PhonoBrainer

Well John, I've heard your voice and I'd recommend a ribbon or a dynamic. What microphone have you used in the past? Here's my take fwiw. Rode nt1a - has a higher noise floor than some mics, prolly great for rock n roll but maybe a problem for the jazz stuff you like to do. And it's a condenser, which accentuates the higher frequencies - not necessarily good for your voice. Condensers such as the AT-4040 will sound good up front but will be harder to mix later on with compression and eq inside the box. Some of the "radio" mics will thicken and beef up your voice - think dynamic mics like re-20 or the shure sm7b you know how a radio voice has some deeper depth in it? These mics do that. They are not the first call for sinatra vocals but some use 'em. You will need a good preamp, or at least some cloudlifters to add gain to the preamp on your interface, if that's what you are using. Best call for your voice would be a ribbon. I wouldn't cheap out 'cause the cheaper ribbons aren't worth it. AEA-R84 is what I have gone to but it requires an outboard preamp and they arent cheap. But their true advantage is, after recording, you can make lots of compression and eq moves during mixing, without adding harshness as you would to a condensor mic. re-20 (dynamic mic) and Cloudlifter (kind of an in-line preamp) going into your interface = $650ish aea-R84 (expensive ribbon) and preamp that's clean with at least 70 -80db of gain = $1700 at least. More like $2000, depending on the pre-amp. Ribbons need more gain than any other mic type. bewareof recent year's Blues, some of them are made in China now and there is a difference. hope that helps. Clear as mud! But having heard your voice, I'd go dynamic, or quality ribbon. cheers, -Tom

Headphones would be a recommendation! Sounds very nice on the ol' monitors as well. The very beginning few minutes, until the piano comes in, might be brought up in volume. I understand that you want to start small and get bigger with they dynamics, but I found myself wanting to crank the volume just to hear the first half of your piece - knowing that I'd have to lower them again later. If you look at your Soundcloud waveform, maybe match the two parts up just a bit closer? Not a lot, just a little? It's a great piece, filled with dynamics and chill - although I will confess it does not summon up images of J.C. carrying his cross. Oh, well. Still cool. For me, just a volume tweak, and you will have, as they say, nailed it. cheers, -Tom

Nice! I listened to it pretty loud - those are some great synths! One idea - when it's loud, the synths are very bright in the mix, and the lower drums like kick and snare seem very pale. I don't know what you are using for monitors, but I think the shine is tilted towards the upper range. Do you have a filter? In your intro you could filter in the kick drum. Just another thought. The outtro groove is really extra catchy!!! cheers! -Tom

I haven't seen this site before - looks like a collab site, kinda Bandlabian? at around :13 the male vocal's "MAtters" and :17 "My" have like a compressor grabbing the vowel pretty hard? Or is that some editing fun? I dunno. I agree, it's a "big" sounding song and mix, and I like it! The girls vocal sounds like it lacks low mids, which if recorded on a cellphone would make sense. Have you boosted stuff down there? You'd need a very decent eq, the best you got, or else you'll just add artifacts. You might remove just a bit more of her highs with a gentle eq rolloff to get some of the raspiness taken care of. But it's really not too horrible as is - those are little tweaks, But the main thing is, cool song! The guy's voice is great! The drums sound a bit far away, particularly the hi hats / cymbals. Whatever you have for the bgv's works very well! How many people chipped in on this? cheers, -Tom

I'd say this is praiseworthy Well mix wise, I think the vocal (s) might be just a bit out front, maybe back them down just a hair, and bring the kick drum and the drums generally up a bit? Just a thought. Here's another: I'm not sure your bass pattern and your drum patterns mesh or match as well as they could in the verses. In the choruses, seems like they mesh well. In the verse, maybe find a drum pattern that matches the rhythm of the bass line? Or give the bass more to do? The outtro I think works very nicely, mixed well here! There are better mixers than I am on this forum, so I will definitely defer to a higher power. nice one! -Tom

Nice one. Lyrics are nifty, and pleasantly oblique. The unusual chord changes and patterns keep the interest. I'd vote for shortening the intro. I appreciated reading your explanation - wow, this song has a lot of Eddies in it! I would have had no idea. Thanks for that! cheers, -Tom

Bob, great riff in that song! The mix sounds nice and clear, well done! You might check 1:41, is that intentional or a beat skip? I dunno. Cool vid as well. Cheers, -Tom

nice job, they would be proud of you. -Tom

Great riffs, swagger in the rhythm, stellar vocals + bgv's, bass in the perfect pocket. Impeccable guitar tones all over the place. And the drums don't disappoint, either. Great job! -Tom

Kakku - thanks much, nice to see you back on the forum! DKirby - yes, I agree about the piano, and since then I have switched out four different pianos (Yamaha, Bosendorfer, Bechstein) and finally landed on a Steinway D. Plus as many reverbs. I'm still not satisfied but it's better than it was. I think. Pianos are very particular with reverbs and not all of them play well together. Thanks for the critique, it was appreciated. Daryl! As it turns out, I am fluent in Swahili, as well as any other language made available through the Kontakt platform. Thanks for the listen! Bjorn - maybe that's an idea. A piece that is ten hours long that wanders through every country on earth. Love it. Please make the video for it! Thanks for the listen. The thing is now updated, slightly rearranged, and remixed a little. cheers, -Tom

Quick, shut your store down before they demand a return and a refund! Take the money and run! Ha ha. No, your stuff is good, I'm a fan. congrats on your successful time-machine-to-1998 experience . . . cheers, -Tom

Original as funk cello! I could hear a live band having a good go at this. I liked the guitar leads as well, tasty. cheers, - Tom

How about fixing the link in the OP? It seems to link right back to this very page.

Way good. Brought back some memories of "Barcelona Tribe of Soulsters" or B-Tribe as they were known. Before your time! Super clear mix, with things out front when they should be. Well done! cheers, -Tom

Cool groove, would love to hear it with her vocals! Once you get those, could you post it? Those are some cool chords and uptempo RnB feel. You might allow for a second, or a half second, of space right at the very beginning of the track, otherwise the piano jumps right on top of you. cheers, -Tom

I've beano waiting for this. It gets tiresome recording my own.

It won't load before 10:30 in the morning and the GUI swipes right.

Dude your tasty licks and bends are top shelf. Hopefully better health is on the way. cheers, -Tom

Fun! It sounds like A) your pinnas are not as old or as fat as mine - the 280's earcups rest on top of my pinnas, crushing them into submission, and thus whatever benefits in "isolation" you might be getting, I lose completely, because all I can hear is the earcup rubbing on my pinnas as I move my head! For me, the 380's completely surround my ear and that's all the isolation I really want. You sound like you work in a much more acoustically particular fashion when tracking than I do - which is fine! I bet your stuff sounds good. But I would never be concerned with pick noise coming off the strings while I'm laying something down. Just different. Glad you like the 280's ! I'm not 100% in love with the 380's for mixing, I know I'm getting some details smeared - but I just don't want to go buy the best Sennheisers for $800 or whatever. cheers, -Tom

Well, just to be contrarian, I have used both Sennheiser hd280 and 380pro, have used both for tracking and mixing, and I much prefer the 380 . . . of course the 380's have much bigger and more forgiving earcups, for the fat-eared bretheren out there, such as myself. I think the 280's underwent a redesign a year or so ago, fwiw. And I like the better bass response in the 380's, because if you have bass-light headphones, you have no idea how it translates onto proper systems. You can't mix bass frequencies if you can't hear them, and you won't hear most of them in headphones, anyway. So the 380's get you a little closer. But I agree, the 380's have decent detail but it's still a $200 headphone. Well, I have no idea about Sonarworks - and I'm willing to bet there are better mixing headphones out there at some pretty prices. Better detail, too. cheers, -Tom

For me, that floaty dreamy guitar patch really sounds good. And the composition is just about as cool mellow as you can get. Nice combo! Certianly worthy of the title. The drum fills are very well thought out, but unless it's a fill, I'd drop the volume of the snare (and the sidestick?) just a bit. It really seems that the snare pokes out of your mix. If you like that snare volume, maybe a little more reverb on the snare? In your lead synth part towards the end, the snare is lower in volume and has copious reverb. But in the parts with dreamy guitar, the snare is kind of loud and dry. Your mileage may vary, as they say. Bass guitar? well, your mix has a really nice "clean" quality, which maybe could do with a little more weight on the bass guitar - perhaps add back in some eq around 150 - 200hz? The bass tone has a lot of upper mids, and it cuts through great. You could afford a little more bass weight down low, and still keep a clean mix. Might be something to try, if you are monitoring on something other than headphones. cheers, and great track, dude. -Tom

OK it's heavy, which honestly is not my forte but I still liked it. So I will offer a ridiculous idea: in the section where you are trading between the two chords (like in the 2:00 area) you have a ringy snare? or tom? on the second and fourth beat. It is very much a pitched snare with a ring at a particular pitch. The pitch totally works for the second chord, but it's quite off pitch for the first chord. I bet with some fancy pitch shifting of it onto another track, you could pitch the snare right in tune with the key of the first chord. Or if the drums are virtual, just create instance #2 and pitch that snare up for the first chord. But that would be totally ridiculous! Did that make any sense? probably not. The main things is the vocals (gutturally great), the guitar lines in the lead (very cool) and the nifty drum fills. And that wall of guitars at the end, I wanted that to keep going. Very strong. cheers gents, -Tom

I could certainly see an orchestra taking this on, so all you need is about 45 more minuets in four or so movements. Nice ideas. cheers, -Tom

Definitely has a cool noire swagger. Or rouge. Mix wise it was all very up front, for me each instrument is right up in the old face. My old face, anyway. Yet the vocals are delivered very well indeed, and are super clear. I may have made a similar comment on another song before? Everything is on the dry side. So it's all sort of up front that way. It's a mixing style and I'm not saying it doesn't work. Maybe my brain us just used to some smoky jazzy depth of field in a song such as this. As for the song itself, I think it's killer. Nice arrangement with a great vocal! I did notice towards the end, with the lead guitar solo, the drums drop out and are very hard to hear, but they are still there. Maybe don't lose so much of that snare when the lead guitar is soloing? I dunno. These are only suggestions, and you probably have an entirely different aesthetic on reverb and depth than I do. Still some awesome work on this, I appreciated getting to hear it. In contrast, you have a wood block thing getting hit on beat two, of almost every measure, and it is swamped in reverb. And of course, that would be something I'd want you to drop out ocassionally. So, go figure. Your saxes are very sweetly played, top quality lines. But they are so dry, have you put some room on them? They would sound sweet if they dripped with rvb, you'd put decent pre-delay on them so the attack shines through clearly. I'm thinking late 80's Dire Straits-type mix, "City of New Orleans" type stuff. Which you would probably not dig at all! I listened several times - cool tune, and your vocal gave me a Bobby Darin kind of vibe in spots. Really nicely done. cheers, -Tom

I like how the drums are panned on those fills. And the programming? is pretty good as well. You might stick all the drums on a bus and treat them to the same reverb space? And I'd say, snare louder in the chorus. Great vocal lines and delivery. If you listen in any given spot in your tune, those acoustic rhythm guitars seem loudest in the mix. I think you should tuck the volume down on those guitars, and let the lead instrument cut through more, be it voice, lead guitar, what have you. When they synths are in the lead, they are very much so - great mix on those! 100 extra points for coolness and originality. Those pics in the video, was that you on stage? cheers, -Tom