The way you move sets me on fire. My senses real with a longing desire
over and over my minds keeps projecting this fantasy
you have a spell over me that I can not get free
Hello daydream youāre here again. Can I please come in and be alone with you
Hello daydream youāre here again. Look inside my brain is there room for two
A special place for me and you
You come to me without makin a sound. So magically when thereās no one around
Are you for realā¦are you hereā¦or are you just fantasy
You have a spell over me that I can not get free
Youāre so close ā¦now I can almost touch you
Hurry now come to me cuz youāre fading out of view
but youāll come back to me I know
This is very good Mr. F. Rhythm guitars and layered vocals work great. I donāt know about Neil but I like the way you lowered your voice and opened up room for the harmonies. And that bridge is wonderful, I never saw it coming! You could tweak the lead vocal there, itās a little squawky maybe. I guess you could add some space here and there, everything is in close and kind of dead, just my two cents. And thereās room for some added instruments (fills too?). But hey, it even has an ending, Iām impressed!
Nice one!
As I listen, I will tend to agree with ingolee a little in that a little space in some instruments may assist it but I really like it.
I donāt hear the Neil Diamond influence much, more like Beatles and Neil Young to me.
Love how the song pushes and pulls through each section. The pre chorus is awesomeā¦ although I feel like the drums shouldnāt pull back half way through them as it sort of kills the build for me.
Great harmonies and melody in the chorus. Thereās something not quite sitting right with the vocals in the chorus which is stopping me from outright loving it. I think they are a touch loud and /or dryā¦ dunno.
What I do know is Iāll be singing that damned chorus for the rest of the day!!! I really like this!
Hi bud Unlike other years, I have vowed to finish songs now. ha ha This is the first try and there are many areas to improve on. Each comment will be addressed and repaired. I havenāt started on fills and other sounds yet, but I went in this morning and sang over that weird voice bridge again. I left the old one a bit to the side and quieter. I am using the AKG 414 on this one. I donāt know why? It was just set up I guess. I get too close and it doesnāt like that. Not sure what you mean about everything is kinda close and gives it a dead feel. I will google that. Going to mess with my PRS today. I look forward to that. Crappy cold day here anyway. The best to you
Hi Daniel Ok, space is my number one priority today. I hear my unchanging guitars on both sides droning on. Gotta get creative. I found the drum pullback and fixed it this morning. Well at least I think I did. You really nailed it on the chorus problem I started with the lead vocal isolated this morning and started adding the other three individually. Everything was sung decently close until I hit the high note one and man was I off. When I sing falsetto, sometimes I wander. I re-sang it and it really sounds better. Good catch. I have been singing the chourus away from the sudio too. I guess that is a good thing. thanks so much for your help
The main problem is the lead vocal, it has a very large build up of 250Hz, which makes the instrumentation sound like a karaoke backing track with a live vocal dumped on top of it.
I would get vicious with the high pass filter on the vocal. Donāt stop turning it up until youāre physically in pain. I personally would get it close to ātelephone voiceā territory.
Then, bearing in mind the title of the track and its overall mood, I would slap a healthy dose of BPM-related delay, followed be a nice long spacy stereo reverb, to give it a dreamy feeling.
If youāve done a proper number on the lead vocal you may find you need to high-pass the female backing vocals too so that they gel with the lead vocal and the instrumentation.
The only other problem is a general 100Hz build up across the track. Easily remedied with an EQ cut on the 2-bus.
I really like the song and the confident vocal delivery.
Hi AJ Sorry I havenāt gotten back to you. I did some research on what you recommended and messed with the song a bit. For the first time I put a compressor on the whole mix and found it was indeed very heavy in the 2-300 area. I first selected a bass EQ that is called round and deep in studio one. It takes everything out of that area and looks like a giant lower case m. ha ha I EQād the guitars in that area and dropped to o the supporting guitars for noise reasons. I used a bpm delay as you suggested but canāt remember the name on the vox. The female back ground vocals are me. I give my nads a couple of twists for those high ones. Thanks much for you help and have a good day
Very nice, I would only suggest that the main guitar thatās playing the figure through the song has a little honk to it that might be making the voice sound small in comparison. Probably around 300? A fairly tight notch in that area might help without having to mess with levels. Good job, you make us old guys proud.
Sounds good Mr. F , I think youāre getting much closer to a polished mix. I would do some more tweaks or automation to the lead vocal but thatās a taste thing really. It would be great to add a different voice to the background vocals, a different color would add a lot I think.
Thank you for the review! Now your song: are you doing all of the vocals? Sometimes I get male falsetto vocals mixed up with female vocals. For a while, I thought some of the vocals in Elton Johnās āBennie & the Jetsā were female. For years I thought the Bee-Gees were female singers! The vocals sound quite good! They sound better than the other recordings Iāve heard you do. Holler-back at me if I already havenāt told you my two Neil Diamond-related stories. Audio quality is very good. Part of your rhythm guitar reminds me of the Outfield (an 80ās band) at times. Though at times the song has a 60ās vibe. I dig the Beatle-esque bridge. On first listen, I thought the intro could be tighter timing-wise, but later I did not have that impression. Overall, I think this is your best recording and best performances (the individual tracks) that Iāve heard you do. I like the lyrics too. Good job!
Hey Bob Speaking of old guys, I am 70 and keep thinkin Iām a gonner. ha ha I actually went into that track and manually lowered some of those higher spikes. I did EQ it, but I only know one method. I bend down from about 500 to about 100 on a curve. I will look at a way to make a sharper cut on that honker( I heard it too) Thanks for taking the time bud
Hi guy I see in studio one there Is an automation, but have never used it? Would this be done to get my singing timing better??? I can look it up. I do sometimes take the snap off and drag the vox on a little delay if I get ahead a bit? Do you wanna sing some backing tracks??? I would love that???
Hi Aaron I heard the same thing on that intro. In fact I went back and played it a few times and just shook my head. I think the first part of it is on, but the second is a little early. I can play it over or move it. Good catch. To answer your question, yes I have always done all my vocals, but as of late they are not as good as they used to be. I played in a band for many years and old sung the junk songs and bvgās. I graduated from hs in 1966, so yes the Beatles I canāt shed:)
Iām really not a singer but thanks for asking! @Stan_Halen and @steban are good singers who would probably like to try this, and there are many others on IRD who I think would be glad to help too.
Automation wonāt change timing, itās mainly for tweaking volume up and down according to a line that you draw. Compression does the same thing but it sounds a bit different. Mixers love to use these and eq more than anything Oh yeah reverb too.
Yeah so with the āsnapā off you can cut the vox track into pieces big or small and drag them around to change timing if you want.
Hi! I havenāt read the other comments, sorry if Iām not adding anything new her: just commenting as I listen. Also, Iām not mincing my words since youāve asked to hit hard.
Why the hiss? Are you doing this on purpose to add a vintage feel to the song or is it involuntary? In the latter case, surely there must be a way to get rid of it.
The drums have their own reverb (provided by the plugin itself, Iām assuming), which sounds really different from the rest of the tracks, resulting in a lack of cohesion. And even though the instruments are well played, the drums sound 100% quantized which adds to this issue as it really doesnāt feel like a human being playing. The kick is loud and clear, but I think it is too much for this genre, I would bring it down a bit.
The rhythm guitar on the left is too prominent and could use a bit more compression to tame the peaks and make it sit better in the mix. I would also add a little bit of crunch to it to add more grit to the song and make it more interesting since you have several guitars with a clean sound already. In general the guitars overlap too much because they all have a similar sound (which is probably because itās the same guitar played by the same guy and recorded with the same gear?), and besides the panning choices, they share a similar space in the mix (frequency range, volume). The arrangement is well thought out since you have one strumming rhythm, one arpeggio and one lead, but in terms of sound I would try to give them their own special space more.
The two voices donāt blend well together in my opinion. They sound like theyāve been recorded with different sets of mind. The female vocals sound intimate as if sheās singing close to the mic and with restraint, while the male vocals sound more blunt, sung louder and farther away from the mic. Why not decide on doubling the vocals only on some parts of the song or maybe alternate male and female, and perhaps harmonizing the choruses rather than singing unison? Also, EQ-wise there are some annoying frequencies that should be cut.
The vocal reverb doesnāt sound good, and thereās a bit too much I think. It makes the lead vocals unclear even though theyāre quite loud. I would place the guitars deeper in the mix and bring the vocals forward.
Iāve only mentioned what didnāt work for me but there is also a lot that does work.
About the hiss: weāre probably not referring to the same hissing noise. The hiss I was referring to is especially audible at the very beginning and gradually decreases as the guitars come in. It might just be an unwanted noise coming from your amp or pedals, or amp simulator if thatās what youāre using. There is probably a compressor somewhere that picks up this low noise and brings it up (just doing its job, really) then when the guitars start it is brought back to an almost inaudible level. An easy fix is to automate the compressor to start working exactly when the first guitar note is played, not before.
I use EZdrummer a lot too, itās a very good tool when you canāt afford the time or money to get a good drummer playing a good kit in a good room, recorded by a good sound engineer with good gear (yeah thatās a lot of goods, which is why Iām using it more often than not on my own songs). Even though Iām not a good drummer myself, I have been very happy with the results I got when playing EZ drummer from an electronic kit and tweaking the midi file after the fact to make me sound like I know what Iām doing. You might want to give it a try, playing the drums yourself allows you to find the right fills and groove changes that make the song pop, and which you canāt do by just selecting pre-recorded loops or drawing the hits with the mouse.
Wow, Iām impressed you did the female vocals yourself, the trick totally worked on me.
A great suggestion is to place the guitars deeper in the mix and bring the vocals forward. I have no clue there. That sounds to me to make the guitars louder and the vox less?
Of course the volume is one way to do it, but I would wet the guitars with more reverb and make sure they are not taking up too much space in the main frequencies of the vocals. Reverb is the main tool to control how far you set an instrument in your mix, regardless of its volume. @Mixerman explained this very well in his books the art of mixing and the survival guide to a killer record.
Very pleasant song, @feaker. The lyrics are soft, and your voice quite likable. It fits well with the easy going melody, and it brings me back to the 60s in style with maybe better production than the average song of the day.
I was like @danmanisa having a blast singing along. Of course, the challenge is resisting cluttering it up as it right now seems in a good place. Iām not sure if Iāve heard the latest version either, but Iām sure some technical advice here has been extremely helpful. It always is for me!
You are very polite, Paul, and I donāt blame you for being tired of politics. One of my fav songs is Apolitical Blues by Little Feat, which probably describes what you feel.
Iām not a participator or donator, but it is a hobby for me to keep abreast of the news. Iām 66, so weāve lived through some wild times, and it is pretty weird out there right now. Iād say it is scary. But unlike my 64 year old brother who just retired, Iām not worried about the impending asteroid collision.
