Hey there all, just finished writing this new track and am attempting to sort out the mix and would very much appreciate some discerning ears on it to see if there’s any major issues I’m missing (which is highly possible/likely).
Cheers.
Come one come all
Aren’t you appalled
By the dark age cabal
Don’t you feel small
As you’re forced to crawl
This is all by design
Made to reshape your mind
Children of dark matter
Hiding the pattern
In shadows they hide, connive
Break apart the world to make sure they’re on top, of us
Convince you that they’re on your side, obliged
To control the ways we survive
Freedom is whatever you can buy
This is all by design
Made to reshape your mind
Children of dark matter
Hiding the pattern
Willing to watch half the world burn
As long it’s not our turn
Salvaged by what we consume
Ignoring the end coming soon
Only light can banish the dark
If fear doesn’t poison the heart
Once we realize we’re all one
We’ll never tolerate what they’ve done
Silence does nothing for the weak
It only helps those above
So take this message to the streets
They better run
No justice, no peace
Or go back inside
Feel the comfort of lies
Keep the wool over your eyes
Hi Terry, this sounds very good to me. A very adventurous composition - I like they unusual rhythms.
A couple of things I noticed with the mix:
The vocal is a little lost in the first verse. As the singer gets more forceful in his delivery, things are easier to understand, but I think if you want the lyrics to really be a feature, then that first verse needs more dynamic control to keep the vocals intelligible. A suggestion: Try turning the volume of the mix down to just above the noise floor of your environment and take a note of which words and phrases submerge beneath the music, then make adjustments accordingly.
The kick drum maybe needs a little more point on it in the upper mids. When it plays in the sparse section at the end, you can hear the attack pretty clearly, but when the band is heavier, the attack of the kick kind of gets buried. That might make it hard to hear on smaller speakers.
Hi @terryhesticles ,
Great to hear this song!
Quite complex composition, and I am digging the “all-in” and emotional execution and performance.
This is superb!
Love your vocals and the excellent guitar track.
The mix is perfect in my ears.
You are an artist!
Thanks for sharing this beauty!
Rene
Hey thanks Andrew, you’re absolutely bang on about those verse vox, it was very noticeable once you take everything right down. The whole lot were buried to some degree but especially the first ones. I ended up bringing all the guitars down a bit as well which really seem to help the vocals stick out, I just hope I didn’t overdo it with the verse vocal level.
Gave a little 4db bump at around 2.6K on the kick which seemed to help add a bit more slap and presence. A lot more audible through the heavier sections.
Thanks man, it really helped out a lot.
Cool idea Paul, I had to give it a try. Not sure if I made it work or not but it was fun to have a play around, cheers mate.
Thanks for the kind words Rene, much appreciated my friend.
Hey Terry, I’ll have to take a listen to this later. From what I can hear at the moment, there is a big improvement with the audibility of the first lyrics… More subtle things like the drums, I can’t hear at present…
I’m having trouble with my ears at the moment - gone partially deaf in my right ear temporarily. I have a long history of ear problems (infections/blockages) since I was kid - something to do with the whole sinus/ eustachian tube apparatus.
As I’ve grown older, it has been far less problematic, but every so often it comes back to haunt me, which is happening at the moment… I find it pretty hard to judge things when one ear feels like it is completely filled up with water! It will pass, but in the meantime, it is really annoying!
Oh shit bro, that’s not good at all. I can definitely relate. Was a shearer for 14 years back in another lifetime (not all that long ago) and was constantly plagued with ear infections, it’s a mongrel of a thing, I feel for ya. Hope they come right soon bud.
Loved the tune! The mix, instruments, and vocals are great! Great lyrics too. I actually really liked the slower build at the beginning, more dramatic. If you went with that version, you could add some reverb and stereo delay to put the otherwise dry guitar in the back and sides a bit…even more dramatic and eerier, lol! Great stuff! Are those real or sampled drums? Super clean.
And that’s awful about @ColdRoomStudio ’s ear. Get well soon! I always hate the question “would you rather be deaf or blind?”. I could never choose.
Hey cheers for the feedback, yeah I actually thought the slow-build intro was pretty interesting, certainly adds impact once the distorted guitars drop that’s for sure. Like you say, it needs a bit of something to fill things out, feels a bit too empty, but definitely worth exploring further.
Drums are programmed, I just bought myself a copy of the IK Modo Drums so this track is literally the first test run, and I’m pretty stoked thus far tbh. The level of articulation, and the overall kit sounds are pretty mind blowing. Thanks mate.
Went back in for some fine-tuning, mostly dialing in level automation and I think it’s getting pretty close.
Nothing seems to be jumping out in a negative way, but the ears are a little fried too.
Also recorded another small guitar part on the outgoing section of the bridge (2:46), just to add a little more variation/interest.
Would be curious to know if the new guitar seems too loud in the mix or if it comes in a little too abruptly.
I know it’s pretty up-front, but with the filter/reso effect it sounded quite weird when it was sitting back a little more in the mix.
Dang @terryhesticles! This song rocks!! I think I like the start of the song in the mix prior to the most recent a little better. The extra guitar sounds good, but it may be conflicting with the vocal a bit. Might just need to come down a hair. But, as I said, this song rocks. It’s killer!!
Hey thanks for the feedback, yep listening back through the heavy section on a few different playback mediums I think you’re absolutely right, the vocals definitely needed to be out front a little more, so I gave them a bit of a push and I’m a lot happier with how they’re working.
Cheers.
Hey there Holster, thanks for the comments mate, yep I agree the new guitar was definitely conflicting with the vocal, but as @WeGotLost mentioned, it was probably more to do with the vocal needing a bit more presence in the mix, and I think I’ve hopefully rectified that issue on this ‘final’ mix.
I say ‘final’ because it’s booked in to be mastered next week so there’s no turning back now. It’s as good as I can do anyway, thanks to everyone who offered feedback, it really helped a lot.
Hey Terry, I finally got my hearing back! This has come along really nicely. Hopefully you’ll get a chance to post us a link to it once you have it mastered and released! All the best!
Hey man, glad to hear your ears are working again, it’s a terrible thing, especially within the context of listening to and mixing music.
Will be sure to post the track up once everything’s sorted, thanks again for the help.
Well as fortune has it, not too long after reading your message I got an email from Steve at Sage Audio in Nashville letting me know my mastered track was ready to download.
I’ve used Sage quite a bit over the years and they always do a really nice job, and their rates are still (surprisingly) super reasonable
All in all really happy with how this one sounds.
I’ll post the finished article in the OP.
Release date’s scheduled for the 7th of April, not that it really means anything as I don’t have an audience to speak of. It’s really just a creative outlet to help scratch the musical itch.
terryhesticles,
Thank you for the review! Now your song (final mastered version): everything sounds very professional to me! Everything well performed. New World Order? That must have concerned some people…but I don’t want to get into politics here. All of the melodies were very good for me except around 2:00 and 2:40 (briefly) was a bit dissonant for me on the guitar. Overall, very good!
Hey there Aaron, thanks so much for taking the time to have a listen and leave some great feedback, it’s much appreciated brother.
Yeah, the New World Order’s a heavy topic, and not one most are willing to confront so as you say, we’ll forget the politics talk here.
Thanks once again mate.
Keep on rockin’ in the world.
