Ok... so My wife and I are making a christmas CD. Why? Because we're bored and need projects. I'm using the experience to learn everything I can about recording, as I'm far from professional at it. So go ahead and give me tips on how I can improve. Start with this one... http://soundcloud.com/cha...rry-christmas-everyone This is my take on Shakin Stevens' far from classic, "Merry Christmas, Everyone". Just please remember that the more specific you are with your critique, the more I'll learn.

Nice performance and recording over all.  This is purely subjective, but I you the vocals and the harmonies  could stand to be slightly louder.  

To begin with, you've chosen a good song and performed it well.  I like the mix overall, but it was not very loud compared to other songs that I've been listening to on this forum.  You simply need to master this a bit louder if you mastered this at all.  You won't destroy the dynamics if you do it right, so turn up that compressor or limiter a bit until it's up to par, but don't squash the sound.  Test your mix against others in a similar vein until you are in the ballpark.  All in all, you have good material to work with, and this will be a gem when your done.

Nice song.... the levels are a bit low....I had to turn up my speakers. 

Do you have pitch correction software?  On the harmonies I thought I heard some drifting and wrong notes from the BGV. Listen to the last "every one" at :31 to :34 (that's only one specific example) Sounds like a note is off, and then drifts up at the end.......  This is a minor nit..... and most may not hear it.  I take the time to go through my vocal tracks with great care to fix the obvious things....  solo and in the mix....but for fixing, I have one instrument.... usually for me an acoustic guitar for reference....   details. 

All in All and good mix on these speakers. 

As a Christmas freak I'm embarrassed that I don't know this song.  I'm not the mix guy here BUT if I was going to say something I'd say the bass is a bit loud.  That's hard for me because I'm a bass player.  There could be some harmony pitch things but it sounds kinda natural to me.  I liked them.  Good tune, good job on it.

The song is in no way a big Christmas Song. Don't feel ashamed for not knowing it. The original is by "Shakin' Stevens" and is rather annoying to listen to more than once in a row. But my wife and I set one rule for our CD which is that we wouldn't do songs written between 1900 and 1980. We failed, as it turned out, we found two that we made that had 60's originals but were covered in the 80s. But the rule limited our song choices, for sure. And it was really hard to find songs we wanted to work with written after 1980. We found 6 but had to do research to find more.

I think this is a GREAT idea.  I've got two little girls, 2 and 4, and I've love to give this a try.