Indie/Acoustic (Not really country)

[imjedijake]

singer/songwriter stuff. let me know what you think.

here's a list of what i used...

Acoustic - Samson CO1 & Sterling Audio ST55
Vocals - Sterling Audio ST55
Electric Guitar - Digital Reference DR-STX1
Organ - Digital Reference DR-KX1
Shaker - Sterling Audio ST55

[Crazy8lp]

Hey nice song! Now, I am not one of the pros on this site, but just some thoughts from my end. The guitar solos at the end of the track are really nice, and when you move up to the higher notes, i think they could stand out a bit more. Maybe bring the volume down from your verse guitar a bit, or pan to one side during the solos. Either way this might bring out the guitar solo a bit more, which i think is your focus on this part of the track.

[Dnofalp]

Nice track.

Only remark is that it's quite noisy. Since I'm a sucker for lapsteely stuff I'd bring that out just a bit more (elec. guitar with bottleneck?). Love how to song opens up, might get boomy for some but I like the punch it gives, but I'd watch out to not overdo it.
And what Crazy8lp said about bringing out the solo's; I agree!

[lucccien]

Hello, new to the forums. I really like the song! I'm only a novice, so take my advice lightly.

I agree with the above that the solo should be louder somehow. :-) If you aren't happy with the great suggestions above, and if you are pretty much maxed out on overall volume, maybe you could try to lower the other tracks a bit?

I listened to your song repeatedly, and it's rare for me but I couldn't figure out exactly what I'd do differently! There's something I want to do differently, but I can't put my finger on it. To make it worse, the more I listened to it, the more forgiving I became of whatever it was I didn't like, haha. So I took a break and figured there may be two things -- I am curious, do you have an alternate mix where there is no added bass during the solo? I wonder how that would sound... and lastly, what do you think of applying some EQ and toning down some of the high-end on the guitars?

[davidpaulzimmer]

That's a really strong song IMO. I really like it. I'm not so sure about the end/outro though. I like how you ended on a different chord but I felt like it trailed off a little before then. Love when the shaker comes in. You have a good voice that fits right in with the indie sound, but it's musical enough to be enjoyable to someone who isn't an indie fan.

[moye]

nice song! astig!

[brotone]

Nice song. Most of what I'd change involves the rhythm acoustic guitar. First, I'd check phase on the two guitar mics. There's something going on between them that makes the low-mids hard to place - if you move around in front of the speakers everything in the rhythm guitar changes. See what happens if you mute whichever one is darker - you might have plenty enough stuff with just the one mic. Next, bring it down - it kind of sits on top of everything (volume-wise) and makes the listener have to try to dig out the other parts.
I'd also think about changing strings, unless the thumpy, dead-sounding rhythm part is what you're going for. I admit it's a subjective thing, and some folks prefer the more rustic sound of old strings, but I'd at least loosen the wound ones, give 'em a few good pops against the neck, and tune 'em back up - it'll do wonders.
Next work on panning. Maybe your knobs say things are spread around, but the sounds don't seem like it. At the start, hard-left to middle is chock full of stuff and the right side is pretty vacant. I'd maybe take the loudest acoustic guitar mic and move it to hard right (or close) Then, when the shaker comes in, move it left. That way you have a balance of clicky eighth-note stuff, and the solos don't have to compete with the right-up-the-middle shaker.
The vocal sounds good up the middle. If you could clear some other stuff out via panning, the words might come through better. Move the harmonies just a little off center - the parts are nice, and with a little separation they might actually go together better.
Spend some time with the transition where the bass and everything else comes in - maybe back down the rhythm acoustic at that part. Like I said, pan the shaker. You might dump somewhere around 100 - 150 hz on that bass to make room for the rest of the low-mid stuff. In fact, I'd revisit all those low parts you have going on at once. It sounds like a bass and a low organ trying to make close-voiced chords on top of one another. Take the organ part up an octave and see what happens.
And you might back off on the compression on the solos. After the clicky attack all the notes clamp down so hard its difficult to pull them forward enough, it seems like.
Wow - this "bash my song" thing gets out of hand easily. Please take all this as an attempt at helpful suggestions. I did mean what I said up front - it's a really nice song. I hope I'm not being too hard. Just tossing out ideas.

brotone

[andycam]

NIce song Jedi, i also agree with the other posts. This song is begging to get fkd with in the studio....nice song!

[lucccien]

imjedijake -- hope you come back!

[imjedijake]

hey thanks for the advice everyone. im pretty new to recording with "good" mics and stuff. i usually would just record through the computer mic. ill try to post the actual finished song when its done. this was mainly a demo to see what else i could do with the song.

i do agree with the solo part. its actually supposed to be played with an electric guitar but i just got lazy and wanted to finish the song.