Sally's World

Greeting fellow DAW enthusiasts!
 
Ever since I learned how Steve Winwood used to record all the instruments himself for great old albums like Arc of a Diver, building up all the parts as he went, I've become obsessed with doing an entire solo album myself. It's also much more affordable than hiring a cadre of first-call session cats! Lol. So, I went the affordable way. It was also a very fun challenge.
 
This first song, Sally's World off my album It's The Future, has me playing Guitars, bass, keyboards, a bit of lapsteel and relying on BFD 2, 64-bit for my drum sounds.
 
The lead guitar sounds you hear on both the solo during the middle of the song, and also during the outro, came together in an interesting way: I was experimenting with my Variax modeling guitar, and it's Dobro sounds specifically, when I hit on the idea of playing a Dobro through a Marshall Stack modeled on my POD XT Pro. The sound that came out is almost straty in it's clarity. I love it and might consider trying to recreate it live sometime.
 
Hope you dig it.
 
https://soundcloud.com/sc.t-cmusic/01-sallys-world

Nice work! I play all my own tracks too, and I know how much fun it can be. This has a really nice groove and is mixed pretty well. I agree with the comment that there needs to be more bass. Your vocals pop right out of that thick mix in a way I really envy. Good job. Inspires me to work harder at getting that right (sigh).
 
I think the song is way too long, and sits on that A chord forever. Not sure but I think we go over 4 minutes before we get to something that feels like a bridge (with the D and C chords). Before that, there's the occasional Gmaj7 which is welcome, but otherwise you just sit on that A forever. The song gets really tiring because of that and because sonically there's no variation. 
 
Good work though!

From one Scott C to another,
Nice vocals. They stand out in the mix very well.
A few other observations:
At 3:27 the guitar cancelled out the voice on the note just before "the children". Could probably be fixed with EQ or panning.
I thought the mix sounded thick and distorted when the other instruments came in after the intro but could just be my listening device.
I agree with the above comments about the song needing some change-ups sooner and throughout the song.

Good song Scott. Very Beatles-like arrangement and instrumentation.
Please don't take this the wrong way but I couldn't work out if the mix was intentionally loose or not....I like what you have done and the vocals sit on top of the music nicely but the instrument levels seem a bit haphazard. If it was intentional, very cool.

Nice mashup of Grand Avenue and Oasis. I like the vibe and overall retro feel of the song. Your mix sounds a little like a rough mix and really could be taken to radio-ready with some work. I don't hear anything that can't be fixed. Personally, I like the vocals, though they could use a little more clarity. The drums need some post work to polish them up.
 
Regards,
Dan

I agree with the above comments on everything - good song and well performed.  Nice straight rock feel that works well. 
 
The mix does need some work though...   I'd personally start by soloing the drums, bass and vocals and getting them balanced as-is (right now the snare seems buried/muffled).    Then bring in the guitars and keys one by one to taste.  I would also suggest checking your master/compress settings since the mix does get a bit distorted in spots (using hi-pass on any of the instruments?). 
 

Very psychedelic - love the guitar sounds. As others have said, I'd beef up the bass a bit. Nice strong vocals. Did I say I love the guitar sounds?

Hi, Scott. I think this is a very cool song. Took me from Bowie, to Soundgarden during the song 
The drums could come up a bit on my system.
All the best.

If you liked the sound of the vocal, here is how I did it. I believe this is also the reason certain people also commented on how the vocal doesn't have quite enough focus. I went back and forth on that myself for quite a while finally deciding that I liked the spaciousness of that wide vocal sound on this particular track.
 
I cloned the main vocal track and then, using the slide control, I slid the copied clip 30 ticks forward, and then messed with the panning of both tracks to create a stereo spread. You hear the main vocal come in on the left, and 30 ms later, you hear it come out just a bit louder in the right speaker. The panning is something like 10 o'clock for the left side, and then about 3 o'clock on the right. Then the whole thing gets run to a bus which is processed with delay.
 
I was worried that when somebody listened on mono, the voice would become very indistinct. But when I tested it in mono, it seemed fine. Always wondered how a mix like that would collapse down to mono since the voice is not directly in the middle. But you hear it done that way often ... the new Mumford & Sons song "Believe" comes to mind ... at some point you can hear the vocals get the wide stereo treatment and it really adds a fullness to the song.

scottcmusic
If you liked the sound of the vocal, here is how I did it. I believe this is also the reason certain people also commented on how the vocal doesn't have quite enough focus. I went back and forth on that myself for quite a while finally deciding that I liked the spaciousness of that wide vocal sound on this particular track.
 
I cloned the main vocal track and then, using the slide control, I slid the copied clip 30 ticks forward, and then messed with the panning of both tracks to create a stereo spread. You hear the main vocal come in on the left, and 30 ms later, you hear it come out just a bit louder in the right speaker. The panning is something like 10 o'clock for the left side, and then about 3 o'clock on the right. Then the whole thing gets run to a bus which is processed with delay.
 

I called it!!!