"Razor's Edge" (Power Rock) Mix 4 Final??? - 8/11/11

Hi Bob,
What can I say? Your playing, tone and vox are as great as ever and you seem to have a good handle on your mixes.
Love the music and the style!

Great song!!! Got to agree with PhilZ!!! If this just fell out as an after thought, good lord man!!! Scarred to think what would come out on a serious note...

My only peeve would be the drums....Sounds like programmed drums...Most drummers don't play like that... Very robotic or programmed sound...

Guitar work and vocals shine!!!

Peace!!

Scottytunes:

Thanks, buddy!  As always, I greatly appreciate you taking time to give this a listen, and also your encouraging comments.

Your helpful input, observations and friendship really mean a great deal to me.  Have a great day!
Bob

Tunes and Songs find the right person all on their own and it helps not to go looking for them.

Nice, though I agree with Cat57 the drums are a little mechanical.

Thanks for sharing.

Wicked Bob, Absolutely  Love the guitar sound, you had me sold with the upbeat hats.  Probably my favorite tune by you, they're all good but this one has "it" Kudos, you're a rock monster!

Excellent Bob! Loved the guitar squeals (pinch harmonics) and tone. Wouldn't be nice to have a 'blow-up drummer' at your disposal?? Lotta punch to this tune. Nice vox. Timing (drums?) sounded a tad off, right when you went into the lead from the chorus section. I had to throw in one nit at least....

Monster rock toon, on the phones I may pull "just a bit" of snap off that kick. It's dominating the mix in my phones. Nice "Rudolf Schenkeresque" Lead guitar ;-)

philz:

Hey, Phil,

How are you buddy?  Thanks so much for checking this out for me, and for your very keen observations and good suggestions!

I actually had a slight dilemma about the chorus guitars.  Because of the "walking" chord pattern during the chorus, I didn't want to overpower the vocals with my usual power chords, so I tried using dual fifths for a change, leaving more room in the middle for the 2 vocal tracks.  It did sound like the guitars dropped back a little bit, but the vox seemed to stand out better.

So, after your observations and input, I decided to try a simple, clean four note melody guitar line down the center, just behind the vox, to fill out the instrumentation during the choruses.   I also slightly increased the hard left and right rhythm guitars playing the fifths.  I'm hoping it's enough to make the choruses "pop" a bit, without competing with the vocals too much.  Please let me know if you think I need to push the guitars a little harder for the chorus.

Thanks again for lending me your great ears, and have a very safe and happy Fourth of July!
Bob
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Hi Bob,

This is a killer tune! A few things if I may?

Definitely some drum issues as the others have pointed out. Unfortunately, drum programming is an art all in its own and sometimes we're just stuck with what we're capable of. If you've done the best you can do, that's all you can really do. I've heard worse from people though, so though you're a bit mechanical in some of the drumming, it's still pretty decent.

My biggest issue is with the bass guitar. It's just so sub low sounding, I can barely pick out what is going on there. All I hear on this end through my gear is sub low bass that is not distinctive at all. If I had to audition for your band and learn that part, I'd have to come up with my own thing because I can't really pinpoint what that bass is playing due to it being engulfed in sub lows.

Your guitars sound great, however, when your solo ends, we lose a major drive when that solo instrument disappears. Listen to it again and you'll see what I mean. We have a nice boost when your solo kicks in, and when it ends, we lose the boost. There are 2 things you can do in situations like this.

1. You lower the rhythm guitars for the solo section so that you don't have to jack the lead guitar up as loud. This way when the solo ends, you have your automation set to bring those rhythm guitars back up in volume and you don't notice the volume drop like we hear presently.

2. You add 2 more rhythm guitars for the chorus parts only so that it intensifies the chorus and also makes up for when the lead guitar drops out. You wouldn't allow these additional rhythms to play while the lead is going on...you just fly them in and out for chorus parts. This really can make a difference...but beware, too much of this can ruin the tune. You just want a little bit of a different guitar sound with different pans than your original rhythms and these will have a slightly different eq curve as well. Maybe a bit more treble. But you just blend them in, don't make them super apparent or it will kill things. :)

Your vocals sound great, however I found them to be a little thin. A bit more mids would thicken things up a bit. Just a bit though because you have the right idea as is, but to me I just felt if they were a little thicker, it would bring more "girth" into the tune vocally.

I really like the tune, the hook, all the parts and your playing and singing is great. Just a few little tweaks and you should be in great shape. Well done man, I've always enjoyed listening to your stuff. Have a safe 4th bro! :)

-Danny

Bob,

This is fantastic.

You never cease to amaze me.

Love the harmonies, the guitars, the bass the drums.

Did I leave anything out?

vechung:

Hi, Vicente,

Thank you, kind sir! I really appreciate you giving this a listen, and also your encouraging words.  I truly value your input and opinion very highly.

Best wishes for a great week!
Bob
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Freddy J:

Hi, Freddy,

How are you?  It's great to see you back on the forum!

Thank you very much for checking this one out for me, and for your kind words.  I greatly appreciate your input and comments.

By the way, you did an amazing job on your new song, "No No No".  It's a really authentic and pleasant trip down memory lane, and it sounded fantastic.  Nice work!

Thanks again, and have a great day!
Bob
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Wookie:

Hi, John,

Thanks so much for checking in on this one, and also for your input and kind comments!

Your wise words of wisdom about songwriting are absolutely correct.  I've never sat down with any intentions of writing a song.  For me, it's usually triggered by a line from a book, a poem, or a movie, or possibly seeing a painting, sculpture or a panoramic view, and then BANG, the complete song idea hits me all at once, like a bolt of lightning.  (Believe it or not, this one was triggered by a quote attributed to Genghis Kahn.)  Then, it's a matter of getting to my DAW to try to put the pieces together as close as I can to what I'm hearing in my head.

I'm hoping that in this new mix that the drums sound a bit more natural, after manually trying to "humanize" them, as I mentioned in a reply above.

Thanks again, John, I really look forward to and greatly appreciate your input!

Best wishes,
Bob
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mgh:

HI, Mark,

Hw are you, my friend?  Great, I hope!

Thanks for checking in on this one for me, and for your kind words and helpful input.  I'm hoping that this new mix took care of some of the good observations that you made.

I tried to make the drums a bit more natural sounding by manually randomizing the timing and velocity here and there, I added a background melody guitar line and gave the chorus rhythm guitars a slight boost.  I'm wondering if the phasing you mentioned about the vocals may have been something from listening on the laptop speakers.  I actually don't have any doubled vox, just one lead vox track and one harmony part, but after your input, and Danny's, I did boost the mids a little bit to try to "warm" the vox up a bit.

Many thanks again, Mark, I always look forward to and greatly appreciate your input, and always find it very helpful.

Best wishes,
Bob
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Hi Bob, another killer tune, great guitars, all of them and an excellent mix and not  at least your vocal abilities. I don't know much about the metal-scene these days as it's not really my kind of music, but your tunes are very melodic and still have those "modern" sounding rhythm guitars. Good job, Sir.

Greetings, Rik

Mesh:

Hi, Mesh,

Thank you very much for checking this song out for me, and also for your very kind words!

After a few adjustments that I mentioned above, I'm hoping that on this new mix that the guitars are a bit more up front.  Please let me know if you think that I should push them up a little more.

Thanks again for taking the time to listen and comment, I truly appreciate your input.  Have a fantastic weekend!
Bob
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rockinrobby:

Hey, Robby,

How's it going,buddy?  Hope your doing great!

Thanks for checking in on this one, and for your encouraging words!  I hope that in the new mix, after shuffling around the velocity on all of the drums, that the snap of the kick is more in line with the rest of the mix.  Let me know if you think I should back it off a little more.

Thanks for the great Scorpions reference, I've seen them live six or seven times, and good old Rudolph can shred with the best of them!  Back in the mid 80's my cover band did about half of the Blackout album, and the crowds really went wild for the Scorps'.

Thanks again Robby, have a great weekend!
Bob
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Always like your music.........sounds good, enjoyed.

I do live work so I usually don't like programed drums......:)
But I have listen to alot of your music take'in breaks in the studio.

Tim