michaelhanson

On 7/5/2021 at 3:31 PM, jack c. said:

bring bass and harmonies  down a tad.maybe a low pass filter for smother highs.jack c.

Jack- Thank you for listening and commenting.  I will take this into consideration.

14 hours ago, whoisp said:

Whats the bass you have, look real nice, bit like a music man, stingray  or gretsch

 

It a Rickenbacker 4003

Nice song.  Seems like the drums could come up a bit.

I have also very much picked up a U2 vibe.  Great work all around.  I particularly love the drums, well done.  The video is very professional and ads a lot to the song.  Nice job, Nigel!

A new Scandalous Grace song with the band.  Let me know what you think of this mix.  

Performed by Scandalous Grace
Words & Mu­sic: Michael Hanson
Sean Peifer: BG Vox, Electric Rhythm, Guitar Solo.
Michael Hanson: Lead Vocal, Bass, Electric Rhythm, Drum Programming, Mixing and mastering.
Reece Bain: Keys and BGVs.

https://soundcloud.com/michaeljhanson/rain-31

Actually, I think they have earned the right to play Live as long as they would like.  
 

I’ve thought about switching to a completely Blues genre.  Nobody seems to question the ability of old Blues guys to perform their art.  In fact, they seem to acquire more respect as they age.    At my age, could I start up a Blues artist career.......well.....Dream On. 

Scarlet 8i6

XLR cable

MXL 63 M

marginal talent

Fred - Thank you for listening and commenting!  

Just for clarification, there is not any delay on the acoustic guitar tracks.  There are two separate acoustic tracks recorded independently, a true double track.   Both are panned about 50-60% left and right, with no plug ins added, only a little EQ to taste.  Any reverb is from the room that Sean recorded the acoustic guitar in.  It could be that the slight variations between the 2 tracks comes across as delay, but it is actually double tracking.  

Treesha -  Thank you for listening again and confirming the improvements to the mix; that is a huge help.  

I have tweaked the Lead Vocals slightly on this song and posted a new mix at the same link above.  Basically, I changed reverbs to something that I feel sounds a little clearer.  I also tweaked EQ just a touch to in an effort to make the Lead Vocal more understandable.  Hopefully....this version is an improvement.  

Let me know your thoughts.  

You are a New World Man!

The photo makes me a little Gi(e)ddy.

Very nice vocal!  Just a tad hot for me, it could sit down in the mix just a bit.  Also just slightly more reverb than I prefer, but that is a personal preference.  

You have succeeded in the perfect feel for.... "evil clown".   Well done!

I'm listening, thinking this sounds like typical Bat production....waiting for the vocals....waiting.  I'm slow sometimes but it took me a while to figure out that this was an instrumental.  

Great work, excellent mix as usual.  I'm not a huge fan of instrumentals, but I made it all the way to the end of the song; which says a lot.  

20 hours ago, Bapu said:

31 - 3K

I'm 68 and had serious genetic inner ear damage in my left ear in the 80s (Doc said I should be stone deaf and it's a miracle I can hear anything there). Right ear has been failing for over 10 years now. 10 years ago I could hear up 6K pretty clearly. Hearing aids help but on the flip side when I wear them I hear even the whisp of a leave in the wind to major distraction.

I didn't take the test, but I have been tested by Audiologists half a dozen times.  I have a graph that actually is charted showing me where my hearing has suffered some loss.   My loss is probably due to my youth, a combination of working in a very loud factory environment and an over abundance of shooting fire arms.  My Dad was an extreme outdoors man and we shot a lot while I was a teen into my early 20's.  The graph pretty much depicts this, with a huge dip in the high mids.  I seem to hear lower and low mids well; also not too bad in the higher range.   I am 59 closing down on 60.

Just this year during the pandemic, I decided to try hearing aids.  Women's voices can be a challenge sometimes, even discounting selective hearing.  🙂   Being trapped in the home for over a year, with my wife having to deal with me, I gave in and have been wearing them religiously for the last 9 months.  Ed, I understand you comment about the distraction completely.  Things that I don't necessarily want to hear are elevated and can become a distraction.  Sometimes now my wife will say, I don't think those things are working because you seem to not hear me that well.  In which I will reply, I'm sorry but that bird over there is out producing you.  Overall, however, I hear much more of what she says and can hear other voices much better in that high mid range.    They are terrible for playing guitar, however.  Nothing sounds even close to natural.  The Audiologist even has programmed several custom settings for me to use while playing guitar, in an effort to make the tone more natural.  They are better, but still don't sound great.  I have been using them while mixing, that seems OK.  I treat them as another system to check audio mixes.  I will take them out to hear the mix and put them back in to see what the mix sounds like; similar to testing on different speakers and systems.  

Hi David-  Thank you for coming back and giving it another listen.  That's really good to know that this time you were able to make out the lyrics.  This song was written and sung by Sean Peifer, one of our founding members of the band.  Sean has an excellent voice!  If this was myself singing, you would probably say..."hey, you sound a lot like Petty." 

Sean often asks me to do the mixing for his songs, as I think he really just prefers to write and play on the songs and not get into the production headaches that go with each piece.  I love the mixing process, so I look forward to working on his songs.  

On 3/8/2021 at 3:40 AM, Paul Bush said:

Well I liked all of this song  guitar solo was great cheers

Hey Paul-  Thank you greatly for listening and commenting.  Really happy to hear that you liked the song.  Sean's guitar solo work is always stellar and I am a huge fan of his playing.  This is his song, but I know he always makes the songs that I have written better, just by the work he does on electric guitar.  

On 3/7/2021 at 2:25 PM, treesha said:

Good song, enjoyed the lead guitar playing a lot. As for the mix, when the background music gets loud, the vocals belt but don't stand out as well as through the rest of the song. When the acoustic guitar is playing notes, sometimes the little emphasis riff (not sure how to describe what I mean, a few notes , when the music is loud and the acoustic gets buried, sometimes that little riff pokes through on its own and I would try to have more of the acoustic guitar audible along with that little riff so it has its context along with it or include it less. 

Hi Treesha- Thank you for the listen and comments. 

I think it's always a challenge when a song goes from single instrument to full band, in and out, through out a song.  When we go full band, not every instrument can be as intimate as it was on its own.  You are correct, the acoustic riff plays through out the song, but is less intimate as full band comes in.  In fact, it may be the Bass that your hearing during full band, as the Bass line mimics that riff through out.   I wish I knew a way to introduce the full band, without masking some of the other instruments that are also playing; even while using EQ and panning to attempt to give each its own space.  

On 3/7/2021 at 6:54 AM, Wookiee said:

I am not hearing a problem with the mix here, the vocal is fine and balanced against the support instruments. 

Listening  on my Adam A7x's driven by my Focusrite Pre 8 USB.

Wookie-  Thank you greatly for checking out this mix.  I have played with the vocal levels a little, but have not posted a new mix.  I find that I can't really raise the levels of the vocals without them getting, in my opinion, too loud.  I am not a fan of the lead vocal sitting on top of a mix, but prefer it to be surrounded, to some degree, by the instrumentation.  I feel like the issue may just be in the way Sean sings the lyrics so that they kind of flow together.  

Definitely open to more comments on the subject.  

Kurt- Thank you for listening and commenting.  I will check for the mids you are hearing in the Chorus.

Nigel- Thank you very much for listening and commenting.  Good to know that you are hearing the vocal OK on your system.  

Ed-  Thank you once again for your support.  When you say you are having trouble hearing the lyrics, I have a question that would help me.  Do you feel the vocal is not loud enough, or are there just a few lines of the lyrics that are just hard to understand the words?  

Fixed...credit for Drum's.  Didn't mean to short credit Sean as he did an excellent job programming them before I sprinkled a little fairy dust on the final track.  

Jack- Thank you for listening and commenting.  This song was written by Sean and he is the Lead singer.  I'm not sure what the song would sound like in a different key, but he chose the key which fits his voice best.   We will take into consideration your EQ suggestions.  

David- Thank you very much for the listen.  I'm happy that you enjoyed the song.  We will look into your comments on not being able to make out the lyrics.  

Hey Gang, a new Scandalous Grace tune.  This one is written by Sean Piefer and mixed by myself.   Please give this a listen and let us know your thoughts.  

Performed by Scandalous Grace
Words & Mu­sic: Sean Peifer
Sean Peifer: Lead Vox, Acoustic Guitar, Lead Electric Guitar and Solo, Drum programming.
Michael Hanson: Bass, Electric Rhythm, BGV, Mixing/mastering.
Reece Bain: Strings, Piano and BGVs.