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I'm considering this done and ready to release. What do you think?

https://recording.o…

Attached files Caity Chaos and the 360s - Ira Frazier.mp3 (8 MB) 

Comments

Jonathan Linton Sun, 04/21/2019 - 07:38

Hi there,

Solid mix - well done. Great song with impressive vocals and performances! The only changes I would make would be:

- The intro slide guitar could be a little cleaner played. I would retrack that part. The rest in the song is very well done.
- Make the vocals a little more stereo - either a touch more slap back delay, a stereo enhancer (like Waves Doubler), or double/triple tracking
- I would back off the backing vocals in general especially at 2:47
- Around 2:45 the bass sounds like two notes played together - which sounds muddy
- The bass could be a little more beefier. Either a boost at around 120Hz, a multiband enhancer plugin boosting just the low end or RBass.
- But you frickin' nailed the lead vocals! Well performed (an understatement!) and mixed/EQed/Compressed just right!

As usual, these are just my opinions - keep or sweep.

Jonathan

stevie_m Tue, 05/14/2019 - 21:11

Mix sounds ready-to-go. I am almost tempted to say the drums need to be slightly more wet (either w/ reverb or room size) but that is within the realm of style and not a technical critique. All the performances are really solid too. Only critiques - the 8 second guitar intro playing sounds a little uninspired - I want to hear that played with some more soulful bends and vibrato. The first few seconds of the solo around 1:10 could be played with more balls and soul as well - but everything else fit the song nicely. Overall good!

bouldersound Tue, 05/14/2019 - 21:26

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. Although it's tempting to get back into it and try some of the ideas posted, I probably won't for two reasons. First, it's already out there as is. Second, all the instrument tracks are single takes, no punches, no edits, not even volume rides. There's something about that which appeals to me. I know, it's not logical, but music can be illogical at times.

stevie_m Tue, 05/14/2019 - 21:30

bouldersound, post: 461055, member: 38959 wrote: I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. Although it's tempting to get back into it and try some of the ideas posted, I probably won't for two reasons. First, it's already out there as is. Second, all the instrument tracks are single takes, no punches, no edits, not even volume rides. There's something about that which appeals to me. I know, it's not logical, but music can be illogical at times.

Wow. All single-takes is a VERY bold move. I am too much of an OCD perfectionist to do that (and not talented enough either). In that case, the song is quite impressive for a single-take recording.

bouldersound Tue, 05/14/2019 - 22:01

Thanks. The instruments weren't all taken at once. We recorded the full band with the bass and pedal steel direct and the singer in the control room, then came back later and retook steel and bass until they were right. The bass was a bit of a saga because the active electronics of his main bass died during the process. He switched to his other bass, which was totally different in many ways, including having a different scale neck.

The lead vocal is a comp of two takes, if I remember correctly. The backings were probably done a section or two at a time. Also, no grid and no pitch correction. Oh, and no expensive plugins, just the stock stuff in Vegas Pro plus a couple of freeware effects. One that I really like for this is TP Basslane, so I can pan the bass but keep the lows centered.

All sources were tracked through a Tascam M2600 MkII. Outboard is one ART Pro VLA (usually on steel and lead vocal), some 166 compressors and a Project1 266. Sometimes I remember to bypass the board eq and the dbx compressors, sometimes not. To my advantage I use the exact same system once or twice a week to mix their rehearsals, so I have it pretty well dialed in.