So my fathers birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I'm still not sure how to get him what I want to get him. My father sings, plays acoustic and plays bass, so naturally I've tried tracking him a few times in the past.
Let one of these play while you read the rest
Ex1:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5129928/Dad/...gs%20Cover.mp3
Ex2:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5129928/Dad/...0on%20Luck.mp3
I only have two songs fully tracked and mixed of my fathers work and they were done YEARS ago with horrible mics, poor pres..and bounced with a lesser understanding of the mixing concept. My father suffers from clinical depression, as far back as I know. He barely plays anymore because of it. He used to play everyday when I was kid. He was in a band, but as the years grew, they broke up. He started going his own solo stuff just around the house, but year by year he stopped trying because of his depression. Back in Jan he lost his father, which didn't help anything at all since he just lost him mother a few years before. He's been pretty gloomy and I've been wanting to record him for some time for various reason (to get his talent out, to track him with better mics, newer micing techniques, newer gear and better mixing, practice, etc.) Its been so hard to convince him to do some tracking because he's an extremely humble guy, to the point where he thinks he sucks and is afraid to record. He's got perfect pitch and can hear anything thats off pitch thats even like a few cents off (so he gets down on himself when he's even a fraction off), its crazy. Anyway, I can't seem to motivate him to track anything because he's always going on about how he's lost a lot of what he learned and is down on himself for it. He's still a great musician, but he's worried about not having songs down and I try to tell him we can work through the parts and punch in if we have to etc, but he's still just afraid to record. Well, for his bday I'd like to have a brand new song tracked, mixed by myself, and even mixed by someone who can do the mix more justice than myself - then present that to him on his bday hoping he forgets about it (he forgets a lot of things lol).
I dont really know what my point has been, I guess I just need advice on the subject.
As for getting the more pro mixing done on the new song, I've set aside some money for that and will be asking around on GS for interested members.
Here's another thread containing old mixes and session files if anyone is interested in that.
Critique My Mix / Mix off?
My dad has lost a little bit of his abilities, but its mostly due to old age...he might have to strain to hit the higher notes, but either way, he's still an amazing musician and is the only real musician in the house (I'd wish to think I was a learning musician, but when I compare myself to him I laugh at myself).
Aside from that, I'm needing some advice for approaching the mix. I dont normally track acoustic so I don't have much experience with it. Last time, I didn't have any good mics or pres and literally tracked the guitar with a 40 dollar radio shack mic, placed at the f hole (horrible idea in retrospect) and going through a fast track pro interface. I've now got an sm57, sm7b, akg c214, and 2 little blondies.
I originally just mono miced the guitar, and at the time, didn't even pan it either way, left it center. This was when I was just getting into production. I'm def. going to get some kind of acoustic stereo image this time by either doing two takes with mono miced guitars or ORTF micing the acoustic with the little blondies around the 12ish fret, about 6 inches to a foot off. I'm leaning more towards the latter, BUT I'm worried about phasing. My dads a bigger guy and is almost blind, so he plays the guitar a little funky and I'm worried about him moving around and it phasing...so I need some advice on that. As for the mix, I want the production to be bigger than before, more vocal tracks, more harmonies, group vox, if its a cover song, have him do any solos from the original with the acoustic, etc. I want the production bigger, but I want the sound of the mix to be more vintage sounding, darker and not as bright...so I'm going to be using tapehead all over the mix.
I KNOW I'VE BEEN RAMBLING and have said a TON, but to recap:
-I'm looking for advice on how motivate my dad
-looking for some tips on how to record him different and better to fit the tone of the track and how I want it to sound (darker and more old school, not too bright)
-looking for possible remix dudes. Like I said, I want to mix the song myself, but I also want to give him a better mixed version than what I give him. It would be paid of course.
Any help would be much appreciated - Joe
P.S. if any of you listened to one or both of the tracks I posted and enjoyed them, would you please send him an email here (linus56@centurylink.net) and tell him you enjoyed them to motivate him into getting some more music out there? I would greatly appreciate it. I really think he needs some external compliments because I think he feels we say he's good just to make him feel better, when in reality we really do think he's good. I just think he needs someone else to say something to him for him to believe that he should keep playing. Thanks.
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