I wrote this for my side project. That project performs live as a solo acoustic thing at this point but I hope to trick some people into playing with me in the near future.
Anyway, I wrote this thinking of the solo acoustic thing. Then - when I went to record it - I played the acoustic part, sang the scratch vocal, and started to build the song’s arrangement out.
And wouldn’t you know it? It turned into a country song.
Dang. A little ego damage for this punk guy…
Oh, well! I guess that’s what the song wanted to be!
Sounding good! Very catchy. I like the instrumental sounds. I think you could maybe thin out the drums at the low end a bit and possibly allow the acoustic to shine a bit more and be a little fuller, but that’s probably a matter of taste.
One thing I noticed with the vocal was a boxy resonance around 380hz that is congesting the vocal sound somewhat. Maybe check that resonance and the octaves above and below to see if you can massage the vocal into a slightly better shape.
On those acoustics, I think it was a case of mixing with my eyes. I went a listened to 'em again and thought - “those are really thin.” I looked at a high-pass filter I was using and it was set to “90” but it sounded way more like “gentle 200.” I backed that thing down and it helped a bit.
I was really loving the low end in the drum room mics. I had to rely on that stuff a lot to help my snare sound - holy hell did I have have a mess with it a bunch - but after hearing it through your ears the kick was way too present in there. A bit o’ shelf and gentle high-pass and I think it’s better now.
I’m not hearing the vocal resonance but it is my voice. I sound pretty honky when I talk anyway so something like a 750hz-ish peak is probably just how I sound to myself. That doesn’t mean it needs to be in the track, though! Thanks for holding a mirror up to my voice!
Thanks again for lending an ear! I’ll make some revisions and see what happens! It’ll have to be later before I post anything, though.
yeah, a little bit like Green Day doing country lol
I dont want to comment on specific sound qualities because I cant even get my own stuff right yet. (im going to pick up my new monitors in a few lol)
one comment, I didnt understand the lyric at 2:52ish. That seems to be like a climax point of the song but I cant quite understand it. As u said, its a little “honky” and that last word is very hard to make out.
You might check out some of Chris Shiflett’s work! He’s the lead guitarist for Foo Fighters and his solo stuff has a very similar vibe. Quite different from FF stuff. I was really pleasantly surprised.
I like this, I like everything about it and you don’t need to change anything. . . .But if I had one thing to change it would be the drums.
The beats are right and the sound is cool but the drum track hasn’t got enough feel in it to be as prominent as it is (to my ears anyway). You have this great acoustic and band vibe happening and it wants that driving country rhythm for sure; and if you blend it in more most people won’t even notice it, they’ll just like it.
But if you want it more out front it’s just a matter messing it up a little to give it more of a groove, maybe some different samples or a little noise mixed in?
Sonically it sounds good to me even though it’s a little bit hard for me to judge this style because I don’t know what the listener is looking for with this kind of music.
Unlike some others I like that the drums are up front here. I can see how a little more acoustic guitar shining through the mix might improve the feel.
I played all the drums - and I edited all the drums because I’m not a good drummer. My room. My kit. My mics. No samples.
I’m probably guilty of over-editing the drums. I work with a lot of harder-genre stuff and those bands tend to want the drums pretty tight to the grid. My tolerance for what sort of swing bothers me is tighter than is probably appropriate for this genre. That might have squeezed some life out of it.
I tried to address the vocal resonance, the acoustic low end, the low end in the drum rooms, the drums being a touch too loud (I just couldn’t bring 'em down much…I’m a sucker for loud drums!), and automated some vocals that felt like they were getting a touch buried. I still don’t enunciate well so I can’t help that one, Jon-Jon! “…make it to the light somehow.”
Thanks again for the help and the super kind words, all!
Nice! Definite improvement! I auditioned the mix on some cheap and cheerful 2.1 computer speakers as well as my studio monitors. The difference of less boxiness in the vocal was noticeable on my monitors, but the improvement was even more pronounced on the cheap speakers. Cool. :beerbang:
Hey back at cha. Very clean right away. If you are not a pro drummer, you could have fooled me. The chorus is very cool with that minor chord in there. it gets a little weird just after that. ha ha It sounds like a live band. Only thing I can think of it that there might be a little too much going on there. Very cool tho. congrats