Well for starters, wow!, can that wife of yours ever sing! Excellent vocal. I felt like the recording was pretty true to the genre and era (big round bass guitar, pulsing but not overly-agressive kick drum, side-stick and clean guitar back-beat, very tasteful piano). I spent the first couple minutes thinking maybe we weren't going to get any lead vocal - then BAM!!, there's Mrs. Smashh - again, wow! If the room is small, the SM58 may have been the best choice anyway. Mix-wise or mic choice, I wouldn't change much. I personally, would like to hear just a touch more piano in the first couple minutes. Then when the drummer switches from side-stick to snare at 4:45 and the whole band gets a little busier and starts to cut loose, it is somewhat overpowering the little incidental vocal phrases, until of course Mrs. comes in and belts out the last bit.

So all in all, very nicely done. I enjoyed it a lot. The band seemed tight (in the good way), and everybody knew when to lay back in the mix. Just remember this is 99% about supporting the vocal. I would certainly try the 414 on the lead vocal, but wouldn't hesitate to switch back to the 58, if the 414 also introduces too much bleed. Time permitting, I'd experiment with her location in the room and the patterns on the 414 - there might be a spot in the room where everything comes together perfectly in omni. You've got plenty of talent there to do it the old-fashioned way.

Thanks Hawk , I will put 414 on lead vs next time . Bit wary of using omni , but I will try each pattern on the mic for a couple of songs
and make a note so I find out what works best in that scenario .

The performance is excellent. One thing that jumped out at me was in the breakdown at 0:50. I think the piano and bass could support that better.

Hey smashh, good organic performance. There is obvious speed variations and some rithmic hesitations. But there's a good vibe !

Right from the start I noticed noises and a frequency (kinda whisle) in the HF. I would invetigate that.

In this case I would have liked less room in the mix also, maybe the overheads could be closer to the drum and placed to pick the cymbals, toms and snare more equally.
A room mic is hard to control and place to avoid phasing issue, specially if there is amps in the room. Close to the drum in cardioid position, maybe...

Those are suggestions only. Experimentations are best done buy ourself !
I'm interesting of listening to your future takes on this, please post more ;)

One of my all time favorite songs. ;) Your arrangement is cool, too - kinda like how Ike and Tina Turner would have done it - if they had done it. ;)

Get your wife's voice out front, Ash!!!! Don't sit it so far back. She's got a really nice voice - passionate, soulful. You need to bring it forward and it needs to be the focal. LOL... "the vocal is the focal." LOL.

Seriously... this needs to be intimate and up front when it comes to the lead vox. Everything else is kinda roomy and nicely loose, and it works, but I want to hear her voice right up-front when she comes in. I want to hear the breath, the rasp, subtle little nuances like the way her voice breaks.... Here's what I suggest:

Get the best mic pre you can for her vocal track. Even for just one day.

Beg, borrow, steal - or rent one for an afternoon... and I'm talking about getting a really good mic pre - like a Grace, or Millennia, or Great River, or ADK. Right now it sounds too thin, too "cinched up" and I'm pretty sure that the mic pre you are using now is the culprit. ( What pre are you using right now?)

You need to open up her performance sonically with a great mic pre. Put her on that 414 you have, plug it into a pro-caliber mic pre, bring her voice to the front in the mix ( agreat pre will end up doing a lot of that for you) and I promise you that you won't be sorry. It's gonna make your jaw drop. ;)

This could be an awesome version. She's got a great voice. Don't hide it from me! :)

d.

Awsome groovy tune. I like the I'm there quality, to the room and overall vibe. Intimate but not small.

Omni is surprisingly cool sometimes, especially on vocals, you can get close with no proximity effect. I think the 414 might bring the vocals forward in a nice way without fader hike. Hopefully it won't get too overbearing in the upper mids. With a pre or channel strip of quality that amazing voice will get the some more height and weight. I'd try the Manley or calrecs first if I had them with me.

I wish my rehearsals sounded like records! Greatness. Very entertaining way to see the sunrise this morning thanks!

Nice space creation. I really like your reverb usage. Seems like the vocals need to be louder in the beginning section ...more upfront.

thanks for the feedback guys , Lots to try out .:)
Donny , I had the mics going into a soundcraft desk and I took direct post fader lines out and into the presonus studio live ( my interface )
The lead vocal was a sure 58
Wish there was more time to experiment but there just isn't ( cant have the band waiting ) , so I try adjusting things quickly on the fly and move on .
I do have a presonus adl 700 which I could put the vocals through . It has a few different resistance settings ( from 150 ohms to 1500 ohms ).
Can you suggest ,What resistance would be good for the 414 on the vocals .That ll be a good place to start next time (y)

The beginning section is where the back ups sing but they were not at that rehearsal , so J was sorta humming their lines .

The impedance can be used in accordance of the mic nominal impedance or mismatched.
Lower settings usually give more dynamic results and Higher settings a tighter sound with more controled HF.

Unless you have very old classic mics that need specifics, try both and use the one that sounds better to you.

That mic/pre is probably gonna make such a difference you'll forget about the impedance settings!

I've never found the impedance knob to do a whole lot on any pre I've used. I'd just leave it "somewhere in the middle" or to whatever the the mic roccomends, I own one, but I forget what the manual says.

Your mic placement and pickup patterns and gain staging will make much more of an integral difference.