"Day By Day" - Revised and Re-Recorded!!

Great recording and the record scratching gives it a more contemporary feel. Drums are a little dry on my system but they work.  I prefer a little more snap on the upper mid high end side of things as well.

I'm not crazy of the worship genre most of the lyrics sound hallmark card'ishy...its the rare one that delivers an interesting intellectual twist on the subject.  That said...my lyrics are usually horrible...so I really shouldn't be commenting on that aspect.

So focusing on the mix...I think it sounds really good. A nice classic arrangement as well.

Well done

Very well done and it's got a great hook, which is so important in this (and probably most) genres.  I really like this and you sound great playing and singing it!

Bump? Haha.

I think the acoustic needs to be fixed up a bit. It sounds mono and sort of has a nasal/digital sound to it.

The drums need parallel compression.

The kick is not audible. It needs a boost in the low-end. It needs compression.

The snare needs to be brighter, and more compression. All the drums need to be brighter.

Roll off the lows on the voice a bit.

And in your mastering eq, you need to add more brightness as a whole.

I could see the kids at my church singing this in the teen worship services.


Nice job.

nits:

loose the "scratching track" it doesn't fit the song, it just distracts.  Was that people's voices in the beginning? also a bit distracting, unless it was recorded live which it didn't see to be because no one was singing along.

End the drums at the end of the song... having them continue past the music didn't work for me...I thought you missed the stop button, or the drummer wasn't paying attention.

Wow guys! Thank you so much for all this helpful advice and feedback! I will definitely take the scratching out. Haha, I noticed it wasn't working after I had already uploaded it (strange how that works). I might actually be having a family friend come over and lay down a few guitar tracks. We'll see how that turns out.

So - I'm gonna go back and use all this information to refine the song even more. Learning a lot! Thanks again!

Kroneborge



"How exactly should I EQ the drums to make it more snappy/less dry?   "

Have you tried the Sonar P64 Percussion strip?
http://www.youtube.com/user/cakewalksoftware?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/6/ohuHNrHp_H8

That plus a touch of reverb should give both snap and wet.

Definitely agreed that you can't hear the kick very much.   When I mix at church everyone gets WAY more, lol.
 
Dude
 
I am grooving on the song but do have to agree on the drums - they could use some wetness...

"Adding reverb to the kick is generally not a good idea."

agreed, I thought we were talking about drums in general, and usually if someone says they sound dry, they are looking for more verb, or possibly delay or chorus (usually the first). 

That being said, I have put reverb on a kick at times, but it should be used sparinly, and only when that's the exact effect you are going after because of the problems you mention.

acoustigod


One bit of advice I would give to the OP is to mix your stuff all at once and don't focus on one instrument at a time. A lot of people say, "start with the drums, then bass, then vocal, blah blah"... but that doesn't work, at least not for me.

I like to blast all the faders, play all the tracks at once and just make adjustments for 2-3 hours on looping - and this will be my rough mix. Then I go in with a fine-tooth comb and really polish stuff. I think it's more important to sculpt that macro-level sound, and this is an approach to achieving that. Envelopes and things like that are generally the last things I do.

I will also recommend to new mixers to do this for 15 minutes, take a few minutes break, listen to a reference track (make sure to listen at the same volume as your mix - not louder!) to readjust yours ears and get perspective, and then go at it again. It'll help you analyze your mix and recognize problems instantly. Then just keep doing that until it sounds right.

This approach is so much better than what I often see from "articles" and "advice" and such.

There is definitely some credence to this approach

Not bad! 

The CCM 80's-90's style is not my cup of tea I'm afraid:

Beatz scratches seem a little foreign in this.  Interestingly, the beatz scratches disappear much of the 2nd half.  Is this your intention?  I seriously love beatz per se, but its usually all or nothing when I compose.  Also, a fanatical groove + bass-line ... seems to marry well with beatz, JMO.

The following is merely personal opinion and is in no wise true (just a personal quirk):

The wondering melancholy message of this psalm may (at 1st listen) beg a stronger faith-resolution (like your boldly proclaiming Christ's death and resurrection hopes).  But because many psalms leave me 'sweetly hanging' (like psalm 88) ... your pining resolution seems excellent enough.

Guitar strumming sounds most excellent, 10/10, to my ears. 

In Sum: Today's lush standards might beg more bottom end + beatz ... in your final product.

It's an improvement. It sounds more full than before I think... but it still sounds weak though. The mix seems brighter, mostly.

Thoughts:

1. Where is the bass guitar? It needs to be huge. I can't hear it.
2. The kick is still buried. I can't hear it :(
3. The snare is tinny and has no base.
4. You absolutely must use parallel compression on the drums.
5. I can detect compression and pumping in the track.
6. The instrumental solo needs to be bigger/louder.
7. You need more panning - needs to be bigger.

Think big, full and huge when you mix. Try and make it as big as you can.

Remember, always use a reference track. Use one that really mirrors your track and is well composed, recorded, mixed and produced.

Once you learn to use reference tracks, you really won't have to ask for much advice other than to maybe get a second ear to hear things, because the reference track will tell you most of the feedback you could ever want.

For example, if the reference track's kick is louder than yours at the same overall volume level - then you need to find a way to make the kick louder. If the snare seems to punch more than yours, then you need to fix that too. And so on and so forth.

After awhile, you won't need to use the reference track as much, but to start, you should use it constantly. It is your true guide to really measure how well you are mixing.

Also, the reference track helps you set GOALS. That way you're not just mixing blindly, hoping it sounds right.

I can hear a song here in my head - like how it's probably supposed to sound... the sound you probably intended. It still has a long way to go.

acoustigod


It's an improvement. It sounds more full than before I think... but it still sounds weak though. The mix seems brighter, mostly.

Thoughts:

1. Where is the bass guitar? It needs to be huge. I can't hear it.
2. The kick is still buried. I can't hear it :(
3. The snare is tinny and has no base.
4. You absolutely must use parallel compression on the drums.
5. I can detect compression and pumping in the track.
6. The instrumental solo needs to be bigger/louder.
7. You need more panning - needs to be bigger.

Think big, full and huge when you mix. Try and make it as big as you can.

Remember, always use a reference track. Use one that really mirrors your track and is well composed, recorded, mixed and produced.

Once you learn to use reference tracks, you really won't have to ask for much advice other than to maybe get a second ear to hear things, because the reference track will tell you most of the feedback you could ever want.

For example, if the reference track's kick is louder than yours at the same overall volume level - then you need to find a way to make the kick louder. If the snare seems to punch more than yours, then you need to fix that too. And so on and so forth.

After awhile, you won't need to use the reference track as much, but to start, you should use it constantly. It is your true guide to really measure how well you are mixing.

Also, the reference track helps you set GOALS. That way you're not just mixing blindly, hoping it sounds right.

I can hear a song here in my head - like how it's probably supposed to sound... the sound you probably intended. It still has a long way to go.

Hmmm....well, alright! My problem is clipping. When I get that bass drum louder, it clips! So I have to take the master down a notch so it doesn't clip. And a couple things:


- What is parallel compression??
- How do I effectively use compression so it doesn't pump?
- I've heard the bass shouldn't be loud, or it will muddy the track, but I'll fix it.
- That's strange! I tried to use as much panning as possible. I'll just take it to the extreme, I guess.


Thanks for this, man! Totally a blessing.

Thanks, Philz! I'm actually working on a newer version taking in even MORE suggestions. Plus, I had a guitarist from my church lay down a track. Hopefully I'll get it done tonight. 

SnyderTrigger

Hmmm....well, alright! My problem is clipping. When I get that bass drum louder, it clips! So I have to take the master down a notch so it doesn't clip. And a couple things:


- What is parallel compression??
- How do I effectively use compression so it doesn't pump?
- I've heard the bass shouldn't be loud, or it will muddy the track, but I'll fix it.
- That's strange! I tried to use as much panning as possible. I'll just take it to the extreme, I guess.


Thanks for this, man! Totally a blessing.

You don't have to clip track to make it louder. Compressing and further limiting a kick or snare will get it to sound even louder without clipping.

You can send it to a bus and get an instant increase in volume while both the track and bus won't clip. This is just the start though. We don't want both the bus and the kick/snare/etc to sound the same - we can actually get a fatter sound. So, we compress the bus even more than we compress the original kick track. When both play at the same time, it will sound much fatter than without it, and it will cut through in the mix.

We need to do this for all the drums. Google "parallel compression". It is not an unknown thing. Youtube has many good examples.

The reason your compressors pump is because the release times are not set correctly. Play with the release time so that it doesn't pump. Usually this is a result of noticeable shifts in volume going up and down, so with a faster release time, the pumping will not be noticeable. Don't make it too fast, because it will reduce clarity and will kill the flow/movement of the song. You need to find the sweet spot.

The bass can be as loud as you want it to be. You were given awful advice. Use yours ears. If the bass is not loud enough by your ears and by comparing it to reference tracks, then that means you should make it louder. The reason it's muddy is because you are getting frequency clashes with other instruments/tracks. That means you need to EQ the bass and other instruments to reduce the mud and get it to sound sonically balanced and smooth.

Don't be afraid to pan 80% or even 100%. Typically 80% is good for L/R instruments like guitars. Obviously let your ears (and headphones) be your judge. This will let you crank the center instruments - kick, bass, snare, vocal, etc. - to fill in the center. It works really well. Of course, don't let this cause you to neglect your EQ duties.

Wow! Thanks for all of that useful information, acoustigod! I'm soaking all of this up like a sponge. Totally gonna put this to work.

Couple things:

The drums are a loop track I built, so I didn't have the liberty of singling out the bass drum. But, I even boosted the bass frequencies in the drum track by a lot, and they weren't coming through the rest of the mix. I don't know why this is. 

I also have a question - how do you properly compress things? It seems like I understand what a compressor is supposed to do, but I can't use it like it should be used.

I removed a lot of the sss's and whatnot, but apparently I didn't get them all! :P

How would I go about removing the nasal-ness from the acoustic? I'm afraid that the guitar I recorded with (my guitar) is a really thin-bodied acoustic-electric, and it doesn't sound that great in the first place. I would go direct (it has a great Fishman electronics), but that's too harsh for my tastes. Maybe that has something to do with it?