Diamonds In The Rough - remix (10/18/17)

Lynn,
 
Very cool song.   I think all the parts are really quite awesome, good melody, instrumentation, vocals  and mix.    The drums seem very disjointed from the rest of the song.     I think you need a better groove for the drum part.   Even a subtle shuffle like the Purdie Shuffle in Steely Dan's Home At Last might sound cool.    Or a "reggae shuffle".   Since your keyboard arpeggio is very straight,  I think a slick groove would really breathe some more life into your rhythm track.    Anyway, had a couple listens through and really like the song...

Regards

Hey Lynn,
theres a lot going on in here.  nice work, nice production and performances.  I don't really hear the kick, tho, and pretty much everything in the kit except the snare and cymbals get buried when everything's going on.
 
nice work, tho!  with some tweaks this will be great!

Mark, thanks for your comments and suggestion.  The drums were one of my big questions, and I'm glad your pointed them out.  I started this song with a fast 6/8 swing using Superiour Drummer 2 grooves, and used a few variations of it throughout.  I wrote everything else to this.  Actually, it is a lousy drum mix, and I've gone back in and supplemented the bass and brought up everything else in volume a bit.  If this doesn't work then it's my attempt to be polyrhythmic, ala King Crimson.  lol
 
Freddy, it's good to hear from you, and like I told Mark, I changed the bass drum a bit at the beginning and in the instrumental section to help with the feel, I hope.  Let me know.
 
Reece, try this new mix on for size and see if it helps or hinders.  Thank you!
 
James, I was looking for a little something different with this song, and maybe I'm going in the right direction.  Thank you for your kind words and your time.

Hey Lynn. You know I love your voice and most of your songs are top tier stuff. I think this is very well done. Sounds like you're really trying to branch out and do something very different here. My only caveat is that I'm not sure it's really you. You've got a voice that soars. It doesn't get to in this Caribbean style though. I dunno. It's good, but I kind of want my old Lynn back.  It's kind of like when Paul Simon did all that African stuff. It was interesting and all, but in the end I was thinking, "Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get back to your 60's folk style that made you famous." Because folksy songs that tell a story are what he does so well.
 
I'm all for ya Tom, whatever you do. I'm just not sure this kind of music is putting your best foot forward, and I want you to get noticed by the bigs. It's a fine song though. I just think it might be better for someone else than for you is all.
 
Bill

Well a Polka! Why didn't you say so. Now we're groovin'. 
 
All kidding aside, there used to be a local rock band here years ago that used a tuba player for the bass end. They were actually a lot of fun, and heck, bass is bass.

Andy, thanks for taking the time to listen and respond.  I don't know if this is a work in progress or not, in a sense, all my songs are works in progress until I grow tired of them ;)  It seems that a 6/8 swing groove is up in the air, but I just followed it to the best of my ability.  I'm trying to put some distance between this song and me for the moment, but you never know what'll happen so stay tuned.

There's no way the drummer is going to sing this.  :)
 
I'd say it's pretty genius, the off-kilter rhythmic presentation took me a while to catch on with but I got it eventually and liked it! So that is a strength. Lyrics and vocals are cool, guitar arpeggios are too. I can't really offer up many ideas on this, good work!
 
Overall, though, I'm feeling a sense of heightened unusualness - that triplet rhythm that's syncopated - you don't hear that very often, and maybe outside of LLDOB, maybe never? In other words, where the hell did that meter come from???? I'm disturbed but in a good way.
 
I didn't read anyone else's post so maybe someone else has figured it out, I'll read up. 
 
Very nice song, and again, your vocal is really quite good.
 
pleasantly stumped,
-Tom

This song shows alot of invention.  I liked the original guitar motif which is supported by the high hat throughout;  It yields a cohesiveness to the production.  I liked your voice on this, but I detected a few places with intonation problems.  Maybe it's just my bozo ears.  Good work!

I was really trying to get into the song, but I just kept thinking it would sound better with a more "conventional" drum track.  Maybe the rest of the song is too conventional for the drum track?  

Anyway I always enjoy listening to your music, Lynn.  You've been blessed with a great voice. 

I listened the other day but was suffering from fried furry ears so comment was not appropriate.

Glad I came back, sounds fine here Lynn, thanks for sharing.

Love the creative drum arrangement! A refreshing change from the usual bland canned MIDI tracks we hear too often. The bongos (congas?) are a nice touch.
 
The drum tone, though, I'm not crazy about - it's overly bright and there's too much compression. Tame those cymbals, especially that distracting crash in the left channel, and I think you'll find they support the otherwise excellent song much better. If you're using a harmonic exciter on the drums, back it off or bypass it and see if that doesn't smooth things out.
 
Kudos on the bass, too. I like the slides and it fits well with the drums and doesn't get in the way of anything. The only issue I hear is that it kind of plays peek-a-boo, sometimes disappearing and sometimes way out front. It seems to be certain notes, so multi-band compression or dynamic EQ can mitigate that.

Bjorn, thanks for your time and response.  I discovered that if I remove the guitar and synth arpeggios then it makes more sense with just vocals, bass, and drums.  The crazy thing about this time signature is that it works both in 6/8 and 4/4, depending on the meter.
 
Makke, thanks for weighing in on this.  I always appreciate hearing from you.
 
Wookie, thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.  You always have good ears.
 
John, thanks for your time and kind words.  You're not the only one who's mentioned over compression, so I'll have to consider that on the next pass.
 
Dave, this is the kind of technical answer that I need.  I need to take some more time with the tone, and I'm going to try your suggestions.  I have all the tools, but I don't always know when to use them.  As for the bass, that was me trying to be too cute.  I played it with dynamics for effect, but I can easily smooth this out and have a little less  peek-a-boo.  Thanks for your help.
 
Daryl, thanks, mate, for your reply.  I'm glad to hear your new song!  Carry on...

11Dreams, thank you for having a listen.  In response to bitflipper's comments, I have reworked the drums and bass guitar a bit.  I hope this yields a better return.  It can be found in the first post and here: https://www.soundclick.co...ngid=13638418&q=hi

Steve, thanks for your kind words.  I guess that I don't quite hear what the compression is all about.  I wanted this drum part to keep its original dynamics from the MIDI loops from which it came.  I must have been looking for some ebb and flow, kinda like the tide.  Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't