Awesome God

[DaVanco]

Hey guys, let me know what you think of this contemporary Christian tune. Thanks for all constructive advice.

[fretmore]

Vocals harmony's are out of tune and crowded
Not in time.
Not particularly contemporary.

I would rethink the whole tune. Perhaps, get rid of the drum box and use shakers or a tambourine or something ... slide sounds ok.

[DaVanco]

Hi fretmore,

Thanks for the feedback. This is our Praise team from my Church. The voices are what the voices are, can't change them. We are strictly volunteers trying to record our Service music to be able to deliver it to our shut in members.

Not much mixing or editing is possible on the fly.

That said, I would like to improve it as much as possible, and other folks opinions are always helpful with that.

I play pedal steel and run sound at the same time, what a chore.

Thanks a ton!

[musicmakerstudio]

Love the song. It's been around awhile, but still a great song. The vocal performance and recording/sequencing could have been more polished, but overall love the song,and Jesus.

[musicmakerstudio]

Hey, I did not realize this was a live performance. Was the acoustic guitar sequenced?
It sounds like it was to me, meaning it was a bit out of pocket and some quantization could help. Also the patch used for the acoustic guitar is not very convincing. The retard on the ending was a bit untidy. Retards can be done in a sequencing project but it's hard to make it feel natural. It's best to avoid retards if all possible.
Were the drums sequenced or played live? The drums sound like they are coming from a drum machine or keyboard. Some simpler drum fills would be less distracting.
Keep playing and singing for Jesus. I'm also part of the praise team at my church.
Liked the steel guitar. I also play steel, but guitar is my main instrument. Love the song.

[DaVanco]

Hi Musicmaker,

The Voices, Pedal Steel and Lead Guitar were live, everything else is midi. (BIAB)

I guess that I should have been somewhat more clear in my original post. I caught this directly off of the sound board into the laptop with audacity.

All comments are most certainly welcome and appreciated, but I'm really wanting suggestions of any way that I can improve the track that exists using Audacity or any of the vst plug in effects. I've got a bunch of the plug ins, but I'm not about to say that I've got them all

Thanks for the feedback.

[Brandon Weaver]

Originally Posted by DaVanco

All comments are most certainly welcome and appreciated, but I'm really wanting suggestions of any way that I can improve the track that exists using Audacity or any of the vst plug in effects. I've got a bunch of the plug ins, but I'm not about to say that I've got them all

Thanks for the feedback.

Something that could really help is eq and panning on the vocals. They sound very muffled and lacking distinction. Especially on the backdrop of midi instruments, which are almost overly distinct.
If you have some kind of short reverb (short decay time) you could send the drums to, that can help make them sound a little more realistic.

Are the vocals separate tracks, or all on one? Overall I would say put on a highpass filter ~85hz possibly higher. Do a wide cut ~270Hz, ~4db maybe more.

Are you mixing with a sub? The bass guitar is taking over down there. try putting a highpass on it as well, maybe roll off to 55hz or so. It sounds crazy, but it can really help clear up a mix. I would even consider a low shelf at ~110hz on the bass, cutting 5db or more.

The pedal steel sounds fantastic. I know what you mean about tracking and playing. I've often had to play bass while trying to engineer. Not easy at all.

Overall, cleaning up the low-mids with some eq, mostly on the instruments that aren't midi, will really help this mix.

[DaVanco]

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

The entire thing is one stereo track. I simply used the stereo out from the board into the input of my laptop.

Re-mixing anything on this one is simply not possible, whatever I do, I will have to do to everything.

I will certainly try your highpass suggestions, etc. and see what happens.

Thanks again.

[Brandon Weaver]

Originally Posted by DaVanco

Hi Brandon,


The entire thing is one stereo track. I simply used the stereo out from the board into the input of my laptop.

Re-mixing anything on this one is simply not possible, whatever I do, I will have to do to everything.

In that case, you are more or less talking about mastering a stereo file. The same frequency issues persist, it's just more difficult to resolve. Every change effects everything else. You really have to be careful.

It's silly to try to master an mp3, but I pulled it into Pro Tools anyway. There are a few things that could help - to my ears. Some quick eqing found the problem area I was hearing in the low-mids. I did a fairly sharp cut @289hz, and another, even deeper, @152hz. (jpg attached)

A little compression wouldn't hurt this mix either. A mild attack and fast release seemed to work well with this song. (jpg attached) Then, if you have a limiter, the overall volume could be brought up a good bit.

I'm sure there are some other eq cuts and boost that may help, but the main fixable problems I hear are what I pointed out. The mix is a little difficult because some things need more high end, but some have too much, so you can't really go boosting the high end on the whole thing. It get's very harsh sounding. But, cleaning up the bottom helps clear up the top some...

One thing I would suggest is having the primary male vocalist back off the mic just a little. Most of the low end problems are coming from him and the proximity effect (closer you get to a mics capsule/diaphragm, the boomier/bassier it gets.). The problem could also be too much low board eq on his channel.

[DaVanco]

Brandon,

Very good points, thanks a ton!

I'll work on it at the first opportunity. I'll let you know how it goes.