4th song of New Album, Mix 1 - "Fade"

Hey one not advance is a big deal. I sing better falsetto as of late. Four beers i can sing high D, and a six pack I go to the twelfth and sing crazy on you by Heart…but not for long :slight_smile:
You have a voice that has to be showcased. If you listen to most song when you are out and about, the vocal usually dominates the mix IMHO.
I wrote a song today and I couldn’t get the printer to work. (just transfered to my other daughter in Texas) I downloaded drivers and they wiped out other things. I did a restore to before I did the download and it wiped out my word document with the new song. It was good and I can’t get it back. Ha ha welcome to old age. Keep em commin bud

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Ooh this is sounding so slick… cool smoooth vocals!!
Loving the sleepy hay-making vibe at the beginning , the sleek dreamy slidery of the guitars and the Neil Finn edge to the vox… And the transition to raw grit edge is so nicely done… lovely ‘fade away’ s floating ethereally…
Fab guitar twisting and melodic turning. Everything feels very nicely integrated to my ears, enjoyed it very much. Length feels very natural and easy to listen to.

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Wow thank you Em! Love your descriptions!

If the van is rockin’ don’t bother knockin’! :grinning:

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Haha!.. Definitely… 'cause the volume will melt your face!..

For example: (@danmanisa )

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Missed this earlier. Quite possibly.Though I only hear the issue in the section I mentioned. I just think it could be that the guitar sound is simply too close. I gave it a second listen. He is also spot on about the snare, but it works.

… and I love your abode and the setup!

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Oh, I just had another listen, I was thinking of a different section… I think I know what might have happened there - cool.

Yeah, I think I might do a little more automation on the drums to get them to sit back a little more in the mellower parts.

Ha, thanks… well it works, I guess… (kinda!)

Love the clip!!! So good!

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Haha thanks! Whatever gets the job done, hey!

Wow, great tones everywhere, I really how everything work together and how the mix all of these into one song.
Very great arrangement and guitar performances, I don’t know why but it reminds me of some early Dire Straits albums… maybe the obvious Fender stratocaster guitar tone.
Just one thing about the length of the song: first lyric starts around 1 minute and the some lead guitar melodies before that sound very similar to the section after the first verse. Is this something done in purpose or it just happens like that :confused:

By the way, great writing, recording and mixing skills, obviously!

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Just ran into this today, sorry I’m late to the party.
Great composition. I can hear the high notes you’re hitting with your voice; quite impressive without any straining.
I also give you high marks on the dynamics, the contrasts you are bringing in add a lot of flavor.
Lastly, as Donald Fagen says, a good song takes at least four or five minutes to develop. If it sells a few million and the label demands a single I’ll help snip it for you.
Outstanding as usual.

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Hey Bob - long time no hear! Thanks for taking a listen! Yeah, this is one of the favourite things I’ve done so far for the new album… it’s all turning into quite an adventurous affair, and I’m really enjoying the creative processes.

The success with this has emboldened me to experiment further. Tonight I was able to cleanly hit a G# above that high E. I’ve discovered that, the only way to progress is if I give myself permission to sound awful and make a fool of myself just trying things… it’s quite freeing, really…and it makes perfect sense when you think about it - you have to sound awful before you can sound good.

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I’ve got awful nailed. What did you do to extend your range? It’s allergy season here, so phlegm is part of my strategy.

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Haha, then you’n’me both!

Apart from a strict regimen of extra tight underwear, you mean? :scream: … Just experimenting with my voice, really. I’d always achieved extra range just by “brute-forcing” it in the past, but I reached an absolute limit with that. I thought that was it, but it turns out there is more - I just needed to work out how to access it with a different technique.

To be honest, I’ve never concentrated on my voice, ever. I could sing adequately, and in tune for the most part, but I’ve always disliked my voice, and I was more interested in guitar anyway, so whatever happened, happened intuitively and without any real self-analysis.

It’s only through the process of self recording that I’ve really started to gain some sort of appreciation for vocal technique, and what it can achieve. I’ve done some research of recent times and explored it a little further.

I was always aware of the importance of breath support, but I learned all about this thing called “placement” (which I realised I kind of do intuitively, anyway). Combining those two things, along with vocal compression and distortion (again, techniques I’ve used kind of intuitively all along) in a more systematic and focused way has allowed me to explore the outer reaches of my capabilities.

One guy who has a really interesting YT channel that explores all of this stuff is Chris Liepe

The great thing about him is that he’s not a “technique nazi”. He embraces all kinds of singing styles and favors emotion over technique, but his analysis really helps you to understand the complex integration of technique, physicality, mindset, and emotion that the act of singing is…

It’s kind of like a person who is already fit learning all about how the body works, and that enabling them them to take their fitness to the next level.

Hey, no doubt, phlegm definitely imparts a “tone” - use it to your advantage! :wink:

I’ve watched him quite a bit (Liepe). I like how he shows you the physical and mental side of vocal technique.
It’s strange to think about junk in your throat, but when it is in the right place you can use it. Comping a vocal is great trickery, learning to sing it as a complete statement is an amazing lesson in control and breathing technique.

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I know a lot of people might consider it “cheating” to heavily comp a vocal track, but you are spot on there. You learn so much and improve from going through this process.

When laying down vocals tracks (or any other instrument), it really helps to be well rehearsed beforehand. If you’re very familiar with the vocals and the lyrics, you can sometimes lay down a great track all in one take…but there is often little problems that crop up when laying vocals down. Things like monitoring your music playback while you’re laying down the vocal…Sometimes the music is too loud or sometimes it’s too quiet. I find that I’m always trying to maintain good vocal dynamics throughout so that I don’t have too many volume spikes or volume dropouts in the vocal. I hate trying to smooth out a “too dynamic performance” with automation and compression. I usually do a retake if the volume differences are too noticeable. Many times there will be at least one or two spots in the vocal that will need to be comped because something didn’t go as you would have preferred. This tends to happen much more with a song that you’re just getting familiar with because you’re not familiar with how to perform it as well as you potentially could if you had more practice with that vocal.

I always use a lot of vocal comping when I’ve just written a new song and am unsure of how I want the vocal affect to sound. So, I might sing two lines and say to myself, “I don’t like that vocal triplet that I’m doing at the end of the 4rth word in the first line”. Then I’ll come up with an alternate note selection, or phrasing, or affect, and I’ll rerecord that line…Sometimes I might try a few different vocal melodies and phrases before I find something that I decide is acceptable. It can get pretty confusing trying to figure out the best choice when you have 5 or more vocal melodies to choose from. Hard to see the forest through the trees…or to hear exactly how each different “vocal take” is better or worse than the others…Sometimes it’s obvious , but sometimes it isn’t.

Sorry for the tangent! I’m sure we could come up with a never-ending thread that discusses “vocal recording”. It’s an interesting subject to me.

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Great job, Andrew, very Triumph-esque!

Only listening on laptop speakers - the snare reverb at the front of the track sounds out of context to me. I’m wanting to hear something close up and personal, with the longer decay time coming in when the song picks up.

Anyway, sounds great, and obviously many, many painstaking hours involved!

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Not sure if I emphasized how good I think this song is in my first review. I may have understated my positive impression. This is smoking ! I love all the colours and flavours in this. Once again your arrangements are …so damn good! I’m not sure I’ve heard any song of yours with just an average arrangement.

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Hi all, here is a revised (and revised revised) mix of this: