Neil Macleod/ highwayman

[bradzoot]

Thought I'd put this up for comment. I am a singer songwriter living in Scotland. Recorded this on cubase sx. I am fairly new to the pc based recording, more used to old reel to reel. Loving all the things you can do more easily.
This is one of my own songs,
Al comments welcome, good or bad.
I will say that the drums are pretty crap but I think it is more to do with how they were played and recorded than anything else.

[redbak1]

Mate like this alot as a song, again mate I would start singing sooner, maybe you could write another verse after the first chorus and then a bridge turn around into another verse then tag with band playing out with a fade, just some thoughts mate, vox up, to me buddy good words need to be herd other wise why write them.
redbak1

[bradzoot]

Originally Posted by redbak1

Mate like this alot as a song, again mate I would start singing sooner, maybe you could write another verse after the first chorus and then a bridge turn around into another verse then tag with band playing out with a fade, just some thoughts mate, vox up, to me buddy good words need to be herd other wise why write them.
redbak1

Thanks again redbak.
It's cool that you can be bothered to give an opinion on these songs/mixes. I do appreciate it.
I think now that rather than looking for an appraisal of my recording techniques, I was probably looking for an opinion on the actual songs.
Arranging is a big part of song writing.
Regards
Neil.

[bradzoot]

Originally Posted by redbak1

Mate like this alot as a song, again mate I would start singing sooner, maybe you could write another verse after the first chorus and then a bridge turn around into another verse then tag with band playing out with a fade, just some thoughts mate, vox up, to me buddy good words need to be herd other wise why write them.
redbak1

But with regard to your comment about the vocal. It is kinda lost in the mix/ effect .
Neil

[redbak1]

I did get that mate, It's just me, when I listen to a song to me it's about a balance thing particularly if it's a song that I have never herd before, and if I strain to hear words well its not quite right.
Put the vox in the mix but find that frequency that makes it clear.
Cheers
redbak1

[fHumble fHingaz]

Really love you vocals, Neil. Unfortunately on this one you're let down by the other sounds. The guitar tone is oversaturated & smeary - needs more clarity & definition. Yeah, the drums don't sound too good, but it's amazing what you can achieve if you're willing to spend the time - it's hard to know whether they are salvageable without hearing the raw tracks. They sound reasonably in time, although they don't seem to have been hit with any real authority,(the first step in a good drum sound - hit them HARD) you may still be able to recussitate them if they've been recorded in the multi-track method with careful gating, eq & compression. If you haven't tried them already, I would highly recommend Digitalfishphones free set of plugins for this sort of job. If the sound is still just unusable, perhaps you could rescue it with some drum replacement. The bass too, needs some more definition - but this is probably just down to eq. Also, lay off on the reverb, as it's swamping this one a bit. If you must have lots of reverb, familiarize yourself with the "pre-delay" control on the reverb & high pass filter the reverb send buss so that you get rid of any muddiness in the reverb.

[sieglerm]

Sound a bit like Drive by Truckers on this one. I agree that the voice is great as well. Too much of the backing reverb filled guitar for me. Intro is too long for me. Not a fan of the drums on this one either. A good song though again.

[bradzoot]

Thanks for all your input everyone. I will work on this and upload a new (Improved) version in the near future.
Neil