Saturday Night Racing

[brandondrury]

I was contacted by a lyricist to put his words to music. There is no band. I simply hired a bunch of musicians and this is what came out.

I'm still fiddling with the electric guitar as I'm hearing things on my computer speakers that slipped by me.

Brandon

[Dreulet]

Not my style of music at all but I can appreciate the tightness of the recording. I'm not sure if I can get all my volumes compressed this well when I lay seperate tracks in my projects. Everything was where it was supposed to be, pure. Your good.

[midKnight]

Hey B,

Cool track... if I could offer two quick things to kick around, the racecar sound is way over-used. It goes on too long in the beginning and then later on in the song appears too frequently. You've got great players, by the middle of the song I want to hear them, not the car.

Also, what would you think about at the very end of the song (after the drum fill at 3:27 or so), dropping out all of the instruments entirely and just having the singer alone up to the final car sound? (or perhaps just the singer and a snare hit) It might create a really interesting dynamic to end the song on.

Anyhoo, just my 2c.. (and with the weak US economy, that's really only worth .5c)

[dsangree]

1) Either the kick or the mix in general is over-compressed. I feel robbed of sound every time the kick drum hits (check how hard your limiter/compressor is working)
2) More width on the guitar (left side is too dominant, add delayed double and pan to right)
3)I agree on the comment about the overuse of the car sound

it is a pretty good track except the kick compression/limiting REALLY bothers me.

-Daniel

[mikromort]

The mix seems distorted, maybe from the mixdown? The cars at the beginning could be cut a shorter as they just seem to come across as noise and aren't doing much for the song, maybe you could just have the cars at the beginning and the end. The mix seems balanced and solid other than it being real hot here

[brandondrury]

the racecar sound is way over-used.

Yeah, I debated on this one. Mr. Client was BIG on car sounds so I figured it was better on my end to go over the top than to under do it. There is a fine line between excitement and distraction for this. I'm actually hoping he'll say to reduce the amount of them to maybe just the intro.

It's definitely pushing the gimmick limit a bit, but that may be a good thing for this kind of song. It's hard to say.

it is a pretty good track except the kick compression/limiting REALLY bothers me.

I guess I need to check this on more systems. I haven't been out to the car yet. On the systems I've check I've been really happy with the kick drum. Does the kick sound weak on your system? On my computer speakers and home theater rig the low end is right where I want it. I have a feeling I need to bump up 120Hz a bit on the kick and maybe pull down 60-80Hz a bit.

I don't have any compression on the drum bus. I'm hitting the 2bus pretty hard on this one so maybe that's the issue. I'm not sure if it's an option to back off of it though. Maybe I'll stack a few compressors in a row and use them more subtly.

2) More width on the guitar (left side is too dominant, add delayed double and pan to right)

I debated on this one. I don't do a lot of country. In rock land I always double and go really wide. I struggle with a mix that isn't balanced so I went closer to the center. I'll attempt going wider and see what happens. My initial mix was really wide and I didn't like hearing the individual tracks as well. It felt less exciting to me. I'll play with it.

The mix seems distorted, maybe from the mixdown?

That's me hitting the 2bus pretty damn hard. See above.

Brandon

[dsangree]

ok, I listened to it again. The kick is actually not bad. Im not exactly sure what I heard this morning.

Honestly your track is one of the better ones in this forum so it is hard to find serious problems.

As far as the car sound goes...I feel your pain about having to do what the client wants.

Keep up the good work.

[magno]

I would like to hear more power in the vocals.
They seam kinda small, but you can hear he's really givin'er.
Might be your 2bus messing with the mix again, barring that check your carbs.

[brandondrury]

I just wanted to let you guys know that I got feedback from the boss on this mix and they want WAY more race car sounds. HA HA! So you guys were WRONG!

My initial Bruckheimer instincts were dead on. I actually watched the opening sequence of Top Gun multiple times to see how they incorporated the fighter jet sounds with the music. This is the route they want to take with it, it appears.

There is something for us musician types getting wound up about keeping distractions to a minimum, but if the layman racer gets more excited by a bunch of race car sounds and a little bit of music than that's the "right" path.

-----

I would like to hear more power in the vocals.
They seam kinda small, but you can hear he's really givin'er.

Yeah, I know what you are saying. I've actually gotten quite a few compliments on the vocal sound, but they don't have a large footprint. This vocal sound would be awesome on a soft female vocal.

This was the first vocal I tracked with the Distressor and I may have overdone it a bit. I did try giving it some ommph in the 200Hz and 800Hz ranges but neither seemed to do what I wanted. There is a mid sucking quality to the Distressor at certain settings which I really like but if I could go back I would use less of it on this particular track.

Brandon

[midKnight]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

There is something for us musician types getting wound up about keeping distractions to a minimum, but if the layman racer gets more excited by a bunch of race car sounds and a little bit of music than that's the "right" path.

Well even a broken clock is right twice a day. Just because the customer wants more race car sounds in the track doesn't mean it's "Right" or "Good".

However I think the point you are making is correct, when the customer is footing the bill, then yeah, you gotta give him what he wants, regardless of your personal feelings...(I'm sure there's plenty of times you are shaking your head in disbelief as you are cashing the check. lol)