The Regulars...... (I need help with room in the song )

[The_Bachelor]

http://files.fawmers.com/FAWM_17/bachel ... gulars.mp3

I was looking for a good example of this. This could be one. I think my voice is too crammed into the guitar, I play with the pan, and the equalizer, but I can't seem to get away from the guitar. I use a Tascam M106 mixer and Tascam 234 tape recorder. I also have a nanoverb and a dbx compressor.... that's about it....

I'd appreciate any help with this.

Things I do know
1. My singing sucks
2. My guitar playing sucks
(Hey!!!! I'm working on it!!!! Please don't concentrate on these)

....also, anything else you think is wrong with the way I recorded the song, feel free to mention it. I'm just a songwriter who would like to get better at recording.

Thanks,

Brad

[Greg_L]

To me, it seems like the vocals are sitting way on top of everything. First thing I'd try is just dropping their level into the mix more. Then, maybe EQ out some of the low mids to make more room everything else. As a last step, if necessary, compress to even the vocal track out some.

[miroslav]

Yeah...drop the vocal level, or raise the other tracks, headroom permitting.
I think if you added another guitar or something...some bass, and fill out the mix a bit...then the vocals will settle in better.

[TripleM]

Agree on the vocal. It's louder than the other tracks. It's dryer too. Its level is uneven. I'm not sure compression is going to take care of it. You might need to ride the fader. Plenty of pitch problems.

On the drums, I'd try to find a snare with a little more high end and a little less reverb.

The guitar is a bit cloudy and indistinct.

[rayc]

All the above but most of all it's the volume of the voice relative to the backing.
Aim to have the snare and vocals at the same level then bring the other stuff in.
A 2nd guitar and then each panned to the sides would make things a little clearer.

[The_Bachelor]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to pull out the master and give those suggestions a try. Especially lowering the voice to equal the snare.

It will be hard to add another guitar, since all I've got here are 4 tracks (right now it's bass, drums, guitar, vocal on the master). In the future, I can bounce something like the bass and drums together (.....I'm thinkin....) and then use thr additional track to pan the guitars, but is there anyway to help the guitar thing now?

Maybe my approach is wrong too. I try to visualize what it would look like on a stage and mix to that. In my mind on this song, it's a guy with a guitar singing in the middle of the stage, the drums behind, and a bass player over to one side. Is this the way y'all approach it?

[Greg_L]

Maybe my approach is wrong too. I try to visualize what it would look like on a stage and mix to that. In my mind on this song, it's a guy with a guitar singing in the middle of the stage, the drums behind, and a bass player over to one side. Is this the way y'all approach it?

That's not wrong. There is no right or wrong. You make it however you want it. Listen to old Motown or Beatles recordings. They'd have something like drums and vocals on one side, everything else on the other. Through speakers you never notice that weird vintage stereo spread.

If you really want to approximate a band on a live sound stage from the audience perspective, just mix to mono. When you're standing in a crowd you can't tell the bass is on the left and the guitar is on the right unless you're right up close.

[vomitHatSteve]

First thing I'd try is just dropping their level into the mix more. Then, maybe EQ out some of the low mids to make more room everything else.

+1 on this. The upshot of EQing the vocal mids down is that it will make it a little less dark as well as making room for everything else.
Do you have a pop-stopper? I caught a few plosives in there.

Was this a FAWM project then? Are you allowed to keep working on songs into march?!