Here’s my latest track, written a while ago on a holiday…
Curious backstory: First outing for my recently acquired fretless bass - a friend gave it to me after he found it in a garage sale. It had been sitting around the studio for about a year gathering dust. Then the battery died in my fretted bass and I didn’t have a spare. I was in the “zone”, so I quickly went to grab the battery out of the fretless and swap it into the fretted bass. I picked up the fretless and thought “hmmm…I wonder…”, plugged it in and began experimenting…and here we are…
Again, it’s kind of a proof-of-concept/quick/no automation/no frills mix.
Thanks in advance for listening!
And here’s an updated “Progressed” mix with a few changes and some additions:
Sounds great ,love the vox smooth as silk .One very small nit pick is when the snare comes in a109 its just sounds a tad messy like it could use just a little bit of gating. Great work so far
I could use more energy from the vocals in the verses. Or texture maybe. Something so that they stand out more among the instruments. I wonder if double-tracking would work better. The chorus is great though! Gosh that’s awesome–the lead in with the drums and everything. Love this chorus. And I like how the verse/pre-chorus has a lot of contrast with the chorus, but I think it could just more texture or something to make it more interesting.
Maybe if you made the vocal louder–yeah thiscould work… If the vocal was louder in the verses and the instruments quieter, then when the loud instrumental comes in for the chorus it will pack more of a punch. And you’ll get more rawness/texture out of a louder vocal so it’ll help. That’s what I would try anyway. Really cool song.
Thanks Cristina, glad you like the chorus… I wasn’t sure about it to begin with, actually, but when my wife said she couldn’t get it out of her head, I thought I might be onto something (Either that, or I had just been playing it too much!).
I’m still open to adding more stuff to the verses/pre-choruses. I was thinking about some keys, but kind of got impatient with it and wanted to get the first draft done.
I was actually worried that the verse vocal might be too loud, so it’s good to get some feedback on that. It’s right at the bottom of my range, so it’s tricky for me to sing. I was going for a big contrast with the verse, but that might explain the apparent lack of energy. I was thinking about doing some more radical processing to the low vocal, but I thought it best see if it could stand on it’s own at this stage.
Thanks for listening, and for your thoughtful comments - much appreciated!
O yay!!! And double yay… you are in the zone for sure, there is that gorgeous hum of creative cohesion to this… love the song. Just able to listen quickly at the moment and through laptop and the magic shines through loud and clear. Exciting sounds Andrew… I look forward to listening again later but this is so cool!!
Hi guy Great guitar intro and sound. Yeah, that bass is great. Vox has to be tweaked a bit on last words(only in the beginning). Love the melody line. Holy shit that chorus hits hard and very well.
This is great. Love when it comes back down. Your vocal range is so good. It sorta slightly reminds me of some older Ricky Springfield stuff??(Jessies girl) Your vocal mic is so clear.
Well done bud
Thanks Paul! Great that you picked that up about the ends of the verse words. I think the only thing that will remedy that is some automation. Thanks for listening and commenting - much appreciated!
Ha! “Proof of concept”. Very nicely done! I hardly feel qualified to throw critiques your way, but I do have one tiny arrangement thing that might help that first chorus hit even harder: what if you held the drums back after 1:08 for a “timely pause”, then come back in on the down beat around 1:10 on the word “progress”? Just a thought.
Why not? He’s human. He bleeds red and pisses green like the rest of us. There are some lows on the vocal frequencies, I would verb them up just a little more for gelling purposes too. Sounds like buttermilk pancakes on the fryer on Christmas morning overall though, delightful.
Hey Mike - Thanks! - As a listener with an opinion, you’re definitely qualified… Great arrangement idea there - should be fairly easy to try out. Much appreciated, mate!
Thanks Dillon! I played around with the low end of the vocals - I was thinking about “telephoning/lo-fi-ing” them, but I’m a bit tired of hearing that particular cliche… The right verb could gel them a bit better. Thanks for listening!
Thanks for the comments on this one so far. I have made a few changes based on those, as well as added some keys to the arrangement. Please have a listen and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Seems like the verse vocal levels are better in this last version.
This is a good, dynamic song. Lots of people are going to dig this song!
I really appreciate the songwriting and arrangements in this tune. As far as the mix and production quality, it sounds very solid to me. I’m only listening through my laptop speakers , but it sounds very good. If I was to make any recommendations to improve the mix, production or songwriting, I would be nitpicking, although maybe I’m missing some flaws because of the device I’m listening back from.
IMO, you’re solid in every department here.
BTW, you posted a song that you referred to as “your heaviest song” in another thread. I really liked that song. The vocal melody was damn good! I was really impressed with the songwriting on that one. Keep up the great work!
Thanks mate! Appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment.
Wow, thanks dude! Good to know that it sounds ok on small speakers. If you get a chance to listen on better speakers and hear anything that needs attention let me know.
BTW, you posted a song that you referred to as “your heaviest song” in another thread. I really liked that song. The vocal melody was damn good! I was really impressed with the songwriting on that one. Keep up the great work!
Thanks - That one has an unusual Bm-F-D progression in the chorus which was a bit of an experiment, but it ended up being hookier than I thought it would be. I have another rockier track I’m just about ready to mix, so hopefully I’ll be posting that soon.
Yup, this little sucker is getting implanted securely in my mind and that doesn’t happen very often:) the vocal coming thru better at 1:40 ish. Sounds like the power chords single strum in the verse is taking away vocal clarity early on. Might be something else?? I love your voice and I want not to mask it in any way. This song is going to find a home…FOR SURE. You da man
This is sounding really solid. I am wondering if there is too much distortion on the verse vocals. It pokes out a couple times especially in the first and second verse and doesn’t quite sit right with me. taste thing but maybe worth mentioning just in case it was something you were unsure of it yourself.
