By The Rivers of Babylon (with instruments)

Hi Friends,

Been busy finishing up our new cd, soon to be out. I thought I would post a few tunes while waiting for the final product. This version I posted earlier but acappella, we redid it with instruments. You guys & gals have helped us so much these past few years grow. Blessings to you. Karalie & IJenNeh

By the Rivers of Babylon

Thanks Robby, that means alot to us. You are such a great singer and technician. Peace always and keep smiling (even if it hurts:-)

And I posted this on my FB page.

People...

You need to listen to this band...

They have like this African thing? It's gospel? It's spiritual? It's vocal? 

And "It's special.." They will bless you.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10343603
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10343603
soundclick.com

Effortlessly cool and uplifting. Your harmony work is as always, stunning. Vastly superior to the Boney M version too

James

Hup!

Thanks everyone for the comments, you are all too kind.
MidiMatt(on Sonar) is our audio engineer  who helps us mix and master. He recorded three of our cds and then started us recording with Sonar. We really could not do anything without him. He is our mentor and friend.

karalie7@aol.com


Hi Friends,

Been busy finishing up our new cd, soon to be out. I thought I would post a few tunes while waiting for the final product. This version I posted earlier but acappella, we redid it with instruments. You guys & gals have helped us so much these past few years grow. Blessings to you. Karalie & IJenNeh

By the Rivers of Babylon

The song has potential. The vocals were really well recorded and have a great sound. The bass player is very good.

The mix isn't right though. The drums are not cutting through, the snare sample is rather weak, and the volumes of various instruments are very off by several db.

Take for example the intro, which is the best place to analyze the mix's problems. The drums come in, setting the stage for the song - but unfortunately it's really weak. The kick isn't very tight... there's some mud to it and it has no definition.  I would EQ the kick to accentuate it's core frequencies and kill the rest of them. Also use a transient shaper to give it even more shape and tightness after you EQ it, and then compress it a bit to boot.

The snare sample just needs to be changed entirely, and further processing would need to be done on that. The snare is pretty tinny and has no crack or top to it. I don't really know what the sound is supposed to be. It SOUNDS like midi, which is bad. It doesn't have that nice acoustic sound to it. You need to get a real sampled snare hit - some brushes or something that works for the song.

Then the bass comes in... and it's HUGE compared to the kick and the snare. It's overlapping it basically... kind of like a vocal on top of a karaoke mix. The bass and kick need to be glued, but they are really far apart here.

The drums themselves don't feel right as a whole either. I don't get a sense that there was a room that they were recorded in... or that the drums, and other parts of the mix are glued - i.e. played in the same room, or that they were played together. There has to be some work done to give the appearance that the band is actually playing together.

I don't hear any room mic's, which is a problem with home mixes. At the very least, there needs to be some parallel compression on the kick and snare to get it to cut through. I don't think any technique should be automatic for every song, but there is almost no mix I have done in my career of mixing that has not used some form of parallel compression on the kick and snare. Even in cases where I have 20 drum tracks - 5 or 6 behind overheads and 2-3 rooms, I still need a little parallel compression anyway.

All of these points set the wrong impression for the song right away.

Ultimately, it sounds too much like midi and too much like it was done at home, not quite ready for production on a cd. All of this can be corrected though.

Things somewhat get corrected when the vocals come in, because at least the bass and vocals are glued together, but the rest of the mix just isn't sitting. If you can fix all of these problems, I think you'll have a quite a good mix.

Just beautiful!  :-)

Very,very nice. Always an uplifting vibe with your music that's a pleasure tp hear!

The bass and vocal harmonies shine.

I sang this in my head "for days" after listening multiple times...

I'm afraid to listen again because it will be stuck in there again!

fantastic karalie!

the drums are a tad weak and lacking in this, but the performances of bass and vocals are outstanding.  this is a blessing!

acoustigod

 The song has potential. The vocals were really well recorded and have a great sound. The bass player is very good. The mix isn't right though. The drums are not cutting through, the snare sample is rather weak, and the volumes of various instruments are very off by several db. Take for example the intro, which is the best place to analyze the mix's problems. The drums come in, setting the stage for the song - but unfortunately it's really weak. The kick isn't very tight... there's some mud to it and it has no definition.  I would EQ the kick to accentuate it's core frequencies and kill the rest of them. Also use a transient shaper to give it even more shape and tightness after you EQ it, and then compress it a bit to boot. The snare sample just needs to be changed entirely, and further processing would need to be done on that. The snare is pretty tinny and has no crack or top to it. I don't really know what the sound is supposed to be. It SOUNDS like midi, which is bad. It doesn't have that nice acoustic sound to it. You need to get a real sampled snare hit - some brushes or something that works for the song. Then the bass comes in... and it's HUGE compared to the kick and the snare. It's overlapping it basically... kind of like a vocal on top of a karaoke mix. The bass and kick need to be glued, but they are really far apart here. The drums themselves don't feel right as a whole either. I don't get a sense that there was a room that they were recorded in... or that the drums, and other parts of the mix are glued - i.e. played in the same room, or that they were played together. There has to be some work done to give the appearance that the band is actually playing together. I don't hear any room mic's, which is a problem with home mixes. At the very least, there needs to be some parallel compression on the kick and snare to get it to cut through. I don't think any technique should be automatic for every song, but there is almost no mix I have done in my career of mixing that has not used some form of parallel compression on the kick and snare. Even in cases where I have 20 drum tracks - 5 or 6 behind overheads and 2-3 rooms, I still need a little parallel compression anyway. All of these points set the wrong impression for the song right away. Ultimately, it sounds too much like midi and too much like it was done at home, not quite ready for production on a cd. All of this can be corrected though. Things somewhat get corrected when the vocals come in, because at least the bass and vocals are glued together, but the rest of the mix just isn't sitting. If you can fix all of these problems, I think you'll have a quite a good mix.

Hi Acoustigod,
      (and your Acoustiworshippers)
     I want to thank you for your opinion on the mix and ask for more input.
     Much of what you mention is true. Midi drums can be done well but midi drums from cheap samples will never carry a song far.  The whole drum set was DI'd onto one track, limiting options a bit, and though the programming was good (a little too quantized perhaps) the samples were not great.  The guitar, bass and piano were recorded direct in and were in need of a lot of tweaking to play well together. Twisting, gouging and mangling can only do so much when, as you say, re doing a track may be the best course.  That being said, I wish I'd had better success tweaking the drums. I think I tried too hard to bridge the 10db difference between the kik and the snare with a LFMax effect and hard knee compression catching the snare.  Hence the kik mud.  Parallel comp might have tempered this. 
     Not sure what other instruments might be off: there's just a right side guitar and a left side piano.  They were dry and needed to be amp-simmed, eq'd, compressed and tubed up a bit. They seem present without being overbearing or distracting.  Do you think the guitar or piano are too loud ??er what? I know the source guitar sound is a bit wrong but let's not go there.....is what it is....
     In the context of this project though, as just the mixer, not the engineer or producer, sometimes the best thing to do is concentrate on what is working and lower the mix presence on what is not.  -- And a lot of what IJenNeh is producing is working ! What these guys accomplish with one mic and a little Maudio interface is amazing. The songwriting, the arrangements, the heart and talent in the voices; these, all along, have been strong points to which are now being added this first foray into non-acapella arrangements.
      A good "modern" mix isn't going to happen without some happening drums. Lacking them throws the whole thing off a bit.  As an acoustigod it's probably hard to overlook those shortcomings but I think a lot of people will be blessed by these tracks and groove with the bass and the voices.  This CD needs to come out now.  Maybe someday resources would allow a full production with all the accouterments.
 In the meantime: Long live low budget home recording !!
     Matt

This material definitely needs and deserves better drum sounds.  Even the basic version of EZDrummer or Addictive Drums would be worth every penny.

Nice work!
J 

Very, very nice.  Sounds gtreat on my Bose speakers!

Daryl

Hey everybody, thanks for all the comments"-)
I wish we could have had a live drummer but the show must go on and maybe next time around, we can find and afford a real drummer.
We are feeling tired and the cd is online for production and we are a gigging band. We are also running low of our "All Things Bright" cd and want new material. All to say even though, technically we could redo the drums, we won't. TIme to move forward, with our mistakes and all, learning for the next cd...........................................................................................................................................BLessings to all of you, we appreciate eveyone of you.