Another mix

[woodman]

Here's one I couldn't get out of my head after playing it with a great female singer/bassist pal at a festival last month.

Motherless Children

[String Tree]

Very nice.
Good arrangement too.

[TeleTim911]

I can not play sound cloud on my computer for some reason. Wish I could hear it.

[64Strat]

Hiya Woodman!

Nice job!

If I can take the liberty of making two observations....

- Not sure I like the snare sound sample you have in there now. Maybe it's just me.

- The bottom end (bass & kick) seems anemic on my listening apparatus. Maybe you intended it that way?

[Geoff738]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

Hiya Woodman!

Nice job!

If I can take the liberty of making two observations....

- Not sure I like the snare sound sample you have in there now. Maybe it's just me.

- The bottom end (bass & kick) seems anemic on my listening apparatus. Maybe you intended it that way?

Bottom end not anemic to me here on the Ultrasones.

Sounds great. Nice and wide, got some depth back to front. Arrangement really works, some damn fine picking there too!

My only niggles at this point. Kick drum Sounds great off the top. Then, about the 35 sec mark - starts to get a papery attack to it. Did you change something at that point? I tend to like attacky, pointed kicks a lot of the time. But maybe not here. But, that's more of a production choice than anything. I'm guessing that the kicks up near the top of the velocity range (assuming EZDrummer here?) are the ones with the papery attack? It seems to come and go - but when that's happening the kick does sound less full (even though I'm gonna hazard a guess that its overall level is actually louder).

The snare - not sure what it is. Maybe the snares themselves or the reverb on it. The tonality seems to change from more top/skin of snare with either less of the snares and/or their verb, to a longer, thicker more snare body type tone. Listen to what the snare is doing under the guitar break starting around the minute mark and see if you can hear what I'm talking about. I personally don't mind the overall tone - but I'd like it a bit more consistent and maybe a little less of the under snare mic or the verb. It's the length of whatever it is bouncing around to these ears that could use a tweak.

But, keep in mind that these are really minor concerns. Overall, the mix sounds big, open, deep, well-balanced.

Great job, in other words!

Cheers,
Geoff

[ScatMan]

..Sounds good woodman!

I've been meaning to ask: What are you using to make your keyboard sounds? ..organ, marimba, etc.?

Originally Posted by Geoff738

The snare - not sure what it is..

It's the sound of cross sticking from about 0:34 to 1:00 (the butt of the drum stick rests on the snare head and the shoulder hits the rim, or the reverse: the tip/shoulder rests on the head and the butt hits the rim).

Typically, the MIDI cross sticking sound sample is triggered by playing C#1..

[woodman]

Since this is fundamentally a folk song with the same verse structure throughout (no chorus or bridge, pretty linear), I was experimenting with giving each verse its own treatment and using dynamics to keep it from sounding too much the same throughout. Sort of like a house where you walk from room to room and each one has its own decor.

The vocal verses are intended to be lighter and airy, with more beef and density on the instrumentals, to create an up-and-down flow through the song structure — as opposed to my normal MO of starting and ending balls-to-the-wall. Most of the issues mentioned by you guys have to do with the fake drums, so I eyeballed the MIDI window to see what's what. I was trying to work with velocity rather than track volume to get a different character from each individual drum depending on whether the passage was hard or soft.

One thing I noticed was that on the more aggressive (instrumental) verses, I didn't bring the kick up in proportion with the amount I brought the snare up. And on the soft verses, I can hear the overly snare-y sound Geoff's talking about (too much bottom mike), so of course that translates badly when more snare velocity is applied in the upbeat verses.

So I'll work for more consistency on the drums throughout ... much easier to achieve with MIDI than the bad old drum-machine days!

Originally Posted by ScatMan

I've been meaning to ask: What are you using to make your keyboard sounds? ..organ, marimba, etc.?

Scat, both are from Logic's libraries ... Express has a pretty limited selection, especially on organ sounds. I though about taking it into Pro Tools, which has a pretty impressive organ array, writing the track and flying it back into the Logic file, but it seemed pretty time- and labor-intensive for what's essentially a subdued background track. I liked the marimba, though, and thought it spiced the stew at a point where the song was in danger of bogging down into "sameness."

Originally Posted by TeleTim911

I can not play sound cloud on my computer for some reason. Wish I could hear it.

Tim, I've heard of that happening but don't have a definitive solution ... I'll post a version on Reverbnation so those whose computers won't do Soundcloud can hear it.

[TeleTim911]

I'd love to hear it, I know you do a lot of stuff with recording, I'm trying to learn a little on my own, and I think my best teachers are people like you. Thanks.

[woodman]

OK, Tim, here's a Reverbnation version ... Spent the afternoon mostly tweaking the drums, paying attention to consistency in each section and the transitions between them.

Motherless Children

[krisls]

Hey pretty nice. Like the guitar sound but it is a bit more upfront than needed maybe. Slight imbalance kick to snare though I like the 'brushy' type feel. I noticed a small miscue on the vocal about 1.35 but that could be the net. Overall pretty darn good. Now if I can get a vague handle on my basic little Cakewalk thingie and get the vocal and acoustic synced I may even do this some time.

Kristina

[peteycaster]

Hey Woody. The usual great work. The only comment I would make is there seems to be a bit of overlap on the bottoms on the vocal and the bass guitar. Maybe find the frequency on the vocal and cut a bit? Guitars great. I like the wide panning, using the same technique myself a lot latley. it really helps with separation.

[woodman]

Originally Posted by peteycaster

there seems to be a bit of overlap on the bottoms on the vocal and the bass guitar. Maybe find the frequency on the vocal and cut a bit?

A keen observation, Petey! I'll give it a close look/listen. And yeah, I've become a fervent fan of wide panning — really opens up the "soundstage."