[Yodasdad]

Okay, here is a link to my latest song which I currently have posted on the finished feedback section.

https://soundcloud.com/my-idiom/everything-2016-m-blair

I would be greatfull for some feedback specifically on the production.

There have been a few comments over on the other posting that the production is good and while I do think it is probably the best I've achieved so far, I really need to put it into context.

I would like at some point to try pitching my songs when I think I have one good enough and with that in mind I be grateful if you could give me your thoughts on the following questions.

(I have made 3 slight timing adjustments to piano, guitar and backing vocals since this was put on soundcloud, so it should be even tighter in that respect)

Is the production 'radio ready'?
If not
Is the production good enough to pitch with?
If not
Do you think it could be radio/pitch ready with professional mastering?
If not
Does the basic mix need revisiting?

Finally, I know my vocals wouldn't be good enough for a sync opportunity but are they good enough for pitching, or would I need session Vox on it?

Apologies for the long post and thanks if you've taken the time to read it.

I'm not looking for an ego massage, just some honest feedback on the production quality from some of the very knowledgable people on this forum.

Thanks

Yodasdad

[ScottLevi]

Hey Yoda Snr,

The only value I have here is as someone who listens to a lot of music, rather than some of the people here who can pick out areas of production and how they can be improved

I would've said I thought it was ready for the radio, then I thought I'd listen to some album music I have on my phone to compare and there is certainly a difference, though it might be just be the quality of mp3 or/and local vs streaming over 3g.

Personally I'd say it's pitch ready, I dont see anything wrong with the production (though nothing wrong isn't the same as fantastic where I see big bands will have very experienced people adding jazzy technical bits) and I wouldn't expect people to expect much more.

Dont take my word for it though aha just my impartial take.

[Yodasdad]

I know exactly what you mean Scott. The difference between what I and probably a lot of people on here produce and commercial big budget releases is huge and I know this isn't in the same league.

If radio ready means on a par with this, which I'm suspecting it does, then that is my first question answered.

The questions I would then need to ask myself are:

Is it ready for the next step down, in my opinion pitching?

Could it be made radio ready by me or maybe a mastering engineer for a modest outlay (or do I need a big budget myself to match the commercial releases)?

Do I just need to give in and hand the whole production/demo making over to an expert and shell out for it?

Thanks for taking the time to listen and respond.

Yodasdad

[Boydie]

I am only listening on an iPad speaker but here is my view...

I think the production sounds good, especially in the early "broken down" sections where it is very "radio ready"

The guitars and drums "downgrade" this a little as the drums do not feel very "sympathetic" with the rest of the track - I think they need to either "tap along" OR really drive the track, whereas at the moment they are a bit "in-between" and there is a little "backbeat" bit on the snare that doesn't feel "right" for this song

The vocal is good and very close to being perfect for the track. The only time it goes a bit wobbly is when you reach for the higher notes. To my ears this sounds more like a confidence / lack of practice issue and I am confident you could easily nail this vocal with some encouragement to "attack" the harder bits rather than shy away from them

I found the guitars washed the mix out a bit and the strings sounded very synthy so I would be tempted to cut these out altogether or process them so they don't sound like they are trying to be real

The piano playing and processing is superb

To answer your questions

Is the production radio ready?
Yes, I would say it is, although I think there are lots of things you could improve upon but overall I would say the PRODUCTION is "radio ready"

Pitching
The production is good enough to pitch with but IMHO it would be a waste of time (and potentially money) to not pitch the "finished article" - i.e. Without a cracking vocal. When pitching you are up against the "best of the best" with pro studios and session artists. There is no "minor league". Not only does the song need to be amazing but so does the production and performance.

There are basically 2 choices when pitching - a stripped down arrangement (piano/vocal or guitar/vocal) or a full blown production, which must sound exactly like a HIT SONG. For this particular song I would suggest stripping back to just piano and vocal and use John Legend's "All Of Me" or Bruno Mars' "When I Was Your Man" as your inspiration / reference

Mixing & Mastering

To satisfy your curiosity on this the best thing I could do is "show you". I would happily MASTER this song for you completely free of charge so you can hear what it would sound like mastered

I would also be happy to do a free "re-mix" for you so I can demonstrate the different approach I would take in both the mixing and the production

PM me if you would like to try this

I think you are very very close to being able to produce pitchable material and I think I could help nudge you in the right direction

[MartynRich]

Hi Yoda

I think it depends what you are pitching for? The production as a demo is extremely good, but the competition in pitching for something commercial ´as is´, is so fierce, this would get lost. Your voice is fine, but the performance needs to go up a level for it to stand out. I think this applies, even if you´re pitching to another artist to record it. Now, all that aside, the actual song is excellent. So I think that if you got a better production on it, you could definitely get placed with another artist. Just remember the competition and keep working on it. Defo take Boydie up on his offer and good luck with it.

[shadowfax]

I reckon you need to lose the distorted guitar..the track sounds excellent until the guitar starts and just fills up all the space..

[Bill Saunders]

I am only listening on an iPad speaker but here is my view...

I think the production sounds good, especially in the early "broken down" sections where it is very "radio ready"

The guitars and drums "downgrade" this a little as the drums do not feel very "sympathetic" with the rest of the track - I think they need to either "tap along" OR really drive the track, whereas at the moment they are a bit "in-between" and there is a little "backbeat" bit on the snare that doesn't feel "right" for this song

The vocal is good and very close to being perfect for the track. The only time it goes a bit wobbly is when you reach for the higher notes. To my ears this sounds more like a confidence / lack of practice issue and I am confident you could easily nail this vocal with some encouragement to "attack" the harder bits rather than shy away from them

I found the guitars washed the mix out a bit and the strings sounded very synthy so I would be tempted to cut these out altogether or process them so they don't sound like they are trying to be real

The piano playing and processing is superb

To answer your questions

Is the production radio ready?
Yes, I would say it is, although I think there are lots of things you could improve upon but overall I would say the PRODUCTION is "radio ready"

Pitching
The production is good enough to pitch with but IMHO it would be a waste of time (and potentially money) to not pitch the "finished article" - i.e. Without a cracking vocal. When pitching you are up against the "best of the best" with pro studios and session artists. There is no "minor league". Not only does the song need to be amazing but so does the production and performance.

There are basically 2 choices when pitching - a stripped down arrangement (piano/vocal or guitar/vocal) or a full blown production, which must sound exactly like a HIT SONG. For this particular song I would suggest stripping back to just piano and vocal and use John Legend's "All Of Me" or Bruno Mars' "When I Was Your Man" as your inspiration / reference

Mixing & Mastering

To satisfy your curiosity on this the best thing I could do is "show you". I would happily MASTER this song for you completely free of charge so you can hear what it would sound like mastered

I would also be happy to do a free "re-mix" for you so I can demonstrate the different approach I would take in both the mixing and the production

PM me if you would like to try this

I think you are very very close to being able to produce pitchable material and I think I could help nudge you in the right direction

Hi Yoda

I've listened to your song a few times, it's really strong. I think your vocals are great but I do agree with the comments above about really going for it in the higher sections. I have listened to it next to commercial stuff and it seems it does need a sprinkle of fairy dust. Fascinating comments from Boydie, it's a really hard world out there. I too would like to get to the point where I can pitch. I love mixing and producing a full band sound at home, but maybe the stripped back thing is the way to go with a really strong song that stands out on its own merits.

Best of luck.

[Johnnyuk]

Hi,
Great song and vocal!
Regarding the feedback you are looking for here are a few things to ponder over/consider.

The length of a song is easily overlooked. Radio friendly would mean that your song would need to be shorter in length so i would look at where you could cut some seconds to accommodate that aspect.

I would pull up the tracks for this song on your DAW then highlight the chorus or verse etc...
Lets for example look at the chorus. Now look down at all the instrumentation tracks for this section of your song.
Add them all up. Now solo all those instruments and play the chorus with just those elements. This should help you hear if anything needs turning down or if it is clashing melody wise too. You can't have to many melodies playing at the same time in any section of a song. Aim for no more than 4 instruments. Layers playing the same lines are ok BUT other instruments playing differently against each other is what you should be looking out for. Once you find them then decide which tracks are essential and which can either be cut or lowered/pushed back. I am not talking about drums ok cos they are short sounding so they don't get in the way as much as instruments eg a synth sound for instance.

IMO Your intro piano part would work much better if it was an octave higher at the start then it can drop back down an octave for the first verse. It would sound more intimate before your voice kicks in.

Johnny

[Ramshackles]

Hey there
No doubt it is a fairly well balanced mix. However, I would revisit it:

- The piano, while excellent, is overpowering pretty much everything else. The drums (typically the loudest thing on any song) sound fairly quiet and narrow.
- When the guitars come in I expect them to come crashing in, but...they don't. I agree with Boydie that they sound a little 'washed out'
- It could really do with some volume automation to give it some nice movement.
- I think the vocals are just a tad too silibant

[cowparsleyman]

Listening on crummy usb headphones...

Great job, great establishment of of the piece at the intro.

I haven't read the other comments yet, so here's what I hear.

0:33 'to heal me/to feed' me isn't radio perfect.

Snare could come up a bit.

Thought BVox could come in at 1:50 'Hear out on my sleeve' as the melody line deviates  very nicely, ripe for a hook harmony. Folks will listen out for that on the radio.

Change the fuzz guitars to 2 takes of crunch guitars (chk a cha, type chugging) panned L & R, the legato fuzz swamps the chorus.

Lose the phase/chorus over everything near the end, it swamps it all, if you are gong to use something like this, pick maybe just one instrument and automate a pan, and slowly move it L to R syn'd to the bpm.

Hope this helps.

If it's a power ballad, maybe a killer solo, guitar? of sax?

cpm

[Robbie S]

Hi Yodasdad,

Nice name!

It's been rally interesting listen to you're great track and reading the feedback.

Feedback in my humble opinion,

Radio Ready...

Needs to be a good bit shorter, 2min 30 secs average radio track length, the vocals need a wee bit more work as said in a previous post, drums are v low in mix, distorted guitar is not doing it for me it seems to push against the song, Johny and the other posters have some great ideas for improvement, you're nearly there!

Pitch Ready...Yes you are ready, and I've pitched some songs, all I would say is that you should always pitch the very best version you can, pitch as finished. So I'd hold back until it's finished.

Good luck with it!

Best
Robbie

[Cawproductions]

Hi Yodasdad.

The mix is pretty good, really nice song but I would go through with a fine tooth comb and fix the slight vocal pitch issues. Your vocal has a lovely tone and if anything is a little loud in comparison to the piano, drums and guitar.

Some automation on your faders throughout the track will prob be needed as the track is quite dynamic.
Bass sits nice, so does the Piano. To give the track more punch the drums could be louder.
Use compression wisely to tame those peaking pianos.

I liked the distortion guitar in the chorus, added a bit of power.

Great song,
Sounds great.