For quite a while this will probably my last recording which I’ll put up for a healthy bashing. Tomorrow I’ll start packing my studio to move to another house, where there’s no room for a studio until I have built one in the garden (see my other recent thread on that subject). Unfortunately other building projects have a higher priority…
This is a song I wrote about 5 years ago. As you may know, I’m a biologist so it’s not all that strange that Charley Darwin is my hero. This is a song about him, but it’s also about my dog with the same name (no coincidence of course).
It’s a rough mix at this stage, still quite a bit of work to do. I hope I can get it done on headphones…
I like the concept and the fact that you wrote a song about your dog. Overall it sounds good and I really like the different sections and how you differentiated them. As far as mixing, 2 things I noticed is the low mids seem to be a bit too full. You have a low voice and when combined with the acoustic and the bass, they all seem to be fighting a bit. The vocals also seem to be a bit too loud and forward. The vocal doubles also seem to cause the vocal volume to jump up too much. Perhaps some compression or vocal riding would help. The only other thing I noticed is the tambourine is a bit loud.
Thanks for lending me your ears Chan!
I did all sorts of editing and mixing since the first version. But your advice was certainly part of it. I tend to forget that instruments that sound fine (no boxiness or whatever) can build up when they all play at the same time. So I cut quite a bit more. I rode the vocals at different levels: the main vocal in relation to my friends second voice, the vox mix buss in relation to the other instruments, etc.
Anyway, here’s version 2.
Hi Sorry for not being a part of this. I have have been crazy busy. Love the vibe. Def improvement from the first. The Darwin and me is catchy. Something about the higher guitar that i find a touch abrasive? hard to explain. Might need to cut a touch on the lower axe EQ too?? Not good at that.
Also heard about your move and wish you all the luck of pulling it off without a hitch. peace
You were right there Paul. I was listening in the car today and I thought it was terrible! Yes way too harsh that tele! I didn’t mind the low on the other guitar ( Epiphone Casino), but there’s way too much honky reverb going on. It was a bit of a hasty job and quite late at night… And sometimes I wonder if I should get myself some better monitors, because I wasn’t hearing this in my studio. Or maybe it’s just my lousy ears ;).
Can’t do much about it now. Everything’s packed and waiting for the movers tomorrow morning. Not looking forward to it. The new house needs a hell of a lot of work to be done before it is even remotely as nice as our current house. But the area we’ll be living in is very lovely nice: the only part of the country with rolling hills. Not very Dutch at all (more than 50% lies below sea level).
This is a fun song. I like that the drums open up in version 1 and set the mood rather than the dynamic buildup in version 2. You have panned and given some space and body in version 1. Organs are a great touch (Thank you).
I think version 2 may be much more compressed vs ver1 or you have more low/low mid and your voice is held down slightly amongst the instruments. V1 2 stereo spread is more narrow then v1 so it is a bit boxed in, but in v1 itseems you have given more space and done some cutting with the Eq to give some clarity.
I love the various rhythms and patterns keeps me listening.
I thoroughly enjoy this song, Evert! Lyrics are whimsical and upbeat, unpretentious as a dog’s companionship. That alone is worth many extra brownie points.
V1 I listened to after V2, and it already had that deep resonating vocal tone going strong, and V2 maybe mellowed it out reasonably, but thankfully it’s still there. V2 is quite good, but I’m no expert. Perhaps it is better to have to wait a bit due to the move before going further as you are close if not already there.
(more than 50% lies below sea level).