Hi All,
 
I spent most of my day in the studio remixing this song. This is about the third or forth remix and has been a labour of love.  I'm still not sure about it and maybe you can help me out with some suggestions. It has a fair amount of hiss which is noticeable at the start which I could not totally eliminate with EQ. It's deep in the recording of the vocals and the acoustic guitar each having bleed on the vocal and guitar track. Overall it sounded OK on my monitors but MP3 conversion and upload to Soundcloud certainly changed the tone and lowered the volume of the synth lead and pad. Any suggestions that could give this song a lift would be most appreciated.
 
https://soundcloud.com/mceye/winter-coat-2016-remix
 
 

Yes it is quite hissy. I've been there, battling with trying to mic up acoustic guitars and record vocals with a noisy PC. You could try some noise reduction software but it may not be possible.
 
Another route might be to add some percussion to mask the hiss, tambourine or shaker. The song seems to need something in that direction anyway, maybe from verse 2 onwards to add interest. Even a swirling synth pad in the same frequency range, that might work on the intro/verse 1.
 
Good song, I like your fragile vocal delivery, works well.

jamesg1213
Yes it is quite hissy. I've been there, battling with trying to mic up acoustic guitars and record vocals with a noisy PC. You could try some noise reduction software but it may not be possible.
 
Another route might be to add some percussion to mask the hiss, tambourine or shaker. The song seems to need something in that direction anyway, maybe from verse 2 onwards to add interest. Even a swirling synth pad in the same frequency range, that might work on the intro/verse 1.
 
Good song, I like your fragile vocal delivery, works well.

 
Thanks James for your comment. I never considered the PC the problem I thought it was possibly the mic preamp was running a bit hot when tracking the vocals and the guitar in the one take and the guitar bleeding into the vocals. But since you mention it I was recording close to the PC and will take note of that next time a do a take like that. I will try your idea of masking the hiss in the intro and 1st verse. I have plenty of soft synths so I'm certain to find something and I was also thinking about a shaker. Thanks greatly appreciated.

Hi, I think this remix is one of those times when you get carried away. I spent hours on it and I thought I was making progress, at least that's what my ears were telling me. But I didn't improve the song at all and I think I went backwards. It lost volume, dynamics, the lot and adding more drums didn't work. Pretty disappointing but a learning curve nonetheless.
 
Here is the original and remix versions. It wont take you long before you come to the same conclusion.
 
As I said it is a labour of love because of the underlying meaning of the song to me and it's still a work in progress.
 
Original
https://soundcloud.com/mceye/winter-coat-acoustic-version
 
Remix
https://soundcloud.com/mceye/winter-coat-2016-remix

Very good melodies and performances. I preferred the first version and I didn't even notice any hissing.

I also liked the first version better...   There doesn't seem to be any more hiss than the second version, but the dynamics add so much.   
 
Nice song!    Personally I'd like to hear it fleshed out a bit as James mentioned, particularly bass and maybe a more complete drum part (slightly earlier).   Maybe even some harmonies as the song progresses.   Either way though, it was an enjoyable listen. 
 

I think for me the overall verb in the room is too big....almost giving it a live feel...which is way less personal...is this 100% in a studio/room? or is it capturing a live environment?
 

Thank you Kakku for the nice comments. I tried some newly purchased plugins on the second version. One on the guitar track which made the hiss louder. I also used a new vocal plugin which also had bleed from the guitar making the hiss even more prominent and collectively they did not work. I plan on developing the song further based on the original verse which has much better dynamics and maybe adding drums and bass. 

Thank you Steve for comments and suggestions. My wife likes acoustic versions of my songs but I like bigger productions. On this occasion she one out. I will have a try at adding drums and bass but the song was not recorded to a beat or click so the timing is sure to be out. I will have to get up to speed on the new tempo mapping feature to successfully add drums and bass. This will keep me busy this weekend.

Thanks Tom for your comment. The verb and delay is large on the vocal as I felt it really smoothed my voice out. Without it I sound quite rough. It was recorded in small spare bedroom doubling as my studio and the room has no treatment at all. I will try when I do another remix pulling back a little on the reverb and delay to see what its like.