How about this one?

Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 6:39 am

(EDIT)****New mix and master job posted*****

Well, My submissions lately haven't been getting any comments, so maybe the following track may catch somebody's attention.

Comments and critiques are welcome ... I can take it ... tear my mix apart. I need help if i'm gonna start charging $$$$ in my studio to do this.

I had this band in on Saturday. My first band in so far with amps and drums and all the fixins.

They were going for that old school sound, so how did I do?

www.naomisfancy.net/nfdownlaods/Hungry_For_Love.mp3

Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:35 am

Sounds really good man. There's so much sparsity to that kind of tune that it's hard to say what to do. Maybe drench it in some old school reverb? Very Happy

j/k

If you haven't already, maybe you could go back and listen to some Patsy Cline to get some ideas. Seeing as how this is right in that vein.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 2:14 pm

Sounds like a nice and clean recording to me.

If I were to be picky i'd say the bass guitar could do with cranking up a touch but that may be my cheap speakers.

Hope this helps.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 4:10 pm

The lead vox needs some more compression it's wavering a little too much on levels, also if you're going old school listen to some old school recordings, I don't know about country, but motown had plate reverbs, I'm sure there are many more older more experienced people who could comment on that. I have no idea what to do with the bass and kick, but they seem too thumpy for this genre

I'd say listen to the old stuff and constantly compare to your own until you get it right!

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 3:29 am

I love it. I agree, the mix could sound nice with a touch of reverb, but set so that it's (the tails of the reverb) just audible and blends perfectly because the rest of the music is so light that you can hear everything. There's a sweet spot there. Smile

Use this to your advantage. I also think it would sound nice if you compressed the whole mix very slightly. I'm going to listen to it again... I like it and the mix is nice on the ears. Smile

Good job!

What is the name of this band? I'd like to get their CD if possible.

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:23 am

I don't usually comment on mixes. Mainly because I'm such a picky old fart and I'm brutally honest.

I REALLY like this song and it deserves to get cleaned up and have the best mix you can give it.

1. Hat's WAAAAAY too hot and is rather clanky... either mute it or scoop out that clank and just leave the sizzle. The hat picked up by the snare mic should be fine.
2. Kit is overall too loud. Drop it back in the mix so you feel it... not hear it above the vocals.
3. Kik sounds like a floppy cardboard box. Pull a touch of the click out, cut some 400-ish and shelve off 60 pretty hard.
4. Whatever that "keyboard clacking" is... loose it! (bass strings in the first 4 measures and then again in the busy bass runs) Some bass string noise is ok and even desireable... but is doesn't need to sound like a typing pool with a bad Starbucks habit.
5. Verb's a bit long tailed, but you're honing right in on it. Just pop it a touch harder and/or bring it up in the mix by about 3db. Don't be afraid to let the verb be heard... just don't drench it.
6. The bass level is fine to me. Just pull a bit of the 60 shelf up to ease off that woof.

Overall, it's not bad. It's very real and earthy.

If you don't compress anything thing else, compress those vocals a bit. Don't slam the life out of em'... but I'd tend to get a healthy, but light amount compression on there just to solidify her performance.

In classic country style, the real key is that the drums are a very subtle support instrument from a volume standpoint. It's ALL about the vocals.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 6:59 pm

***warning long post!!***

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!

The name of the band is Kelley & The Cowboys out of Mount Airy, NC

http://www.myspace.com/kelleyandthecowboys

All the suggestions/critiques are much appreciated and alot of them are dead on.

This was a 20 minute mix/master job because the guys had to have a demo the next day to submit to an "in" contact for a large festival in our area. (Merlefest)

They had gone thru many home studios in my area and came out with crap from all of them, and I offered to try and get them a last minute decent quality 4 song demo (free) in one day.

My space is only a small 20'x20' building with 8' ceilings and homemade gobos to try and get a touch of separation. And a touch is all I can manage to get.

The tunes were tracked completely live with 4 mics on the kit (2 overheads, a snare, and a kick)

The bass was an upright with 2 pickups , one for the string slap (which the bass player unfortunately insisted on having), and another for the bridge, the bridge pickup was running thru a 60's Ampeg head with a 4x12 cab and the cab was mic'd

They were really inexperienced in the studio and insisted on playing at stage volume so the only thing I could do for them in the cans was get them to take one earpiece off and crank the vox only in the cans as loud as I could, and play live. (so I have now shelled out about $400 bux for 4 sets of extreme isolation phones)

All the suggestions would be awesome if I could actually manage to implement most of them, which I can't due to the massive amount of bleed I ended up with in every last mic. Even the slightest bit of compression on the vox brings up the whole mix in a baaad way due to the massive bleed.

Shelving off 60hz on the bass ... impossible ... bleed once again. Alot of bass ended up in the vocal mic and shelving 60 kills the vox.

Fixing the kik I can possibly do, using a noise gate to help with bleed and doing as Mad Max suggested.

Unfortunately I can't due much with the hat, as I only used 4 mics and scooping/muting puts the whole kit outa whack in the stereo image

The only thing I can manage to tweak properly is the 'verb

Needless to say I am totally redesigning my gobos.

They are currently 6' tall and simple wall frames with regular insulation in them, covered in fabric ... baaad design on my part.

I'm now redoing them with rigid fiberglass inside and surfacing both sides with 1/8" thick wood, then treating them with auralex wedges, and going to the ceiling with them.

I usually do totally acoustic groups, no drums or amps, and my setup serves me wonderfully for that, but I now see that to do any other music I'm in for a big makeover.

The band wants to do a full CD with me now, which I am willing to do only under MY conditions, which is to track live, then come back in and redo every instrument and the vox separately, or wait until I get my new gobos built and let me have total control of the amp volumes.

I'm quite a noob at the recording business and realize I have a loooong way to go before I can start charging for my services, but this was a great learning experience for me.

Again, thanks for all the comments and they are duly noted for my next session with this band.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:34 pm

Don't listen to a lot of this its good for what they asked, im listening on my monitors right now and it sits well, the only complaint i have is the bass is actually a little high in the mix, perhaps go through and find which notes are louder than others and ride the fader, im assuming you're using ProTools LE or something similar, just set it to Write so you can write the automation. Other than that its very old school, well done

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 1:16 am

Allrighty

Here's take 2 after a proper mixing and mastering.

Took 2 hours, but I think I nailed it.
Whadda ya think?

http://naomisfancy.net/nfdownloads/Hungry_For_Love.mp3

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