General Music Chat

Hey Gang,

Yep, its that time again..I know yall dread it but ya really do help the oldman out here when ya critique his ole 70's stuff. Please give my new rendition of "Home on the Road" a listen..No lead gtr yet..Cant get an FX outta this PUTER that suites me.. ..Please tell me if the over all mix is too bassy (low middy)..Im tryin to use the near fields more efficiently...I thought the rhythm gtr in the LS "might " be alittle hot.Compressing to MP3 seems to heat up the 1KHZ range.Anyway, let me know whatchall think?

Thanks ,John

Yeah, the Left rhythm melody is a little hot, just a little. Not too much cause it drives the verses. It may be my headphones, but I thought it could stand a little more bass, low end.


I thought it was good though. Very clean and full.

Nice job.


That's you singing?

Bet you were asked to sing some Gordon Lightfoot (Carefree Highway, for example) or maybe Looking Glass's "Brandy" you know... "Sailors say Brandy, you're a fine girl..."

Hope that's not an insult.

I like both those songs and artists, and you have a similar voice to me.
Ever sang either of those?

Wait a minute.

What's going on in the left?

That's keys and guitar mixed?

Maye it's the keys that are slightly hot rather than the guitar.

It's pretty well mixed though. You did a good job.

Hey Craig,

LOL..Jesus, This diggy recording is gonna be the death of me.Too many parameters.Thanks for the feed back...Man you aint gonna believe this but I was doing some 'nostalgic jammin" TODAY on drums and "Brandy" was on the list.. ..yeah , I didnt wanna mix the rhythm with the B3 but thought it was better than mixin it with my piano.The piano sounded harsh center panned so I moved it R about 35 %...Heck , Everytime I do this I get a different result.I dont have a routine yet to arrive at how I get to where Im going..(did that make ANY sense.. )BUT, IDID learn how to normalize this evening ..Thats gonna save me ALOT of time..I forgot to silence the dead places in the tracks so it prolly coulda been alittle more quiet..HEY, Im still learning this insanity..Hell, I woulda been done yersterday with a 16 CH mixer and a reel to reel with outboard FX and compressor..LOL..I like Gordens stuff , but never did cover any.
Yeah , That Cat that sings for" Looking Glass" sure dont SOUND the way he looks ..I use too much chorus , delay, verb...etcBy the time get get through effecting, hell I dont even know who's singin anymore..
Cant get rid of that OLD 70's mentality.

Thanks,
John

Listening now for the second time as I type . The mix is good. My only suggestions are put the vocal harmonies at "10 and 2". And use an acoustic piano. I'm cool with synths and even keyboards, but I rarely like a synthesized piano sound. Just a preference on my part. I like the song. I like the phrasing on the chorus. Especially the "I've ever known" part. I like how you put the accent on the "ver" in " I've eVER known" Phrasing to me is SUCH a big deal. Good job!

It's a beautiful thing, John. I like it a bunch. Love that tune.

Are you playing all the parts and singing and you wrote it?

Yep, Its ALL ME ...Its ME Its ME Its Ernest T. ..Yeah , Ive got most my original stuff recorded on 4 trk cassette like alotta other OTers on here...Im bout tempted to just used this dumb ole puter to record the mixes from there then just take out the tape hiss and 60HZ rumble.BUT, I need to TRY to get better at mousin around in the diggy world.
Thanks for the detailed crtique boys.I have a BAD habit of Eqing much needed MIDS out too..I dont have stereo speakers anymore but I DO have 800W PA.. ..When I play records from you tube, they sound good and Eqed correctly through the spectrum, THEN I play one of my mixes and the Piano and Rhythm Gtr are weak and the Vocals sound Bassy. BUT, when I leave all those mids in the monitors , it sounds like something outta 1965.. ..Need to reach a happy medium.Well, back to movin dots around..

John

Nicely done Kidd. I got nothing to add as far as critique. Just to let you know I like it.

Sounds good, nice job!

Sounds clean and nice. Dig it, man. Especially the harmony.

Hello, I'm a newbee here on this site. The mix sounds great! Your doin what I am trying to do, play it all, and record it too. Very hard to do. You pull it off well. I would of liked to hear the drums up more in the mix, great job though....nice song

Thanks Kramer! much appreciated.

Hey lil Bro thanks much!!! Hows that hand? Any changes that your applying makin a diff?

Hey Gtr Mann,
Yeah , I was comparing our mixes thru the cans and youve got alot more high mids and highs than me.(shimmering).You bass sounds smooth, not smudgy..AND , your playin the 1st maj 7 chord Ive heard on here.. Your runnin some heavy comp/limit on those drums too ..right? Your stuff sounds GOOD man.Keep up the good work and YES, this is HARD..(rather dig waterlines than mix) Yeah , I started doing the one man band thing in Chicago back in 90 and figured heck , I could be doing this with original stuff so my lil YAMADOG 4 tracker served me well till this dumb ole PUTER came along..

Thanks boys,John

Hey lil Bro thanks much!!! Hows that hand? Any changes that your applying makin a diff?

Much better actually. I needed to relax for half a day and stretch/warm up my fingers a lot more than I used to. Thanks for asking.

Yea there is a lot of compression goin on there, tape compression when tracked in analog w/ DBX, 2nd and 3rd time when mixed in analog through my old Soundcraft 800B, 4th and 5th time when mastered after I brought it into the computer.........not heavy compression at any given time, just a little here and a little there 5 times....... I did a lot of regional live sound for many years, I am shooting for a live feel.......

I have more difficulty playing the parts then mixing, I guess my stuff is more song demos. If I don't train wreck when playing the parts, then I'm good, let's get to the mix stage to hear how the parts are working together, I love to mix... I probably will need a producer to tell me to do the parts again to fix my mistakes......LOL

I like how smooth your instruments sound in your mixes, if you ever want to trade notes, feel free to email me !! gtrmann at gmail

Again....great job !!