PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Radio Days (Sundance and rsdean)

Bob and Josie,
Great song! I particularly liked the backing vocals. Also the subject of the song hit home with me. I sure remember listening to my old transistor radio and loving every minute. Thanks for sharing.

SpaceDog,

Thanks. We are very glad you enjoyed the song and appreciate your comments.

Dan,

We thank you again for the comments and support. I do believe SC adds a bit of compression and from what I can hear, youtube adds even more.

Bob

You tube is a tough one. When you make a vid with audio, when rendering in your movie editor be sure to make the audio the best quality you can with the render. It won't add all that much to the file size and will help greatly.

Dan

Thanks again Dan!

Bob

Bob/Josie -

Just have to I loved the song. The video images brought back some good memories of artists and albums I've always loved.

Thanks!

John,

Thanks so much - Josie and I really appreciate that. The video was a lot of fun to put together.

Bob

Nice work, as usual. In particular, I thought the chorus was strong.

There's something about the mix that's bugging me. I thought it might be my ears (I've got an ear infection), but I've listened through speakers and headphones, and it sounds like there's a lot of lossy compression, especially with phasing on the drums. It lacks crispness and punch - Marc used the word "cloudy", and I think that's right.

Thanks for posting it!

Thank you David. I'm glad you enjoyed the song.

I have to disagree on the mix. Number one if it was that bad, I wouldn't have let Bob post it. The first mix was a little muddy and we removed it and this second one is much clearer.

And this is not just directed at your comment David. I don't believe I've suddenly gone tone deaf.

So if anyone else wants to comment on the mix. I would ask you to be specific as to exactly where you are hearing what because I'm not hearing it.

The mix is not perfect - nobody claimed it is but it's not as bad as some of the comments on here are implying.

It doesn't come down to the mix being bad. I've had quite a number of listens to this track because I like the song. I can hum the melody no problem! THAT is an idication of a good song! Everything else, such as mix things, comes down to a work in progress and a learning experience every time for ALL of us. If you're asking for anything specific Josie, I have what I'm hearing narrowed down to the lead vocal. The music bed sounds fine when there is no vocal. The BGV's sound fine. The lead vocal sounds like there may have been some heavier eq'ing choices- perhaps to try and brighten or unmuddy the vocal in some way. Perhaps some deep cuts or big boosts at certain frequencies were applied. Without knowing anything that was done, I'm just guessing it might be an ambiance effect such as a room or reverb, the eq of that effect, and/or the eq of the vocal itself. Maybe if compression was appiled, it's amplifying it but I'm not picking up on vocal compression. Perhaps you have it applied lightly or just not there at all. But it for sure comes down to the lead vocal and something is causing it to sound phased or comb filtered. Eq'ing in certain ways will bring on phasing issues, and recording the vocal in certain spots in a room, such as too close to a wall[s] or something, will bring on comb filtering- another sort of phasey sound. Whatever the case may be, it's the lead vocal and as far as I can hear after easily, 10 listens now, it's only the lead vocal.

I only bring it up so maybe it will help your ear to zero in on the sound and recognize it. I've never heard any of Bob's leads sound like that on other tracks, so it's probably what I mention or a culmination of things in the mix contributing to it. Also, this kind of thing can happen when just one overall eq is applied to the stereo mix to try and slant the bass or high freq's a certain way. But is it ruining things? Certainly not. I don't listen to tracks past one time if it's truly unlistenable, and I don't bother to try and help get to the bottom of something if I don't think the people on the other end are capable of 'getting' it or caring in the first place. So you ask, I mention! LOL! One thing to try with future mixes is to bring up vocals right away when you start. Mix bass, and drums AROUND and in conjunction with the vocals right away. Too often vocals are a last thought, or the last faders to be brought up. That makes carving a spot for vocals very very tough and there's usually lots of compromises to be made at that point. So it's something to consider trying.

All this crap though- it's just ongoing conversation about sound. The bottom line is always the song. Anybody can make sounds and comment about sounds. Few can nail the writing of great songs even worth listening to how they sound. You two, both collectively and on your own, write FIRST RATE songs. No doubt! And with every single mix, they sound better and better. Keep up the GREAT work!

Dan

Hey Dan,

Thank you. I've had a eureka ah-ha moment after that most excellent explanation, I can hear what you're talking about. So can Bob. And after this ear awakening moment we of course think now - well crap why didn't we hear that before. LOL.

We'll either fix it or Bob just got a new Blue mic that sounds really good on his voice and he'll re-sing the track.

This has been quite frustrating, so thank you so much for hanging in there with us until we got what you're saying.

And David, you are right there was still a problem with the track you heard - we just weren't focused on the same problem.

Love the song as usual. Music is well balanced and backup vocals well placed too.
I can understand why some are calling it cloudy or not crisp, maybe lacking presence, but I just think before I can comment on the sound of the lead vocal, it needs to be much louder.
I like to have the vocal way up. To me it's the most impotent part of the song to me. EQ and or Comp it after you have it loud enough so you can hear every word clearly. I find the song's mix well balanced but I'm straining to hear what Dean is singing.
Just my opinion. I like his voice a lot and it's just too low for me to enjoy it.
Hope this helps and doesn't hurt.

Wayne,

As Dan said so well, none of this really detracts from the song in a major way. And I'm sorry I used the word "mix", because I don't think that it was helpful. The bulk of my comment talked about the sound only because I was trying to detail what I was hearing - not because it was the most important bit!

And I should add a big thanks for consistently being on be "bleeding edge" and showing what can be done with BiaB. You're not the only ones, but it's certainly an inspiration to hear what the two of you are doing.

Thanks again!

Wayne,

Thanks very much. We appreciate your feedback.

Dan/David,

As always, thanks for the feedback and advice. Josie and I appreciate it. We're getting there with this one. Stay tuned, we'll have a new version up soon. Hope you'll come back and listen to it.

Bob

Thanks again to everyone that commented and provided feedback. We have cut a new version with hopefully better mixing/mastering. If you have a moment, please give it a listen.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10638138

Thanks,
Bob

Call it done- sounds good!

Dan

Hey Dan,

Thanks for coming back for another listen. We appreciate your support on this.

Bob