2017/02/04 07:29:37
MCi
Hi all. A few months back I posted an instrumental song called 'Stairway to Nowhere'. Thank you for all the responses by the way. A few replies said it sounded more like 'House of the Rising Sun'. However, "Stairway' was just a me picking a quirky song title. So I wrote new lyrics as suggested, but could not make them fit the music. When I create instrumentals I am obviously not in a verse/chorus mindset. I just aim to make the music sound interesting and create impact. Since I had to do something with these new lyrics, I have created a new song called 'My Happiness'. They are similar chords to 'House of the Rising Sun' but played on the fifth fret.
 
My Happiness - https://soundcloud.com/mceye/my-happiness
Stairway to Nowhere - https://soundcloud.com/mceye/stairway-to-nowhere
 
Regards
MCi
2017/02/04 22:41:53
stevee9c6
Hi Ian, 
Quite a bit of talent seems to dwell down under! 
Ok... let me critique your mix.
It is important that the mix sound like it was all done in one place... ie, a hall, a room, etc. 
You've got a ton of reverb on the lead vocal that tends to move it out of the room where everything else is going on.
I don't know what reverb you are using but here is a neat thing to do. First, make sure that your reverb is set up in a separate buss. You can then create individual channel sends to this buss.
On the reverb buss... enable the prochannel. Fly out the EQ and make sure it is on. Now, roll offeverything below 400 and everything above oh, about 9600.  This really cleans up reverbs.
It also is kind of cool to set up a separate delay buss that is timed to the track speed with a 1/4 note triplett repeat X 1.  Send this to your reverb buss.  
When you set reverb levels, as a general rule, you should just barely be able to hear the reverb effect when listening on monitors.  Too much reverb is a common problem with home studios.  The mix I posted earlier today, straddles that line pretty close. I may go back and pull it in just a tad.  Keep it up!
2017/02/05 15:28:58
MCi
Thanks for the feedback Steve. I always have issues with Reverb but it does translate OK on my JBL's. I do use busses for reverb and delay and I will kick it back again on both and see how that goes. I have Echo Boy on one buss increasing in the chorus to double the vocal and that could also be overdone as the automation is pretty high during the Guitar parts coming in midway.
 
2017/02/05 16:04:26
stevee9c6
Ian, try the EQ on the reverb buss that I posted.  The delay buss should feed into your reverb buss to really nail this down. This is one of the EQ tricks that Bobby Owinski teaches. Interesting about monitors. When I listen to a mix for reverb, I solo the vocal and effects. Then I listen on a JBL LSR with sub system, NS10's, and AT phones. I dial the summed delay/reverb buss back to the point that I can just hear the effect. It's nearly imperceptible  when listening to the entire mix with monitors. I try to listen to the entire mix on a inexpensive boom box and in my car.  
I'm truly sorry if I am telling you stuff you already know, forgive me please!
 
One other thing.... sometimes it is huge to use two reverbs  I tend to use Liquidsonics Reverberate 2 with the Bricasti Fusion iR. and Lexicon PCM 70 plates. Occasionally, I use UAD EMT140 as well. 
Here are some interesting articles.
http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/use-reverb-pro-1
http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/use-reverb-pro-part-2
 
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