Last track of 'look at the world'

Steinberg Lounge
#1

I finished the last track, now I can finnally actually litterally realy round it up after almost a year.
I still have to mix this song, there is nothing on the output bus exept for a brickwall limiter, and the vocals are going to be rerecorded. I want to have some more variations, this is just one line that I copy pasted throughout the song.

http://soundcloud.com/dylan-siemerink/our-suicide-ft-sabine-wensink

It’s not really a song, more a state of my mind. It works well when played loud through a pair of hi-end headphones, but on average speakers I can’t really get excited. So I hope someone can give me some pointers how to resolve this.

Instruments: Korg legacy analogue edition VST synths (MS20 Polysix and Monopoly) and Prologue.
Drums Samples through groove agent. (808 short kick with a MS20 sine for the sub)
FX UAD realverb pro, native Cubase plugins and Filterbank.\

I sampled some flagiolets from my acoustic guitar to make the ‘musicbox’ melody
Piano is from GPO personal orchestra.

Other comments highly welcome offcourse, hope you’ll enjoy it.

Greetz Dylan

#2

I like the song but I think the vocals are in serious need of a deesser, very siblant on the esses I would do that immediately and then repost it.

#3

Yeah, I like it. I wonder if your lack of excitment with it at the moment is due to the fact you havent finished mixing it yet, and as you say, you need to redo the vocals etc, maybe? Or are you thinking along the lines of more sounds/swirls?

Sounds good so far though! :wink:

Sav

#4

There’s something exciting about it to me. There’s an intensity to this one. The mix sounds good on my speakers. I agree with the sibilance comment, but it’s not that bad. Really nice job.

#5

Ditto! The ‘sss’ are mostly noticable to on “suicide” - the first time where it repeats. I reckon you could get away with more FX on the vocal - maybe nice long reverb tails in conjunction with a decent amount of pre-delay? Actually an effect I used once which worked well in that particular context was to selectively use a 20s Reverb! HP filtered quite high up - a similar sort of thing might work well in places on this track. Just a thought…

Nearly 7 minutes long! Nice.
:sunglasses:

#6

Hiya Dylan, this is really good. The sibilance is not an issue for me, listen to Utopia by Goldfrapp, huge Sssssssssss but works somehow, there’s a plosive on “pass” though you need to tame a touch, dig into the WAV there and reduce it that way rather than use software :sunglasses:

Enjoyed the song :sunglasses:
Phil

#7

Hey Phil,

Yes, I used a plopfilter and a high pass filter on the mike, weird how it got there.
I will make better settings next take.
About the sss. Well the song is called suicide, lot´s of ssés there, also because I use a long delay on that word.
Somehow I dont really think it´s wrong though, maybe to loud. So instead of a deesser I think I will ride-automate it out.

I will record the vocals again with a rode tube mike, maybe then the ssés will be less harsch anyway. This is sung through a very cheap Stagg Condenser.

To all,

Thanks for the comments!! :slight_smile:

#8

Thanks,

I think you got the message! Exciting and Intense is what I was after. This is about killing a complete planet, Somehow this can´t be accompanied with a hook, or a chordprogression.
I used the same Am bassline throughout the song 7 minutes long. And used a lot of sublow to make it massive.
This subbass heavy groove with the very slow simpel and elemental vocal line was my starting point.

I will take sherz tip and drench the next vocal take in a bigger darker space.

Thanks for the tips!!

#9

the sibilance problem here is worse than the goldfrap song because it contains higher frequencies than anything else in the mix and that makes it piercing in a bad way, I would question anyones monitors or listening environment if they think it’s s not that bad or it’s just minor.

no offense.

#10

…or their hearing. I lost my top-end years ago. :confused:

#11

I didn’t want to come off offensive but I do agree with you.

#12

Nice, what did you use for the bass?

#13

Hey Rick,

Three elements:

Kickdrums is a 808 sample with a tuned Sinewave from the Korg MS20 (software)
Then a bas line on the polysix.
An additional Prologue sawtooth patch (very short decay) with a LP that I occasinally drop on the left channel to get extra percussion.

On the polysix I used this

http://d16.pl/index.php?menu=228

an interesting reverb not to expensive that I bought last year. It can make really big spaces, not realistic, more for sculpting.So there is a lot of reverb on the bass. Something I normally won’t do.

I used no eq (except some notching on the kick to cut through) and no compressors on any of the bas.

#14

There is some debat about the ss’s. This will be taken care of, mostly the vocals are recorderde in an early stage, as a guide track, I mix them way later, so mostly when work is in progress the vocals are not mixed well.
Also, in my mix there is not that much ss, but after loading it up on soundcloud, the high frequenties get more harsch. Maybe some truncation or compressing of some sort is going on there I don’t know.

Greetz Dylan.

#15

cool subtle orchestrating. the singer has a nice deep voice. endless possibilities with this one, great foundation to fold sounds in.

#16

Okay, new version and also a shorter one (4 minutes) I deessed the hell out of it. On the vocal and on the FX. All settings so the esses went -20dB, on top of that I use the Cambridge EQ, searched the right frequenty and pulled that back with 9 dB. I think my mike can’t record the s normally :open_mouth: .

I also drenched Sabine in reverb as suggested.

http://soundcloud.com/dylan-siemerink/our-suicide-ft-sabine-1


Why 4 minutes? Oneof my friends who does 3D animation wants to make a clip for this one, using live footage and Animation. I’m really happy I found smeone to do this. Will take a while for it to finnish though, it’s a free project.

Greetz Dylan

#17

Sounds good Dylan!
Nice sounds and FX.

Cheers,
Wim