Hypnotized

Hello my forum friends,

I’ve teamed up with some new talent and got together what was originally just a test of my holiday present POP! EZX for EZDrummer. As always, I’d like to know your thoughts on everything from arrangement to mix so I can learn what to do better.

Hypnotized Final Mix–thanks guys!!

Special thanks to everyone in the description. Vocals weren’t exactly performed to my specifications, but being that I used the internet this time, I had to suck it up and make do.

Thanks for listening! :wink:

Blake

hi Blake good pop tune and good catchy chorus ,how come you are putting the vocalist down, i thought it was a decent job .how do you mean you used the internet this time .

Hey Polgara,

Not necessarily putting the vocalist down, just that some of the wording/timing were not performed to my specifications. I put up a listing on an auditioning site (no pay) and worked to send files from there.

Glad you like it!

Very well done…love the girls voice…she sounds excellent!!! couple of timing issues here and there and now that your at a much higher level you need to sort it because the timing issues let the song down…you never get exactly what you have in your head when other people are involved but but what the singer has brought to the table shouldn’t be underestimated,
little bit twee at the beginning of the song but, hey…I’m being picky…

you must be very pleased…this is a brilliant result…don’t lose that singer!!!..Kevin

did you send her an example of how the song should be phrased etc, by score or did you sing the example and send that .

Hey Kevin,

Your advice is always appreciated. I’m sure you’re on the mark with these comments, but can you give me further example of what you’re talking about?

@polgara: I sang it and sent it to her. Don’t get me wrong, she did a hell of a job and has a fabulous voice. The thing is like Kevin said, you write it a certain way then words are shortcuted and mis-timed and it drives you crazy.

if you know how to use melodyne you can generally move anything vocal around to your own liking ,to a point. ive done some crazy edits at times to some singers voices and you cant tell.

Trust me, God knows I’ve tried. But you can’t put words in that aren’t there. I may give the bridge another try though.

I know how to use Melodyne, this file has a lot of it. :wink:

Hi, from 0.34 secs when the offbeat snare comes in it just gets a bit dodgy for me…not for long though, might be something to do with the chop guitar (sounds like) not matching the drums precisely and if the singer is slightly out of time then it adds up a bit…it’s not major but at the beginning of the song it’s not good…
as polgara said you could easily tighten up the vox on Melodyne…

I think the singer has done a fantabidoso job…dunno what words she may have left out or not, I remember when I was singing your last song that it was a bit tough fitting all the words in…but maybe that’s because I can’t talk proper being a northern git!!!

I think this is a great job…regarding the twee comment…difficult to explain but it’s a bit “nice” if you catch my drift…(just the intro)
hey…this is just my opinion and maybe it’s all bollocks…

best Kevin

Just listened again and i reckon it’s the synth line behind the piano arp that’s spoiling it for me…just my opinion though…wait and see what the other more knowledgeable peeps say…

Kevin

Interesting analysis Kevin, I’m gonna look into it. Honestly a couple things I can account for. The string line is what makes it “twee” there at the start. Originally I buried it pretty good cause I thought it was a bit cheesy, but then Craig, the guy who mixed it, decided to bring it out a little more. I trust his mix decisions and overall I think he got things sounding a whole lot tighter than I had them.

As far as timing, after I listened to what Ian was saying about Broken World, I decided too loosen things up a bit and not quantize as hard. If the drums are off it’s not by much, because I programmed a lot of that in by mouse. It’s the Pop EZX being run inside Superior Drummer, which adds humanization and whatnot. When I listen hard it seems like the singer is the one that’s off (yeah here I go again…), but I will say it’s a very hard song to sing. Me and Craig decided to keep my vocals for the chorus and use them as backing to strengthen that part of the song.

More advice is welcome

maybe you can get her to sing the verse again ,i can hear that it has been heavily melodyneddd or whatever .so does the singer know that she is being scrutinized on the "made with steinberg" show , has she heard the editing you have done to her voice . i am sure you could do a better job with melodyne or even cubases version,cause there are some major timing issues on the first verse ,is there any way you could get her to sing it again. ,by the way the song`s chorus sounds very good well done.tell yer mixer guy the snare and hi hat need some seperation there is too much fizz on the snare.

No she doesn’t know anything, I sent her a few emails asking her to re-sing originally because of the wording; three weeks later heard nothing. This is the best we could do. You hear Melodyne because it was out of tune in the beginning. When I sent a version to the guitarist, he agreed that with only a light Melodyne job it was “so out of tune that it’s hard to listen to.” To be fair, so was my version. :wink: Try picking up your mic and singing this song!!

I got a new version in from the mixer today, inquired about the drums so will see what he says.

Edit: Wake up this morning and out of nowhere there’s an email from vocalist saying she’s gonna send me the rest of her takes. Can’t record more.

Tired of waiting around on vocalist, gotta get over my pet peeve and just put up a final mix. Got a lot of other songs in the tank.

This one has been in the works since Christmas day, hard to think it took me till April to get it done! For those of you interested, originally the piano part at the chorus was a line I was going to add into Broken World but it sounded like a whole 'nuther song so here I was. Originally I had it going in my usual acoustic pop rock direction, but decided to switch things up a bit and get out of my comfort zone. So I bought Pop EZX and tried to do it popish style.

@Kevin: I may be mistaken but I think this latest version cleared up most of the timing issues? I think the mixer time warped the vocalist into shape.

I reckon you’ve done really well…I think the offbeat bass drum is creating the timing problem for me but it’s no biggie!!!
particularly like the bit at 2.10 to 2.29, reckon you should have used that twice in the song, first time with a beat and second time as is…
any way…well done and move on to the next project and good luck with it, you have a new higher bar to work towards.

Kevin

Hmm that’s interesting, never thought of that, might should have.

I agree with the “northern git” - great track. Kept my interest & attention throughout.
Haven’t listened to it with full concentration so I didn’t pick out anything adrift.
Neil

Hey Neil. Thanks for the listen and the input. :slight_smile:

I like the tune, the vocalist did a great job vocals, she puts a very unique spin on this. I am wondering if there are a few slight pitch issue at start? Also the timing issue you hear doesn’t really bother me, sounds like some of the instruments are pushing (slightly ahead) but others are on beat exactly. Didn’t spend time analyzing all timing but this is really a great step up for you and bravo on drum sound!