I have put Demo number 10 (All My Flaws) in the fermentation chamber (link below – to the song, not the chamber). I’m satisfied with what I have for now and will let my subconscious work on it – perhaps I’ll give a listen here and there with the thought of nudging further ideas for lyrics and whatnot.
I played acoustic guitar over the foundation. Then sang over it all and took the best, or at least my favorite, piece of it and adjusted the individual volumes and applied compression, equalization and reverb to the vocal track.
I used the gain information for the “sweet spot” level from the article I mentioned in a previous post during creation of the song, but I do find that the volume level, in general, is very low. I need to play around with that as it was difficult to get a good mix in my headphones while “playing along” to the previously recorded tracks.
Note: I cut and pasted to create the intro and “outro” which is a little rough.
-Done That
Now you’ve done it. Ten demos. So where does it end? Dark Side of the Moon had 10 tracks. Ye can’t go 13–unlucky, you see. Do you push it to 14? Andrea Bocelli has a 15 track album (with Sarah Brightman, actually) but it wavers a bit Eleven seems too prime-numberish. Twelve is nice and round–six songs a side, if you’re doing sides that is. All this is probably academic. It’s about the songs and the ideas and those you have. So forget what I said. Just let it flow. One last thing…have you thought about an order? Well……
I am going for 13 thinking of it as a baker’s dozen – certainly not unlucky, but also figuring that perhaps not all will make the final LP as my producer is fairly picky.
As far as the order goes, I have been playing around with it a bit on my sound cloud playlist (https://soundcloud.com/getupbass/sets/ed-bejzak-demos), but it’s really way to early as I don’t rule out completely changing the feel of songs.
Your vocal mix sounds good…is that a delay, reverb or a chorus effect?
Thanks! I added 3 plug-ins to the track (all Scarlett brand which came with my Focusrite audio interface) and noodled with the settings as follows:
Compressor
Reverb
Equalizer
Changed the follwing from preset values
Reverb
Size
from Small 35% to Large 69%
Pre-Filter
from 60% High to 69% High
Air
from 60% Bright to 49% Dark
Mix
from Dry 25% to Dry 45%
Compressor
Attack
from 10 to 20
Release
from 5 to 7
Equalizer
Output (dB)
from 0 to 4
Low
Frequency (Hz)
from 80 to 100
Gain (dB)
from 0 to 3
Low Mid
Frequency (Hz)
from 400 to ~1100
Gain (dB)
from 0 to 6
High Mid
Frequency (Hz)
6K to 8K
Gain (dB)
from 0 to 6
High
Gain (dB)
from 0 to 3
shiny lights and buttons…nice
quick tips
compressor: the most important knob is the “threshold” and the setting “depends”…. turn it until you see the need compressor needle bounce about 3 to 4 db. This is turning your volume DOWN. Once you see that bounce..turn your gain back up 3 or 4 db to match the needle volume reduction bounce. This way the average volume will go up without the peaks getting to “spikey”.
EQ: general rule of thumb for vocals: turn down the low end spectrum with vocals to leave room for the bass and drums down there in the mix. Turn up the mids and high end a little. Of course..throw this our the window and do whatever you want: ). really is mix dependant in the end. Thanks for the gear show.
Dave
I used you compression tips and I think I can hear a slight difference, not sure. Here is the new audio:
https://www.edbejzak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/All_My_Flaws-Demo-Compressor-Adjustments.mp3
Thanks, as always, for your support and advice.
oh forgot to mention that the before you touch the “threshold” on the compressor set your ratio to 2 or 4 depending on your taste. 4 is a bit more aggressive
Dave out