A couple of years ago I started recording my “Three Sides of a Tragedy” project. It is a rock opera about, well, a tragedy
I never got to promote it or dedicate much time to it, but I want to change that and finish what I started. The recording was made in a little bedroom, late at night so the vocals are very soft. I used some of my skills to give it a push to something a bit more powerful.
My intention is to release this new mix alongside a video where I talk about this song and with a text that tells the story (of this song). And post a new one every week. You can read what I have written, before I try to promote it, here:
And here is the mix I intend to connect to this story:
“Was Better Before”
Any feedback appreciated! And if you’d like to participate just let me know :slight_smile
LOVE the guitar that comes in around 1:00. It’s maybe a little piercing…but I personally like how much it stands out. Great tone.
I read the blog, it’s intriguing. Nice image. I definitely get a scary sense from this, like something bad will happen. I look forward to the next one.
Thank you for the comments! And yes, scary stuff is coming. It’s based on true events (sadly). I’ll post soon a video explaining the origins of this story.
I like the concept and the sounds. Good atmosphere and the vocal works well, kind of sticks with you even though it’s only a fragment. Overall balance might be off a bit.
In this particular mix, the rhythm guitar in the left channel is really competing for frequency space with the lead vocal. You might like to try some “complimentary eq’ing” strategies to get them to work better together… or maybe just turn down the rhythm guitar a bit.
I like it, the thing you have to watch out with a project like this is making sure that the words are easy to understand, so making space for the vocal is key, the vocals are very breathy which makes it hard to understand some of the words for me, I would recommend either bringing the vocals up a little bit or or if you can, re-record them.
Otherwise its’s great, love the footsteps at the beginning and the end, they really give this track some ambiance.
This is REALLY cool, I like it a lot. Is the vocal a little too up front, I can’t decide. It’s definitely right out there but it doesn’t feel like a bad thing.
There’s nothing I could really pick out that really hit me in a negative way other than that floor tom hit at 1:15ish (the last one of the bar), it just sounds a little too quantized, and leaves an awkward pause leading into the next bar.
Could possibly get a bit more epic with the kick, feels like it’s all beater.
Overall fucking cool, I’d listen to this at home all day long.
I thought about re-recording them. But at the same time I like the feeling they have for this song. I’ll try to make them clearer then and see what happens.
Fatter kick. I will try that definitely and come back to you.
Thank you all for the feedback! And it is very encouraging that you found it interesting and cool. I’ll post a link to the last version really soon.
Just listening back again, the bass guitar could do with a lot more bottom end rumble too, it feels like much of the low end bass character has been cut.
The ‘perceivable’ low end of the vocal is literally lower (tonally) than the bass guitar.
Let’s add it back then and see how it sounds. I did add a resonant HPF to the mix bus in an attempt to control de low frequencies. Maybe I overcontrolled it.
Hello! I made small changes based on your comments. Plus reduced the compression in the mix bus. It sounds better in different systems now, like in the car and headphones. Take a listen if you have the time!
It sounds like you’ve got the bass fundamental at 70hz sorted, and I would leave it there, it sounds good.
The problem I had with the bass guitar, and still do is that it was/is missing that “in your chest” thump, that’s located around 100-150hz, needed to really feel the bass. Unfortunately, as the mix stands your bass is in direct conflict with the vocal which occupies a very large portion of that area, so in order to get the bass thumping a little more you’d really need to push that vocal bottom end out the way somehow.
Could possibly cut a bit of 3k off that bass gat too, it’s quite “ticky” and doesn’t add a lot to the mix excecpt distraction.
That’s really my only issue tbh, it sounds good otherwise.
I’ll make those changes. For this song in particular I also want the bass to stand out, so your approach is very good. And will start promoting it tomorrow on my social networks.
Nice progress. Listening to the last two mixes, it seems to me that the vocal was best on the second-last mix, whereas in the latest one, the vocal seems to have lost ground again to the guitar and synths. Not sure what the solution is… possibly some automation, sidechaining?
