Dandelium - "Stronger" with female/male vocals, check it out!!

[Erik Monsonis]

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/425433/stronger full v1.mp3

I need serious advice here, as this is the first song we're going to post EVERYWHERE.

From a short listening session I've done today, I hear the male choir at 02:14 a bit too loud (I arranged a 6 Eriks choir ).

I'm having very hard times blending the orchestra sound with the guitars, but I'm at least somehow comfortable as they are, although not 100% satisfied.

BTW, vocals have been home recorded with an AKG D3800 dynamic microphone into Line6 Toneport UX1... pops and noise are there. It took me 8 hours to get my singer record the song, cuz she doesn't speak a word in English, imagine the chaos...

Please post ANY thing that crosses your mind when listening to the track above, because I don't know if I like it or not :zombie:

Best wishes!
-Erik

 

[JonWormwood]

THe vocals seem a bit too dry IMO.

 

[Plankis]

Orchestra feels a bit too loud. and perhaps too wide. Drums gets buried by them on some places imo.
Nice song. Catchy.

 

[raybrochill]

THe vocals seem a bit too dry IMO.

+1

The material rules, though!

 

[samara]

this is real good actually... sounds like leave's eyes a lot I'm liking the feemale singer.... the mix is ok... but a touch of reverb on the girls voice would do a looot for the atmosphere... the symphonic parts are sounding epic...

 

[VH100R]

hey Erik.

here's my thoughts:

1. Orchestra way too loud.
2. The girl needs to improve the dictation, otherwise nice voice.
Some more atmosphere wouldn't hurt either.
Editing could be tighter on the breathing parts (or not, that's a personal choice)
3. Drums could come up a bit, or guitars down to compensate.
4. Male voices sound too loud relative to the girl voices (which are the main vocals)

I like the relative difference between the vocals and the rest of the mix.
suits this type of sound.

take care

 

[MegaMustaine]

Very nice! What are you using for guitars and drums?

Also, what kind of processing on the vocals? I've been trying to record using a Sm7 into my UX1 and it's so flat and dry...

 

[KeithTidd]

It could use some tuning when she sings by herself (ie, not a harmony). Also, more low end would be nice.

 

[Metaltastic]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW your singer's accent is cracking me up Her vox sound very small I have to say; like they're all mids and not much else, though I'm guessing that's the mic (or eq'ing); still, feels like an excess of 2k going on there. Tone is the best I've heard yet from you actually dude, I dig it! I agree about the orchestra stuff being too loud, but cool sounding!

But yeah, please, just have her sing in Spanish, good god

 

[Erik Monsonis]

LOL Marcus. I totally understand you. I've already asked her if is there any English school near her place, you know, just to know

Thanks for all the replies!!

BTW: Is my accent too disgusting also?

 

[2000ContourSVT]

Yeah her English isn't that great, but I suppose it sounds ok. The orchestra is a little too loud compared to the guitars, and the vocals seem to get a little buried in some places. It sounds really good overall though.

 

[Metaltastic]

From what I can tell Erik, your accent seems to be good, though hard to tell since it's the supporting vox - great harmonies though! Is this Revalver for your guitars btw? Sounds much less metallic than your previous tones (which is definitely a good thing IMO!), what'd you do different?

 

[samara]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW your singer's accent is cracking me up Her vox sound very small I have to say; like they're all mids and not much else, though I'm guessing that's the mic (or eq'ing); still, feels like an excess of 2k going on there. Tone is the best I've heard yet from you actually dude, I dig it! I agree about the orchestra stuff being too loud, but cool sounding!

But yeah, please, just have her sing in Spanish, good god

the english accent is no major thingie... listen to björk she has the most horrible icelandic sounding accent but I guess it gives her character, I guess people in europe or non english speaking countries don't care about accent as someone from let's say usa does... to each he's own but I'm really liking the vocals...

 

[samara]

lol here's what I'm saying listen for yourself... her vocals still rock though

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Thanks!

It's Nick Crow's 8505 thru Catharsis' fredman impulse (s-preshigh). Quad tracked.
I think the best thing I could do is to get rid of Revalver and change it for the 8505. Awesome plugin.
I'm fixing the things you have pointed out, I'll post a new working mix in a few moments

@Samara: There are some accent combinations that don't work, one of these is Spanish+English= Spanglish which I personally hate.

 

[GarethSE]

GIEF METALLIC TONE

I will comment again in the morning
becaus right now i am drunk, stoned and sleep derived and i cant think of a clcver respone.

prety sweet tho

 

[samara]

Thanks!
@Samara: There are some accent combinations that don't work, one of these is Spanish+English= Spanglish which I personally hate.

wel I don't know about that... I'm realy liking old Sepultura, even tho Max the singer has a very strong spanish/portugeise sounding dialect... I'm just saying this becouse americans have a way of puting down people that doen't have english as their main tongue and it's irritating.... anyways I think the singer in this band should sing in spanish it would be awsome I'm sick of americanism.... that's why my favourite bands are those that sing in non english languages like early dimmu borgir and norwegian and swedish black and death metal bands also I respect rammstein for doing their own thing..... Divinis Invocat is a REAAAL good black metal band that sings in spanish that everyone should check out.... http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=186322 listen to Romance En Los Circulos epic stuff!

 

[Keregioz]

I agree with most points here.

There's definitely a problem with the accent.
A singer's accent is really important to me personally. It's a common problem for singers here in Greece. For some reason singers from Germany or Scandinavia don't have that problem. I guess the easy solution everyone has found is to use growls instead of vocals.
Personally, I'm lucky enough to have a singer that has a decent accent, but still it's not perfect and when recording vocals getting the accent right is our main focus. Even more that getting the right pitch, since I can later do some editing in melodyne. I can honestly say that our recording sessions are 2-3 times longer than usual just because of the work we do on the accent. I'm not an expert on the english accent but I believe we got some good results.
I'm not sure if having your singer to learn to speak English will help. What I'd suggest is to have a person present in the recording sessions who can show her the right way to pronounce and sing the lyrics.


Also, I agree that this is your best guitar tone so far.

P.s. That Bjork interview was hilarious.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Just in case you want to hear it alone, a little section of the 2 people choir (12 takes tho).

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/425433/stronger choir.wav

Cheers!

PS: now i hear the backing vocals alone, that clip reminds me of My Last Serenade. It's only me?

 

[Metaltastic]

Samara, you're making a lot of assumptions about me and my views, especially since you don't know a thing about me - for the record, some of my favorite vocalists (Roy Khan from Kamelot, Nergal from Behemoth, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica) have heavy accents, and it's a big reason I like them so much, but in this case this chick's is too much IMO. Keep the American-stereotyping to yourself please.

And Erik, yeah, 8505 crushes Revalver IMO, never go back!