2 specific questions

[kwpv356]

This is the kernel of a goofy song I wrote for my kid. I wanted to create the illusion of a choir or group of people sort of 'chanting' the main tune.

Question One: in my headphones, earbuds, and desktop computer speakers, I can hear the bass. In my car, the bass evaporates! Why?????

Question Two: compare the dry vox to the processed vox. I have autotune, compression, verb, and a stereo tool applied. is this the right direction or am I ruining the integrity of the dry sound? in other words, overprocessing?? ( my personal curse).

thanks for listening.
Kurt

[bvadrums]

Bass sounds okay on my studio monitors and avantones. Sorry if it's a stupid question, but are you driving the car while listening? Car rumble, etc., certainly can mask the bass.

IMO, you're doing fine with the vocals.

Where's the rest of the tune? Looking forward to hearing it.

Best,

B

[kakeux]

Hi there,

I think you're on the right track with both the bass and vocals.

In the full mix, I don't feel like the vocals are over processed, and finally that's the only think that matter. Soloing element will not satisfiy your ears most of the time. Think of things inside the mix and not outside of it. Reserve the solo option to track problems. Don't feel scared of too much, just do what seems to sound right. If it's really too much, someone will point it out, but go for it first.

For the bass in your car, well there could be several reason for its lower level. You're car audio system sucks Kidding, but if it's the stock sound system it's probably not capable of reproducing much lower than 100-120 hz. As far as I can tell from your mix, the bass energy is under that threshold. One solution is to add high-mid or even highs in the bass so that it will be audible everywhere, or mostly. Try to listen to your mix on laptop speakers, if you can hear the bass it will be the case on a lot of basic audio system. Adding distortion to a bass sound help getting more harmonics, and some high harmonices are more likely to be heard on normal system.

Hope it helps a bit!

Cheers!

[Pande]

Take off some of the reverb on the high frequencies and automate it out of the breaths, those are the most notable things. Breaths and reverb are terrible combos most of the time.

[Dwarfgrinder]

Songs like these scare the shit out of me!

[kwpv356]

Songs like these scare the shit out of me!

Why? is it that bad...

[halcyon187]

If you have stereo effects on your bass or panning, you might be killing it in your car depending on the setup. Make sure all bass is mono and listen again in your car. It "might" be that the bass is cancelling itself out on a mono stereo (your subwoofer in your car for example)

[redworks]

over processed is an over rated issue. what is over processed. the beatles had the crap processed out of there songs and the kids today still are getting into them while those of yesteryear wax philosophical about the days of real music. mix it so it sounds good and if that means processing the crap out of it do it. anybody who is against using things because they are new can toss out their fridges, light bulbs, etc. and live without electricity i personally am going to use whatever tools i have to make it sound the best i can.

[kwpv356]

out of curiosity, which vocal version do you prefer....??

[redworks]

out of curiosity, which vocal version do you prefer....??

i am on a trip right now with my laptop so have not had a close listen. also it would really depend on the rest of the song and how it all comes together from start to finish. i would have to say i generally tend to like a little something on these types of vocals on the laptop speakers i am saying the undry one.

[Emma]

Hi, I like what you're doing here, it has a cool chirpy feel to it. Yep, it sounds processed but as red said, it all depends on how it all comes together. When I'm mixing stuff down, I always do a car cd mix, just to see how much gets lost in the road noise - it's kinda interesting what vanishes on car stereos and a useful thing to test out.
I'm curious to know where you're going to take this next...

[kwpv356]

to red, emma and the rest of the curious:

listen to the tune and put in the words "My dad made fun of me, when I wrote this song and now I'm famous". inspired by my older daughter defending herself against some Dad-sarcasm at her singing in the car. She said she was going to write a song and become famous and then wouldn't I feel bad.

it started as pure satire...but I'm kind of working it up to be a "legitimate", full length pop song.

[kwpv356]

I think this is a good question for another post for others to chime in....?

perhaps a better word for "overprocessed" is "saturated". my recordings always seem to have a saturation of effects; for example a different reverb on each track and one on the master which just muddy themselves silly. I was thinking that maybe it's like too loud--what is too loud? well, when things distort, it's too loud, right? Mmm, kind of. We seek good distortion--that is, distortion that sounds good-I'm seeking the proper amount of effects. Bad news is that I usually aim much too high and my mix is saturated with effects (can we call it 'fx saturation'?).

i have to listen to rock/pop greatest hits on the radio all summer and some of those old pop songs definitely have, IMO, fx saturation. it's cool, though, that I'm learing how to hear the different stuff those guys did!!

kw

[redworks]

as i read your post it popped into my mind that there are two ways to use fx. 1. because others are using them and we got them. 2. to get the sound in our hearts across to the listener.
of the 1st one you can definitely over process (putting reverb on to gel the mix) (more delay for depth) etc. the 2nd though i believe is what separates the good mixers from the rest of us. they know how the tools work they have played with them and at times used them because that is what they were supposed to do, but now they are using them to achieve their artistic vision. if you achieve your artistic vision you never have to much (or too little) of anything. right now i am in the learning stage and learn by watching others and attempting the same thing. i take it too far some times because i don't really know what i am doing with the fx, i am just trying to do what they did. as you said, the more you listen to others stuff the more you have to work from for ideas. i hope that one day soon i will be using these tools naturally then i will not have to worry about if it is enough of too much.

[Dwarfgrinder]

Suddenly after listening to the entire mix with the happy bassline it makes more sense and its a bit less scary.

If you want to scare you kids with choir vocals plz make them listen to this before bed time.
Fantomas - Rosemary`s Baby - YouTube

[m24p]

for example a different reverb on each track and one on the master which just muddy themselves silly.

I've never had good results putting reverb on the master.