon how it was recorded. Just an opinion, however.
The same electric playing the descending single note run that starts about 3.54 - sort of sounds like whoever's playing that just made it up on the fly - and then thought, yeah, I like that, I'll do it again... and by that I mean that the first time it's played it sounds a bit hesitant, but the second time it's much more confident - I think it's fine as an addition but the first go at it is a little lacking in presence.
Not loving the synth arpeggios at about 5.00 - I disagree with you there - I think poking them in a bit would help, or a different, less "80s synth" patch maybe? Just not sitting with what was, until that point, a pretty "organic" and traditionally instrumented (is that a word?) song. Just an opinion, however.
All that said, it's a really good song and I love the singer's voice.
There's some subjective "objective" feedback for you. Hope it's useful!
My recent excursions on acoustic guitar have me doing some pretty extreme EQing to get it to sit in. There's some mid frequencies that could do with a cut to make it a little "nicer" I guess. I actually think the electric that comes in is a little harsh and middy and overly driven and doesn't sit well, but what you could do about that depends upon how it was recorded. Just an opinion, however.
The same electric playing the descending single note run that starts about 3.54 - sort of sounds like whoever's playing that just made it up on the fly - and then thought, yeah, I like that, I'll do it again... and by that I mean that the first time it's played it sounds a bit hesitant, but the second time it's much more confident - I think it's fine as an addition but the first go at it is a little lacking in presence.
Not loving the synth arpeggios at about 5.00 - I disagree with you there - I think poking them in a bit would help, or a different, less "80s synth" patch maybe? Just not sitting with what was, until that point, a pretty "organic" and traditionally instrumented (is that a word?) song. Just an opinion, however.
All that said, it's a really good song and I love the singer's voice.
There's some subjective "objective" feedback for you. Hope it's useful!
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vomitHatSteve
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Re: Cold Wind
I think the intro is fine as is, production wise. It's kinda long, but that's an entirely-different artistic discussion.
As to the main mix... It seems to be coming through clearly enough. Maybe the kick could come up a bit. When the actual snare hits and tom rolls come in, they're pretty loud.
Some kind of frequency range just seems to be neglected most of the song... I think it's the high end. When the vocals are going, they reverb tails and other sparkle are taking up some of that space, but when the lead guitar trades in, it's only taking up high mids. The mix sounds more complete when the synths come in at the end.
As to the main mix... It seems to be coming through clearly enough. Maybe the kick could come up a bit. When the actual snare hits and tom rolls come in, they're pretty loud.
Some kind of frequency range just seems to be neglected most of the song... I think it's the high end. When the vocals are going, they reverb tails and other sparkle are taking up some of that space, but when the lead guitar trades in, it's only taking up high mids. The mix sounds more complete when the synths come in at the end.
Re: Cold Wind
Thanks guys, lots to look at.
Re: Cold Wind
Yeah, like the intro vocals - keep them. Nice reverb tails.
Not a fan of the acoustic sound that comes in at 38s - its all mid and right down the middle, pan it off to one side and then stick the electric guitar on the other side. That'll really help spacing stuff out to start with and you can go from there.
Not a fan of the acoustic sound that comes in at 38s - its all mid and right down the middle, pan it off to one side and then stick the electric guitar on the other side. That'll really help spacing stuff out to start with and you can go from there.