[Jesse Lewis]

Hi Phoebe! This is so cool!

The vocal feels connected to the mix to my ear, i wasn’t hearing it as being particularly “plopped on top”. One thing that struck me when listening was that you may want to ride the lead vocal a bit when the band is really hitting. The section between 2-3min I was finding that the lead vocal could have been louder. It felt like it was sitting great in the intro and the first verse when it didn’t have as much to compete with.

I think exploring more reverb/delay and special moments with FX throws, etc would totally fit the vibe. Couldn’t hurt to try!

Can’t wait to hear the final mix!

Best Wishes,

Jesse

[Jesse Lewis]

Yeah man! Dig it! SUPER fun!

Love the drumbeat, the overall party feeling, and the “graceland” style bass. Very cool

A couple of quick notes — not sure if they are helpful, but just some things I was thinking with my “critical” hat on.

(If it’s not the final vocal yet), perhaps the singer could be a little more “laid back”. Feels kinda on top of the groove a little? Laying it back, a little “drunker” might make it groove harder?

I wonder if at some point literally just dropping it down to the drums and vocal for a short moment could be impactful? Maybe worth exploring…1:14 comes to mind?

Can’t wait to hear it when it’s all done. Cool to hear you producing someone else’s vision, too!

keep rockin!

JLew

[Jesse Lewis]

Yooooo!!! So great man! I love it! Beautiful song, I love the mix, and the video is so great!

now get that Tele out of that snow storm man! haha

Great work, Joe

❤️

Jesse

[Jesse Lewis]

Patrick – This song is so beautiful. It pulled me right in to your world – and took me on a journey. Your voice sounds amazing. I loved the guitar at the end! so cool! Beautiful work.

Jesse

[Jesse Lewis]

This sounds insanely good. I love this entire thread…

• This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by  Jesse Lewis.

[Jesse Lewis]

Yeah Papa Paul!

Sounds awesome man! It’s so refreshing to hear a band that sounds like a band too!! I could totally see them playing this at a club and it would sound just like it, like in a really good way! Way to go Arcane Grace!!! 🔥

ps – check out the “tag” on you post below! I’m guessing it has to be AI! Even @dana isn’t that visionary hahahaha

[Jesse Lewis]

Hey Joe!

What a BEAUTIFUL song, man! SO Gorgeous — and so awesome to hear you sing, too! I think you got another hit on your hands!

I’ve listened a few times and wanted to offer a few thoughts in case they are helpful. Obviously, just some opinions and ideas – but maybe they’ll be helpful in someway…

The first thing that hit me was the guitar – such extraordinary playing as always and I love the warm, thick tone you got there as well. That kind of instantly pulled me in to the song and then when you came in singing, I was like, “hell yeah!! awesome!!!” you have a wonderful voice, and I really liked the way you recorded it too, a lot of personality came through in the vocal.

One thing that I do think needs to be addressed is the level of the vocal overall — just in relation to itself. I don’t know if it’s just needing some more compression or possibly automating word by word, but there are some words that really jump out and others that I find difficult to hear. Usually, it’s the words at the end of a phrase that go down and pitch and wanted to understand those easier. I think either compressing the vocal or just bringing up certain words would be helpful so the listener can follow along.

I have a couple of thoughts about the pad/ keyboard sound that you have going on throughout. One thing I noticed is that they’re all kind of in the same frequency range as the guitar, which made it a little hard to distinguish and maybe as a result, they are masked a little bit… maybe it’s something to explore, but it’s also kind of cool how they just blend in as well. So something to consider!

My last comment is also related to the keyboards — and this is really just my opinion because there’s nothing wrong with how you have the production right now, but if I was producing the song I feel like I might want something more organic, and natural sounding in the production, than the two sounds you have panned left/right. Both sounds kind of feel like they are some kind of midi software instrument and the vibe you have going with the lyrics and your voice and the beautiful acoustic guitar and the bass and drums and percussion all feels so natural – I was wondering what the track might sound like with like an old upright piano and a violin or a mandolin or something like that instead of those keyboards. Again, totally just an idea and maybe your way past that in terms of your time frame and what you have access to in your studio, but I just thought I’d mention it as an idea!

Man! I’m such a fan and totally humbled by your playing and singing and composing! So wonderful! I can’t wait to hear where this one ends up!

Best Wishes,

JLew

[Jesse Lewis]

Thanks so much, Staurt! I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and share your thoughts – and for your encouragement. I’m glad you liked the song!

It’s funny – I totally agree with you about the key of the song. In fact, I had already moved it up by a step because I wasn’t able to hit the low notes — but then problem that I ran into was that my vocal range is so limited (less than an octave without breaking into falsetto) that then I couldn’t hit the high notes haha. I either need to write songs with a smaller vocal range or take some voice lessons haha!

Thanks again for listening and sharing your feedback.

Best,

JLew

[Jesse Lewis]

Dang bro! I’m so happy you liked it! Receiving this encouraging message means the world to me. I’m so thankful for you — and this space — to learn and grow!

Love,

JLew

[Jesse Lewis]

Dudski! I cannot believe I’m only seeing this response now. This is single-handedly the best description of how to dial in compression that I have ever read. The five steps that you laid out are explained brilliantly. It never occurred to me about how you can find your threshold based on the part of the note that you want to be able to hear more of, even though that seems obvious now in retrospect. I’m so thankful. And I’m stoked to compress the crap out of everything haha jknk

I think the fab filter compressor plug-in I have will be an excellent tool to visualize this, too. The next time you hear my guitar, it’s going to be sustaining at levels never before comprehended by mankind haha

love and many thanks,

Abuela J

[Jesse Lewis]

P Money!

Thanks so much for the encouragement and the suggestions. I shall see if the J-lettes are available for another session haha

Hope you are doing well my friend!

JB

[Jesse Lewis]

Joe – this is AWESOME man!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Best,

Jesse

[Jesse Lewis]

Adding the video to this thread as well in case anybody wants to see what it all looked like…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgfaX_d8RKw

[Jesse Lewis]

haha! Nice! That’s a whole lotta wild life you got in there!! I think I might have heard a UFO too…?

❤️

JB

[Jesse Lewis]

Yo @-PT and @dana

Here’s my updated version:

I’m going to include what I did for revisions in case anybody finds it interesting…

DANA notes

1. Turn up the geese!!! More ambience.

I was able to find some birds “in the clear” from when I wasn’t playing the guitar and I layered them in, I think it helps!)

2. Guitar sounds kinda thin.

Agreed. I really struggled with this, because I had to high pass the crap out of it to get rid of the wind from the storm, a lot of low end rumble in general. I tried R-Bass and also EQ, but it just added a lot of low end and muddiness.

3. 1:26 L/R strum guitars sound real thin.

I had hi-passed them a lot and boosted a lot of the high end as well in an effort to put them in a different part of the mix, trying to separate them from all of the other guitar parts going on, but I agree, I think I overdid it. I ended up reducing the high shelf I had going on which mellowed them out a bit. I think it definitely helps!

4. 1:46 I’d try making your vocal louder, and more verb-y! by 2:11 the level sound right, but would be cool w more verb

I made the vocal louder and more verby as well, hopefully it helped!

5. 3:11 ending vocals, again more dreamy verb. Vocals in general also sound a bit thin. Try some Waves R-Bass (maybe set to 100-200hz) on the vocal and the ac guitars to fill them out with more body.

I added the R-Bass to all of my vocals! What a huge difference that made! That plug-in is so cool! I don’t quite understand how it’s different than just an EQ, but it’s really great and I can’t wait to use it on bass as well! I know that R-bass is some kind of subharmonic saturation or something. Maybe if we ever did a zoom on the subject of saturation you could include a little lesson on how you use that plug-in? I tried putting reverb at the end, but I really missed the super dry raw ending. just conceptually I liked the idea of ending it back in reality! I did try it though! Also, re: Paul’s suggestion – I put a very, very subtle low frequency reverb throw on my last note.

Paul notes

1. There’s that metallic percussion beast at 2:35 that sticks out. Its level drops later but that early entrance dominates the mood. I wonder if high passing that thing, dropping its level considerably and slopping it up with a long plate verb wouldn’t make it sound like cracking ice on the river.

I wasn’t sure exactly which metallic percussion element you were talking about, because there are so many, but there were two in that section that stood out to me after you commented on it — so I address both of them. the first was that loud backbeat swoosh that alternated with the hand claps, and the other is a quarter note metallic pulse from a tambourine. both of them were very piercing around 5-8k so I ended up using multi brand compression on that frequency to attenuate it. basically a De-Esser for the percussion. I think it helped smooth it out a bit. additionally I took your advice and used a long plate reverb on those backbeat swoosh hits. that was a great idea. Thanks.

2. The last “hah” of your chant at the songs finale is crying out for that same reverb treatment. I just want to end back where I was when I first heard the geese.

I went very subtle on this because I tried a big reverb and it kind of bothered me, I ended up creating a reverb that basically just bloomed around my fundamental pitch and if you listen closely, you can kind of hear it bloom at the very end.

———

Hey guys

thanks so much guys for all of your great feedback and advice — I don’t know what I do without y’all!

once I finish the video I’ll upload it to this thread as well so folks can see the location, process, etc.

SNOW-DAY-MASTER.mp3 9 MB MP3 - Click to view

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