[Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra]

Hi people

Probably not going to appeal to a lot of you rockers. This is more for mix than song feedback. I'm trying to get some old songs better mixed than I did first time so.....are the levels ok...is the processing ok...is the brass OK....you know, any suggestions for improvement mixwise.

I won't post up the lyric cos if you can't hear it well enough then I've f*cked up there.

Thanks for helping.

https://soundcloud.com/cramer1930/merry-masquerade-1/s-99OXK

[Darren1664]

Hey Viscount

Can't really comment much on mix as I'm not the best myself but I can't say I heard anything that stood out as being poorly mixed. Everything seems to gel together nicely to me and it amazes me how many pieces and parts you have to mix here. It really works. Great track!

Darren

[PaulAds]

Hi VC

Excellent song! I wonder if there was a way that the piano in the intro could be made louder...it's fine where it is for the other 90% of the song...I just thought it maybe sounded a little apprehensive or apologetic at the start...and the piano work is great, too. Maybe nudge the vocal down a teeny bit, or add a tiny bit more reverb to it?

Great work, though...pretty much in the bag, I'd say...I probably wouldn't have found anything to mention had I not been invited to do so...it was already fine to my (increasingly cloth) ears 

[rightly]

Lovely song. So well crafted. 
The drums seem a bit off somehow. It doesn't really mess the song up. Intriguing.

I've got a pop song called masquerade, which has recently been covered and promoted and released as a single. I'm glad this song has nothing to do with it. Lol.

I'd really like to get into the style you play here.

Can you recommend any good websites? 

[cowparsleyman]

Whato Viscount.

Interesting and a very nice idea, I can smell the mulled wine and mince pies.

EQ and pan are fine.

I have a few ideas on arrangement - maybe some BVox @ 3:00 ish, share the solo between Jazz guitar and piano, more plate Reverb and a bit of compression on the LVox, and maybe a different verb over the whole thing.

Like the brass and standup bass.

@4:30 ish could do with some BVox oohs, 'quiet parade' after LVox sings it, I guess you know what I mean.

Reminds me of a dry George Michael song, he used to drench his songs in verb, and over do the whispering/breathyness.

Regards

cpm

[adamfarr]

Hi VC - lots going on but seems all very good and balanced. I think the vocals sit a bit on top of the mix - perhaps because they're at a similar level all through? I might turn them down a bit so in the quite sections they fit in, and then do a bit of vocal riding/automation so that in the busier sections they're not swamped.


But that's just nits really, generally I think you should be happy with it as is!

[Johnnyuk]

Hi,
I just took a couple of listens. I do like your style, there is something very relaxing about it.
Ok to my ears the mix seems fine.
There are two things for me that i would consider. The first one is the songs length. 4:30 mins is at least 1 minute too long imo. A Shorter version between 3 mins and 3:30 mins would up the chances of a repeat play from a listener by at least 65 to 70 %. But it's your baby and if you like it at 4:30 mins then you should keep it that length.

The other thing was that at times ( and only in a few places ) your vocal was a little pitchy. This doesn't mean you have to re record it all again. No not at all. I don't know what kind of DAW You use but i would go through the vocal and pick out those offending parts and either run them through a pitch correction vst or if you have a vocal editor go into that and physically pull the audio parts back in tune note by note. I've included a video tutorial of the daw i use that shows you how to pitch correct a vocal when you need to etc...

Other than that i really enjoyed your song.
I hope this helps.
Johnny :

[Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra]

Some great feedback guys. Thank you.

Thanks for the listen and the kind words Darren.

Yes Paul I can easily up the level of the intro....I'll check it out. I did have more reverb on the vocal so I'll look into that again too.

Rightly you might well be right about the drums. I haven't listened now for a few days and they do strike me now as being a bit odd. I will definitely be looking at that. I can't really recommend you anything. I don't have any music like this and don't know where it came from...just intuitive kind of thing....I guess it's a slow swing vocal jazz style?

cpm  Some nice ideas especially the guitar but I'm not a very good player really and as there is no other guitar in the song I don't know if it would go unless I did a whole part for it throughout the song and.....well that's a bit daunting so....

Adam...yes the vocal. I tried to make it not too loud (as I am wont to do!) and even set a sidechain compressor thing to kill the brass a bit when I'm singing.....maybe just a bit more reverb will help?

Johnny - I have done some correcting already which shows how bad it was before....I'll go into it again though fear that there might still be some issues that even the best audio engineering can't correct.

Excellent feedback everybody and I'm pleased that the mix in general is sounding OK. Thank you all.

Oh....glad you liked the song too! Thanks!

[tone]

Yo Viscount

Another vote for the vocal sitting a smidge too proud from me. Likewise the piano sounding a little apologetic at the beginning. It's almost like a different player once the song gets going.

Now, I'm not the most experienced mixer, so make of this comment what you will. I feel like it needs gluing together just a little. I'm not sure all of the instruments sound like they're playing in the same place. I suppose reverb sounds like the missing juju or culprit, but I don't know which. I also acknowledge that jazz has its own rules in the production world.

I think the brass sounds great, and nicely fills the gap I was going to mention in the piano before they appear. Maybe fatten up the pre-brass piano a touch?

Really enjoyed the song, rockers be damned I say. Nice work mate

[Johnnyuk]

Some great feedback guys. Thank you.

Thanks for the listen and the kind words Darren.

Yes Paul I can easily up the level of the intro....I'll check it out. I did have more reverb on the vocal so I'll look into that again too.

Rightly you might well be right about the drums. I haven't listened now for a few days and they do strike me now as being a bit odd. I will definitely be looking at that. I can't really recommend you anything. I don't have any music like this and don't know where it came from...just intuitive kind of thing....I guess it's a slow swing vocal jazz style?

cpm  Some nice ideas especially the guitar but I'm not a very good player really and as there is no other guitar in the song I don't know if it would go unless I did a whole part for it throughout the song and.....well that's a bit daunting so....

Adam...yes the vocal. I tried to make it not too loud (as I am wont to do!) and even set a sidechain compressor thing to kill the brass a bit when I'm singing.....maybe just a bit more reverb will help?

Johnny - I have done some correcting already which shows how bad it was before....I'll go into it again though fear that there might still be some issues that even the best audio engineering can't correct.

Excellent feedback everybody and I'm pleased that the mix in general is sounding OK. Thank you all.

Oh....glad you liked the song too! Thanks!

Hi VC,
If you want me to have a go at it here for you just send me the vocal stem and i will see if i can sort them out for you here no problem. Don't knock yourself down you can sing really good. A few off notes here and there does not detract you from the song itself. I'm just pointing them out so you know that if you did go into more detail and fix those tiny parts your song will be better for it. It works as is anyways. Like i said above if you'd like me to have a go at the vocal it isn't a problem.

Johnny

[Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra]

Thanks Tone...glad you liked it ok.

I do now always have a separate track where I send everything with a convolution room reverb to try to get everything in same space. I think I'm doing it right but as ever maybe not doing it right enough. I'll look at it again.

Johnny, very kind of you to offer...I'm not ungrateful but I've got as far as I've got so far by doing stuff by myself and think I'd better continue that way. Don't want to have to rely on anybody else to do stuff for me....unless it's nice female vocal or bvs or something else like that.....real horn players if I could ever find any!

Cowparsleyman...just thought you (or anybody else) might like to know that the upright bass is a free sound included in the free Kontakt player. I think it's pretty good so thought I'd share that. Brass is fait maison i'm afraid so just have to make your own!

Haven't had a chance to implement any of your ideas yet but this weekend hopefully.

Thanks all.

[Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra]

Hello again.

I've had a go at some improvements.....new drum track too.

If anybody has the time to listen I'd be grateful.....want to get this finished once and for all!

https://soundcloud.com/cramer1930/merrymasquerade11042018/s-J2G1J

Thanks!

[cowparsleyman]

Whato Viscount

Took a listen, drums are super, miles better vibe, the solo keys still sound a bit 'scaley' and overdone, give em a bit of space to soak it in, nice brass at the end. The Vox sound OK, but you might consider some BVox to give texture, you mention them, just do 'em yourself (try 2 passes), and keep them low in the mix (lower than you think) and it'll give it some thickness, I can imagine a back row of suited vocalists,

If you want me to try a guitar solo just let me know...

cpm

[Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra]

Thanks cpm.

Not keen to add anything I don't think....just to get the mix right now.

Yeah the drums are much better aren't they? I had this DrumDrops (love their stuff if I haven't said so before!) loop hanging around.....don't know why I didn't use it earlier.

It's the levels that get me. Sometimes I think drums ain't loud enough, then vox too loud etc etc.

[cowparsleyman]

Thanks cpm.

Not keen to add anything I don't think....just to get the mix right now.

Yeah the drums are much better aren't they? I had this DrumDrops (love their stuff if I haven't said so before!) loop hanging around.....don't know why I didn't use it earlier.

It's the levels that get me. Sometimes I think drums ain't loud enough, then vox too loud etc etc.

I completely understand, a few times I've had some really good advice on this forum, but the amount of unzipping and re alignment made me think we'll it's as good as it'll get, some of these longer songs take weeks of production, it sounds like you are on my wavelength.

Never heard of DrumDrops, I better check them out.

With regards to levels, it's soo subtle sometimes, 1 or 2 db make such a difference.

Some mixing engineers start from the LVox and work back from that, others work from the other way from the drums and bass upward, as I think you said you do in an earlier post.

I do find that submix busses (drums, keys, BVox, guitars etc.) help quite a bit with getting the levels right, and then send these off to an overall instrument buss (with no LVox) this allows the relationship between LVox and the rest, and then do all the sidechain stuff if you want, but I'm sure you do that, if you don't I'll be glad to advise.

Currently I'm trying out a few scenarios in this area.

Hope this helps

Rich