Jazzy Pop Mix Needs Criticism

[ejfortin]

Here is a project I am starting to work on. This is part of a demo for a singer that is heading out to california. Please give me any and all criticism good or bad. I am also willing to answer any and all questions you have about the tracking or the mixing.

[ejfortin]

Sorry I forgot to post the link to the mix. Rookie mistake. Here it is:

http://www.ericfortin.com/AUDIO/Sweetness2.mp3

Let me know what you think.

[gurubuzz]

When you are showcasing a singer people don't really care how good the drums sound or the harmonies or anything else.

Harmonies too loud, drums too in your face.

when she sings the loud bits her voice is hitting the compressors too hard.

Have the compressor on a buss and have the vocal track automated so when she sings loud the level drops that is hitting the compressor.

Also try having the vocal track copied un-compressed on a fresh track and send that to the reverb but don't have the track going out. ie pre fader-channel down-send up. That way the reverb is more dynamic and will sound bigger when she gets loud.

You will have to automate the send, if too much is going to the verb.

Also I would use more of a large hall reverb instead of the smaller room sound you have.

There is a mid to hi mid frequency in her voice that gets annoying after 2 minutes of listening to it.

Her voice needs to be softened up a little so it doesn't tire the ears..

Smoooooooooth

So ride the level of the main voc into the compressor and send a dynamic track to the reverb and get the harmonies less sharp and quieter. it goes against logic but try a lo pass filter on the harmonies.

And drums... too there/ in your face.

Don't forget this is just my opinion.

It's hard when you have put a lot of work into something and someone comes along and picks the shit out of it.


Oh yeah what does she want to achieve in Cali...

If she wants work in playing live maybe have 1 or 2 jazz standards with the demo.

Oh yeah and have a CD with 30 second sprats of the songs. That way the person listening gets to hear the best bits of each track in less time...people are very busy these days....

All the best

Buzz

[ejfortin]

Thanks for the Fback. I'll take another listen, and try and fix some stuff. Anyone else have an opinion?

[ejfortin]

I should also note that the singer wrote all of the parts for the song. So I am trying to showcase her singing as well as her songwriting ability.

[ejfortin]

47 views and no reply's come on guys. Someone take a look at this and let me know what you think.

[ndavies]

I agree with the previous posters that the drums and harmonies could get mixed lower. The vocals could also use a bit of work. She's a bit flat on most of the drawn-out notes which I think is the objectionable freq mentioned above. I'd bump the pitch up by a few cents until it sounds right. Harmonies also need to be on-pitch to, you know, harmonize, even if the main vocal is more expressive and wild.

She also bends up to notes at the beginning of some of the phases, but that's something you can envelope out pretty easily.

Lastly, the delay on the vocals doesn't work right when she's singing softly. Your delay might be covering for a lack of dynamics(this could be the compression or the performance). The tip about reverbing the uncompressed signal sounds pretty spot-on.

[ejfortin]

I'm gonna make some changes, I'll have a new version of the song up soon.

[CommunityMart]

(Making the file size smaller will increase the feedback from people. I think)

I downloaded the first one though.

The song sounds real sexy at the end. Sorry!

[ejfortin]

Looks like I won't be able to do much with this song after all. I was clearing unused audio files from my pt session and all of the bass parts got deleted. I thought I was covering myself by having two copies on seperate hard drives, but pro tools somehow found both copies on both hard drives and got rid of them. Unless I can find the bass parts in some other backup this will unfortunately be the final mix.

[matucha]

I don't like the voc sound at all, what was the mic? did you EQ it excessively? It sounds almost like with ring-modulator on the HF or if it was bit-reduced and downsampled (I'm exagerating of course). In other words, I'd like to hear the voc much smoooother, fuller and more up-front. I'd also like to hear less the delay on voc, maybe if you smear it with reverb, it's going to be more blended.

[ejfortin]

I used a soundelux 251. There is only a small 2dB cut around 4.5khz to reduce the brittleness of the vocals. I know it sounds a little bright and ultra airy but that is what her voice sounds like. Maybe I should boost a little around the fundamental, maybe +3dB around 350-400hz? I don't want to get crazy with the EQ to roll off the top end. I want to avoid a filtered sound. What do you think?