Jeff Evans
I was in an Orbison tribute show for about two years so I have got a handle on how these songs sound. And we did this one too.
Cool!
10 out of 10 for getting the tempo right. A big mistake that many make with Orbison tunes is that they do them too fast especially live. Notice how no Orbison tunes are very fast usually.
I am
horrible at tempo's. So what I do with every cover is, I load the original, and tap along with it in Sonar to set the tempo from the original. Thanks for noticing, but I have to admit, I cheated.
The mix is OK but could be better. When you listen to this down low on a small mono speaker the vocals are too loud.
+1. I have roughly 10 different mixes, and I think I'm up to 10 different masters of this. It was one of those behemoth projects where I
settled on a finished product but never really
finished it if you know what I mean. :)
Also Orbison used reverb on the vocals and you could use a little as well. The singing is OK but not in the Orbison class. He was an amazing singer and few can pull it off.
(Some but many) Orbison tunes also usually have a significant dynamic range. This is one of them. They always start of soft and reach massive climaxes at the end. Yours does not do this, it is the same level all the way through.
Thank you for your input, and I agree 100% with everything you've said.
The unfortunate thing about this song is, I used a very old mic, plugged directly in to my Fast Track Ultra, and it should have been run through a mic-pre so I could adjust the impedance. The actual 'sound' of the vocal recording was horrible and I bet you I've spent 50 + hours on it trying to clean it up. There's no fixing it now, it is what it is. If you heard the original track with no EQ, comp, and a ton of other things I probably shouldn't have done to it, you'd hear what I mean. It's almost like a tin cup effect.
On a side note about that 30 year old Peavey Celebrity Series Mic I used ... I recently bought a new Blue mic for $300. Not high end, but not low end, and I bought a mid line Mic Pre. Just for kicks and giggles, I plugged the old mic in and tweaked the impedance, and I was floored when it sounded every bit as good as the brand new mic. If I would have known that was going to happen, I would have sank the money in to a better pre. *sIgH*
As for the dynamic range, I really struggle with that and I don't know how to fix it. It's hard when everything now days is compressed to a perfect rectangle when you look at it in Sound Forge.
But despite my criticisms I do want to say that it is always a joy to hear any Roy Oribison songs and it just reminded me of all those great gigs I did with that tribute band. We were lucky in that we did have a very good singer who pulled it off most of the time and also the band was very classy too.
You were lucky to have someone who could sing a full night of his songs. The version I posted was of the first take on 99% of it. The more I kept singing, the worse my voice got. :)
Thanks for posting Jeff. I appreciate your input!
Sincerely,
Bub.