"The Other Side" Louder, Prouder and Longer.

Hi.  
   
  I finally manged to mix this properly. If you wouldn't mind having another listen. I would really appreciate your views.
 
It's the top track here:
 
http://www.reverbnation.com/markstothard
Thanks
Mark.

hey mark
very powerful piece which is great given the quiet nature of it. great piano playing. i love how the guitar part comes in at the end. only listening on the laptop so hard to comment on the mix, will listen on the DAW tomorrow tho. will post again then!
mark

You know, that could have gone on for quite a bit longer and I wouldn't have minded.  Very beautiful and soothing.  Very well played. 

This is really beautiful Mike.

The piano is is just fantastic and you've added the other instruments in a very creative way.

This is a wonderful piece of music and i loved every second of it.

Bravo.

Very nice Mark! Got the headphones on and the image sounds great. I like your minimalistic approach as it sounds 'big' in the mix. Beautiful sense of space. My only nit is I thought the ending dropped out to quickly. Maybe some delay or reverb tail on the fade?  Great playing and composing.

Larry

Mark,
Your playing is immaculate! That piano sounds so rich and soothing. You play with such great feeling. The cello sounds fake, but that can be fixed. The addition of guitar and flutes (?) was nice. The ending was to soon and abrupt. A little longer please, with more of a build up right where it leaves off.

Liking this very much. It seems a little quiet so hard to get a proper listen, but very emotive for sure - a little to the dark side which is right up my street. The lead part that comes in around 1:45 would sound nice with cellos. I was kind of expecting the piano to come back at the end too. Not a crit as such, but it just didn't feel like it ended where it should have, which I guess is a round about way of saying too soon.

Hey Mark
WOW.... what a wonderful piece of music. Your piano playing had great emotion.  I loved the flow from piano into the acoustic part.  I agree with the others on the volume.  All in all this was well worth the five month wait.  Looking forward to hearing more!

Kev

Kev: thank you very much. 

I finally manged to mix this properly ( I think).

If you wouldn't mind having another listen. I would really appreciate your views.
 
It's the top track here:
 
http://www.reverbnation.com/markstothard
Thanks
Mark.

new listen - still remains totally awesome, personally i would cut back some of the reverb once the other instruments come in as the piano becomes lost at that point. also, maybe spread out the other instruments a bit more at that point, it's all getting muddy in the middle (cutting back the verb will help that anyway) the second half sounds really good, again a little use of panning or the channel tools plug in will help, but it's not as much of an issue as initially.
primarily my feelings are what a ****ing tune, of course, and it really is every bit as good s anything heard on these forums.

The title reminded me of the Southpark movie? "Bigger, longer, and uncut". I definately remember the original version of this.

Sounds like a movie soundtrack, I loved it before, I still think it's great, I would have to stare and compare to give an objective opinion between the two, but this one sounds fantastic. Is that a real guitar at the end? or a midi one? It sounds midi because the timing sounds so good. For it to sound real, it has to suck a little :-)

This is wonderful. I’ve missed some really super tracks lately – this is one of them. Very expressive and very pretty – this would make a great backdrop to a north country winter journey movie scene – something in a movie like Jeremiah Johnson. There’s also a Windham Hill element and I mean that in a very positive way. Great job. Favorite section is the 1:30 through 2:21 for some reason. I seem to prefer the instrumentation when it is a simpler (less busy) – the basic piano, cello and violin really sounds terrific. Bravo!

ShadDOH


 For it to sound real, it has to suck a little :-)

Just like my fiddle playing!
 
Mark,
i like it overall. I think the cello is way too loud the first time it comes in to play....okay towards the end of the song. That's all! Great job!

Nice piece but since you did ask for critiques, I would suggest using a different Flute. It has a metal twang to it that just doesn't sound right. I know a flute is metal and I am not explaining the sound I hear correctly, but something is just not right with that flute.

It is almost like the sample includes some fake wind going across the mouthpiece.

Just my opinion.

The rest sounds great.

Ron

Sorry i haven't replied earlier, been caught up with work. Damn thing is getting in the way of everything at the moment!

Scotty: Thank you. I will get to work on that cello.

James: Really appreciate the listen. I'm not sure how to give the piano more highs. Would i do that on the EQ on the master bus, or would i do it within the piano synth?

Ron: The flute is the Alto flute from EWQL Gold. I thought it sounded alright, but im not going to question you, as i aspire to compose like you do. So i thank you for the heads up on that. Will look at changing it.

Paulo: The reason the volume was so low before was due to my daughters messing with my speakers. They had the volume up to the max, when i came to compose i turned the volume down in the daw instead of checking the speakers.
I've sorted the transition out in the next mix, just need to iron out the reverb problems on the piano and a few other things, then i'll upload it again soon.

Thanks again
Mark.