New song "I will love you forever".

[Øyvind Skald]

Well this is why I haven't been nagging you lately. Ive been preoccupied with a lovely lady.

But this type of music is not my forte, so what do I need to do more on this? Better vocal track? more bg vocal, I am sure of. But the music? Do it need more Piano fills? Redo the whole rhythm guitar? Anyone wants to cooperate?

PS! It is a work in construction so no need to nag about bad mix yet.

Have to clean up SoundCloud so I delete the older versions…. "Final" version is here on this post now!

Edited June 1, 2019 by ØSkald

[Douglas Kirby]

Once the drums and other instruments come into the song, your lead vocal is drowned out - try turning it up a bit on the fader and maybe add some compression and some eq treatment to give it a bit more separation in the mix.  Just my two cents. The lead guitar needs a bit of the same.

The arrangement is fine - sounds like you have a good song to work with.

[kakku]

Good melodies and well performed. Listened on phone speaker yet sounded good 

[Øyvind Skald]

1 hour ago, Douglas Kirby said:

Once the drums and other instruments come into the song, your lead vocal is drowned out - try turning it up a bit on the fader and maybe add some compression and some eq treatment to give it a bit more separation in the mix.  Just my two cents. The lead guitar needs a bit of the same.

The arrangement is fine - sounds like you have a good song to work with.

Yeah. I'll mix it  better. I'm just a bit shy to push my own vocal up. lol. But I use limiter and compression on the track. 

And thanks.

[Øyvind Skald]

33 minutes ago, kakku said:

Good melodies and well performed. Listened on phone speaker yet sounded good 

I want to record new lead vocal, but also I captured the freshness of trying out. I have a little mixed  feelings about that. Rerecord vocal that fix just minor things , just go total nuts with  Melodyne, or leave it as it is. 

Anyways. I need to record more voices on bgvocals...

[Johnbee58]

I think your "forte" is metal, correct?  Nonetheless, you have a workable "power ballad" here.  One of my favorite power ballads is "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago from about 1985. This reminds me a bit of that song.  Your vocal is OK but could use a bit of a boost and a bit more reverb (just a touch).  Love the little synth fills.  The kick drum you're using IMHO doesn't lend itself well to a ballad (even a power one).  I don't really like that snap it has.   I use EZ Drummer 2 (I see you use Superior 3).  The kit I use mostly in EZD 2 is the Modern but I always swap the default kick out for a more moderate felt beater.  I think that suits a ballad better.  The hard snappy type of beater you're using works well for metal, but personally, I like my kick a bit more quiet for the ballads I do.

I think you have something there.  Sounds like she mellowed you out a bit.?

?John B.

[bjornpdx]

The lyrics belong in more of a ballad genre so I think a simpler arrangement would be better, maybe just the piano with a string pad and bg vocals. I like the piano intro and the fill at 1:25 BTW. The vocal is too quiet at this point so hard to comment on that. It's a promising start for sure.
Just one man's opinion.

I know what you mean about recording and re-recording vocals to fix a few bad spots.
Often it sounds different because something changed in the environment or the recording level isn't the same, etc. Melodyne is great but sometimes it introduces artifacts like clicks or weird transitions and then you have to fix those things.

[Old Joad]

this was a cool tune...

and a cool guy.

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Joad

[amiller]

So, I’m not going to critique the mix or what should or shouldn’t be added.  I’ll just say I think you have a great rough draft.  I like the song.

[Øyvind Skald]

16 hours ago, Johnbee58 said:

I think your "forte" is metal, correct?  Nonetheless, you have a workable "power ballad" here.  One of my favorite power ballads is "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago from about 1985. This reminds me a bit of that song.  Your vocal is OK but could use a bit of a boost and a bit more reverb (just a touch).  Love the little synth fills.  The kick drum you're using IMHO doesn't lend itself well to a ballad (even a power one).  I don't really like that snap it has.   I use EZ Drummer 2 (I see you use Superior 3).  The kit I use mostly in EZD 2 is the Modern but I always swap the default kick out for a more moderate felt beater.  I think that suits a ballad better.  The hard snappy type of beater you're using works well for metal, but personally, I like my kick a bit more quiet for the ballads I do.

I think you have something there.  Sounds like she mellowed you out a bit.?

?John B.

Yeah

[Lynn Wilson]

This is a good power ballad waiting to happen.  As you noted, the vocal needs to come up, and there's no reason to be shy about your vocal because you have a fine voice for this song.  Actually, the only thing that stood out was the piano;  it sounds a little synthetic to my ears.  I see you  have NI Komplete, so I assume you have a variety of pianos to choose from.  Small nit.  I look forward to hearing this down the line.

[Øyvind Skald]

Here I have tried to fix some of what you mention. Same vocal recording tho. 

- New drumset.

- No reverb on vocal. Just  300/500 delay with much diffusjon.

- Made the vocal higer in the mix, Nore compression and limiting.

- And straighten out levels of piano, guitar and synth. (Still some  automation needs to be done for a propper mix)

- Worked a little with Melodyne on my vocal tracks.

 

 

[Øyvind Skald]

1 hour ago, Lynn said:

This is a good power ballad waiting to happen.  As you noted, the vocal needs to come up, and there's no reason to be shy about your vocal because you have a fine voice for this song.  Actually, the only thing that stood out was the piano;  it sounds a little synthetic to my ears.  I see you  have NI Komplete, so I assume you have a variety of pianos to choose from.  Small nit.  I look forward to hearing this down the line.

Problem was the start right? To thin alone, but  in the mix  with the rest, I dont want  it to be to much sound.  I might also lift the pad, or find a better sound on that. But that wont be til Saturday. Tomorrow its the Norwegian National Day, so I wont work that much tomorrow.

[Johnbee58]

Gave the new mix a listen.  Absolutely much better, especially the drums.  One thing, do you have a doubling plugin?  Listening to your lead vocal, it might really sound cool with a bit of doubling on it.   Your vocal sounds great as is, but a doubler would thicken it a bit.  Worth a try if you have it.

?JB

[Øyvind Skald]

4 hours ago, Johnbee58 said:

Gave the new mix a listen.  Absolutely much better, especially the drums.  One thing, do you have a doubling plugin?  Listening to your lead vocal, it might really sound cool with a bit of doubling on it.   Your vocal sounds great as is, but a doubler would thicken it a bit.  Worth a try if you have it.

?JB

Cool, Waved Doubler?  Ahh forgot I had to reinstall Windows and lost Waves Gold...

Edited May 17, 2019 by ØSkald

[Leadfoot]

I enjoyed the song, Øyvind! 2nd mix is definitely better. As far as doubling the vocals, a doubler will work, but it sounds so much better if you actually resing the tracks. I usually will sing two extra tracks. Pan the main one up the middle, the drop the other two tracks about 10-15db, and pan them 30% left and 30% right. Try it man, I think you'll like the results. Great song though!

[Øyvind Skald]

6 hours ago, Leadfoot said:

I enjoyed the song, Øyvind! 2nd mix is definitely better. As far as doubling the vocals, a doubler will work, but it sounds so much better if you actually resing the tracks. I usually will sing two extra tracks. Pan the main one up the middle, the drop the other two tracks about 10-15db, and pan them 30% left and 30% right. Try it man, I think you'll like the results. Great song though!

Thank you!

[PhonoBrainer]

I listened to the first version a bit, then compared to the second mix. The 2nd mix is headed in the right direction.

Cool tune, cool origins! From the heart, obviously. Congrats on that!

 

Mixwise, I agree with Lynn, a better piano (something with more dynamic range) might help, particularly in the naked intro.

I think you could easily go to the chorus, reach for the piano fader, and drop it one or 2 db. The piano is kicking the crap out of your vocal. I can tell you lowered it a bit for the second mix? You are on the right track.

 

The guitars sound great!!! 

cheers, have you played it for her yet?

-Tom

 

 

[Øyvind Skald]

9 hours ago, emeraldsoul said:

I listened to the first version a bit, then compared to the second mix. The 2nd mix is headed in the right direction.

Cool tune, cool origins! From the heart, obviously. Congrats on that!

 

Mixwise, I agree with Lynn, a better piano (something with more dynamic range) might help, particularly in the naked intro.

I think you could easily go to the chorus, reach for the piano fader, and drop it one or 2 db. The piano is kicking the crap out of your vocal. I can tell you lowered it a bit for the second mix? You are on the right track.

 

The guitars sound great!!! 

cheers, have you played it for her yet?

-Tom

 

 

Thank you so much.

[Øyvind Skald]

With the piano I will try to fix that later today.

But I made a mix with the Vocal Track dubbing thing from Sonar...

And I put on some harmony on the guitar solo.

 

So, the thing to do now is;

1. Sort out piano sound

2. Record better BG Vocals.

 

And about the vocal. I think I captured the moment there and need to keep it for this version. I must re-record It to make it "good enough" for a release.  I know my English is more Norwenglish than English, but that was in a way intentional too, to play on my Viking charm. And I have fixed enough of the bad points.

 

Another point to make is that it is really hard to produce my own vocal. I don’t know, but I really don’t like to listen to myself that much. Lol. So, I have no Idea of how other think of it. I only hear every fault, you know, so I am really happy about honest answers here. But for a release I think I will practice for months to build up voice better. Just warming up now, makes me lose my falsetto, and I need to worm up for the other parts…