Light Over the Hilltop (new song)

[X-53mph]

Hi guys!

I haven't been so active on the music front of late due to having to care for a paralyzed dog  and generally life getting in the way.  As such, I'm trying to bring a series of tracks that have been lingering around to some kind of completion for an eventual album this year.

This track is called The Light Over the Hilltop and it's an acoustic track with a lot of experimentation in production.  It's not intended as a single, so I'm not going for that pop song quality here. Think more of a Sufjan Stevens' style album track.

Appreciate any feedback

 

Here's an updated version with less reverb, more spacing and EQ tweaking. Any thoughts appreciated.

Updated Version 16:

 

 

V

Version 16.5

Lyrics:

Camping round the church
Tents between the tombstones
Rained so *****ing hard
Our skin stuck at the elbows

A quiet country road
We're in the back with Beaster on the radio
Volume set to max, I kill the lights
As I put her into cruise control

No-one'll believe what we saw there

Paying for the gas,
Copper coins collected in a glass jar
Drawing circles in the dust
Of what we saw 
Like tiny psychos on the floor

No-one'll believe what we saw there

Edited January 23, 2023 by Philip G Hunt

[mark skinner]

 Phillip , Very Nice chilled vibe on this. I really liked the atmosphere of everything in it. I thought it had a little bit of an abrupt start but not excessive.  Hey , Thanks for turning me on to Sufjan Stevens. That'll be some nice cruising music. I Really enjoyed the song and all your treatment on it.     Good luck with the album and  your dog ..     mark

[Larry T.]

Very good song, I like it. The production is not how I'd do it (here it comes....my $.02 worth). Acoustic guitar needs less reverb, less boom (fix in EQ), less reverb on steel guitar, piano is cool, background vox are the right fit but need more clarity, vox is cool, didn't hear a bass guitar, play with panning to achieve clarity and the right presence of all instruments. It moves along quite nicely without any drums, nice violins swell at end ????

[Jesse Screed]

neo

s@g

can you post the lyrics?  I can't necessarily hear them

thanks

I love this

nice piano, did you play the piano?

 

[X-53mph]

18 hours ago, Jesse Screed said:

neo

s@g

can you post the lyrics?  I can't necessarily hear them

thanks

I love this

nice piano, did you play the piano?

 

Thanks everyone for the advice and input.

Jesse, yes that is me playing the piano. I'm a traditionalist in that I refuse to make any music that I'm unable to play with my own hands, so I never use guitar or piano samples. I even play most of the drums myself. 

I'll sit down and write out the lyrics soon, then I'll post them for you. Originally there were a lot more lyrics to this song, but I've been cutting it back to get to the sound i want.

@Larry T. Thanks for the mixing advice. I'll give it a try and see if I like the end result. I'm not a big fan of reverb myself, but occasionally, I like to use it for atmosphere.

[FreeEarCandy]

Its a very nice song, but this needs better management as many here have already suggested.

[KSband]

That was nice, I like it. Very original sound to it.

[Jesse Screed]

4 hours ago, Philip G Hunt said:

I refuse to make any music that I'm unable to play with my own hands

traditionalism is the foundation of experimentalism

folks like you awe me

myself, I can only fake it

but what I do comes from the soul through whatever appendage, organ, or feeling I have

what you have told me, makes all your music so much more meaningful

when you have time

do another

[X-53mph]

I've added an updated version above in the first post.

[FreeEarCandy]

Much better. Now I think you should perhaps work on levels a bit more. Let certain elements dominate occasionally rather than compete. The vocals are always priority. So when they are in play the other stuff should back off or move out of the way.  As it is, it sounds like everything is coming at me all at once. Give everything their own space (pan), and consider their presence and width.  

[X-53mph]

On 1/20/2023 at 5:50 PM, FreeEarCandy said:

Much better. Now I think you should perhaps work on levels a bit more. Let certain elements dominate occasionally rather than compete. The vocals are always priority. So when they are in play the other stuff should back off or move out of the way.  As it is, it sounds like everything is coming at me all at once. Give everything their own space (pan), and consider their presence and width.  

I've added a bit of side-chaining to some of the instruments so they pull back a bit. Toned down some of the EQs to allow other frequencies in and tried to allow the strings to cut through a bit more at the end.  I hope it hits the right spots.

Mix No 16 is above in the fist post.

@FreeEarCandy I tend to mix everything full on - wall of sound - and it's become my preferred mixing style, like some of Elliott Smith's tracks. I know it's not a 'pro' sound, but I'm not sure I really like the sound of a lot of Pro mixes. I find them 'castrated' - empty and clinical.  I like  music to force me into corners and occasionally make me feel uncomfortable. Not being snobby about it, just how I feel. 

[noynekker]

@Philip G Hunt  Hi Philip . . . another great listen, and for me this one has a feeling of compelling mystery about it that I really like !

Certainly an interesting bubbling of overtones in the production.

I've joined later, and can hear a great improvement from that first mix vs. your latest mix. My one thing  (as @FreeEarCandy has previously alluded to) is the main vocal. Everything works well in your last mix, though, for me, specifically the line "No-one'll believe what we saw there" . . . you've mixed that very subtle, panned slightly right, thought it seems very important to the overall of the song.  Perhaps add a double track panned left, or slightly more volume / less effects there . . . don't  make the first time listener work so hard   (if you hadn't posted the lyrics, that important part may not be recognized)

As always, really like your stuff !

[X-53mph]

11 hours ago, noynekker said:

@Philip G Hunt  Hi Philip . . . another great listen, and for me this one has a feeling of compelling mystery about it that I really like !

Certainly an interesting bubbling of overtones in the production.

I've joined later, and can hear a great improvement from that first mix vs. your latest mix. My one thing  (as @FreeEarCandy has previously alluded to) is the main vocal. Everything works well in your last mix, though, for me, specifically the line "No-one'll believe what we saw there" . . . you've mixed that very subtle, panned slightly right, thought it seems very important to the overall of the song.  Perhaps add a double track panned left, or slightly more volume / less effects there . . . don't  make the first time listener work so hard   (if you hadn't posted the lyrics, that important part may not be recognized)

As always, really like your stuff !

I appreciate everyone's input on this. It's great to get an extra set of ears, and I'm trying to incorporate all the changes into the mixes without losing sight of what I wanted to achieve in the first mix.

We are now up to version 16.5 (see original post). I've tried to make the "No-one'll believe..." line more prominent. There are about 10 voices in that line, all with their own eq settings, so it's a balancing act to get it sitting nicely.  I hope I've achieved it in this mix and not over-cooked it.

@noynekker @mark skinner @Larry T. Thank you for your encouragement. Really appreciate it.

[FreeEarCandy]

On 1/22/2023 at 1:33 PM, Philip G Hunt said:

I've added a bit of side-chaining to some of the instruments so they pull back a bit. Toned down some of the EQs to allow other frequencies in and tried to allow the strings to cut through a bit more at the end.  I hope it hits the right spots.

Mix No 16 is above in the fist post.

@FreeEarCandy I tend to mix everything full on - wall of sound - and it's become my preferred mixing style, like some of Elliott Smith's tracks. I know it's not a 'pro' sound, but I'm not sure I really like the sound of a lot of Pro mixes. I find them 'castrated' - empty and clinical.  I like  music to force me into corners and occasionally make me feel uncomfortable. Not being snobby about it, just how I feel. 

That's fine, Phillip. At the end of the day you have to like it. But I think what's going on here is many of the elements you are using are in the same frequency range and that creates a bit of a problem called masking.  For example, if you take 2 identical tracks, and change the phase of 1, and then play them together, you will not here anything.  Well, masking is very similar. The strongest wave will prevail, but some of the energy of the winning wave will be lost, or "castrated". 

Now, you can deal with this in a few ways. One is panning. The other way is eq. I prefer panning and adjusting the width when I want all the elements to be equally heard. If you eq, then you are essentially lowering the volume in a particular frequency.  

Believe me, I know mixing can be a real pain in *****, and sometimes I just wish the process wasn't so time consuming.  I don't think you are being snobby about it. You have an idea/feeling in your head and you are trying your best to get it on paper. I get that in spades. Some of the tunes I post I have been working on for a very very long time. I gave up counting versions.  Some seem to come together like magic ( I love when that happens). Others, its like pulling teeth. I think its safe to say that everyone here has gone through this experience.

IMHO, this has already come a long way from the first version.  You have a very good concept to work with and its worth the time you put into it, but its always good to take a break and let your head clear. The fact that you are working on it must mean that the tune has not yet reached a satisfactory level in your mind. So try to sit back and listen to it and discover what it is about the tune that is troubling you, and then think of a way to solve it with the tools you have at hand.  Someone said that a mix is never done. We simply surrender. I believe that is true. 

Dean.