UnderTow wrote on Wed, 22 November 2006 16:39 |
On the other hand, someone complaining about 192 Kbps MP3s managed to make the piano mono. Talk about missing the big picture.
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i do deserve this kind of abuse... i sent an apology to j.hall, and i'll stay on topic from now on.
so you think it's mono? i know you don't "hear" what you expect, the piano is not crawling off the walls, ok....but do you
feel the song? ears are just an entry point for me on this. the soundboard of the piano spread out to fill the whole room was not part of the vibe for me. maybe that works for elton john, but i took this differently. i left the white sequined jacket and the hair plugs out. the protagonist here does not afford a 100 foot wide piano for a stadium, it is a stark scene to paint here, not a carnival ride, imo.
the piano micing's suggestively exagerated proportions focusing on the innards of the piano.... you miss that? it held no meaning to me in this context. i felt the instrument should be solid and true sounding...and cut straight to the heart...one singer, one piano (contained in a large wooden enclosure, open the lid to taste...but the listener sits or stands outside, right?) and of course there was the room. physically much larger than the piano.
so i mixed it "honestly", meaning i tried to keep the purity of the message unadulterated by gratuitous ear candy. this song is at a place for me that everyone has been at or will be at some time in life... it could have been acapella and still be the same song for me... it happens that the piano is superb, really superb playing and i am touched by it, the player's sense of rhythm and dynamics really make the instrument sing like a full orchestra...
but it is still just in a supporting role for the message, imo. so it needed to fit that way for me, not ever to compete with the vocal for the listener's attention. when the singer is silent, i want the listener to think about what he said, not get so "entertained" as to lose the message as it's being delivered.
but mono? like i am some kind of old fart? ok hit me again please. tell me it sounds like an old table radio; at least i would know i have evoked some feeling with it.
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alistair... i listened to yours on an ibook this afternoon... you are good, i liked it; but what is with showing off the reverbs ? now that i hear it on real speakers, that is a very nice reverb i hear, it makes me wonder if your empty warehouse is made of metal or brick? fantastic sound, but for me, the song is hiding behind your stadium-sized vision.
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chrisj,.. i feel it, but it seems you got stricken with "new toy" syndrome again.(balderdash, ballyhoo..) alistair may have the better reverb, and a more dynamic piano. but you have captured tons of the vibe. even through all that reverb, i feel the singer's ennui. the piano does not overwhelm, but it is interesting that you tried to remove some of the room to help make the two parts meet in the center, imo, an interesting strategy. the sound is a bit evocative of some classic records... not the most modern dynamics, more like classic elton john, in a good way, i think. do i hear the space designer? try the "thunderstruck" i.r. sometime; it's wicked! (small talk, talk that trash...)
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icombs... surfing the reverbs and delays... cool! great tones, lots of pleasure. only flaw other than reverbs which draw my attention to you and not the song is the piano seems to be pressing on a limiter in it's louder and denser moments toward the middle of the song, but you do deliver the ending in a breathtaking way... i wish but i didn't have to wade through so much wetness to get there.
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scotch... i feel this mix, nice blend of the ambiences, very natural, but also quite polished sounding. no flaws here for me... although i would prefer slightly less reverb lingering past the tail ends of phrases. i think the piano could have been a touch softer, but this seems a very modern and current sounding mix that could even perhaps succeed in the pop radio market, lots of good energy here. and way to keep distortion out of the vocal... beautiful ending; i am very moved.
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gatino-daverome... i am having problems because your reverb sounds like a very rectangular shaped room... and not at all the same room as the piano... i do like that you got some nice growl out of the piano, but as a mix, it is very schizophrenic feeling to me.
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liam... this is very sad sounding, but the vocal is much too crudely filtered, i hear no articulation so it is a struggle to follow the story... a lot is gone here, and that is sad too. dynamics lack too.
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mattrussel... i feel the singer is slightly too in my face, but thankfully you have totally removed the proximity artifacts, not just the plosions, but the low end feels totally under control, very deft... but i think the top end of the vocal is less well controlled, could have used de-essing perhaps.. also i find the piano is too full, there is a lot of midrange in this mix.... and is relatively lacking in bottom. the middle starts to feel really overcrowded at the end.
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ATOR... been looking forward to this one. hehehe.. it's making me laugh.. the "little bullhorn" repeat delay.... some is very cool... some i just wish you'd learn to be subtle, it definately competes with the song everything is a distraction, but you are so fun.. the funnest! kind of a sports audience going on now...or something back there... hung jury perhaps? you are gonna have to justify all this stuff musically... i guess the little mini-me bullorn delay is working better once i get used to it... now we come to the ending: was this supposed to have been recorded on the starship enterprise or perhaps inside a centrifuge? what kinda drugs dude? i want some! beam me up, scotty!
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hi garett, how's the new kid doing? ok this is filtered.. lemme turn it up.. real thick.. is vibey.. but.. somewhat hollow, sounding i mean.... is very thick, but the dynamics are not sitting in it quite right for me. when the singer holds a long note, it sounds kinda electronic... also some plosions pop though.. seems you panned the piano a bit to the right and singer to the left? i think when it solos you should have moved it back if that is the case. overall too overproduced, a bit too much of everything that engineers do.. the room, for example is very minimal, which would be ok, but it doesn't sound quite like a studio recording situation either.
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TPolce... it is mastered sounding... and very harshly, so i think it was not worth doing the mastering at the same time. the vibe cannot be here for me because the dynamics of the piano are wild and not natural, it's pounding too hard smashing into distortion on the more percussive notes. your vocals are nice, but i can hardly hear them, except for the plosions and proximity artifacts you didn't fix.. top is nice i assume, but is hard to tell it's so far back there, but i think you have a good vocal track in there.
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i'm doing these reviews in alphabetical order of file names...but it's almost turkey time ..more to follow later..
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just reading through chris' reviews after i wrote mine. i agree with his advice to gatino, you guys really broke it down.
with pre-delay, i find it is not "more" or "less" that one ever needs for the future, but the precise amount that makes a seamless blend with whatever is already on the track. unless it was recorded in an anechoic chamber, it will always be something. i used 2 reverbs on the vocal, but i wonder if you would have guessed that? i hope not.
jeff dinces