Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Vocals - OPINION PLEASE!

[StudioBellwood]

This is an original and i'm asking anyone to bash it in anyway. The song it self and the recording. Thanks.

[StudioBellwood]

Okay, when i put this up, i didn't have a lot of time to give detail.

This song took a few months to finish writing and a few weeks to record and mix (mainly because i didn't have a lot of time to finish it). It's a christian based message but more of a question of god than a praise. I write a lot of christian songs that dive deep into lyrics but don't necessarily say "PRAISE GOD!" I hate writing love songs because i don't need to be another one of the thousands of people out there who do. Anyway, any and every comment on this song would be great before i show it to all my friends. Thanks

[brandondrury]

You've got a conflict with the bass guitar and the acoustic guitar in the low end. I would want a thinner, prettier acoustic guitar. I'm not sure if the bass guitar is really adding anything in this particular case. In non-drum situation, the bass has to add more mood to the tune. In a drum situation, the bass can get away with just hitting root notes to fill out the bottom.

Have you used any compression? I'd DEFINITELY put a compressor on the vocal, bass, and maybe the guitar too (the guitar is trickier). I wouldn't be shy about hitting the vocal fairly aggressively.

Was this all tracked live? I'm not big on the way the acoustic jumps out at times. While a LITTLE dynamics is a great thing, this gets into "chaos" level.

The vocals aren't bad, but I'd probably want a little something on them in terms of ambiance. Even if you want the dry sound, I would intentionally soak the thing in reverb or delay (on the short side) and then start pulling it back until you aren't sure if the effect is on there or not but you miss the effect if you mute.

Brandon

[StudioBellwood]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I'm not sure if the bass guitar is really adding anything in this particular case. In non-drum situation, the bass has to add more mood to the tune. In a drum situation, the bass can get away with just hitting root notes to fill out the bottom.

Yeah i had some trouble with the bass. First off, i certainly wasn't hitting root notes. The bass was actually fast and i've attached the bass track sample so you can see what i mean. When soloed, the bass sounded pretty high range for what kind of sounds most people create with bass tracks. I think your right about the low end of the guitar being the reason i had trouble/confliction

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Have you used any compression? I'd DEFINITELY put a compressor on the vocal, bass, and maybe the guitar too (the guitar is trickier). I wouldn't be shy about hitting the vocal fairly aggressively.

YES! I sing LOUD! there was a heavy compressor on the vocals and i had thought it worked out okay. My biggest trouble when mixing this was getting the right volume for the vocals throughout the whole song with compression, individual clip gains, and the right master volume. I know nothing about bass and guitar compression although i did put a mild threshold on both of them.

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Was this all tracked live? I'm not big on the way the acoustic jumps out at times. While a LITTLE dynamics is a great thing, this gets into "chaos" level.

No this was not tracked live. As for the guitar dynamics, i think what your saying just reinforces the fact that i have level issue.

Originally Posted by brandondrury

The vocals aren't bad, but I'd probably want a little something on them in terms of ambiance. Even if you want the dry sound, I would intentionally soak the thing in reverb or delay (on the short side) and then start pulling it back until you aren't sure if the effect is on there or not but you miss the effect if you mute.

I had a compressor, equalizer (to take off the highs), mild chorus, and reverb (again, mild). I know exactly what you mean by slowly taking the effect off until it's almost unnoticeable. That's actually what i did, but overall i was looking for a dry, yet w**m sound.

[brandondrury]

there was a heavy compressor on the vocals and i had thought it worked out okay

I don't believe you. The vocals did not sound compressed at all. Go back and double check and make sure that you didn't accidentally bypass it. I use a compressor no matter how softer or loud a singer sings. The level they sing at doesn't matter. It's the dynamics they sing at that matters.

I had a compressor, equalizer (to take off the highs), mild chorus, and reverb (again, mild).

I didn't hear a hint of reverb on this track. It has that bone dry sound. Maybe I can hear the chorus, but I didn't notice it on first listen. Again, it doesn't sound the comrpessor is doing anything. For vocals I always set my compressors to be very fast.

Yeah i had some trouble with the bass.

It sounds like you covered up all that busy stuff in your bass with your acoustic guitar. You need to make some decisions as to what you really want here. The bass line is cool, but in that first mix it did not add to the song. Maybe a in a mix were the acoustic guitar wasn't so dominating it would.

This is a situation where a lot of beginners just assume the acoustic guitar is supposed to be loud, but there is no "suppose to". There may be a magic spot where the song comes alive with the acoustic guitar not so up front. It's to say.

Brandon

[TradeMark]

vocal needs compression, bring down in mix
maybe add a little reverb to the vocals and guitar
nice vocals, but a little pitch correction never hurts

sloppy performances, tighten them up and use a metronome
too much pick noise, try aiming the mic on the fingerboard or big side of the body under the bridge, or both.

guitar has too much mid range, not enough highs
bass and low frequencies are very muddy

not a bad song. not my style but it was done well. good job man.

[TradeMark]

I don't hear any compression or reverb in this either.

When setting the compressor make sure to set your ratio and threshold correctly. Then adjust the attack and decay depending on the sound. For example; on a vocal recording like yours I might start by setting the ratio to 4:1, then bring the threshold down to -10, -15, or until I hear the desired effect. Then I would set a fast attack and maybe a slow decay to hold some of those notes up there. I hope this helps. It took me a long time to really understand and start using compression correctly. Just experiment with it until it makes more sense.

[Electriclight]

Before I read anyone's comments I thought I would suggest some compression and reverb, but I guess that's been covered enough. I also was going to suggest using a click track, but someone beat me to that also. I also was thinking about the pick noise but wasn't sure how to get rid of it. If you don't want to rerecord, you might try using a narrow band on a parametric equalizer to locate and carve out a notch where the pick noise is noticable. Nice song... it's worth the effort to perfect it.

[StudioBellwood]

Okay, i thank everyone for criticism, it certainly helped. I personally like more pick noise so that was the only thing i really didn't try to fix in this second mix. It's not perfect yet, but i think BD will say that it's gettin' there.
Let me know if it's any better.

[brandondrury]

ONE BILLION TIMES BETTER!

The thing that really stands out to me is the actual emotional intent of the song. Before, the excessive dynamics of the vocals were way too distracting. I didn't even notice the song in there really. Now the actual some is coming cross 10,000 times better!

The performance is still a bit loose at times, but I didn't notice any pitch issues. (Most of the music I listen to is older and therefore has no auto tune. I hear pitch issues on this all the time. Then when I hear modern auto-tuned music it sounds EXTREMELY fake).

Brandon