Originally Posted By: rayc
Good song but all the vocals are WAY too far forward in the mix.
Yes, the solo sounds like a 70s Styx/Toto/Boston sound - doesn't fit too well.
The kick drum is VERY clicky even in the full band mix...you should be able to deal with that now it's MIDI.
I'm not sure the MIDI bass VI works too well - it has no aggression of pick attack.
I like the vocal for the most part...retracking should be fine if you need to. the "femme" vox work really well.
The general guitar tone isn't much chop - but I have noted that BIAB "punk" guitars are mainly distorted semi metal tones. The ska ones are usually better but they seem pretty dirty in this. You might get a better result with other, cleaner, guitars and some added overdrive.
The vocal style and treatment reminded me more of rockabilly than ska punk.
Excellent song.


Hi, Ray. I always look forward to your responses. I appreciate the actionable feedback you provide. Yes, listening back, I agree with you about most if not all of this. I probably agree with all but won't know until I've tried your suggestions in a new recording & new mix.

Ha, Boston is the band I was trying to think of when I went back and listened to my guitar solo. My solo is like a very bad version of Boston. ;-) I agree it doesn't fit. Any ideas of who to listen to so I can borrow the feel/territory of their solo?

I'll see about putting another kick drum in. I'll need to listen to it more closely. For the bass, I think I will go back and use EZ Bass to generate midi of the BIAB bass part. EZ Bass seems to do a better job at it than Melodyne. And EZ Bass seems to have more aggressive bass sounds than Trillian, although Trillian just released a new version and might have some new bass models.

I'm glad you thought the "femme" vox worked. It was late the night I recorded this song (and it was due the next day) and I only had my own vocals but wanted some female backing.

I'll give the cleaner guitars a try as you've suggested. Amplitube 5 is coming out any day, so I'll try running the clean guitar through some overdrive in Amplitube.

Thanks again for all your help and encouragement. I'm happy to have your input.

Cheers, Todd

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