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I'm not the only writer in the group. This piece was written and sung by our bass player. Oddly, it's started as a rock tune, but I put on my producer's cap ... slowed it down ... immensely ... and turned it into a reflective conversation piece.

Any/all comments warmly appreciated.

Kev-

https://recording.o…

Attached files 03 Melancholy Blue.mp3 (5.2 MB) 

Comments

stevie_m Fri, 01/24/2020 - 00:57

Really cool song. The organ drone sounds a little wimpy and the track demands a heavier, richer synth pad or something - unless you intentionally want to give it a lighthearted, cheeky feel. Very cool chorusy, Musicology-era Prince sounding R&B guitars (huge compliment). How are you getting those tones? VST plugins or real mic'd amps. Did you have to cut much bass to make them sound clean? Are you stereoizing them in any way? The drums sound good. Are they real or VST? The vocal "ever lasting" @ 0:22 is quite pitchy and should be fixed. The rest of the vocals sound pretty solid, no sour notes. I feel like the bass is a bit overpowering with too much distortion. I would use a smoother, less trebly bass. Performance is good though.

kevinwhitect Fri, 01/24/2020 - 07:50

stevie_m, post: 463250, member: 48189 wrote: Really cool song. The organ drone sounds a little wimpy and the track demands a heavier, richer synth pad or something - unless you intentionally want to give it a lighthearted, cheeky feel. Very cool chorusy, Musicology-era Prince sounding R&B guitars (huge compliment). How are you getting those tones? VST plugins or real mic'd amps. Did you have to cut much bass to make them sound clean? Are you stereoizing them in any way? The drums sound good. Are they real or VST? The vocal "ever lasting" @ 0:22 is quite pitchy and should be fixed. The rest of the vocals sound pretty solid, no sour notes. I feel like the bass is a bit overpowering with too much distortion. I would use a smoother, less trebly bass. Performance is good though.

Hi Stevie - thanks for the detailed thoughts! The writer (singer) likes the bass tone ... but I could probably futz with it to get it cleaner. I recorded the acoustic guitar through an AT4050, and eq'd it to taste. Drums are real ... our drummer's Mapex kit.

Bill is going to redo his vocal. He thinks he can improve on it. He adores the organ part - and it's his song, so he gets to call those shots.

The electric guitar is patched through a Roland Midi Synth. The setting is 4ths of 5ths, and we tracked it live via stereo inputs. I popped the 2-5k range to highlight the upper tones and did roll the bass off softly to allow for the bass guitar to poke through.