ORIGINAL: Blades

Dan,

Great song, nicely recorded and mixed. I actually listened to this all the way through, which is pretty rare . Anyway, I will pass the link aong to the guy who leads our youth mass (for which I'm the drummer)...he likes to hear good stuff coming out, and is also a great songwriter.

Anyway...if I had a thing or two to pick on, I think they are at mix level.

I get the drums. I think the snare may be just a LITTLE too chunky in the low mids (not the mid lows ). Not too loud, just eating a bit too much down there and making that vocal hard to place JUST like you want it.

The vocal. I like the dry sound, but it seems like this might be just a hair too dry and not blending into the rest of the tune quite right.

These are very little nit-picks...left as it is, it's fine - those would just be a few things I'd adress if it were my mix.

Great job.

Blades,

Great reply. Thanks so much for the comments.

I can really use the critique about the sound of the drums. I agree about the low-mids and I'm gonna try carving those frequencies out a little.

Thanks again.

Regards,

I wouldn't listen to me if I were you, so I don't see why you should have to listen to me with you being you.

I've just gone cross-eyed

I've just gone cross-eyed

And I've just gone misty-eyed. Literally, I'm blinking to hold back the tears. I love this song, Dan. I had a professor tell me once, "You can record a hit song on cowpatties, and it will still be a hit." Obviously, that's an overstatement, and I'm not a good judge of what will be commercially successful, but this one really affected me. It's a beautiful song--sorry about the pun, but I'm out of adjectives--and Amy did a wonderful job on this, as always.

I agree with the person who said that the drums have too much low-mids. I'm not sure that I agree with the comment that the lead vox is too thin - I think it sounds terrific at 2:46 where it has some space. I just think the problem is in the drums. That said, it is a tad difficult to understand the words sometimes when everything is going. If I were listening in the car going down the highway, I'm afraid that would be a bit of a problem for me.

Great job!

Thanks for listening, Doug. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Regards,

ORIGINAL: michael japan

hey Dan-look at the drums!! <g>.

Ya know, I did that already and they need to be dusted and polished.

Actually, based on the feedback from Blades (and Charley later on), I cleaned them up a bit and put a new version out there under the same link. I didn't have a problem with them the way they were, in fact - I loved them. Maybe too much, though and I got attached to them the way the were. Well they're not that way any more. I cleaned up the snare (I forced myself to do it kicking and screaming because I loved the way it sounded) and I also carved out the kick(s) a bit. The snare had a 180 Hz thing going on that I loved and I had to say "bye-bye" to that vibe. And the kick(s) had a load of stuff around 200-220 Hz that needed attention. I don't miss that at all.

Did it clean up the mix a little? Sure. Do I like it as much? I'm getting used to it, I guess you could say.

Thanks,

Dan,
Love the new mix. This really puts the focus on Amy's singing. Very powerful song.

ORIGINAL: patrickhamm

Dan-

I must say I am with you on the mixing of this song. Therefore, I hope you don't mind if I hold on to the original mp3...

Pat, absolutely feel free to keep to older one. I still prefer it, but I'm keeping an open mind. I recognize that there was a problem with too much "warmth" in the old mix I could even go so far as to say it had a bit of a "dark" feel to it - maybe even slightly "dull." So from that perspective, I.E. those attributes are unwanted, the new mix is "better."

Thanks,

Definetly sounds like this mix is more focused on the vocals now. i think that is a good thing. As the words and melody is the most important part of this song.....

Impressive how you can make the same song sound different.

It is really amazing how much difference a slight variation in EQ can make to the overall sound of a song. To get from the old mix to the new mix there are maybe 6 slight eq adjustments I made to various parts in the mix. Isn't that amazing?

Thanks,

Dan,

I like the new mix better, especially from the place the vocal is now.

There's one part in the drum groove that bothers me and it's right near the beginning after the acoustic strumming comes in. There's a little hesitation, like the drums are trying to follow a guitar that's not right on or maybe vice-versa. It's around 10 sec. Don't know that there's anything to be done, or if you noticed/care about it - I had to have something to complain about!

Nice.

ORIGINAL: Blades

Dan,

I like the new mix better, especially from the place the vocal is now.

There's one part in the drum groove that bothers me and it's right near the beginning after the acoustic strumming comes in. There's a little hesitation, like the drums are trying to follow a guitar that's not right on or maybe vice-versa. It's around 10 sec. Don't know that there's anything to be done, or if you noticed/care about it - I had to have something to complain about!

Nice.

Blades, I'm glad you like the adjusted mix. It only took about 30 minutes to make the adjustments - nothing major.

I hear the part you are talking about in the beginning @ 10 seconds. There is a guitar up-strum that's slightly late. I didn't notice it to be honest with you, but now that I know about it I'm inclined to fix it. It'll be simple to change that.

Also thanks for offering to share the song with your youth director. Let me know what he thinks of it.

Thanks again for your input.

Regards,

ORIGINAL: patrickhamm

dude, I love this song. I have been listening to it a lot since you posted it. it's so good. Again, I am devoid of any constructive information, but whatever....

It's excellent, isn't it? I haven't listened to the newer version yet, but the first version has a lot of impact, even with what I perceive as some minor sonic flaws. Dan and Amy: it's gonna be a great CD!

dude, I love this song. I have been listening to it a lot since you posted it. it's so good. Again, I am devoid of any constructive information, but whatever....

Pat, I'm really glad you like it. Please don't wear it out.

Hey, have you played it for that pretty little wife of yours? What does she think of it?

Thanks,

Hey, have you played it for that pretty little wife of yours? What does she think of it?

she works early early mornings and goes to sleep at like 8 every night. so far I haven't even had a chance to play it for her.
I will though...

One thing I keep wrestling with myself over is the question of professional mastering. Should I get the project mastered by a "professional?" The last time I did that I got some bozo who totally squashed the life out of my mixes and made them sound like excrement. Not only that, but I paid this "professional" a lot of money to make them sound bad, too.

pardon the stupid question, but are there any mastering engineers who guaruntee their work so you don't pay until you're satisfied? I was in a band many years back and we got a badly mastered CD back and we rejected it. We sent the dude back to the drawing board like 3 times. I was just a player though. no concept of mixing/mastering, so I don't know the details of the pay... I guess that makes that cute little story pretty irrelevant, huh?

Dan you go a good job with this recording crap. If I were you, I would take a crack at it myself first.

One thing I keep wrestling with myself over is the question of professional mastering. Should I get the project mastered by a "professional?" The last time I did that I got some bozo who totally squashed the life out of my mixes and made them sound like excrement. Not only that, but I paid this "professional" a lot of money to make them sound bad, too.

I plan to do so. I am working on my first CD, so I'm not speaking from experience here! However, I think you can do some things to lower your risk, and it sounds like you're a little more street-smart now. I think any qualified mastering engineer would: (1) listen to (and appreciate!) examples of commercially-released music you provide that show him what you want, (2) listen to (and appreciate!) your input concerning what you want, and (3) let you hear a reference CD before he finishes your project. He should agree up-front to allow you to dictate changes before he finishes. Obviously, he's not going to do it over and over again because you can't make up your mind or don't know what you want. Get referals and references. Listen to what they've done for others if you can. However, I'd keep in mind that a lot of times they're just doing what they've been instructed to do -- i.e., if it's squashed all to smithereens, they might have been told to do that. But, they should have examples of stuff that they are proud of.