African Dance Tune by IJenNeh-3rd attempt to mix instruments

Hi there, Sorry for not being around for awhile but we have been busy finishing up our new cd. Here is a tune from it. Acabwayla Dance Mix, any listens, feedbacks or comments are appreciated.
 
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9482805
 
Many blessings Karalie & IJenNeh

Hi Mike, thanks for the listen and kind words.

An absolute slice of joy!

A minor nit is although the various vocal elements have been nicely prepared they sound a little like separately treated elements still, an excellent lead vocal and choir but they need to be tied together somehow a little more.

Not that it matters too much in the context of this completely excellent and uplifting piece.

Superb song.

karalie7@aol.com


Hi James, thanks for the listen!

Jonbouy states"A minor nit is although the various vocal elements have been nicely prepared they sound a little like separately treated elements still, an excellent lead vocal and choir but they need to be tied together somehow a little more."
 
Any ideas out there on how to do this?

Thanks for the listen Jonbouy!!!!!!!!

He may be referring to the difference in the reverb/decay. The lead seem to have more effect, while the choir sounds like they are standing beside me.

He may be referring to the difference in the reverb/decay. The lead seem to have more effect, while the choir sounds like they are standing beside me.

Yes Jeff is on it.

It can be caused by recording the choir in one session in a certain space and the lead vox on another occasion in a totally different place with different mics and tracking settings, sometimes the resulting differences in the recordings are difficult to match up to sound like they were recorded at the same time.

I'm not sure how you have the vocals set up in the mix presently, but using reverb(s) through a send would mean that you could dial in the same reverb effect but in different amounts for the choir and lead vox respectively thus giving a better impression of them being in the same space. 

There is no sure fire way of doing this that I know of but usually using the same spatial effects (reverb) on the choir that you are using on the lead vox via sends should match the different performances a little better.  More effect on the choir would give the impression of sending them further behind the lead singer. One thing to remember with reverb is that a little goes a long way so use sparingly and err on the side of caution.

To further help tie them together without adding too much of the muddiness associated with reverb, after you have settled on the effects you want to apply, is to send all the now nicely mixed vocals through another bus and add this plug-in to the fx bin.

http://dallashodgson.info...s/OpenAmbienceProject/

It's called Sheppi and it can add some ambient width and depth to the whole vocal sub-mix without adding or detracting from the original signal. Don't hesitate to remove it if it doesn't do the required job though as I've found it works wonders in some cases and does nothing useful in others.

I really hope this helps rather than confuses, and I'm sorry it is a bit of a protracted explanation just to gain a small improvement.

Most of all, don't you dare spoil this excellent track just for the sake of my big mouth... , it's just a case of experimenting here to see if you can improve the match on the two performances by these methods.
 

I love the sound of this... great groove and the vocals are golden...

Great work...

Gosh, I love his voice.  Great job on the whole mix, Karalie.  It's outstanding in it's clean, unpretentious presentation.  Such wonderful joyful music.

My lack of "technical hearing" leaves me wondering what those boys are talking about?  It's good for my listening pleasure but it leaves me needing others to mix my music!  I think this is absoultely great!  It's like I see 2d in a 3d movie but I love the show!  I loved this tune!!

I really don't have any nits, although I could see what the one individual above was referring to. However, it didn't bother me in the least, and might not have noticed had I not read the comment.

No I agree, and that's pretty much what I said in my original comment too, that it didn't matter too much in the context of this great track.

Clarification was sought as to how to deal with it though, so I tried to provide that to the best of my ability.

I try to give back some of which has been given to me over time, when asked, as the only way I've got any further forward in understanding what I'm doing is by listening to the suggestions of others here.

Yeah, I really enjoyed this as well. Listening on computer speakers so I can really hear the spacial differences in the vocal tracks. The mix sounds quite clean and clear to me and only at brief moments do the combination of vocals all singing at the same time did I notice it briefly get a tad muddy.

Oh man, this one rocks!
It reminds me of the calypsos from my husband's Caribbean island, Trinidad. He's one of those "Eh Eh, mon" people.

 Do you want to add some horns to your song like the calypsos have (I'm thinking here of Sparrow)? and like the Mariachi bands have? They would give vibrant highlights to such a festive song. 

The song is fantastic throughout--everything and everybody in tune, the lead singer singing with great strength and heart, exciting and imaginative, until the very end where it ends weird--just a short chord by some flat, midi-sounding instument.


Oh yes--I almost forgot until I started reading the posts above just now. About the ambiance thing that Jonbouy mentions. It struck me right away that I was wanting to hear more ambiance, too. I'm accustomed to listening to Sparrow, and I guess I'm comparing your song to his songs.

Gee, wonderful! I love this type of music. I remember when I had a short wave radio equipment and tuned in weak radio stations from e g Cameroun, Ivory Coast and other countries. Thanks for sharing this.  It's very rythmic as it  should. What I slightly miss is that energetic electric guitar picking guitar instead of the piano. The end chord seems a little bit late, cut and paste! Otherwise wonderful melody, rythms and vocals make me want to dance!

Hi there,
Equality thanks for the listen. You have very good ears since the music director & lead singer is from West Africa, Liberia! Though the song is Southern African.

Acabwayla simply means "Jesus is coming again".

Thanks for making this number #1 on World/African charts.
 
When I recorded the lead vocal I recorded it with a digital compressor on the lead vocal bus. I then mixed the lead vocal layering two separate Wave reverbs(making sure the delay settings are the same), Cakewalk's FX Dynamics Processor and Sonitus Vintage EQ making adjustments on each effect/compressor/equalixer. I will probably add a reverb to the entire mix to try to get some more co-hesiveness(spelling??) to the song. I like the ending though I am getting comments about it. I might just keep it or something like it.

Blessings to all

+++++1
needs more bass drum thump

Hi there,

James states "everything seems quite dry on it's own, but the whole mix is full and satisfying"
I like more dry verbs on the vocals especially on the organic african songs. I don't want to hear any "metal" flavor on the verbs for vocals.

Biabdude states "needs more bass drum thump "
Yeah, let the party roll! Honestly, I bring the kickdrum in as much as possible in the beginning and then bring everything else in after. I like to feel that kick in my chest. Its a fine balance, bringing it in without pushing something else over in the mix.

Janet, we are going to change the ending alitte bit and extend it out with some vocal harmonies on the end.

Thanks again everybody for sharing. I like to say when we are one we are not smart but when we are many we can accomplish so much. Blessings!