Hey All,
 
Longtime lurker here but I have never posted before.  I just got back into recording a few years ago after a (very) long hiatus.  I mainly just work with friends and help them flesh out their ideas and try to give them a good product to display. 
I wanted to run a song by you all and see what kind of critiques I get.  I have tough skin so fire away on the mix, performance, anything.  Just trying to make each song better than the last.
 
https://soundcloud.com/smallspacessound/ballenas 
 
(edited for carelessness - Thank you jamesg!!)
 

-Thank you
Brian
soundcloud.com/smallspacessound

Hi Brian, your link doesn't work, I think it's the '#'..try this; https://soundcloud.com/smallspacessound/ballenas

jamesg1213


Hi Brian, your link doesn't work, I think it's the '#'..try this; https://soundcloud.com/smallspacessound/ballenas

Thank you for the heads up. *fixed* (i hope)...

Hi Brian,
still a lot of work left do to on mixing, IMO.  the electric, bass & drums are very muddy and "noisy" and some are very "distant" in the room with lots of room sound  - probably the way you recorded them.  you need to clean up the source.

great talent, keep at it

Beagle


Hi Brian,
still a lot of work left do to on mixing, IMO.  the electric, bass & drums are very muddy and "noisy" and some are very "distant" in the room with lots of room sound  - probably the way you recorded them.  you need to clean up the source.

great talent, keep at it

Thank you for the take Beagle. Much obliged.  I can't argue with the critique, specifically on the guitars and, upon listening for it, mud in the vocals.  Guitars are not my instrument and this is the first time I have ever produced a track with multiple heavy guitars like this - I mostly work with acoustic songwriters.  Ever still a work in progress.
In reference to the bass and drums, I don't disagree but I find it interesting.  The drums are all ITB.  Percussion is my primary instrument with bass second.  I don't have the "room" and physical resources to properly record a kit so I choose to program them (as I would realistically play them).  So this is interesting as it seems that I have gone too far trying to "liven" them up on the production end.  Hmm... something to think about... 
 
Again, Thank you for taking the time!
-b

I should have worded that better and actually it's wrong the way I said it.  the drums were muddy in the mix, but they did not have the same "room" problems the electric guitars did, especially the lead guitar.

Any further comments on this track?  I am sitting at home sick in bed so I decided to give posting a go and I am (very bored and) very curious of others opinions of my work.  Good, bad or ugly - I would appreciate any feedback that anyone would be willing to give.  I am just trying to see how I can improve with each project. 

Thank you for your time!

I liked it. To me there's a nice 'live' vibe to this song, a rawness which perhaps doesn't need to much polishing. I would maybe do some hi-passing on the elec guitars and get the vocals to ride above the heavy sections. The fake 'bagpipe' sound is a bit odd, I might lose that..

jamesg1213


I liked it. To me there's a nice 'live' vibe to this song, a rawness which perhaps doesn't need to much polishing. I would maybe do some hi-passing on the elec guitars and get the vocals to ride above the heavy sections. The fake 'bagpipe' sound is a bit odd, I might lose that..

Thank you for taking the time to give it a listen jamesg.  Getting the vocals to ride above is a headroom problem I created but I may have to look at what I can do with the eq to "sculpt" or something... The bagpipe is a dimpro sample from the HD strings collection - tubed violin, i think - I pulled that melody line on a whim from the original (which is VERY different) and my collaborator went nuts (in a good way) when I was searching around for how to voice it.  Was more his pick but I like it and have grown accustomed to hearing it (but, I do think it is odd too...).
 
Appreciate it!

As I havent heard the originaltrack its hard to comment on comparision but I think as a live take this is very good. If it supposed to be a studio track it needs more attention.