A few weeks ago a friend suggested we get together, have a few beers and play some guitar. One of the songs he suggested we jam on was ‘Omerta’ by Katatonia. Last weekend I played around with it, found some tabs and then kept on going. I ended up with this. The drums are programmed with MT Power Drum Kit 2. I played my Strat and used BiasFX for the guitars. An old Ibanex EX series bass and a couple of vocal tracks with Nectar 3. I used Scheps Omni on the master mix but honestly I don’t know how to properly use half the tools I have I added a little saturation and compression… which seemed to have helped it along slightly. All comments are appreciated.
There’s one thing that I noticed as soon as I started listening, is that the bass sounds a bit honky. This could be taste, but I get the feeling that it could be a lot fuller, just by cutting out some of that honkyness, and maybe a bit more limiting to get it more constantly present. There’s not enough body to it imho.
I think the main problem with it lies somewhere between 200 and 800. Not suggesting one wide cut though
I can’t offer any technical advice, but I liked the vibe and the performance and have no issue with the mix. Vocals are clean and accessible, and you give me a sense I’m listening to an undiscovered Byrds track. The bass is probably a tad too low or something that gives me that impression, but the entire track is relatively subdued, but I wouldn’t get too carried away, try tiny incremental adjustments and decide if one jumps out as better.
Hey, very cool song, nicely written, recorded, produced.
I can’t add many things to previous comments but I shared most aspects.
The song is really nice to me and there is no big flaw.
The only thing that I’m not really keen on is the main rhythm electric guitar tone/choice/recording: I found a bit odd and too prominent for that song. I wish something like an acoustic guitar with a condenser mic with a little bit of room, with less character.
Thanks for the comments. I tend to agree… but I don’t have a decent acoustic to do it. I’ve got an old Ibanez thin body but it’s in need of some repairs. Was hoping to borrow a friends Taylor but he’s not been available lately!
Cool track! You’ve done well in the mix with the sources you have… it all works pretty well.
I agree about the bass - a deeper tone would suit the material better - maybe a different pickup on the bass?.. or maybe look at the actual note choices and stick to the thicker strings to really hold the low end together.
…and yes, definitely a mic’d acoustic would be the way to go - a nice double-tracked acoustic spread left and right would lift the arrangement really nicely.
Vocal-wise, you have a good sounding voice, but the pitch definitely needs tightening up overall. Sometimes, using a pitch-correction tool, not necessarily to correct pitch, but to really forensically study the actual vocal melody can be very enlightening and can really help to identify and correct weaknesses in your vocal technique.
Sometimes, changing mic position could change a bit the original character of the sound… but you could not faking a Martin guitar with a very cheap one
I live about 2 miles from Martin Guitar headquarters… and that’s about as close as I’ll get to owning one. Just a bit too expensive for me to get one as a hobby. They sounds mighty sweet though.
I’ll have to see what I can do about the bass. As far as the voice… well… I’ll see if I can do a little better. I’ve not got much confidence in my vocal abilities but I’ll give it a go. Thanks for the feedback!
Yup. Bring up the bass. A little more separation in the guitars. A little more snap on the snare.
That said, I LOVE this song! Nice voice. I like the arrangement. I like the “doo-doos” at 0:32-0:42, 1:22+. Reminds me of Gordon Lightfoot somehow. Love it. Nice lead at 2:20.
Very nice.
Lookin’ forward to hearing more.
Just a thought: if you’d be open to it, I’d love to take a crack at mixing this. Not that there’s anything wrong with this mix; just for me to practice, cuz I need the bashing.
Here it is. My re-mix. Hope ya like it. Thanks for sending me the tracks and allowing me to do this. I’m really working on my mixing and thought this would be a doable project for me.
I’d really appreciate some honest bashing from y’all, of what I did here. Just wanting to get better at this.
Enjoy,
Tesgin
Oh, I also created a drum map for your MT Pro Drum Kit 2, so I can play your MIDI drum file directly thru AD2. In AD2, just hit the ?, go to Map Window, and load it as a map preset. Here’s the file if you’re interested.
I added a little saturation and compression… which seemed to have helped it along slightly. All comments are appreciated.
But I’m sure you can give it a few tweaks to make it awesome