Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Great question (as always), @JLEW! Here’s a video I made in response, which includes some answers to your questions as well as some tips that might be helpful when evaluating the “sound” of limiters like these. Lemme know what ya think! And can’t wait to hear what you’ve been limiting lately!! 💜⚡️
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Michael! Awesome work, man!! Fun song too. Here are my initial impressions/ideas:
- the harmonic distortion on lead vocal catches my ear. I’m assuming it’s a deliberate choice, but I’d opt for a more polished pop vocal sound, personally. You could always use vocal distortion in a more aggro/obvious way in certain spots for greater contrast. That way, instead of the listener (me) wondering “hmm.. is that saturation on the vocal a mistake?”, there will be no question. I’d be like, “oh snap! He put the lead vocal through a high gain amp for the chorus punchline there! Daaaamn!”
- I’d love to hear more bass guitar “note.” The low end from the bass is nice, but u could try some snarly Ampeg SVT-style grind on the bass to add some note clarity. I think more bass guitar level overall would be great (but not necessarily more low end from the bass – just midrange punch and clarity)
- When I listened in the car (happened to be driving when you posted this) I was losing the lead vocal in the wash of guitars at times, esp in the choruses, and especially the chorus punchline “leave me the f alone”. I didn’t realize that’s what she was saying until the final chorus! Maybe that punchline is a good candidate for the more aggro distortion idea – maybe as a parallel process so u still get clean pop vocal punchline as well?
Anyway, incredible work, @Michael, and thanks so much for sharing this with us!! 🙌🤓
As always, take my thoughts with a grain of salt. I look fwd to reading additional ideas and high fives from others here in the forum! And feel free to follow up in this thread by “Replying” with a new mix revision (or a Spotify link when it’s out 😉)
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Haha – bravo, Paul – love this! Is that you singing?? 🙌 Great BGVs and high falsetto .. and tuba! I look fwd to hearing this in the studio (I’m on my laptop at the moment). I was not around for the Beatles’ debut performance and don’t have an appropriate wig, but hope I can still be considered a fan of theirs somehow lol.
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Super cool, @detective! Love the beat and how the track is broken down and 1/2-time drums with all that space! FWIW, I was hoping/expecting that the first 2 chords of the pattern would just loop over and over (IV for 2 bars, I for 2 bars, repeat …) which would be a lil more typical for a rap track, which tend to be more monotonous and loop based, rather than traditional-chord-changes based. And I just love the way the MC sounds flowing over those first two chords of your middle 8! BUT … ALL THAT SAID …. I’m offering these comments completely out of context, not having heard the way this middle 8 fits into the larger piece as a whole. AND it’s very cool the way you have it, too, with all the chord changes! 🙌
Keep it up, man!!
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Jesse!! This is so cool and beautiful and unique – never heard anything like this, vocally, from you before – thanks so much for sharing here!
And thanks @detective for sharing your thoughts here as well!
@JLEW I’m gonna stew on this for a bit, but one thing that jumped out to me, mix-wise, is that your guitar solo sounds more “mono” than I was wanting. There is plenty of stereo candy going on in the track for sure at that point, but the lead guitar solo and its reverb all felt mono and I was hoping the sky and clouds would part into a vast, magical, shimmery, stereo, verb-y solo moment. Haha. Just my immediate thoughts FWIW.
You are such a badass! 💜 And I’ll try to swing back around later with any other ideas. Keep it comin’ brother!
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Hahaha – AMAZING!!! You won’t regret it.
Did u see me on their site? haha. I don’t get any kickback from them and I’ve paid for every single one of their plugins (lest you think my exuberance about their products puts money in my pocket .. it does not. I’m just a fan.)
Have fun, homey!!
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Look at this fantastic decent human right here!! ⚡️💜🙌
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Good points, Paul!
My hope is that the Member Spotlight will continue to be a safe, encouraging, gentle space for constructive comments, ideas, and high fives, with the overarching caveat that the work belongs to the submitting member and it is their choice alone to “take it or leave it” any advice or thoughtful comments from other members.
…. plus the additional overarching caveat that we’re all figuring out this member spotlight space together as we go 😂💜.
When submitting to the Spotlight we can also feel free to clarify our interests and expectations if helpful. Are we sharing here to celebrate a finished piece (i.e. high fives only🫸 ✋), or seeking mix/production advice, songwriting/arranging advice, or something else? No wrong answers here – just food for thought!
🎚️♾️
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Hahahaha – Dana “Pavarotti” Nielsen here at your service! And love that @phillipbroussard had similar feedback. Can’t wait to hear your latest updates to the piece!
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Pride?? What’s that? 😂. Awesome, man, thanks for sharing the added context. Lookin’ fwd to hearing the full-length with vocals!
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Yes!! Love this sense of place imagery, Alex!!
And, it’s interesting you mention additional vocal — I had the same thought, tho didn’t mention it in my previous post, that it would sound cool with a (female?) vocalist singing the lyrics in the background while @JLEW is speaking them. 💜
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I can’t wait to hear the new “stereo super-solo”!!!! ⚡️
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Fantastic – love having some real-user feedback on this product, thanks @Kenny! I’m gonna check it out!
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Hahaha – well, you certainly shed your ii-V’s MUCH harder than I did, and are a much better player than I, so it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be on the cover of TapeOp or hosting Mix With The Masters, I have no doubt!
Also, for anyone else reading this thread — please weigh in with your thoughts and opinions on Jesse’s question about EQs! I’d love to hear — and welcome — any contrasting opinions. If you’re like, “nah, Dana, the top end boost on the Farfelbanger 5000 parametric plugin is sonically far superior to all other EQs for your DAW!” you best believe I’ma download that Farfelbanger and check it out! 😂 #farfelbanger5k
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Hahaha – way to keep the Christmas spirit alive! Awe, thanks brother – means a lot that you checked it out and so glad u dug it! 🎄🤍