Ableton Forum

Just a demo fleshing out this older song.

I posted this for two reasons.

1. To help get over my self consciousness about singing.

2. To try and understand Live and mixing better. Yesterday I bought new headphones and things sounded very nice to me in them. However, this mix sounded very bad on my monitors. Such a huge difference, but I do not know why? Curious to know what you hear. I am a total noob at this so you won't hurt my feelings.

Cheers All... Feeling the Fear

http://soundcloud.com/gjm/i-am-here

Yo Greg, if I were there, I'd bitch slap you. Your voice is very good man. And a very nice song at that. The difference you hear in the headphones is that they don't give you the best frequency response. Monitors (depending on which one) are more likely to be accurate. All this track needs is a HP filter to tame the bottom end and perhaps some EQ on the piano to home in on the fundamental frequecies of the intrument. Stand up and take a bow....I loved it. Thanks for the share.

errm, i've been in Greg's studio and I've heard his monitors which last time were a home stereo system... he told me in a PM that he'd just splashed out on some BeyerDynamic DT 990's ($250 worth) so it's quite conceivable that his track sounds much better in the cans. When I was first turned on to high-end Sennheiser HD25's for a while they were far and away the best and most accurate monitoring I'd owned up to that point. Often mixes sound much better on cans due to removing the room accoustics from the equation, having the drivers right by your ear often provides much more hi-fi detail.

so you just take that slap back! or I'll... I'll...

Greg, nice performance bro!
Performance-wise I'd rate it at a 85-95%. You're definitely in the zone. A couple of the held notes betray a little hesitancy early on - a couple of the ends of phrases drop off a leeetle bit in their energy, and later in the song there's one or two slightly flat notes. If I was producing you, I'd say no worries we _could_ fix the slight tuning issues in post if you want, but I'd rather get you to do one more take. It's absolutely so close to perfect! Performance-wise the vocal tone and the recording are excellent, though I might experiment with putting the piano a little more forward in the mix - it's good as it is, but I'd be curious to hear the piano wrap around the vox a little more... though I would keep the option on staying with the "forward"/"naked"/"vulnerable" vocal placement too, because it does serve the sentiment of the song.

I was sitting in the producer's chair I'd say "Its really really good, you're absolutely IN there, you're in the right place and spirit and emotion, there's just one or two tiny technicals which I think we can nail. You're doing great bro, but get in there and do one more - you're absolutely on it. Sounding beautiful!".

^^ie as producer I'd just try to re-inforce your belief in your own performance, cos thats all it needs, enough to just feel safe to dig down for those last little bits of energy/breath. You're clearly capable of it!!

^ yeah!


that was clean dude. there is no way I can add anything nicer or more positive than what Pitch Black just said... for what its worth though... don't stop. You are not wasting your time.

Relax and feel confident.


Peace,
g

Pitch Black wrote: so you just take that slap back! or I'll... I'll...
.....

The slap was for his fear of singing....I was complimenting him totally. Not sure if you understood that. I hope he does.

Thanks all for the input. I am moved.

Terence, I totally understood your comment. I got a chuckle

Paddy, very much appreciate the critique and the encouragement. Very kind.

H20nly, thank you also for listening and commenting.


I am going to focus on this one for a while. It will be a great way to dig deeper into Live and learn more about the program. I have just hit my summer holidays and so can book some time for myself. I will start tomorrow with vocals again and see what I can come up with.

As far as EQ goes, I had not put any in the signal chain. I think I understand correctly what I would be trying to achieve with highlighting the frequencies of the individual parts but I did not think that it would be needed with the 3 essential parts. I dropped the Piano EQ 1 & 2 presets from the EQ8 Instrument Audio effects in Lives library on to the piano track this afternoon and briefly listened but could not locate much if any of a difference with the sound. I will revisit that again tomorrow.

My own opinion was that I thought the vocals were too loud, or the piano was too weak. Singing wise I can definitely chip away and correct pitch. I also did not like some of the pace of the way I sung the words, almost a bit sticky. Piano wise its pretty bland. I would like to change it up a bit without making it a feature or highlight. There are a couple of places where the sustain pedal release was too abrupt. Bass wise... probably in the same camp as the keys, needs a tad more variety without drawing attention. This demo though was just on 4 hours work ( 6 takes on vocals, 3 takes on bass and 1 take on keys with some editing of the bum notes)... so I am very happy that it served its purpose and that you could see some potential. I might just have to dust off some of the other old songs and give them a go.

Oh, my monitors are Logitech Z4 gaming speakers with a sub. The reason for the confusion was that my old Techniques headphones and the monitors gave me the same basic result. What I heard in the cans was what I got in the monitors. They also sound great with my favorite tunes. The vocals on this tune through the BD 990 headphones vs the monitors are dramatically different. It was a curve ball I was not expecting. I have to readjust what my references are I think. I am pretty sure I can budget in monitors in the next financial year . Until then, we shall carry on. I would love it if you could check in again when you notice as I work on this and update it.

Cheers. Greg.

tlennon wrote:

Pitch Black wrote: so you just take that slap back! or I'll... I'll...
.....

The slap was for his fear of singing....I was complimenting him totally. Not sure if you understood that. I hope he does.

I groked that you were being supportive, but thought the slap might be for the headphones/speaker perception... just pretending to be protective of my mate... it's all good!

Nice track gjm.

The vocals sound really awesome actually, very well recorded. The piano could use a little bit of surgical EQ to clear out some lo frequency mud (and maybe a bit more sparkly highs) and make the bass sit well in the mix with the low end piano. This has a lot of promise and sounds full even with a simple vocals, piano, bass arrangement which isn't easy to do

nice one! great voice.

You've got a really nice singing voice but sound like you're bottling it up a bit. You need to really let go, Like you do when you're singing in the shower and there is no one else in the house.

Also really enjoyed the piano playing.

One way to get a great vocal performance is to have an engineer who makes you do it again and again until you get pissed off and start messing about. That's when some of the best stuff comes out.

Just wanted to echo all the other comments here and say the self-consciousness is totally unfounded, but you could maybe cut loose a bit more...? Looking forward to hearing more.

shit man, you almost made me cry, that is a BEAUTIFUL song.
and I wish I had a voice like yours.
Funny how people can be so unsure about the things they are good at.