I fixed what was obvious, funny how one doesn’t hear that when your too close to the project - Have a listen and tell me what you hear; how I might get better separation of instruments - every thing is midi
I feel like there’s a general lack of spacial cohesion here. It sounds like each instrument was recorded in a separate space and then just put together.
I think those acoustic guitars are the biggest culprit. The hard panning along with being very close and dry makes it not mesh with everything else.
I’d start by taking those acoustic guitars and getting the low end out of them if you are going to pan them that hard.
The tambourine is also really loud. That can be dropped a lot.
The vocals are out of control. Dynamically, they’re flying all over the place and making a really big mess. Use a compressor to anchor them into place. If you’re afraid of damaging the vocal by using a compressor to control the dynamics, then find a more transparent compressor and set it so it doesn’t dig into the source.
Hi Kin I hear a little Eagles in here. Like the chorus “who’s gonna love you” There is both so much upside and so much to tweak in this song. ha ha The vox is up and down and a few mutt notes (that’s what I call mine), but it’s all fixable. Those harmonies would really pop if tuned up a bit. I like the vibe here. Simple and laid back. Song in general is WAY too long. Start tweakin
Paul
OK - I added some compression and EQ. to the vocals and the guitars. I changed how the guitars were panned from 75% to 50. I also lowered the overall volume say 3 db. and cut back on the low end of the guitars at 200 hz. from 100
I think some of my problem was I was trying to max out the the stereo out volume. The new version sounds a little better, Please let me know if you think other changes may help.
Boz / Jonathan I appreciate muchly your critiquing. It’s the only way I’ll improve. don’t hold back you won’t hurt my feelings.
Paul I haven’t a clue how to tweak the tuning. I’ve seen some old videos but it looks all so complicated. How do you do it? There are a couple of timing issues but with this new cubase I’m using it doesn’t allow me to adjust the timing by stretching or compressing the audio waves to the beats and bars - I’ll have to figure that out.
One more thing when the song is uploaded to this site it sounds different than it does from my system, I don’t know why that is? that was one of the reasons I pulled the song out because it really sounded badly I couldn’t leave that.
Big improvement in the guitars ,cleaned up nice
This second one is worlds better. There’s some strange pumping/compression artifact hitting at 12 seconds on the guitar. I don’t notice it anywhere else in the song when the guitar isn’t exposed like that, but I’d look into fixing that one spot.
yep, just needs a slight tuning
2nd Mix sounds good overall.
Guitar strumming sounds a bit too smooth , could be over compression. Some pumping artifacts are also noticeable. I personally prefer the initial ‘hit’ in the guitar strum to come out a bit more. Id play around with compression and see if guitar rings a bit more.
Other than that, great vibe (Eagles vibe) I agree with @feaker
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Hi Daniel some nice melodies happening here, and I like the breezy, early 70’s kinda California sound.
Really? Even the acoustic guitars? Are they Strum Acoustic or something like that? They sound pretty decent.
A lot of great advice given already…so I won’t go over it again… If I may, I’d like to chime in with a suggestion about tuning, though…
Even if you don’t actually learn how to tune vocals, it’s a very worthwhile exercise to look at your vocals in a graphical tuning interface (Cubase? Is it Variaudio?) Doing that can help you be aware of the tendencies you have with regard to sharpness of flatness, pitch drift and so on. Actually seeing where you are out of pitch can help you to become more acutely aware of pitch problems when you hear them.
While vocal tuning tools are pretty amazing these days, they still create very audible artifacts when pushed to their limits, so the best thing for vocal tuning is to sing pretty well in tune in the first place. Just becoming more aware of pitch in general will help you to do that.
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Hey Daniel If you sent me the vocals, I could tweak them in melodyne. I have an older version, but it works. I don’t mess with anything that is close, but if there is a clinker I will move it. I don’t use the preset snap thangy, I just drag it until it sounds better. I have noticed that the chorus is usually good on most songs. The melody line has the most bad notes, especially when the song first starts. It just really takes away from a track when those mutts are present. I am very poor at sending files, but I would try. Ha ha Best to you
Paul
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Hi Andrew, No the guitars were just guitars sorry for the confussion.
I will look into the pitch correct in cubase for the very same reasons you had stated.
I got into recording so I could have someone to jam with 'cause there was no one around to play with. What I did notice right away about recording was there is more to this than meets the eye. Besides helping improving my musicianship (endless retakes) the recording portion is getting into me, I find myself more and more tweeking than playing. lol - good advice - I’ll get there from here - thanks.
Hi Paul - let me try my hand at tweeking the vocals. If I’m stuck then I’ll get back to you for some help. much appreciated
I’ll repost the improvements when done but school is starting back up and my studio time will have to take a back seat. Life goes on.
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Hi Michelle
I went back to re-adjust the compressions as you suggested. When I fix the harmonies I’ll re-post so you can have another listen.
Thank’s