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Hi, I've just finished mixing this cover from "Partime Lover" from the great Stevie Wonder. Is a simple voice, piano, bass & percussion arrangment (congas and drums come, btw from BIAB) with a latin touch, and I would thank any critical advice about the mix. http://www.goear.com/listen/276072a/partime-lover-gipsy-diboop
Latest BIAB version, latest build.
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Finest kind. That's quite a vocal talent. Rarely have I heard a cover so thoroughly capture the feel of the original while maintaining originality. The voice sounded a little 'crunchy' in places towards the end but I was listening on some low-end 'phones through my laptop. I'm sure the mix will stand out on the good gear. Well done.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Journeyman
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Very nice mix. And excellent vocals. Listening through a niceish pair of computer speakers, everything (vox,harmony, etc) seems to be in the right place and highly listenable.
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Quote:
Very nice mix. And excellent vocals. Listening through a niceish pair of computer speakers, everything (vox,harmony, etc) seems to be in the right place and highly listenable.
Ditto! I am listening through some 20.00 headphones, it sounds very good.
Later,
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Journeyman
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I'm listening through Event 8s and KRK sub. It's all been said above.
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Enthusiast
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Superb! Very professional sounding performance and mix.
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OK, who is singing. Can she come over to my house to lay down some tracks.  Pro Level Quality to my ears. thanks for sharing.
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Journeyman
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Excellent. Sounds great ! The only thing that may have stood out to me was the descending piano line from 2:50 to 2:56 was a tad too hot (to me). Love the performances and quality !
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Excellent!
Now fill us in on the process and gear! Please???
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Journeyman
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Nothing "Partime" about it!
Sounded great on my Dell Desktop speakers with Subwoofer.
Very professional,nice subtle echos on the vocals. Good job!
Carkins
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Getting an internal server error from the goear site right now.
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Thanks everybody for the comments!
I've just adjusted the velocity of the piano from 2:50 to 2:56 wich, in fact, was too loud.
Regarding the process, I started figuring out the chords of the original song on BIAB with ACW, wich is a great tool to make the process much faster. Then I tried different tempos, styles, and individual tracks until I founded something I liked (wich is, in my opinion one of the strongests points of BIAB) and changed the structure to my taste. The "creative" process (in wich BIAB has definitely a central role) finished here; then I exported all tracks to REAPER, where I re-recorded the bass (using a Fender American Jazz Bass, I mean THE BASS), the piano (using NI New York Grand), some percussion tracks (I left congas and drums from the orignal BIAB arrangment) and the vocals. I wanted the mix as natural as possible, so the only effects I applied were compression (bass and vocals) and reverb (vocals, percussion group and piano), using the internal effects of REAPER. Finally, there is a limiter on the master track.
Thanks again for your time.
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You took a terrible Stevie Wonder song (I love Stevie Wonder - but this song was one of his absolute worst if you ask me) - and you turned it into a great song with your arrangement and recording.
I think the velocity in the piano or perhaps simply the level is still hot in the section you pointed out, compared to the rest of the song. I had it playing in the background, and it got too loud and I switched to the tab where the song was playing and it read 2:57 right after switching the page.
I think many folks would be interested in your signal chain for your vocals.
Great job!
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Sorry, I didn't update the file on goear, you can hear the modified part here if you want: http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=86318787&ac=nowRegarding the signal chain, I recorded the vocals with a cheap mic, a Behringer B1, through my Alesis multimix8FX USB soundcard directly into Reaper. The first effect on the chain is Reacomp, with subtle settings (3ms attack and a compression ratio of 3:1). Then I'm using Reaper's native reverb (Reaverb) with the free Pipeline Audio Impulse Response files, wich is a killer combination IMHO. I used specifically the Hall 1-19.wav file from the Pipeline pack, adjusting just the "wet" parameter to my taste. PS: To me, this is a great composition from Stevie, it's just that it was created on the wrong era (the 80s) and its arrangments are heavily dated; if it was created on the "Songs in the Key of Life" era, things would be very different. Anyway, I'm a great fan of Stevie, so maybe I'm not being objetive 
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Great arrangement, great performance and a very professional production. Great singer! Absolutely radio-ready.
The only critical note I have (and you asked for just that) is the quality of the vocal recording. The singing and the mixing both are great, but the microphone you used just isn't capable to pick up all the details. I seem to miss the rich tone I know that singer's got to have; she now sounds a bit flat. Had you used a better mic (even a Shure SM58 would perform better imo) there would be absolutely nothing, nothing at all to nitpick on this song. (you must have changed the pianopart pointed out earlier, 'cause I didn't hear a problem there)
I've listened through M-Audio DSM-1 monitors and Grado RS2 headphones.
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I like the vocal recording, I thought for sure you would have mentioned some type of hi-pass filtering on the vocal recording; perhaps you engaged it on the mic itself. Nothing in the recording said to my ears "oh, that's a cheap microphone". I will disagree with Mike sings here and say that had you used an SM 58, that it would have turned out better. The SM 58 would have taken more gain in your pre-amp, and it's possible that faults in the pre-amp would have shown up in the recording, so difficult to say. I listened on Westone ES-5 in-ear monitors: http://www.westonemusicproducts.com/music/index.php/products/custom-fit/es5.htmlYour point about the era in which the song was recorded is partially true. I say partially true, because Stevie recorded plenty other songs in the same era with much less mechanical sounding drums and so forth. Again, great job on the song all around. -Scott
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Citaat:
Nothing in the recording said to my ears "oh, that's a cheap microphone". I will disagree with Mike sings here and say that had you used an SM 58, that it would have turned out better. The SM 58 would have taken more gain in your pre-amp, and it's possible that faults in the pre-amp would have shown up in the recording, so difficult to say.
I wouldn't say "cheap microphone". Some cheaper microphones actually sound equal to or even better than some expensive ones. This one on vocals however doesn't (to my ears). And then again: the higher the level of the production, the finer the nitpicking comb
Would be interesting to hear a mic-shoot-out using her vocals though.
Citaat:
Again, great job on the song all around.
-Scott
At least we agree on that! 
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Quote:
Would be interesting to hear a mic-shoot-out using her vocals though.
I agree there as well - I could listen to her sing all day!
-Scott
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Quote:
I agree there as well - I could listen to her sing all day!-Scott
Cerio, now tell us the truth, is that you singing? 
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Cerio,
Mind sharing what style used in BIAB?
Thanks,
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