>>>> Plunge versus Shane Sanders - vocal/down-te

[Shane Sanders]

Jeff (Plunge) was kind enough to put his creative energy and vocal talents to use on this tune (used to be called Atlantean Trident). I was blown away by the intensity of the performance and the craftiness of his lyrics and melody. Thank you Plunge!

http://www.Futurehaus.com/dubfantasy/I'm_Not_Numb.mp3

I've been mixing this for 3 hours at least and my ears are burned. I know there are problems in the mix but I'm pushing CPU limits now and it's hard to ride the faders and keep things smooth. There's definitely some distortion at 1:43, but maybe I'll squash it later. Time to let fresh ears hear it as it stands.

I'm really happy with the spread on the harmony vocals. Thanks to Kjaerhus Audio for their cool free plugs, especially the chorus and the demo of GCO-1.

Do you think a short little guitar solo at 1:57 would serve the piece or should we leave it alone?

-Shane

[Lunch Money]

Damn fine!

As I'm sure you're aware, the vocals are a real highlight.

I debated mentioning this, but I feel duty-bound to do so-- the opening synth parts remind me of a Windows start-up. I'm sure you crafted them with a bit of time spent, though, so I'm not suggesting you change them, especially since they repeat throughout the song. Perhaps I'm just nutz.

Guitars? Yes... I'm all for guitars. Then again, I'm a guitar player.

A few other things to consider-->

- the song develops fairly slowly, and repeats motifs fairly regularly. This leaves this listener wanting a bit more drama earlier, and a quicker build-up. OR, conversely, to maintain the relaxed vibe, a shorter song would prevent the listener from feeling it's been stretched out.

- the instrumentation is fairly sparse, which leaves lots of room for the vocals; however, I can't help but wish there was a bit "more" going on for parts of it, like a prog rock song with a totally different time signature in the middle or other such shenanigans.

----

Keep in mind, those are only meant to be constructive criticisms-- the song itself is top-notch, and I think that tired ears or not, you have absolutely NAILED (hard... with... a pneumatic hammer... or something else that hammers nails with authority... like a super-hammer-thing... or... something...!) the levels, EQ, and pan. Slicker than oiled grease. That's just my perspective.

Greg

[mystahr]

A beautiful marriage between ben's voice and your production skills.

I think it's allready beautiful as is

[Eon]

This is good production for me. Like the voice vocal with backvocal function, what did you use for backvocal effect.
Like the kick, it is so clear and punchy. Also arrangment is greatful as production itself.

keep going

[mr.me]

Hey this is really great work!! This ones going out to the car, thank you for sharing!

[Shane Sanders]

Thanks for listening and the constructive comments gentleman! Maybe in a few weeks I'll have fresh ears again and can work on it some more.

The Cafe is jumping today. Loads of new tunes...

[VariKusBrainZ]

not my sort of music but damn fine, with more aggresive production and a few changes of synth patches I could imagine this sounding very hit friendly.

Some of the vocals reminded me of Michal jackson in the late 80s

[plunge]

not my sort of music but damn fine, with more aggresive production and a few changes of synth patches I could imagine this sounding very hit friendly.

Some of the vocals reminded me of Michal jackson in the late 80s

I'm not sure where, but I also was thinking of MJ on a few lines. Other parts felt reminiscent of Maroon 5. I'm not a big fan of them, but parts reminded me of their radio stuff.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'm anxious to hear this mix. Can you email it to me, Shane? If you're not on broadband, don't worry about it. I'll DL tomorrow from another computer.

Thanks!

[Ian B]

Another gem in the cafe Superb vocals indeed