Urban pop song (female artist) I wrote/produced/mixed - your impressions?

[coyotekells]

Hey folks,

Curious what your first impressions are of this song.. especially if you're someone who makes/listens to comparable stuff (genre-wise) intended for radio (eg. Ciara, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, Beyonce,etc)

Download from mediafire:
Saya-Missin_Out.mp3 (Produced by St. Kelly)


I welcome critiques on any and all aspects -- since I did everything but perform the vocals, your suggestions will improve my future projects! Thanks for ya time

[pistolgrip]

beat is perfect! but vocals seem a little thin, maybe try some verb or stacking?

[coyotekells]

Originally Posted by pistolgrip

beat is perfect! but vocals seem a little thin, maybe try some verb or stacking?

Glad you like the beat! I think you're right about the vocal sound; that's my fault during tracking and mixing stage... it wasn't the best mic choice for the singer, and I should've made better effort to augment that with my mixing approach to phatten the vocals up/make them juicier at mix time, which I guess I didn't fully succeed in.

[PeeWeeGee]

Wow...I like your humility. It should serve you well.

I listened to the track you posted and others on your webpage. I'd say, as a sweeping generalization, that you need to practice mixing vocals from SINGERS.

There is a lot to be said about the clever little tricks needed to get a rich vocal sound from a performance that is sang rather than rapped. You'd do well to check out some of the threads posted by Storyville, RyanC, and Ken Lewis to help you along. I won't reiterate it all here, but they really do drop some gems.

The mix of the instrumental is pretty good, though. I'd like a touch more low-end bump and some sub action; but that is just me!

All in all - - - purdy gud job, brah! (Insert hillbilly laugh here.)

Peace,
PWG

[coyotekells]

Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee

I listened to the track you posted and others on your webpage. I'd say, as a sweeping generalization, that you need to practice mixing vocals from SINGERS.

I would imagine that's true; I've this is only the second song I've mixed that was singing. (3 if you include the "Top Of The World" song on my myspace, which was a bedroom recording I put together in 2007)

I definitely have been/am following the threads by those you've mentioned.

[coyotekells]

Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee

The mix of the instrumental is pretty good, though. I'd like a touch more low-end bump and some sub action; but [B]that is just me!

I think the lack of low-end bump/sub action came from poor monitoring (I just have some first gen Behringer Truths, and no sub).

I was scared of adding too much of what I can't really hear, and guess I ended up erring on the low (nice pun..)

Also, I have a tuned 808 and a bassline (which extends fairly low) interacting. It was difficult to feel confident in the blend.. this mix really made me want a monitor upgrade.

[coyotekells]

Had some more opportunities now to hear the song on other systems.. Damn, need to thicken up those vocals. I think I scooped some low-mids that really didn't need to be pulled out...