[b]Track by Track listening and searching: [/b]
[b]Drum Loop[/b]
"[i]There is a Noise Gate on the loop with a Threshold of -100dBfs. There is no way that gate will ever close. Why is it inserted here? "
[/i]The drum loop was chosen and 'effected' by me a year ago, and I just can't remember why a gate was put on. It wont be making the next try of course.
[b]Vocal[/b]
"[i]Probably a dynamic mic. Clipped audio! Recorded too hot. Awwww rats, I thought I might discover a raw track with a huge sound. It hits 5dB above full scale on a regular basis. Then again, the distortion isn’t the worst I have heard, and I bet there is a plug-in that models this anyway. It is what it is. This is the vocal. Move on. Vocal pitch is decent and the voice has a nice character (Knofler-esque) and that is super important.
P-pops, and breathe noises are a plenty
Noises in gaps between verses
The voice is also out of time in ways that don’t seem like they are stylistic – more like insecure singing. Maybe could fix, maybe not wanting to – kick that one down the road for now. [/i]"
It's a dynamic mic. Clipped (I didn't even know this!) so I will rerecord the vocal track. Another good reason to do so is that it was a very weak performance from me in my opinion. Christian is an old man and his voice is going. I will use Mr Sitters lessons from Core Logic to clean up noise between phrazing. Insecure singing very likely – I'm not sure exactly where Paul is noticing it.
[b]Guitars[/b]
"[i]Hmmm – the two recorded guitars are both recorded stereo. No they aren’t. They are mono recordings but placed on a track made to be stereo and then panned L and R. Why? Ok, whatever...but wait, they completely sum to mono during the “Bridge†– how is that possible - if they were recorded separately. I betcha that one of the guitars messed up during the bridge, then the “good†guitar part was copied over and inserted into the “bad†guitar’s place. That would cause them to collapse to mono regardless of the panning.
Ok, how do they sound?
Very lo-fi, “old country†sound. No lows, no “air†– a focused midrange. Sound of tapping (feet?) heard through out. Like pickin’ and grinnin’ on a porch swing. Does this add character or is it distracting?
Could I even get rid of them if I wanted to? Probably not. I thought this heavy midrangy twang thing was an EQed effect, its not. It was recorded with that sound. Ok.
Those squeaks on the position shifts are really intense. This is the “nails on the chalkboard†he was talking about. It must be.
Compressor on guitar (both) not doing any compression – just adding 4dB of gain and then limiting when the added 4dB goes over.
So, my main two elements have some pretty serious flavors recorded into them. There is no way – short of retracking – to give back the frequencies that these elements lack. It is what it is. This is the sound that will define the mix once there. Limitations are not bad, but they are forced decisions that make you play the game by different boundaries. [/i]"
I think I have been told, at some point in the past, to record two separate takes of the same part and then pan them to each side for a nice stereo effect. I probably misunderstood. I'm not sure what happened in the bridge with the summing to mono – I may have copied one part to the other track out of laziness (didn't think I would get caught so quickly) but I really don't remember.
Foot tapping was a surprise to me – I thought I had been so careful not to do it. As for the lo-fi sound – I think maybe I'm too close to the mic again, trying to get a strong signal. Could one unintended effect of that be that I'm losing half of my guitar(?)
So, I need to record that acoustic guitar again without dual tracks.
[b]String Ensemble[/b]
"[i]Sounds fine. Wow – D major cadence at the guitar solo Hmmmm unexpected to my ear, I thought we were in minor - but I like it...and, it works to help offset the instrumental section. Maybe they need more notes in places? [/i]"
Probably wouldn't hurt.
[b]Bass Guitar[/b]
"[i]EQ plug in with raised internal gain by 2.5dB. But the channel fader is down by -2.5dB. Arggh. Why the push me pull you? The EQ has a low shelf of 6dB with no filter below to catch any of the low end junk. This sample bass doesn’t have junk to rumble, but it is a bad idea as practice. If you low end shelf, you low end filter unless you know there isn’t some 10Hz-20Hz sonic anomaly happening for sure.
Two distortion effects on the bass. Hmmmmm. I don’t get it. Gene Simmons had a bass that sounds like this. I don’t get it on this kind of song. Kiss meets Johnny Cash? Was he trying to make the bass stick out in the mix more? [/i]"
Here I used the effect preset GlamRock Bass :) For the next try I'll not be using these presets anymore - they're getting me into trouble.
[b]Guitar Solo[/b]
"[i]The file never made the journey through cyber space.
Ok – I got it now. The second bend is too flat for my tastes. Will fix for sure. [/i]"
And yeah, Paul's solo here sounds much, much better – I need to re-record this track too.
From Paul's track by track audit, I think I need to just give up on the presets and use the EQs and compressors as best I can. I don't see how I could go further wrong than the presets have done for me (I'm so bitter and disillusioned now). Also for vocals, acoustic guitar, new tracks should be made without clipping and hopefully with wider representation of frequencies(?) Play the solo again - be careful with the flatted fifth notes to get a proper wail going. Lots of homework!
I expect to be weak with EQ for a while. I hear musical highs and lows quite well, but frequency highs and lows is a really new world to me .
So, one more part to follow. That will come tomorrow.