I skipped straight to the latest version. The only thing I’m noticing is that there’s a midrange thing to the vocals that I feel is a little overdone. Sometimes it’s more pronounced than others. I notice it more when the vocals are more out there on their own. I think it’s right there in the mouth splack range.
Aside from that very easily adjusted thing, I think the whole thing sounds really really good. The ambience, the verb, the balance, all sounds really good. It’s one of those songs that has really extreme effects/delays, but none of it gets in the way, and all of it adds to the song.
@bozmillar Thanks for the bash! Great that you think the ambience works, I usually like dry mixes but for this one I went for wet and then wetter as I was doing it. I think it was what was called for.
Now, what would you say is that midrange/mouth splack range?
Somewhere around 500hz?
Loving the .5 boost version Patrick… I tried the 1 but it felt a little teeny overdone for me, the .5 is sounding ‘just right’ as I’m typing this… I’m still hearing new ear candies in this song and I’ve listened to it quite a few times now… LOVE it!!
I like what you’ve done with the b vox… and there is a cool emotional vibe coming through in those lead vox which is very nice!! Think I’m noticing that more with the slight db boost. I’m a bit pushed for time sorry and haven’t had time to read all the other comments… ooh, you have changed the piano tone… hmmm, now I’m remembering it was different on the intro too… more tucked away, have you done something with the verb on that?
Have to dash now but will check it out again later
um, not sure exactly. I just feel like I can hear your tongue sloshing around a bit. It’s not extreme, but I certainly did notice it when the vocals came in.
Thanks Emma, glad you like the changes! I was very careful not to break things (as I’m used to ) so I’m happy to see that it got your approval.
I didn’t touched the piano actually, but perhaps it feels a bit more tucked away because the boost is pushing the limiter differently of something like that?
Right, I think the extra little bit of compression + low end boost + pushing a little bit more into the limiter did accentuate that. I do get that in my voice and it’s sometimes annoying and hard to get rid of and of course compression makes it more apparent… Not sure I’m going to do anything about it at this stage, but thanks for clarifying!
Another vote for the .5db. increase mix. You need to be ashamed of yourself ! .5db vox increase! Next you will want a gold mic to sing into while your vocal assistant rubs your throat down with lavender oils! Ha!
Back home now for a follow-up listen… yeah, it’s only a tiny tonal thing with the piano, not a bad thing at all, just a slight difference. My ears are always drawn to piano What I’m hearing is just a touch more ‘distance’ to the piano… I always have a visual sense of where it is placed in the mix and it just seemed to have shifted a little further back, that’s all, neither here nor there… lovely tone to those keys. I need to not write these comments on the run…
Hey, it’s so cool to be able to have all those mp3 versions within the thread. I could never open them at RR with more than one… yay.
Ah, ok! Got it.
What’s funny is that, as I said, I didn’t touch the piano at all, nor the reverb send or anything.
It’s especially strange that you notice it in the intro where nothing should have changed…
The only thing I touched was a little EQ boost on the kick, pushing the hi-hats more into the room and using less direct mic for it. Then on the vocals, a slight boost of volume for the lead and sending tons of the echo delay to the hall reverb. That’s really all.
So perhaps by pushing the vocals and changing the tone of other things the overall loudness has changed a little bit and hit the limiter a touch more, thus pushing back some other things? I don’t know. A bit of a mystery.
But anyway, that’s fine… it’s a crazy occupation we have after all!
I was listening back through with the corrections you’ve made. Sounding great man! I sure love the way this song flows. Can you tell us a bit about how this song came together? Definitely seems like a Pink Floyd influence too
I’m curious to hear more of your work too!
I don’t know what you’d like to know, this one like most others I’ve done has evolved from some simple ideas. I’ve spend about a month and a half working on this song, which is a slightly more than my average. I usually decide that I like an idea or melody or chord progression, something that I think is worth the work, something that excites me somehow (usually something completely different from a previous tune), and then I “live” with it for a while, listening to it many times until new ideas come to me. Then I try to make them happen in my DAW (Cubase FYI).
This is version 87, so you can imagine there were many crazy stuff going on in between.
I’ve spent a good 20 versions trying to find the right drum kit/drum sound for example.
I ended up using Superior Drummer Music City SDX for this one. The bass is Trillian. Keys are Omnisphere and Applied Acoustics Lounge Lizard. Various guitar parts are done with a Variax JTV with various models and a Kemper with various amp profiles.
And yes, Pink Floyd was in the back of my mind for this one. It started with the piano and I wanted it to evolve into some kind of journey, so it ended up being quite a long one. I spent a long time on the lyrics as well (lyrics are always the hardest part for me, since English is not my native language - I’m French), I always have a pretty good idea of the melody and flow of words/syllables that I want to hear but then I try to make sense of it with some kind of more or less meaningful words… I think I only have a couple of songs where lyrics came first, it’s always music first for me, and especially melodies.
Hi ptalbot
Nice stuff, superb atmosphere, for me something near “AIR” and Pink Floyd.
You said +0,5db of vocals didn’t work, but seriously you should
do something on it.
It sounds awesome, but the vocal track seems to be to quiet
maybe because it is a tiny bit thin (more lo mid ?)
I don’t know how to explain it but the key’s chords are naturally loud around 200-250
and there is kind of masking effect between voc and piano for me.
You’ll have to do some subtle changes, then it will be perfect for me !
Merci Moa (merci moi? ça sonne un peu présomptueux ), content que ça te plaise!
Not sure which version you’ve heard because I actually end up adding +0.5 db, and carving a little bit more for the vocals.
I’ve released this on my could here if you’re curious (you can download the wav there as well): https://soundcloud.com/patrick-talbot/9-to-5-barely-alive
No more conflict in this version ! Nice
Etrange, on porte le même nom de famille lié à une défunte marque de bagnole…
Moa c’est l’avatar que j’utilise depuis tellement longtemps, pas sérieux…
Ah oui? C’est quoi ton nom? Peut-être pourrais-tu l’indiquer dans ton profil?
Je trouve ça plus sympa d’appeler les gens par leurs prénoms plutôt que leur pseudo…
) so I’m happy to see that it got your approval.
What I’m hearing is just a touch more ‘distance’ to the piano… I always have a visual sense of where it is placed in the mix and it just seemed to have shifted a little further back, that’s all, neither here nor there… lovely tone to those keys. I need to not write these comments on the run…