General Music Chat

I posted a song a while back, Silhouette of A Daydream, but was never satisfied with it. Finally opened it up and did a bit more tinkering, I think I got a better mix tweaking it a little.

Brought the highs down a bit more, doubled it and panned one mostly left and one mostly right for better stereo and ambiance, left everything else alone. No other manipulations, only effects used were delay and EQ.

See what you guys think, I'm pretty sure I got a better mix this time, but might need to cut the gain a tad more, I'm not sure if I'm hearing clipping or a slight guitar rattle. Mic too close maybe?

It's been posted on my profile for a while, replaced it with the new copy last night.

Deceptively simple fingerpicking open G instrumental, it's a lot more difficult to get all those open strings, hammers and pulls, sustain and dissonants than you may think. I think this was my 5th try that night, mostly just to get the last 5 notes right. It's really easy to muffle one of the other strings trying to hammer the last note. But that's the most interesting part of playing it...slight finger misplacement and I lose the sustain or dissonance, often both.

Wrote it about 3 years ago sitting on the front porch watching cars drive by and horses graze across the road.

OK guys, I know it's not the next rock anthem but I don't think it's all that bad...47 looks and not a word???

I liked it the first time brother.

Pretty progression.

Makes me want to lay down some tracks over it!

I enjoyed that bro. I have always had a affinity for that style of play.
Like I said before as a kid I was awstruck watching Roy Clark pickin.
I think you could front and back that with anything from drums and guitar to orchestra. and it would still have the same appeal.

I knew a few people liked the original song, I'm more interested in what you think of the recording itself...effects, stereo, EQ and so on.

I've tinkered around with ideas, it always seems to me it's best to leave it one guitar and that's it. can't seem to come up with anything else that might fit, it's always seemed like a single acoustic guitar song from the minute I wrote it.

My biggest worry is that I'll overdo the effects and such, and make it worse instead of better.

Thanks for the compliments, but what could make it better in the mix/production department?

Paleopete If you mess with at all I would remind you to work off a copy and not mess with the original. Hopefully you have a lossless copy of that, to get a full clean take of that probably wasn’t easy.

At 0:13 in it sounds like there is a slight bit of clipping, in comparison 1:18 is entirely clean, the mid-range sounds a little too strong. If it’s just a matter of the mix being to high a level, easy enough to fix. I would suggest compression instead of just using the gain or amplify. If you had to re-record it, then in my opinion I would leave that be.

You have a bit of background static, it’s only really obvious at the end. You could try noise removal, but sometimes if used to strongly it will give it a flanged tone. Or an easier approach, just fade out where the static begins and silence the very end. Out of sight out of mind. If you can’t hear it at the end, you won’t listen for it in the mix.

Also and it’s just an idea, but since it’s one single guitar you could split the channel 10 degrees left and 10 right to spread it out a little and give a wider stereo effect. Right now it sounds like it’s at dead center, which is naturally correct. It depends on how it comes out and how minimal you want to keep it.

In short I see nothing wrong with it at all. It’s some excellent playing on a really nice melody. But you are asking for suggestions and that’s all I can think of. Not that any of it would actually make it “better”, since it’s really good as it is.

Hey Pete,

I remember the first take and commenting on your mix and that it reminded me slack key sequel rag...Well, I have to tell ya, the first mix was better thru my near fields...This mix has a low mid (muddy) contour to it...I can tell you removed the highs( 7-8K)BUT, the 12K hiss is still there...I know your using a multi tracker for an interface...Ive used both, MY cassette multi tracker AND an 8CH brain which IS a more quiet interface so I forgive the HF hiss...Just curious to what bitrate your saving the MP3 to?...For a long time ,I was saving to the default (128)becuase...(I didnt know any better ) I didnt know I had a choice???..NOW, I save a 160 with a sample rate of 44,100.which is closer to the orginal WAV. sample...If ya would, put the first one back up as your 2nd tune, and let me compare.


John

Yes do put the first run back for comparison please. I might not be able to help you but it will help me to understand what the hell these guys are talking about.

Thanks for the comments and observations. I'll try to comment on a couple of things.

1st I'll have to look, I'm not sure what the sample rate is currently, I'm sure it showed up somewhere int he process of saving it, I'm thinking 44,100 but not positive. I've slept since then...

Yes I have the original as a separate file, untouched. Everything is saved as separate edits, slightly different filenames.

Separation was done with 2 tracks, #2 simply copied & pasted, one panned around 80% left, one around 80% right. Very slightly different delay on each.

Done with the Tascam 414, bypassing the tape though, to eliminate tape hiss. That's probably machine hiss or possibly a little noise picked up from the computer, which was about 4 feet from the mic. Ancient Shure PE35L mic, I've had it around 25 years..could also be room noise, fridge, electrical or RF interference, I'm not sure and this isn't a great place to record either, if a cat scratches his ears outside the window I can just about hear it so it'll most likely come out in the mix. I can definitely hear people talking on the street out front. So it coud be just a noisy recording, noise reduction cuts too much out.

I also made a CD copy and checked it out on my home stereo, .wav format so the ordinary CD player will read it, sounded pretty good, except for a couple of things also noticed here. Bit of clipping early on, some noise and hiss and now that someone pointed it out it does seem to be a bit on the middly side.

I might try it again and see if I can offset the separation a little, maybe 70/50 or something. I haven't figured out the compression in Audacity yet, that'll take some more tinkering, so far I've just pulled the gain back a little and might need to tweak it a bit more.

I'll look up the original copy and repost it, might have to rename it first.