This is a song that I started earlier this year. I’ve heard this so many times that I’ve lost sight of the mix and the finer parts of the production. This is the first and only mix that I’ve done, but I’d like to improve it. There’s also some additional instrumentation I am thinking of adding, as well as a few subtle changes in certain instruments and vocals.
Let me know what you like and what you don’t like about this song, mix, production, etc., and what changes could be made to improve it. Thanks.
Man this sound is soooo good. I don’t know where to start. Everything IMHO is so good. The thought of getting jacked up on crack just doesn’t work for me tho. I guess because of the bad things it does to folks long term. There are so many other things to get one messed up but also recoverable. I’m not making much sense as usual. I know
Now to me"Jacked up on Jack" is something most guys would say “oh yeah, bring it man”
I also wondered if you might experiment with a totally different lyric line with less words and a knarly vox. The reason only is that the song itself is already really moving along quickly.
Those are my immediate first instincts. The track does kick some royal ass. You have some great talents there bud. I hope that you will get many different replies with completely different takes on this
Big time potential here
No worries. Also, the alternate title of “Cracked Up On Jack” wouldn’t have worked nearly as well.
Or they might say, “Maaaan, you don’t know Jack!” But I know what you mean, 'cause I know Jack.
I really like the song! I didn’t dig into the technicalities (i.e. low end), but on computer speakers it sounds pretty good to me. Maybe that first verse vocal (0:18-0:31) that is low in pitch/tone and kind of hard to understand could be a little clearer for the sake of understanding the lyrics? But then again, I like the contrast when the next verse pitches up.
Those ‘funk’ guitar fills and the backing vocals near the end of the song (3:35, “ahh ahh”) could maybe be a little louder. They’re audible, but could use a bit more sonic impact perhaps.
I like the guitar solo, as usual, and I wanted to ask about your processing chain on lead guitar solos. I have heard some common elements over several songs, and in this one it sound like you have stereo chorus on it and maybe a touch of short delay. Would you mind sharing your lead guitar solo “chain” and production tips?
Great job here @Wicked nothing I can suggest to improve. Well maybe the ending could be stronger, it just cuts off the rhythm part, you had some cool riffs at 3:50 I figured one of them would spin into the ending?
Yeah, it doesn’t work for me either, but I just started singing that for the chorus vocal and it felt right. I can’t remember if I had that phrase running around in my mind for awhile before writing the song or if came to me as I was about to lay down the very first vocal. It was the title of the song that led the way for the rest of the lyrics in the song. I thought the title had a funny and memorable ring to it, so I just went with it.
I can see where you’re coming from with that idea. I had thought of sustaining some vocals and using a slower delivery for some parts of the song but I ultimately decided to stick with the vocal riffing that you’re hearing in the song now because there’s a decent amount of variance as it is. I totally understand where you’re coming from though.
The thought of being jacked up on coffee crossed my mind when I was writing it. Jacked up on Joe or Jacked up on Coffee didn’t have the same vibe to me. Jacked Up On Crack sounds kind of humorous to me and makes me smirk a bit when I hear it. I’m not sure if others will see the humour in it though. It’s good to know that the words don’t offend you, because I have an unsettling feeling that this song and some of my other songs will be looked upon unfavourably because of the lyrics. If I post this on my Youtube channel and to my Facebook page, I wonder if I’ll get banned or some kind of warning…
Yeah, I’m not sure if I should bring the vocal level up on that part or if I should leave it. I feel like I’m hearing it really well but that could be because I recorded it myself and I’ve been listening to it for so long. I kind of want the vocal to be just slightly above the music in that “rap” part.
I had the funk guitar fills a bit louder originally but I thought they detracted from the heavy vibe of the rhythm, so I pulled that guitar down. They might be too quiet now, though I’m not sure. I’m glad you mentioned the ahh ahh’s because I do think I could get those to shine a lot more than they do now. Those should be pretty big sounding and spread wide over the stereo width (maybe). They sound quite good but I have them buried a bit too much.
You’re going to be disappointed and unimpressed with my guitar solo “chain” because there isn’t much too it. For this song I used the 5150 Amp Simulation in Amplitube 4. I don’t think I messed much, if any with the preset that it comes with. Maybe I contoured the sound a bit with a bit more drive. I used the ReaDelay from Reaper to spice it up a bit. The solo is manually doubled and that’s what gives it that stereo sound. The doubling is the key.
I wrote this solo quite quickly. I had planned to redo it with more precision because I didn’t feel it was as good as I could have done it but then I started realizing that nobody would ever hear the difference between slight imperfection and perfection, so I figured it was a waste of time to re-record it. I have another part to this solo that I really like but I made the rhythm section shorter than I should have, so I wasn’t able to include it in the solo section. I probably should have made a longer solo section, but I’m always thinking about having songs that are palatable to everyone, even those who aren’t big on hearing guitar solos in every song. I was really tempted to shred throughout the solo but I pulled myself back and instead put some melody in there and slowed it down in part of it. I usually approach a solo as a “mini song” instead of an exercise in speed and showing of my chops. BUT I think I need to make a song where I just show off guitar skills, at some point in the future, though I’m sure I’ll put at least some effort into making it palatable.
I have been considering changing the ending, even though part of me likes the way it abruptly concludes. The riffs you mentioned at 3:50 could probably be used for the ending. There’s one particular part in those riffs that I’m envisioning as a good candidate to close the show.
If you attended our morning bullshit coffee session you would immediately understand that your lyric word choices are somewhat mild. haha I don’t even want to ever associate with folks that aren’t real.
Too bad we (the many talented forum players) couldn’t have a virtual jam session. I would be a blast. Kinda…ok…lets warm up with a little blues in E first…then…etc My mind always is in fantasy land
You can always try some minimal changes and see if you like them. Maybe 0.3-0.5 dB boosts, maybe a little more. Don’t overshoot, just try to find a sweet spot. You can always keep it or reverse it, or boost even more if you like where it’s going.
The manual doubling is very nice. Thanks for the detailed info!
From your past solos, I did find myself wanting more length and shredding from this one, but it was sufficient for the song and tasty as is.
I’m getting a real Les Claypool vibe from those verses, cool stuff.
Most of my issues with this mix would be in the bottom end, I had a play round in the DAW and there seems lke a real build up at 145Hz, I did a narrow cut of about 7db and that seems to pull out a fair bit of resonance with losing too much energy.
There’s a lot of unnecessary sub stuff going on too. I tried a hard cut with a multiband compressor from 40Hz down and that cleared a lot of that out without any real audible loss in low-end.
The drums are getting a bit buried in the busier parts too.
I’d almost be tempted to grab gats, bass and vox and bring it all down a shade, just until the snare is poking through a bit more.
Maybe try it in mono at a fairly low volume.
I’ll probably do that. Just a slight adjustment. Thanks, Stan!
I’m sure I’ve heard that name before but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard his music. Ahh, I just googled him. He’s from Primus. I’ll have to give his music a listen.
I was half expecting someone to mention the heavy low end. I kind of like that beefiness but I suspect if I was monitoring the song with good subwoofers the low end might be overbearing. I like that low end sound but I might left it go unchecked and went overboard with it here. I’ll try to get a better balance by cleaning some of that up.
There are parts of the song where I thought I might have had the drums a bit too loud, particularly the snare, but I wasn’t certain about that. It’s good that you mentioned the drums being a bit quiet in some parts of the song though. I’ll check that out and automate accordingly, if necessary. Thanks for your feedback, @terryhesticles !
Just as a bit of confirmation/clarification, I was hearing all that 40Hz stuff and below on my sub, and it’s really not adding anything of value to the mix imo, but rather stealing all that sweet sweet headroom.
I’m digging the ‘beefy’ lowend fo sure, but I think you could trim a bit of excess fat off the beef, and still keep all the beefy goodness intact.
Thanks for sharing some examples of Primus and Claypool’s work, @ingolee .
A lot of their stuff has a bluegrass style to it. It’s somewhat quirky and amusing. I can see what Primus fans like about this. I’ve listened to a few of their songs and it seems that the vocalist (Claypool I think…?) mostly raps/ scats, as opposed to singing melodies. Does Claypool and Primus have any songs that have full blown vocal melodies? I tend to have a preference for melodic singing.
@Wicked ‘Wynona’s Beaver’ is Primus, ‘Hot Rod Lincoln’ is Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. Primus is an '80’s rock band and Commander Cody is early '70’s country rock. Style labels are always kind of questionable but that’s how I’ve always heard it.
Primus is like you said, more talking than singing. Commander Cody is more country so they have some numbers with Nicolette Larson singing that are very melodic.