A song we made to stay creative during quarantine using Ardour. Singing/songwriting debut by my better half.
Stay safe everyone!
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Hi Guitman, something in the track reminds me of iron Butterfly. Thanks for posting the track, good vibes. Tom
Thanks for listening Tom! That’s a great compliment.
I think there is a wonderful 60’s / 70’s atmosphere in the song. I really liked it 
However the verse before the chorus feels very short, the duration of the vocal part is only 10 seconds and then the chorus starts. When you hear the song the first time you don’t have time to get into the mood of the verse before it’s over. I would (humbly) suggest to double or triple the length of the vocal part. Then there would be time to develop some variations for the vocal part also.
Another thing that caught my attention is that the solo guitar is not following the rhythm from time to time. Replaying those parts would make the rhythm tighter.
That said I think the melodic ideas (vocal / guitar) and the atmosphere of the song are great, thanks for sharing
Much appreciated! Great idea for extending the first verse. I was thinking when this quarantine was over I would get some real drums on there, the current are an electronic pad kit. I may be able to use that opportunity to change some things.
The guitar solo, boy I really wish I had a telecaster available for that. I do plan on redoing that in the future when I can get my hands one one, and will certainly to tighten up the solo a bit.
And, if I may ask. Several folks have immediately commented that they “cannot hear the vocal”. Many others have said its just fine. I think the vocal is quite apparent, and listened on several devices. I certainly don’t want it to override the mix, in my personal opinion I think it sits nicely with the song. But, I want to hear what others are hearing and try to fix it.
Do you have any comments about how the vocal appears to you in the mix?
I was listening the mix through headphones (Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro) and the vocal level in the mix seems fine to me.
Overall the vocal mix might be okay for that style, but for example around 0:38 to 0:40, the vocals are very hard to understand, drowned in other sounds. The solution might not be to change the vocal level, but some targeted EQ, and/or lower some other instruments.
OK thanks. It’s really strange, many people are saying they straight up can’t hear the vocals in the entire song. It’s tripping me out!
It varies. Personally I do think some work is needed to get the vocals to not feel like they are fighting to avoid drowning, but as mentioned elsewhere in this style I don’t feel like you want the vocals as far out in front as in some other styles either, but it really depends on your artistic goal.
You could benefit I think by carving out a space for your vocals from the rest of the mix. In particular your Guitars and Vocals conflict a lot so some judicious cuts in EQ while the vocals are singing may help, and maybe some cuts in EQ in the consonant range from the cymbals I find helps clarity of vocals if needed afterwards. You have parts, as were already brought up above, that the guitars do drown the vocals a bit much, but I think with a little work and judicious EQ cuts elsewhere in your mix you could bring them forward a bit.
An alternative is if you try some adjustments and find the vocals stand out a bit to much a little multiband compression could help tie the mix together while still maintaining the vocal level and clarity without it feeling overbearing.
SeabladeThanks Seablade! I am starting to understand the issue with the chorus guitars competing with the vocal in those parts. I think yeah some EQ and a little automation may help with that. As for vocal EQ in general, I do think I need to revisit. Vocals are perhaps the area of mixing I have the worst ear for, and feel quite lost when trying to use compression/EQ/reverb/delay etc upon bringing it into the mix.
Hi @guitman423,
I really like the track, but agree with others that the guitar and lead vocal are fighting for same sonic space.
My initial thought would be to cut (the volume of) the guitar part, but as other’s have said, there may be other ways. Since vocals are usually down the center, try taking the guitar part and doubling hard left and right but cutting the volume in half. Might be enough by itself. As others have said, if that doesn’t do it try carving out some frequencies in each part.
Anyway like the feel of it. Reminds me maybe of a Sheryl Crow type thing? Good job.
Interesting comment regarding the drums @guitman423 .
My first reaction to this track was that the drums sounded excellent. This isn’t exactly my preferred style of music in general, so I can’t comment on the overall mix/composition. But the drums sounded so great - often the hardest part to get right in a mix - that your exact procedure in terms of recording and processing in Ardour is worthy of a tutorial of some form!
Good show!
Much appreciated TonyBKDE! Funny enough, those are e-drums my drummer has at home. He hasn’t needed to use that kit is so long, but now that we are all at home he used those. I sent him a stereo mix with no drums, he pulled into Logic and put in a drum track and then sent me the WAV from logic.
A few things I did with the drums:
- Very light EQ, low/high pass filters, limiter, just to round out the super highs/lows.
- Light compression
- Duplicated the drum track and applied heavy compression (parallel aka New York compression)
- Brought the 2nd track just barely into the mix with the 1st track.
Cchoowee,
I downloaded Voxengo Temp Delay, duplicated the vocal track, and then applied a slight stereo delay on each side. Completely livened up the vocal track. What a great plugin. I will submit this version soon.
Cool. Yeah, post when you update. Would like to hear what you came up with. Thanks.