Troy Westfield/The Comedown

[troywestfield]

Hi all

First project I've ever tracked, mixed, and mastered personally. Was going for shoegaze-y, but mostly it just sounds like me; you can tell that my previous music leaned toward power pop.

Any feedback welcome, but would especially like to get mixing/mastering data points; 'reverbs are mismatched/overbearing,' or 'guitars overpower the vox in the second verse,' or 'you call that mastering? i don't know *what* that is, but it ain't mastering.'

Thanks very much for listening.

https://soundcloud.com/the-twe/the-comedown

[wagtunes]

My Feedback

Music - 6.5
Instruments - 8
Performance - 7.5
Mix - 5

Overall - 6.75

Comments: Vocals have too much reverb and too buried in the mix. Guitars too mid rangey. Can just about hear the bass. Drums are buried. Can barely hear the snare. Musically, the drums need more variation. Structure wise, can't tell where the chorus is, if there even is one. Part of the problem is the vocals not standing out. But chord progression seems rather stagnant. I get your going for shoegaze but even that genre has clarity in the mix. Performance is competent but nothing really stands out. All in all, sounds like a bad garage band recording with all the mud. Needs tons of work.

[Morgaxx]

I liked your song. Vibe is strong and your singing is quite good. However, as stated above, your vocals are hard to make out. Drums are ok (snare is plenty loud) but with the kick and tom work the bass guitar suffers somewhat. You have that rumbling low end which is fine, but I would like a little more attack definition to the bass guitar (personal taste). Also you cheated yourself of a nice ending. All it would take is dropping some instruments out and fading the remaining tracks. Simple? So, I liked it and it reminds me of music I enjoyed in my 20's

[troywestfield]

Thanks very much to both of you for your time and feedback.

Morgaxx: Below is my attempt at incorporating your suggestion about the bass. You were right; compression is the aspect I think I least understand, and my settings on the bass track were wrong. I also turned it up in the mix a little, but not a lot; I actually don't want it to be too discrete an element. I'd like to have it blend in some with the guitars and kick. If you could let me know if the changes make a difference on whatever speakers/'phones you're listening on, or if they're too subtle to be noticeable, I'd appreciate it.

The vox aren't hard to discern because of the effects; I actually pulled most of them back a lot. I was purposely overdriving the mic while tracking. I probably got about 95% of the way to what I was going for, though some might not believe it; there are a couple lines I overdrove too much, because I am the opposite of a singer and have no experience or mic control. Experience tells me I'd need to redo the whole vocal -- you'd hear the difference in some of the settings of my equipment between the two sessions on the overdubs -- and I don't trust I'd get another full performance as good as this one.

Lastly, I wanted to ask you what you had in mind for the ending. Because I think we're on the same page; what you describe is sort of what I was going for, pulling a lot of the guitars away and just letting the groove fade. Which instruments would drop?

Thanks again
troy

https://soundcloud.com/the-twe/the-comedown-1

[Morgaxx]

Hey, I like the change(s). Not that things were terrible of course. I understand what you wanted sound wise, good job. Bass is not overly discrete yet it helps push the tune a little more. What you say about your vocals is interesting. As to the clarity I personally don't mind. Usually I enjoy singing or what have you without paying attention to lyrics anyway. Others differ obviously. As I said before your vocal 'performance' was enjoyable.

The end? Hmmmm. At 4:10 you have the big held chord. If i was doing a straight fade Id start here. I like the 2 note part (4:26)that echos the vocals from earlier. I would start that earlier in the fade. Honestly it is tricky to say which tracks could be easily dropped from such a dense mix. I would probably keep the held chords no matter what. Perhaps going with no kick or just kick? Im more of a try and see with other peoples work, since I dint write it. My advice (after all that), is try and see what you hear. I would enjoy hearing any end results you find.

[troywestfield]

Thanks again for your time, I appreciate it. Will remember to come back and link to the album version of this song.

[troywestfield]

Hey Morgaxx: I ended up going with something closer to the original version of the song. I believe your advice was good, and probably would have served the song better, objectively speaking, but I ultimately decided I wanted the song (and album) to sound the way I wanted, so I went that way. You can hear it here, and click through for the rest of the record, if you're interested. Thanks again for taking the time, and for the tactful and thoughtful advice.

https://thetwe.bandcamp.com/track/the-comedown

[fastlanephil]

Well, it helped to see the words as it’s impossible to make out exactly what your singing about but you can tell it isn’t a sad sack love song.

This sounds like the grunge genre to me but maybe I’m not up with all the nuances to peg it correctly.

[troywestfield]

Thanks, FLP. Yeah, that song is a little grungey, now that I think about it. I was going for shoegaze, and my default is probably best called hard power pop, so I think that's in there too.

[Frantz]

I think I would like this song with a better mix. Everything sounds distorted and distressed like every track was turned up to 11. I would suggest learning about mixing and redoing the mix from scratch.