A new song

[Rubato]

RE: my thread about my future... this is my first song. It's a rough draft (a very good rough draft mind you) so keep that in mind.

http://www.purevolume.com/Rubato37086/albums/2003-2010

It's the very first one, "In the Past". I wrote it in 2006 after my first band broke up and lost out on a very good record signing because of some disagreements between my guitar player/best friend and myself. It ruined our friendship for years and has never been the same. This was not written about a girl, lol.

I'm writing a punk influenced quasi symphonic metal.

I also realize to those who have been reading my threads that I'm in the middle of a media fast. Well. I like sharing my music. I think writing this is a little different than sitting in front of the TV ad nauseum.

Anyways, I would love feedback/suggestions.

 

[Atom Smasher]

Nice song. I couldn't hear all the words... I think you might want to bring the lead vocal more forward and excite those hi frequencies a bit.

It sounds very "midi-esque", those slow strings can tend to lag a bit and take away the desired drive. Some kick-ass crunchy rhythm guitar in there just might provide a little more solidity and drive. It can be low in the mix if you want to maintain the synth feel, but it would add some drive.

I personally would try to make the drums a little more "roomy" for this particular song, perhaps a bigger room in the verb or a bigger plate. Hi frequencies of symbols are cutting through the mix, but the rest of the drums seem a little muffled. Are you using standard mid drums or something like BFD, Superior, etc? I can't help but think some experimentation with different kits might yield a better fit to the song, but I can't put my finger on it.

Cool synth playing, nice song structure. The ending is awesome. I like that lingering note. Great pitch and voice control. If you're using autotune, you've got it dialed in because I don't hear any artifacts. All in all a great job.

Take my suggestions for what they're worth. Opinions are a dime a dozen and what matters is what we, the author, like, after considering the opinions of others.

 

[Rubato]

I remixed the song this afternoon. I feel like it's an improvement but it's still not there yet. Still too muddy, I think. I especially dislike how it feels like it looses just a little bit of energy at the chorus. The song has been sent even deeper in to compression h#ll. A number of people (audio people who know the ins and outs of recording) have told me I use wayyyyy too much compression. I either don't know how to use what I have well enough yet or don't have the proper equipment to achieve the "punch" and loudness of commercial music without loads of compression.

The strings aren't nearly as dominant as they were. I don't know if I like that. I didn't have any multiband compression on the lowend of the mix, so I added about 5db gain reduction. That and putting a high pass filter on the vocals and changing the EQ on one of the guitars seems to have made it less muddy. I switched out the buss compressor with a new one and added a few db of gain reduction and limited it even harder. I took Atom's advice and added a high frequency bandpass filter to the vox and they're easier to hear now.

I didn't have any envelopes in the mix before. Now there are envelopes all over the place. The difference should be audibly evident. It's much easier to hear the guitar parts and drum fills that were hidden in the mix previously.

I think the drums are more defined now. But I still think the snare could be louder. I bumped up the china cymbal about 6 db. I can feel the 16th notes in the kick drum much better. But the snare still feels too quiet in a lot of places. I'm using BFD 2 and tweaked some of the settings a bit more.... particularly adding some damping to the snare and killing the bleed. Killing the bleed alone (while not natural) really cleaned up the drum tracks.

I may be being too picky about the chorus losing energy but I don't think I am. Any ideas of what I could do for that? Add that kick a$$ guitar? I don't know what I can do about the strings. I'm using EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus and can't set a faster attack or an articulation with a faster attack. There is no verb on the strings or delay, and I am only using the mic source closest to the instrument. I could try setting them about a 16th note behind where they are now (that sounds about how long the attack is to me)... my 2nd cousin is a professional recording engineer and he said he's done that before to compensate for tracks that have an attack that's too slow. You can add verb to blur the transitions.

And no autotune for me At least not yet. There are some notes that need cleaned up. But I'll fix that when I add harmonies.