Mix #3 Finally Up After 6 Weeks, LOL!
 
Please forgive my absence and late replies, guys!
 
Woo Hoo!  After 6 weeks of my crazy business schedule, I finally got 45 minutes last night to get back to working on some music again!  I'm hoping to be around here more by the end of January, and really looking forward to catching up!
 
Anyway, I took stock of most of the comments while I was away from here, and touched up what  I hope is most of the vocal timing issues on this (please point out any obvious spots that I might not be hearing, if you can), I also lowered the vocals a bit, re-eqed and boosted the bass and kick to add a touch more bottom end (thanks, Jimmy!), and added a tiny harmony guitar part to the end of the guitar solo.
 
If any of you get a chance to re-listen to this, please let me know if I'm missing something that I've become "Immune" to, I'm still not quite sure about the instrument and vocal levels on this one for some reason.
 
Big thanks in advance for any additional input, observations or ideas!
 
Sincerely GREATLY appreciated!
Bob
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Rimshot:
 
 
Hey, Jimmy, how are you, buddy?  Hope you're doing great!
 
Thank you so much for your always good input on my stuff, I truly appreciate your observations, comments and advice!
 
As per your comments, last night I finally got a few minutes to touch up some of the vocal timing issues, and tried to bump up the bottom end for a bit more punch.  Please let me know if you still hear any timing spots on the vocals.
 
Thanks, again, Jim, have a great night!
Bob
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kakku:
 
 
Hi, Kakku,
 
Thank you for giving this a listen, I really appreciate your input, good observations and kind comments!
 
Yep, I know exactly what you mean about clean vocals on some hard rock and metal songs.  In my case, I think because of multiple decades playing and singing in "live" hard rock and metal cover bands, with me singing lead most of the time and high harmonies when not singing lead, I've kind of become accustomed to protecting and "saving" my voice to make it through four or more hours of singing a wide variety of everything from Led Zeppelin, Rush, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Queen, Dokken, Metallica, etc., to AC/DC, ZZ Top, Motley Crue, Nickelback, Godsmack, Poison, etc.
 
I usually had to strategically plan out the set lists to put the songs with grittier/scratchier vocals towards the ends of the sets to not blow out my voice in the smoke filled nightclubs.  I consider myself very lucky because in most of my bands I usually had another that would be able to sing 90% of the AC/DC, Rod Stewart, and really scratchy stuff!  But, I often wish I could find a magic plugin that could add some artificial rasp to my vocals for some of my more metal type songs without having to torture my vocal cords, LOL!
 
Anyway, thanks again for checking this out and commenting, I'm very grateful for your input!
 
Best Wishes,
Bob
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bitflipper:
 
 
Hey, Dave, It's really great to hear from you!  Hope you're doing well!
 
Thank you so much for stopping by to give this one a listen, and for your much appreciated input and kind words!
 
I took your good advice and bumped up the bass guitar on this and also gave it an EQ touchup to boot.  I'm hoping it's driving things along a little better, although I've been struggling with my "studio ears" lately due to unfortunate long periods away from recording and mixing, so I'm not quite sure if the volume levels are balanced correctly.  If you happen to see this, please let me know what you think!
 
Thanks again, Bit, I always look forward to and greatly appreciate your input and suggestions on my stuff!
 
Have a good one, buddy!
Bob
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Mesh:
 
 
Hey, Mesh,
 
Sincere thanks, brother, I'm truly grateful for you lending your ears to this and your good suggestions and kind words!
 
I was finally able to get 45 minutes on this one, and bumped up the bottom end, as per your advice, and Jimmy, Bit, Beagle, and a few others of our helpful forum buddies!  Please let me know if you think I'm heading in the right direction, I really appreciate your help and support!
 
Much appreciated, Mesh, have a great night, my friend!
Bob
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Rock on Bob!! Gave this a few listens this A.M. (worked well with my morning coffee :)) and got me rocking. I loved the solo and the subtle harmonies.....very nice. You're definitely heading in the right direction with this one. Great job Bob!!

daryl1968:
 
 
Hey, Daryl,
 
Thanks so much, brother, I really appreciate you checking this out for me and your always good input and comments!
 
I'm hoping that I have most of the vocal timing issues tightened up a little better in the current Mix #3, please let me know if you think I missed any obvious spots.
 
I'm always grateful for your advice and input, and value it highly because of the extremely high quality of your work, and I truly appreciate your support!
 
Enjoy your Sunday, Daryl!
Bob
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batsbrew:
 
 
Hey, Rob, how are you, bro, hope you're doing great!
 
Thanks for the great suggestion on leveling off the bass frequency peaks to try to get the bass to sit better in the mix, I'm going to try that on another stubborn mix that I'm planning to work on next week.  Getting the bass to sit right in my mixes is always a challenge for me, probably because I usually use my 5-String, and my guitars in most of my stuff are kind of "dark" and drop tuned many times.
 
And actually, when I mentioned boosting the bass on this one, I didn't mean the bass guitar frequencies, I actually raised the high pass filter to cut some low mids out and then notched up the bass volume about a dB and a half.  I'm hoping I'm more in the ball park bottom end wise without swamping the mix.
 
Anyway, thanks again for coming back for a second listen, I really appreciate your input, advice and support!
 
Have a good one!
Bob
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Beagle:
 
 
Hey, Reece,  how are you, buddy?  Hope you're doing great!
 
Thanks so much for checking this one out for me, and for your very good input, honest observations and suggestions, that's what makes this forum such a great place to get better at this stuff!
 
After six loooooooooong weeks away from the forum and the studio, I finally got a little bit of time to make some of the adjustments that you and the rest of our helpful forum friends suggested.
 
I did some slipping and sliding to try to iron out some of the vocal timing issues, and did a little bit of re-eqing and punching up the bass and drums to try to thicken up the overall mix a bit.  I'm hoping the overall instrument and vocal levels are closer to where they should be for balance, but I'm not quite ready to trust my ears just yet.  If you happen to see this, let me know if it's getting better or worse, LOL!
 
I greatly appreciate your always good input and support on my stuff, Reece, thanks again!
 
Have a great Sunday!
Bob
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Big Bob! Another killer tune...love the guitar tone on this one. I can tell you've been tweaking the mix and it shows! vox was great and I really enjoyed the bvox...nice feel and it fit well with the tune. If I had on nit to pick would be some timing anomalies...more so in the front of the tune. I'm not at all good at pointing out the where and whens w/o the project in front of me...but something in my brain didnt sit right...still a killer tune and still in the A+ category for me. 
 
Hope your well me brudda and just for your SA....we will be dropping a new DT tune very soon.
 
kk bro...take care!
 
Tom

Bob,
  Fun tune, love that main guitar riff, very cool!  Your lyrics are always a blast as well.  The mix came through loud and clear on this end with no noticeable issues.  Rocking stuff!  I have got to talk you into putting your killer vocals on a Distant Towers tune one of these days.  Nice work!

Excellent rocker!
 
My only subjective is that sometimes the vocal melody doesn't quite jive with the rhythm. I like the syncopation of the vocal melody. It just seems odd against the straight driving beat. If I had to explain what I mean I would say, think of John Bonham and how he seemed like he was off but ultimately was on all the time.
 
Either way, Very well done!!!

Finally back with Mix#4, Hopefully the final!
 
Touched up the vocal timing a bit more, gave the guitar solo another 1.5dBs of juice, and decided to try to put some punch back into the overall mix, but I'm still not sure about the instrument and vocal volume levels after not doing this stuff for a couple months.  Please let me know if anybody has any suggestions!
 
Links in Post #1, thanks again for all your great input, guys!  Things are finally slowing down a bit at my real work, so I'm hoping to be back around soon for some listening and a bunch of VERY late thank-yous!
 
Sincere Best Wishes!
Bob
 

batsbrew
bob,
cool song!
i agree with your assessment of what needs correcting in the mix...
the whole mix is a bit midrange and low end light.
the drums just feel too light,
the bass is kinda mushy,
but-
nice guitar tones,
everything sounds good,
but the mix is off balance..
example: try to imagine the vocals in a place where you can JUST make out all the words..
but no louder than that.
it will make the music feel more powerful,
and give it a more 'band' feel.
fatten the snare...
and give the bass guitar some harmonic stuff above 250k...
in fact,
i'd mix just the drums, bass guitar, and vocals, zero guitars.
then, slowly, bring in the guitars until they just fill in.
and BLAST that frikin' solo!!
LOL

 
Bob-O,
Great tune as always, but I agree 100% with Rob's assessment. Follow his suggestions and you'll be happy with the results.

I'm not big on Metal, but for what I know you got a pretty good sound there as it is now.  To add more would be overproducing it.  You keep it interesting throughout.  Something different at every turn.  I say you got your mix down here.
 
JB