Tony Ramone - One (U2/Johnny Cash cover)

[Tony Ramone]

Hey all,
I know everyone's pretty busy with the contests at the moment, but I put together this mix a couple of weeks ago for a radio competition and submitted it on the last day even though I wasn't happy with it.
I just found out though that they extended the closing date to this friday, so I'm thinking maybe there's something worth salvaging, although to be honest most of the problems are performance related rather than mix related (I also found out there's a €5000 prize, so I figured that's worth a better attempt).
Mainly I don't like my voice. What can I say - I tried to step out of my comfort zone, and it hasn't gone well
Maybe I should just throw together a punked up version or something...
Anyway, here it is for anyone that's interested.

EDIT: damn, just realised there's actually a forum for acoustic stuff now... oops

[irawan gani]

i think i get what you intended it to be.

its probably not so much as a performance issue neither. for example, you have two guitars playing the same chord frequency (as in Low E and Low E, instead of Low E panned left and High E panned right; you get?). although its a choice of chords, its a mix/arrangement issue.

the whole set up seems to be too busy for my liking. what is the instrument that you are featuring? i'd always ask myself. if its a virtuoso rhythmic performance, then i'd feature that instrument.

apart from that, i think there are some timing issues. the thing is, it might sound minute when solo-ed, but it would sound very off in an acoustic setting.

as for your vocals, i see nothing wrong with it. thats your stamp, so go with it.

[Tony Ramone]

Cheers dude.
I've never really tried to do an acoustic song before so I wasn't sure if I should double the guitars as I normally would in a punk/metal song.
Obviously I probably shouldn't have
But I was worried that if I just left it at one guitar and one vocal track it might be too narrow and boring, which is why I kept piling more and more tracks on top of it

[irawan gani]

no worries mate.

you CAN double track the guitar but it has to be precise otherwise it will sound like you have no musical sense at all even if your talents says otherwise. nevertheless i would never encourage it.

if one guitar is playing one type of rhythm, then the other should complement it or even a similar rhythm but it should be playing a different chord form. the reason for this is that it will make the song sound big and heavy.

one trick that i have used many times on acoustic songs is to have a featured groove, as in the groove that drives the song. in this case its either your percussion or rhythm guitar. its a bit like orchestration, well come to think of it, it is orchestration. the thing is that, in an acoustic setting the flaws in your arrangement will show up moments the song is played unlike a full on distorted setting. think of it this way, you might not sound good now but it will definitely improve your mix in any song genre. you will be surprised at what you can accomplish.

the way i see it in your version is that the percussion/drums needs to be a train-brush like rhythm (you know what i mean?) or something like Johnny Cash's version of Rusty Cage.

so there it is... happy hunting...

[Tony Ramone]

That's for the tips dude. Maybe I won't completely give up on acoustic songs just yet

[Tony Ramone]

Well, they announced the five finalists this week for the competition I entered this in. Suffice to say I'm not on the list
If you fancy hearing what I was up against, you can hear the finalists here.
To be honest there's not one there that I like, but maybe I'm just biased :P

[irawan gani]

you're right... i dont like anyone of them either. they all just sound different.