Feedback - Cover Challenge N

TTony · July 8

Following on from the last cover challenge - letter N - the following have asked for constructive and critical feedback on their submitted tracks.

@monquixote ;;
@stickyfiddle ;;
@thecolourbox ;;
@TTony ;;

Let me know if anyone else would also like feedback on their tracks.

Looking for constructive and critical feedback. How can we make these tracks better; playing (inc vocals), instrumentation, mixing, etc.

For ease, I've created a dedicated playlist of the tracks below.
https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/cover-challenge-n-feedback?si=03ebe110dabe4c4f8067abd0dfd8d156&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

[edit]
@fnpt added to the feedback playlist

TTony · July 8

I'll start with a brief explanation of my submissions.

My set-up is fairly simple; either guitar or kbd into Studio1 with a fairly limited selection of plugins.

No More Heroes
Submitted because it was the nominated track. All parts played, other than the bass intro (which I couldn't get right, so nicked a sample from the original) and parts of the keys where I had to use the midi editor to overcome the limitations of my playing. It was a fun track to do, probably not something that I would have chosen myself (too iconic), but that was the challenge.

No Moon in Paris
I love the simplicity and emotion in this track - Marianne Faithful original here. The original is primarily piano/vocals, and my keyboard skills are nowhere near up to this, so it's an acoustic guitar version, with a little strings in the background. It felt a little "exposed" because there's nowhere to hide on the playing/singing!

Never Going Back
Lindsey Buckingham is one of my favourite guitarists. He's an incredible performer live, and I've long thought about learning this track, so the N challenge was the opportunity. I had to "cheat" to get a completed track; I stitched together the two main guitar phrases - I didn't manage to play it through start-to-finish without a mistake somewhere!

I'm very much learning how to do this - play all the parts, mix them together, and create a whole from all the little pieces, so all feedback is very welcome.

[edit]
Just heading out for the day now, so will add my comments on the other submitted tracks later today.

thecolourbox · July 8

Glad to see this up and running, I don't really want people to worry about being to harsh on me, I take criticism better than I take compliments so don't hold back.

I did a better mix of Numb after listening back to the one I submitted - I find things sound different in Cubase than when I export them, my chorus vocals were not as uneven on the volume as they were in the export etc. I also took the chance to realign some annoying timing issues, raise the vocals a little more clearly, and made the drums sound cooler.

fnpt · July 8

I would appreciate some comments on my submissions as well. I'll try to do the same but bear in mind that this is a hobby to me, I've never gigged or been in a band, producing and mixing is done "by year" so my input will always be from the point of view of an amateur.

Bezzer · July 8

fnpt said:

I would appreciate some comments on my submissions as well. I'll try to do the same but bear in mind that this is a hobby to me, I've never gigged or been in a band, producing and mixing is done "by year" so my input will always be from the point of view of an amateur.

You're doing bloody well then! When you sent me the backing track to sing over I was amazed how close to the original it was!

fnpt · July 8

Bezzer said:

fnpt said:

I would appreciate some comments on my submissions as well. I'll try to do the same but bear in mind that this is a hobby to me, I've never gigged or been in a band, producing and mixing is done "by year" so my input will always be from the point of view of an amateur.

You're doing bloody well then! When you sent me the backing track to sing over I was amazed how close to the original it was!

Many thanks, Neil. Really appreciate that.

thecolourbox · July 8

So I'm bored at work and have listened to them all to try and provide some feedback and get the ball rolling. Please don't take any offence from anything I say, if I've worded it badly or you feel it's inaccurate for example, don't sweat it. You guys all do stuff I couldn't possibly do an I enjoy trying to learn from that but also tend to stick to what I know as well, so don't take it to heart

I didn't know most of the songs covered to be honest, apart from No More Heroes and Nude, oh and the estate agent song. So essentially listening to most of these "blind" as if they are new original (to me) songs.

I've also done feedback on myself, ie stuff I know isn't as good as it should be, but also some questions if anybody is able to offer any advice

@TTony ;

No More Heroes

Enjoyed the more confident vocal, more punch to it

Maybe could do something to differentiate the chorus vocal from the verse? Maybe double it? Just so it's a bit more variety

No Moon In Paris

Nice layered guitar sound between acoustic & electric-esque sound

The vocal is nice but sounds like you lack confidence at times, or is it breath? Couple of things I sometimes to do for songs like this where the vocal is front and centre with nowhere to hide. First is to not worry about hiding your breathing noises, just choose where to do them on your lyrics sheet in places where you can just cut them out afterwards. I cut a lot of my breathing noises out, did it loads for Numb this time around. The other way is to add a more "full band" arrangement to it if it makes you feel less concious to record, then just mute the extra bits you don't want.

Never Going Back

I very much envy your ability to play so neatly and cleanly in time.

Your voice sounds like Charlie Fink from Noah on the Whale at times, which is a good thing to me by the way. If you like the comparison, maybe have a listen to what he does with his voice and see if any of it could translate for you as well?

@monquixote ;

New Test Leper

Great instrumental playing and arrangements.

As I mentioned in our PM chat, your vocals are stronger than you think - but I can feel you are really concentraing hard to focus on getting them right whereas maybe a looser approach might help you to feel freer? I'm aware that my vocals are perhaps too much the other way, too loose and chilled and terribly out of time, but there's a balance in the middle and I think you'd enjoy the results on your singing.

It's quite hard to take on very specific sounding vocalists if you know what I mean - Stipe has a great voice but it's quite unusual with his accent and ability to hold on longer notes. I'm not saying you should do this, but I'd probably have broken it up a bit as I'd definitely run out of puff on those verse lines, holding the long notes, so I'd go for more of a percussive style. But that's not a criticism of what you did which was great, it's just maybe another approach if you were struggling with breathing as I would on those.

Neverending Beast.

Tasty guitar playing and tones, and of course absolutely bonkers mixing up of things. Enjoyed the integration of your synth skills into a rocky number.

I feel like you went for it a bit more with your vocals on this one too

@stickyfiddle ;
Not Strong Enough

Really suits your playing, arranging and singing style this one. Nice movement and and complimentary arrangement

This might be me trying to force my shortcomings in mixing onto others

but I wonder if your verse vocal might just sit a little lower in the mix, then raise it back up for the chorus bit? Might just add a little more rise and fall

Nude

Arrangement was beautiful, can tell you enjoyed putting that together.

I don't think I have anything to suggest for this one

@thecolourbox

Northern Sky

I'm not sure why everything I do seems too quiet compared to others in the playlists, it looks right on the mixer in the DAW, am I maybe losing some volume when I export? Do I need to export, then increase the volume in a new daw project maybe?

Sometimes my vocals have a bit of thudding through the mic on the P or B sounds, I use a foam mic pop shield thing, do I need to use a screen/panel one in front as well/instead? The word People seems a problem

Need to be more creative with my covers - I feel like this one was a bit too obvious to do considering what my singing sounds like, and I played it too safe as it just sounds like the original

Needle of Death

Tune your bloody B string properly mate, for goodness sake. The 3rd fret D notes especially are really jarring to me

Too quiet again

How do I get out of doing impressions of the originals? I'm definitely mimicing Jansch's accent on this.

Also, learn the bloody words mate. Just because brain and vein rhymes, doesn't mean you should mix them up

Numb

My first export (that I sent in) sounds different than it did in Cubase, so I did the newer mix which sounded better.

This was hard to sing, really had to work hard on those choruses and the middle 8 section, and still sounded less than good. I also found I kept consistently singing flat when doing that voice, so weird.

Any tips on making my belt/pushing-it voice sound different? I just don't like the sound

Also I'm crap at tapping haha hence the fade out at the end

TTony · July 8

fnpt said:

I would appreciate some comments on my submissions as well. I'll try to do the same but bear in mind that this is a hobby to me, I've never gigged or been in a band, producing and mixing is done "by year" so my input will always be from the point of view of an amateur.

I don't think any of us are professionals @fnpt ;

I've certainly not been in a band for a long time, and I'm pretty sure Monq & tcb are similar (Sticky being the honourable exception here).

Thanks for the comments on mine @thecolourbox . I'd certainly accept that the vocals are a weak point for me - lack of practice, training, confidence, et al.

@thecolourbox
Re your general comment of your tracks sounding quieter - perhaps that's because you typically do covers of quieter tracks? But I'm sure I've read somewhere that SoundCloud does some processing of uploads so maybe do some experimentation and compare your tracks locally vs on SoundCloud and amend levels/compression/whatever to get them how you want once uploaded?

Northern Sky
Got 1pt from me. Your submissions often get onto my voting list. I like the sparseness of your arrangements, this one laid back and calm, your keys skills prominent but never overbearing - but there in the background to keep the track interesting. Your voice suits the track. It had a "feel" for me that matched the track and your voice. I couldn't suggest anything to improve this.

Numb
Just listened to the original - don't think I'd heard it before. A bit of a departure from your usual style of track? Vocals feel a little lost in the mix - too far back - and a bit stretched at times, but you've recognised that yourself in your own self-assessment The playing is still to your usual quality, but it didn't work for me as a sum-of-the-parts. Didn't like the original much though either!

Needle of Death
See comments on Northern Sky! It's scary doing bare acoustic & vocals. If that was a single take, then your playing is better than mine as I'm pretty sure I'd have errored once or twice playing that and had to do some cut/paste work. Though there are a couple of notes that ring out too strongly and got a bit tiring. I wouldn't say your voice is a mimic of Jansch's - it's clearly your style.

@fnpt ;
NIB
This got 5pts from me, so probably a bit of a clue to what I thought of it. Back to the 70s I went, peak Sabbath, if I'd heard it out of this context, I'd have quite happily accepted that it was Sabbath playing. Guitars, drums and vocals all brilliant, put together and mixed just about perfectly to my ears.

@monquixote
New Test Leper
Your singing voice doesn't sound like you! Vocals sounded a bit underpowered at times - I'd imagine you with a much stronger and more certain voice - but then the original is similar. The rest of the track is played to the standard I'd expect from you (ie nothing that I'd be able to criticise). I'd like a little less effecting on the guitars, but that's just personal taste.

Neverending Beast
Listening to this again, I'm not sure why it got null points from the TT jury. Great guitar work - playing and sound, and cleverly creative. Vocals maybe not to the same standard ... is Carl still doing his thing?

@stickyfiddle ;
Nude
Your vocal work on this is excellent. Brilliant. Wow. And the rest of the tracks are pretty fine too. Nothing I could criticise on this ... other than the choice of track. I've never understood Radiohead, and doubt I ever will. Ditto Coldplay.

Not Strong Enough
I'm amazed/scared at how you manage to pull something like this together at the last minute. Drumming work is great, ditto guitars, can't really hear/feel the bass, and the harmony vocals are excellent. What can I criticise constructively? Err, just about nothing

stickyfiddle · July 8

I’m travelling so will post properly when I’m off the road (currently having a break!) but @ttony I want to stress that Not Strong Enough wasnt last minute - that was a good few hours over several evenings. I think the vocals alone took 3 or 4 sessions and a lot of takes. It’s also really high (being original 3 girls singing it) so i transposed down AND skipped some of the high notes..!!

stickyfiddle · July 8

It would also be great to hear of any other stuff people started and didn’t finish, and why? (If any!)

From my side I recorded drums for U2’s New Years Day, but didn’t go at further. i

I did quite a lot on Prince’s 1999, but didn’t have time to get that anywhere near finished. Main lesson there is actually that need to get a much better understanding of how synths work as I think that was the limiting factor, at least mentally. I may buy something small to fiddle about with…

thecolourbox · July 8

Bezzer said:

fnpt said:

I would appreciate some comments on my submissions as well. I'll try to do the same but bear in mind that this is a hobby to me, I've never gigged or been in a band, producing and mixing is done "by year" so my input will always be from the point of view of an amateur.

You're doing bloody well then! When you sent me the backing track to sing over I was amazed how close to the original it was!

Likewise with the backing track you sent to me for the last round for My Iron Lung, if anything I actually preferred your version to the original. That's been the case on several of your entries into this thing though, i like your energy of playing and it lifts the songs to something more interesting to me at least.

TTony · July 8

stickyfiddle said:

I want to stress that Not Strong Enough wasnt last minute - that was a good few hours over several evenings.

Ahhh - sorry - I misremembered your posts on the original thread!

It only makes me feel a tiny bit less amazed though

monquixote · July 8

stickyfiddle said:

It would also be great to hear of any other stuff people started and didn’t finish, and why? (If any!)

From my side I recorded drums for U2’s New Years Day, but didn’t go at further. i

I did quite a lot on Prince’s 1999, but didn’t have time to get that anywhere near finished. Main lesson there is actually that need to get a much better understanding of how synths work as I think that was the limiting factor, at least mentally. I may buy something small to fiddle about with…

I started doing an electronic interpretation of "No More Heroes", but I really struggled with it / didn't enjoy it and decided I'd have more fun doing something else.

thecolourbox · July 8

TTony said:

I've certainly not been in a band for a long time, and I'm pretty sure Monq & tcb are similar (Sticky being the honourable exception here).

I'm definitely a lone ranger also - I don't really deal very well with others in a musical context, I tend to like my own ideas but lack the strength of personality to stand up for them so end up just doing what I'm told and resenting it. Nothing wrong with growing and learning in your own way though, you just have to try to make the music you'd like to hear I think.

TTony said:
Thanks for the comments on mine @thecolourbox . I'd certainly accept that the vocals are a weak point for me - lack of practice, training, confidence, et al.

I wouldn't say a weak point as that sounds negative. I think breathing better (and planning your breaths) would help you a lot.

TTony said:

@thecolourbox
Re your general comment of your tracks sounding quieter - perhaps that's because you typically do covers of quieter tracks? But I'm sure I've read somewhere that SoundCloud does some processing of uploads so maybe do some experimentation and compare your tracks locally vs on SoundCloud and amend levels/compression/whatever to get them how you want once uploaded?

Northern Sky
Got 1pt from me. Your submissions often get onto my voting list. I like the sparseness of your arrangements, this one laid back and calm, your keys skills prominent but never overbearing - but there in the background to keep the track interesting. Your voice suits the track. It had a "feel" for me that matched the track and your voice. I couldn't suggest anything to improve this.

Numb
Just listened to the original - don't think I'd heard it before. A bit of a departure from your usual style of track? Vocals feel a little lost in the mix - too far back - and a bit stretched at times, but you've recognised that yourself in your own self-assessment The playing is still to your usual quality, but it didn't work for me as a sum-of-the-parts. Didn't like the original much though either!

Needle of Death
See comments on Northern Sky! It's scary doing bare acoustic & vocals. If that was a single take, then your playing is better than mine as I'm pretty sure I'd have errored once or twice playing that and had to do some cut/paste work. Though there are a couple of notes that ring out too strongly and got a bit tiring. I wouldn't say your voice is a mimic of Jansch's - it's clearly your style.

Thanks Tony. I will try and experiment with exporting volumes next time I do something. My sparseness of arrangements is more based out of my own limitations than an artistic choice to be honest - my guitar playing is limited and I get very bored very easily programming in drums and bass etc so by necessity I tend to do the very bare minimum in terms of arranging then just double everything up left and right to make it sound bigger.

Re Needle of Death - it was mostly one take with guitar and vocals at the same time yes, though I vaguely recall i messed up the ending so redid that and spliced it over the top of the one I messed up.

Northern Sky is one of my favourite songs ever, and I only know that because of feedback from sharing music on here where people commented on the similarity. I hadn't listened to him before that, his catalogue is quite mixed but this one always does something to me. The keyboard parts (there's organ, rhodes and normal piano) are all pretty much what John Cale did on the original - copying I can do

thecolourbox · July 8

stickyfiddle said:

It would also be great to hear of any other stuff people started and didn’t finish, and why? (If any!)

From my side I recorded drums for U2’s New Years Day, but didn’t go at further. i

I did quite a lot on Prince’s 1999, but didn’t have time to get that anywhere near finished. Main lesson there is actually that need to get a much better understanding of how synths work as I think that was the limiting factor, at least mentally. I may buy something small to fiddle about with…

At various points I considered (and started) doing the following for the N round:

Never Gonna Be Alone - Jacob Collier. There's atasty solo from John Mayer that I jut couldn't get good enough so I dropped it.
New World (Going Home) - by Dvorak. I did actually finish this one (it's here) I just didn't submit it as a) i wasn't sure the title fit and b) it's a bit pretentious and not very relevant to a guitar site
New Rules - Dua Lipa. Kind of mash up with Jack White's Over and Over, the latter I may well turn up in the O round
Natural Blues - Moby. Was trying to do it a capella with body percussion but it sounded shite
No Time to Die - Billie Eilish. I got bored of doing the orchestral bits

monquixote · July 8

thecolourbox said:

@monquixote ;

New Test Leper

Great instrumental playing and arrangements.

As I mentioned in our PM chat, your vocals are stronger than you think - but I can feel you are really concentraing hard to focus on getting them right whereas maybe a looser approach might help you to feel freer? I'm aware that my vocals are perhaps too much the other way, too loose and chilled and terribly out of time, but there's a balance in the middle and I think you'd enjoy the results on your singing.

It's quite hard to take on very specific sounding vocalists if you know what I mean - Stipe has a great voice but it's quite unusual with his accent and ability to hold on longer notes. I'm not saying you should do this, but I'd probably have broken it up a bit as I'd definitely run out of puff on those verse lines, holding the long notes, so I'd go for more of a percussive style. But that's not a criticism of what you did which was great, it's just maybe another approach if you were struggling with breathing as I would on those.

Neverending Beast.

Tasty guitar playing and tones, and of course absolutely bonkers mixing up of things. Enjoyed the integration of your synth skills into a rocky number.

I feel like you went for it a bit more with your vocals on this one too

TTony said:
@monquixote
New Test Leper
Your singing voice doesn't sound like you! Vocals sounded a bit underpowered at times - I'd imagine you with a much stronger and more certain voice - but then the original is similar. The rest of the track is played to the standard I'd expect from you (ie nothing that I'd be able to criticise). I'd like a little less effecting on the guitars, but that's just personal taste.

Neverending Beast
Listening to this again, I'm not sure why it got null points from the TT jury. Great guitar work - playing and sound, and cleverly creative. Vocals maybe not to the same standard ... is Carl still doing his thing?

Thanks for the comments guys much appreciated. I shall reciprocate in due course.

I think me and vocals is a bit of a weird journey:

I used to sing backing vocals in a few bands mostly out necessity and had a few lessons.
I made a bit of progress. This is probably a reasonable representation of where I got to (ignore the female vocals):

I had some negative feedback and was discouraged from continuing so I stopped and then stopped being in bands altogether so I basically haven't sung a note around the time I did that which was I think 2015 and my voice has largely lost whatever quality it had in that time.

Interestingly I've also hardly played guitar either, but I don't seem to be significantly worse at that.

As you mention Tony I would really love to go back to Carl for some more lessons and I've talked about it many times since, but not actually done it. It kind of seems weird when you don't have a specific goal in mind.

I was a bit croaky from a chest infection when I recored that and was recording into a very cheap podcast microphone so hopefully next time around I can muster a better performance.

I think New Test Leper suits my voice much better, but you are right that I had zero confidence for being the first time I'd ever tried to record myself singing. I was feeling better on Neverending Beast, but it's a much bigger vocal challenge!

I've got a couple of ideas for next time so we will see how I get on

TTony · July 8

^^^ those vocals are hugely better @monquixote and much more in line with how I'd imagine you could sing.

I had some lessons with Carl purely because I wanted to be a bit better at singing. That's all the reason you need

I still try to complete his warm-up routine before I do any singing/recording.

As you know, the voice is just a muscle, so yours hasn't lost any quality, it's just a bit out of condition. Get training! (And, yes, I should be taking my own advice).

A decent mic makes a huge difference. I use a Rode NT-1, which is way better than the old Shure-something that I had been using.

thecolourbox · July 8

I think also the choice of mic to suit you is also a big help, not just the price of said mic - I have found that my £30 marantz condenser suits my typical tone, that's what I use pretty much exclusively now as the effort of fetching anything else and cabling it up, remembering to switch off phantom power etc is not worth the bother.

fnpt · July 8

Here some thoughts about each submission:

@Ttony

No more heroes: I like your voice and it fitted the track. If anything, I would just suggest lowering a bit the keyboard parts in the mix and perhaps also the vocals. Maybe ad a bit more reverb to the vocals as well so that they don't sound so upfront.

No Moon in Paris: Loved as it is. Only suggestion would be perhaps to ad some dynamics to your singing (lower some parts, emphasise others) but the vocals were very good nonetheless.

Never Going back: Really nice acoustic playing, only observation I would make are the gaps in the acoustic track. I felt that the vocals could be a bit smoother as well.

@thecolourbox

Northern Sky: Difficult to find fault with this. It really is well done, lovely singing as usual, nicely mixed, tasteful keyboard playing.

Numb: Really enjoyed your approach to this song. I think it suits the song better than the original harder version. Good job on the backing vocals, love the vibrato in some parts of your singing. As for the level of the recording, I increase the Limiter control in the Master track in all my recordings in Garageband to make them louder. I'm not sure your DAW has that ability though.

Needle of Death: Lovely, nice acoustic playing. Perhaps the song which suited your natural voice better.

@monquixote

New Test Leper: Thoroughly enjoyed it. The mix sounded pretty good to me in such a busy song at times, the doubling vocals in the chorus were perfect. Only observation is that I thought your vocals were great but a bit too high during the verses but nothing that detracts from the overall great sound.

Neverending Beast: A blast from the past

Nice solo at the end, enjoyed that.

@stickyfiddle

Nude: If there is a band which is difficult to cover, Radiohead are it. I love those weirdos. You did a great job with all the layers of sounds, mixed perfectly and the vocals are top notch.

Not Strong Enough: First time I heard of this band. To me it sounded pretty close to the original and it takes quite some vocal range to cover a female voice but you nailed it. Overall very nice sounding mix, if anything closer to end the vocals (and vocal overdubs) overpower the rest of the tracks a little bit.

That's it.

monquixote · July 8

@TTony ;;;

No More Heroes
Great work on the singing, you've clearly put some work on improving
I think towards the start of the verse there might be a note that's not quite right in the keys where it's clashing with a chord or something.
The drums and bass are quite low in the mix relative to the vocals and keys which are quite a bit louder.
I think the bass might be panned a bit (I'd keep it in the centre)
I think there is a bit of production magic to be done. Maybe add a bit of compression to the drums, double track the vocals etc.

New Moon in Paris
Nice work on this.
The pads underpinning are very well done and adds a vibe.
There is a slightly brittle edge to the guitar sound. I'd have probably farted about with the EQ, or added a tape sim or something
It would be good to get a bit more variation and dynamics into the arrangement, you could introduce some subtle bass or percussion at various points to lift it

Never Going Back
Nice playing on the acoustic - That's not an easy song to play and you've played it very tight. It's very dry, and because it stops I'm expecting to get a nice bloom of reverb, but it just stops dead. I would have been tempted to use the reverb you've got on the vocals on an insert and put a bit of it on everything (but maybe something with a shorter decay)
The reason for that is because your brain has a lot of circuitry for working out the space that you are hearing and when different elements have different ambiences you have the idea that they aren't in the same space and so you get that "multi tracked on a DAW" sound.
The lead gets a little bit loose at times.

@thecolourbox

Northern Sky
I really enjoyed this (voted for it)
Really like the vocal, it suits your voice. The line "but now you're here" is a little bit weak, but other than that, really good
The drums are a bit low in the mix and in general it's a bit quiet.
You might want to think about getting some kind of master limiter, or compressor so you can push the master and the busses a bit.

This one is good and it's free: https://d16.pl/frontier

Needle of Death
I really enjoyed this and could easily of voted for it in place of Northern Sky
Very nice fingerpicking
Vocal delivery is very intimate, but maybe it could have gone up in intensity a little bit more at times, you do it sometimes more than others. In general a really nice delivery

Numb
My least favourite of your three (and by far the hardest of the three tracks to cover)
The vocals are good in the verses, but I think you struggle with the more belting vocals in the chorus
The drums sound a little bit apologetic for a rock track. Maybe choose a beefier kit and put them a bit higher in the mix.
Again chuck loads of compression and saturation at everything

@stickyfiddle ;;;

Not Strong Enough
Really great vocal
Drums get a little bit loose at times, but instrumentally everything sounds great and is well played
I can't quite work out why, the mix sounds a bit distant and doesn't seem to fully gel and I think the acoustic might be a little bit too loud. I almost want to hear the stems to see if I can work out why.

Nude
Was my top pick for a reason. Really superb cover.
Picky mode. The snare is a little loud and I'd maybe take a bit of body out of it as it's a little bit fat. I'd also stick a bit more reverb on it as well.
Vocals are absolutely spot on and sit in the mix really well.
All the atmospherics and messed up guitars are super well done
Superb work

@fnpt ;;;

NIB
Really great cover
A lot of rawness in the guitars
Vocals are superb
Picky mode: The hi hats are little bit high in the mix in the verses and at times it sounds a little bit drum machiney. Maybe you could add a bit more variation there. Other than that very little to criticise, it's absolutely top draw.

TTony · July 9

Thanks @fnpt @monquixote (and @thecolourbox again) for the feedback - that's exactly the sort of comment I was hoping for.

I'm going to re-listen to the tracks I submitted, alongside your comments, listen for the things you spotted and see what tweaks I can make.

I lose the objectivity when I'm making a track. My focus is more on "wow, I've managed to get it done" rather than listening for just those sorts of aspects that you've identified. I need a producer!!

[edit]
Maybe that's another challenge that we could develop. If anyone had more of an interest in the mixing/producing aspects, we create a track that we'd consider ready for submission, and then the mixer/producer takes over and shows how it could be done?

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