Challenge: Publish an example of your work in a month!

[Mark Bliss]

Havent had time to really keep up. Just listened to the last 3 or 4 submissions, and have to say there is some nice stuff here. Very diverse too!
Threads gotten a little too long and spread out for critiqueing individual efforts at this point I think.

But Pim? Wow. I could only pick apart step by step what is GREAT about that. Very nice effort!

And Trevor, you dog, you led us to believe you couldnt sing! In fact if I were to make a couple of suggestions for you, I'd start with bringing up the vocal a touch!

Nice work everyone!

[TrevsAudio]

Thanks Peter and Mark for your very generous comments.

I'm aware of my pitch drift and bum notes and considered using Melodyne - but that wouldn't be me. At least I have something in common with what Paul McCartney currently sounds like.

Mark, I'm keeping a list of all submissions and will publish at the end of March (Sunday). So far we have 15 submissions which I think is excellent.

[Rambler40]

Good job Trev, you actually croon pretty good. Nothing to be bashful about there at all. Now me on the other hand... I actually put some vocals to the song I posted up earlier. I am the first to admit that I am not a singer by any stretch of the imagination and I hear flaws throughout. I'll also admit that this wasn't one unbroken take and that I did use some subtle pitch correction. Why I am posting this to a bunch of strangers I'll never know... I punched up the drums a bit more and panned the guitar and synth about 30% left and right to try to open it up a little more. I changed the title as well, now it's called Make Me Blue:

https://soundcloud.com/rambler40/make-me-blue

[TrevsAudio]

A nice improvement Rambler! Really sounds good.

I'll substitute this one for the previous, OK?

Yeah, I wrestled with the voice thing for some time but decided that's who I am. I'm not out to be a million selling sensation - just entertaining myself and I can live with that.

[SoundSquire]

Trevor - I am sitting in a plush lounge with a fine cigar and some warm Cognac enjoying the heck out of Night and Day.

Great job on the vocals and nice arrangement. Good lyrics. Clever atmospheric touch at the end with the rain. I would fade out the music and let the rain go for bit and then fade the rain. Some ambiance with more reverb on the guitar intro would perhaps help set the mood. Bravo Trevor!

[TrevsAudio]

Thanks so much for your comments Sam

10 extra points if you spotted the faint strains of another Porter song in the outro - "I get a kick out of you" on the flutes.

Ps. took your advice about the reverb on guitar and the rain modification at the end. Sounds nicer - thanks. I reposted on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/trevlyns-1/night-and-day

[outteh]

OK gang. Here's my submittal for the song of March. A great Clapton Tune Tears In Heaven. I'm still working on mastering this a bit netter, the guitar work is still a bit muddy. Maybe I'll learn something in the Intro To Music Production course that can help me out. Anyway, here's the link:
http://mixcraftlive.com/T-Guitar/audio.php?p=2

[benhal9]

remastered my piece. Here is the new one.
http://youtu.be/t47zCaJriQk

[SoundSquire]

outteh - Nice cover of a great Clapton song. A bit heavy on the left in the intro but dang...that wide vocal sound you got toward the end made up for it. The vocal needs a touch of sparkle or air up around 8K. Push those vocals in the beginning up a wee bit. Put some of that nice guitar track in the right pan as well. Make the instruments swell with emotion and perhaps use some volume automation in the parts of the arrangement that call for it. Good cover overall.

[outteh]

SoundSquire thanks for the tips, I'll give them a shot. I have the hardest time separating sounds and cleaning up the master. I think I've been doing to much reading and not enough listening. I'll remaster and see what happens.

[TrevsAudio]

Hi!

Must say I also battle a bit but what I find helps is "part" mixing as I'm adding tracks.

Say my first track is a drum loop - I'll lay that down. Second track may be rhythm guitar. Once recorded I try and mix/balance it to the drums. Then the 3rd, mixed to the first 2 and so on.

As more tracks are added, I keep a check on the master levels to see they're not peaking beyond yellow.

At the end I have a reasonably balanced mix and then it's many sessions of just listening and fine tuning.

[outteh]

Trevlyn, does double tracking a part and offsetting the time a bit help to keep it "alive" in the mix? Sort of what I did for the vocals but haven't quite got the acoustic guitar to stand out.

[TrevsAudio]

With acoustic or rhythm guitar, I like to do one of the following.

Record a track and duplicate it panning one left, the other right but then shift one slightly out of sync with the other as I described a few posts ago. This "tricks" the ear into hearing two separate instruments - if they aren't shifted it effectively just doubles the volume and and you won't get the same effect.

Better is to record it two times, each on a separate track and then pan one left, the other right. There's no way you will play it EXACTLY the same each time and it will sound more natural. Panning helps to give a nice wide stereo effect.

Have a look at this video http://therecordingrevolution.com/2010/ ... que-video/

Hope this helps!

[outteh]

Great! Thanks Trevlyn I'll try it out.

[outteh]

Ok took everyone's advice and re-mixed, mastered. It does sound a lot brighter. Added some strings also. Thanks everyone for the help!

http://mixcraftlive.com/T-Guitar/audio.php?p=2