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#545354 07/13/19 11:59 AM
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Edit: I took some of the advice below and reworked the song, the video is of the reworked version. Thank you very much for the feedback! Of course any more feedback would be very appreciated.



This is my second attempt at a song in Band in a Box. I'm still getting the hand of the whole mixing side of things and still working on my vocals as well. As always, any feedback would be great! I used BIAB to generate the track and then Studio One to record vocals and to provide virtual instruments for midi tracks.

RealTracks in style: ** N/A ** 628:Bass, Electric, Funk James FingerSlap Ev 100
RealTracks in style: ** N/A ** 2197:Piano, Electric, Rhythm JazzRockHeld Ev16 100
RealTracks in style: ** N/A ** 2158:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm FunkyGroove60s Ev 100
RealTracks in style: ** N/A ** ~1436:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm JazzFunkGroovinMute Ev16 110
RealDrums [in style:JazzFunkUrban^1-a:Picolo Snare, Ride , b:Picolo Snare, HiHat

Last edited by RichardB1985; 07/14/19 09:37 AM.
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Hi Richard. Great work on this. The sax is a nice touch
Your vocal needs to be more upfront and the vocal effects isn't helping.
Try a little reverb and delay.
Over all nicely done. Looking forward to hearing more. Rob

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Catchy song with a nice chorus! It's got a very 80s feel.

I enjoyed this listen. smile


OK, now for the critical bits. frown

My first thought is the same as Rob4580 - the vocal is too far back.

The vocal doesn't sound like it's in the same "space" as the instruments, and the vocal effect doesn't make things better - it sounds like a cheap reverb.

Instead of using a vocal effect, doubling (or tripling) your vocal might be a better idea.

The last few notes of the guitar solo sound off.

Here's the elephant I'm not very good at tip-toeing around: you've got pitch problems. There's nothing wrong with that - I'd never suggest that it prevent you from singing, or that your singing is bad.

But with pitch correction tools, it's fairly easy to find and fix pitch problems before anyone else hears them. smile

I've personally had more than a few sessions where I was sure I was singing on pitch, only to have the software show me I somehow drifted into the wrong key. sick

Anyway, I hope this hasn't discouraged you in any way. Keep up the good work!


-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Thank you both very much for your feedback. I really appreciate it. At this stage I really need as much criticism as possible because I pretty much know nothing! I'm going to go back in and rework some of the song and use a bit of pitch correction in melodyne. The key is c and melodyne picked the vocals up as f# major... So I definitely went wrong somewhere!

Thanks again for the feedback!

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You're doing pretty well Richard...
It may be hard to get your head around all the technical issues all at once...
But you seem to be getting there...
Keep at it & have fun!


Jim
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Jim #545430 07/14/19 04:54 AM
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Originally Posted By: Jim
You're doing pretty well Richard...
It may be hard to get your head around all the technical issues all at once...
But you seem to be getting there...
Keep at it & have fun!


Thanks Jim. I know, I thought the writing and singing part was hard enough... then you add mixing, arranging, etc! I am enjoying it though and hopefully getting my songs closer to how I imagine them being before I record them.

dcuny #545463 07/14/19 09:00 AM
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Originally Posted By: dcuny
Catchy song with a nice chorus! It's got a very 80s feel.

I enjoyed this listen. smile


OK, now for the critical bits. frown

My first thought is the same as Rob4580 - the vocal is too far back.

The vocal doesn't sound like it's in the same "space" as the instruments, and the vocal effect doesn't make things better - it sounds like a cheap reverb.

Instead of using a vocal effect, doubling (or tripling) your vocal might be a better idea.

The last few notes of the guitar solo sound off.

Here's the elephant I'm not very good at tip-toeing around: you've got pitch problems. There's nothing wrong with that - I'd never suggest that it prevent you from singing, or that your singing is bad.

But with pitch correction tools, it's fairly easy to find and fix pitch problems before anyone else hears them. smile

I've personally had more than a few sessions where I was sure I was singing on pitch, only to have the software show me I somehow drifted into the wrong key. sick

Anyway, I hope this hasn't discouraged you in any way. Keep up the good work!


I think David is pretty much spot on. Your mixing and use of the program really seem to be coming along! Doing some work on the vocals will bring this song a long ways!
Nice work!! Take care. Greg

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Nicely done - I found the tune to be really catchy, and someone else said already but the sax was a nice touch. I think you did a wonderful job here, and that it's an improvement on the last version.

Great work and thanks for sharing smile


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The song has potential but you do need to work on the pitchiness as well as a way to get the vocal sit in the mix as, at present, it seems like it's in another room as the instruments.
To help with that I suggest you turn the reverb off on the instruments before you export them to whereever you record your vocals and do your mixing.
That way you'll be able to use various doses of the same reverb so the vocal and instruments seem more together.


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rayc
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Hi Richard, Nice work on this! Great tone with the guitar and fantastic work on the vocals. Certainly a fun piece!


Cheers,
Joe
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