After a year...it's done.

[Sonic Valley]

I finally finished this album I've been working on for a year. Not every day of course but man....that's too much time.

All in all I like it but I think I lost focus a while back. I'm sending this off to my mastering dude this week once we sign off on the mixes and call it done. I'd love to hear your critiques.

Tim MacNeill - Nairobi Girl

[Michael Quayle]

Ok allow me to be the first to jib in and give my thoughts on this.

I'll start off by saying I like this a lot -the track opens up with the (2?) most beautiful acoustic guitar tone with an electric bass that compliments it PERFECTLY. Also, do I hear a string pad buried down there somewhere, or are my ears playing tricks now? Either way, that low register is very nicely filled out without being the slightlest bit overbearing on the track. The electric guitar as it comes in is tastefully played and its tone is bang on for the track. The egg that provides the rhythmic drive for the first portion of the song to be honest is unnecessary to my ears, but only to mine, just because I have recorded enough egg parts myself in my time, and now when I hear them all I can see in my minds eye is some guy stood in a live room, holding this tiny little thing in his hand that he is shaking into a microphone, and looking slightly foolish! So don't let that stand as a criticism, just me revealing a questionable association to a part of the recording. I LOVE it when the accordion comes in - it took me a couple of seconds to spot exactly where it was coming from, but when it comes in, to my ears a wonderful thing happens - this glorious 3d image of acoustic, electric, bass and accordion forms behind this guys voice, allowing him to be as vulnerable as he likes. What really impresses me is the way you have treated these instruments - I don't know how much of this is natural ambience and how much is 'added extra', but to my ears it bonds the instruments beautifully and creates this wonderfully warm and rich spread across the midrange which fills up the track perfectly without ever getting stodgy. The soundstage has ample depth and width and I can really feel a seperation between the instruments, whilst still getting a sense of them playing as a whole. Are those kitchen utensils I hear panned left in the 16 bars pre drums?

Ahh, onto the drums. I'm going to split hairs here. Let me say before I go one that I don't really think much of the drumming on this track - I don't mean technically, and I don't mean that I dislike it - it's all in time and everything is in order, but I personally feel that the groove does nothing to carry the song along and feels ever so slightly 'strapped on' to the rest of the song. The drum tones themselves are fine, I just think that maybe this song requires the touch of a different drummer? At first I thought they might have been programmed due to the slightly 'detached' sound that I picked up on (this is probably just me by the way, I doubt anyone else will agree), but the range of tones form the snare and the cymbals suggests otherwise. There also seems to be an ever so slight right handed bias to the drum track, after two listens. As I said, I am REALLY splitting hairs here, and in terms of non critical listening, where I am listening to the track purely for pleasure, my only bugbear is the drummers choice of accompiniment - I think the song has lost a little potential because of it - but I wouldn't be bothered about that for too long because I would keep returning time after time to that fabulous mesh of bass, guitars and accordion - lush I feel is the best word to describe the overall effect of these instruments playing togther. Nothing to say as far as the vocal is concerned - recorded, levelled and treated perfectly.

If you have a whole album worth of this stuff I would certainly be more than curious to hear more, especially to see if my perception of the drummer was an anomaly particular only to this track, and also just so I can hear more of your tracking and mixing skills, which are obviously very finely honed. You clearly have a sensitve ear for this kind of music. If this is a labor of love then be pleased with the fct that your efforts were not wasted - if this were purely a business project, then I am sure that your client got everything he paid for and more besides. A job well done indeed!

Kind regards,

Michael.

[Sonic Valley]

Michael. Thanx so much for the listen and the compliments. You pretty much nailed everything. I'll just respond point for point here...

>> The acoustic guitar in the beginning is indeed one track but when I recorded it I used a large and small diaphram mic with one of them time delayed slightly from the mixer channel and panned a bit.
>> Yup...that was a string pad from an XP50 threw in at the last minute.
>> That 3D image you hear is from the Mixciter by Prosoniq. I actually just tossed that on before I encoded the MP3 and is not on the actual recording. I was pretty surprised by the results and now I'm wondering if I should include it on the mixes. I only had a few minutes to play with it and learned rather quickly that the slightest tweek makes a whole lotta change. If I were to include it I'd probably slack it back a hair.
>> The kitchen utensils are some weird Egyption tamborine I think.
>> Drums...ah...the drums...lol. They are leaning a bit right for some reason and I have no idea why. I'm just gonna leave em..lol. They sound a bit disconnected because I think the snare's gate is so tight and pushed up in the mix as is the kick. I pushed them a bit...especially the kick in other tunes to almost wild porportions but that seems to be a signature for me now and forces mastering engineers not to play the loudness game, limit my mixes too much and say goodbye to the kick....this way the ceiling is set with the kick and any abusive mastering engineer will be forced to keep the dynamics of the body of the song by not losing the kick altogether. Sort of a saftey measure.

My favorite part of this tune is the heavier part at the end...it just carries you away.

This was an album for a client indeed but unfortunetly the intended funding fell through. We were almost done when it happened and it sounded so good and had so much fun doing it that we wrote it off. We're letting him release it without any further obligations to us.

The rest of the album is different than this. If you like I can post a few more tracks. I did one with just him and his beat up ol washburn and accordian and others that are more alternative with different drum tones and playing styles.

I was pretty happy with the acoustic tones on this project as I've alway hated that damn high E string. I was able to get a decent rounder tone with him right in the control room with me using a marshal mxl 2001 and an AT4030 small diaphram condensor.

Any hoo. Thanx so much for the listen and critique. It's nice to get honest opions from folx you trust and respect. Cheers!

Vance

[mocsa]

Vance,

Your post brought to my mind the site you prepared for sharing unmixed tracks and let people mix it themselves. It was in a hot topic about "High end on kick", or sg like that, but I can't find it anymore. I was off the net during autumn and I lost track of what is going on.
How is this project going?
By the way, EssDee promised in that topic that he'll publish some drum samples from his newly starting project...

Thanks

Csaba

[Sip]

Sounds really great. What I like the most is that the production itself doesn't come into play. I mean is the production seems to be transparent, and even though I know you did a lot of work to it, it sounds really natural to me. Great dynamics!

Is there suposed to be a knock during the fade out?

Who played electric guitar on that track?

You must be proud.

[Sonic Valley]

Hi Mocsa, Ya MusicMixingOnline.com is still in the works, and actually this guy gave me permission to use any of the tracks so you never know you may be mixing this stuff yourelf...lol.

Thanks Sip, Ya...there may be a weird guitar noise at the end. I still have some time to edit it out. If that is a knocking sound I sure hope it's oppurtunity

[Daniel Smart]

Great work - sounds good. I agree with Michael's point about the drumming - I'd just like to hear something else. You've done your job well, though.

Had another laugh at the guy's pronunciation/singing style as well :-). It's not so bad in this one but I can't help thinking of the 'Courage' track you posted previously.

I love the electric guitar sounds you're getting by the way. What was the setup?

-Daniel

[Sonic Valley]

lol....ya the pronounciation on it is.....interesteing...lol. The clean electric was done with a Les Paul into a Marshall 2000 head then out to my vintage Mesa Boogie Mark I combo using just the speaker. I love that boogie, it's the 10th Mesa ever made from the serial when they were still making them in buddies garage...lol

[oldfriend]

sonic dude... although this is nice piece of work and all... i got some questions on the mix... may be i got bad equipment here so i am hearing it all wrong... so here we go.....

Some strange reason i hear the singer up too close and the rest of the backing is way too back..... i really have to strain my ears to hear what was going on in the back... no matter how much volume i raised on my amp... i still had to concentrate... after a few times,... i was pooped...

The guitars all sound like they originated from the same point in space???.... i would have preffered some space between the Box , electric and the bass guitar...

here is my major concern.... the bass drum seems to positioned a few degrees right and the snare delayed extreme right???.... i simply could not picture the drummer playing at all.... it was getting all crazy with the drummer's position in my mind... because every now and then i could hear some percussion sounds on my left ear... it got me totally disorientated... and it also got right channel heavy....

didn't mean to offend you in any way dude..... i am just a little confused....

peace,

DC

[bombastique]

yeah - the snare pan just detracts. it calls attention to something that should be supporting.

also (personal opinion here), i would have pitched that snare up a bit. give it a bit more 'bite' and maybe a bit more 'rattle' by loosening the snare a bit. that's just me, though. i agree with michael in that the drumming could have used a bit more of that nebulous quality that would put it over the top.

nice guitar tone, for sure. everything else sits quite well.

[Enlightend]

Everything sounds fine, I like the drumbeat, why change it. I don't understand why this needs "mastering". I look forward to listening to this nice "unmastered" piece again tomorrow.

I like how that one percussive instrument(scraping) draws attention to itself, while you are naturally drawn to the singer. I wonder if it could be 'mellowed-out' just a tiny bit, so it doesn't speak too loud, but that's just something to consider....

[hellfo]

I like
I really like.

I found myself putting it on over and over again.....

Where can I get more????????

[Sonic Valley]

Thanx for the comments guys. I think the Mixciter has tossed some tracks around pan wise. W'e're tweeking a bit this week before I send it off to mastering. I'll check on the snare and drum placement.

I can actually post the whole album on line seeing how the dude is giving it away online for free.

[the_lost]

Well done, Sonic.
You should be very proud.
You do pro work.
cheers
tl

[af-dcwave]

Hi Vance,

Did you track and mix through Nuendo?