Old 05-22-2022, 07:20 PM   #1
Stinger
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Default Small American Town - New Song

Isn't it funny how each generation is certain that they're smarter than all generations before them, and at their wisest, of course, when they're young. They're out there in the streets with their slogans and their torches and their chants, telling us all what we should think, convinced that their generation is the first to have discovered the answers to all of society's ills.

Seriously, I would really really appreciate any comments on instrumentation, timing, arrangement, content, and yes, even mix. I think I finally have enough of a grasp on mixing & the Reaper program to understand mixing critique and make adjustments as needed, before the song goes public on Soundcloud. The SC crowd is way too nice to offer that type of feedback.

https://soundcloud.com/bruceavery/sm...social_sharing

New Link (now public)....
https://soundcloud.com/bruceavery/small-american-town-1

Last edited by Stinger; 06-02-2022 at 02:02 PM.
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Old 05-23-2022, 01:41 AM   #2
BenjyO
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Hi Stinger. It's a nice song. I can offer some "mix" advice which is definitely not exhaustive but I hope it helps a bit:

1. I'd pan the guitar in the first verse (after the intro) of the song a bit more to the center - use pan automation. Because it's panned so hard to the left and there's little instrumentation on the right the stereo image/perception becomes a bit unbalanced. The intro has a second guitar playing which is panned right and provides counterbalance to the one on the left - that's good - but in the first verse that second guitar plays very sparsely or not at all so the balance shifts significantly to the left. The left channel is a bit too loud in comparison to the right one throughout the whole song but I think it feels most off-balance in the first verse.

2. I feel that the song is too quiet for streaming on soundcloud so I'd definitely take advantage of the headroom you have. I suggest using Reaper's own loudness meter (JS: Loudness Meter Peak/RMS/LUFS (Cockos)) or the following action: "Calculate loudness of master mix via dry run render". See what is the loudest peak or true peak that the calculation from that action (or the loudness meter) shows and increase the volume of the master track by a bit less than that amount. For example: if the calculation shows that the loudest peak of the song is around -6 dB (I think that your track has the loudest peak even lower than that), I'd increase the volume of the master track by around 5 dB so that means that the whole song would be 5 dB louder and the loudest peaks still wouldn't cross the digital zero which should be avoided - basically get close to the edge (0 dB) with your loudest peaks but don't cross it. Bear in mind that this loudness adaptation should be done at the end - just before you're ready to render the song. A safer (third) way to do that would be to use Reaper's render normalization feature. In the render window there's a button "Normalize/Limit". When you click on it a small window is shown. There you turn on the "Normalize to:" option and in the drop-down menu you select either "Peak" or "True peak" (I suggest using True peak). Then in the textbox to the right of that drop-down menu you enter -1 or some other value that's lower than 0. Then you close that small window and render your track. When you do that Reaper will automatically calculate what the loudest peak of yout track is and it will adjust the volume of the rendered file so that the loudest peak will match the value which you entered in that "Normalize/Limit" window.

I hope what I wrote makes some sense and if not, feel free to ask and I'll try to elaborate or explain better.

Keep up the good work!
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Old 05-23-2022, 03:08 PM   #3
Stinger
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Thank you BenjyO.

Panning: yes, I understand the panning issues, and I’ll go back & work on that. I’m sure I can improve it and your explanation gives me a good idea of where to focus.

Loudness: SPECIAL THANKS FOR THIS INFO!! Soundcloud’s auto-volume damper, or whatever it is, is very frustrating, and can render the dramatic ups & downs of a track into a bland monotone. It will be tonight before I can work on the song again, but I can tell by your careful explanation that I will be able to follow it step by step. If I can’t I’ll get back to you but again thank you.

I’m assuming that you feel that these adjustments (or one of the options you laid out) will penetrate the Soundcloud loudness armour….I’ll repost the song after adjustments and we’ll find out.
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Old 05-24-2022, 06:41 AM   #4
Time Waster
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I felt that this was a heartfelt performance, with an interesting perspective, the story being told as seen through the eyes of a statue.

I agree with BenjyO that the mix is too quiet.
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Old 05-24-2022, 01:09 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Time Waster View Post
an interesting perspective, the story being told as seen through the eyes of a statue.
Yes, it actually made for a fresh & welcome approach to the lyrical content. Maybe on my next one I'll be a tree, or a building.....or maybe just a fly on the wall.

And yes Soundcloud frustrates me with their noise-dampering...the section in which the statue is destroyed was much louder, and more dramatic, in the original recording. I see you use SC as well - have you had a similar problem? Any suggestions how to deal with it?
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Old 05-24-2022, 04:49 PM   #6
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Hi Stinger, Soundcloud normalises tacks to -14 LUFS, either upwards or downwards, depending on the level of your track. As your track is very quiet, it may have been normalised upwards, making it louder. The issue here is that if your song has a large dynamic range, you could get clipping on the peaks. I don't think that is what you are describing, but it is something to be mindful of. Ideally, you should aim for -14 LUFS with at least -1 db of headroom. Note, REAPER's rendering output shows LUFS measured as LUFS-M (momentary) and LUFS-I (integrated). LUFS-I is the one to look at, it indicates the average loudness over the length of the song. REAPER can automatically adjust the loudness to the level you want on rendering. Just be mindful of the peak levels.
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Old 05-25-2022, 03:27 AM   #7
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Lovely song. So nice to hear a good lyric with something to say that isn't swamped by being over produced, and you've obviously spent time on writing the good lyric. No offence intended regarding the version you've done but I bet that Neil Young could turn out a killer track with that song.
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Old 05-25-2022, 07:00 PM   #8
Stinger
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Thanks Tweezer for the comment regarding the lyric. Yes I had something to say and it's nice to know that I was able to convey that message lyrically.

And yes, my version is simple, but since I wrote the song, it is, to my knowledge, the only version out there. Haven't heard yet from Neil Young, but you never know....
Wait....the phone's ringing...I'll get back to you.....
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Old 06-02-2022, 09:52 AM   #9
41TWIN
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bummer. track is not available any longer.

im usuallly at +7dbs with my mixes. sometimes a bit more. then i push it up a minute bit with my master track. i feel like this gets me in the ballpark of professionally done songs. sometimes they are a bit quieter and sometimes a bit louder.

i know im probably close to clipping levels but i try to listen close and avoid that.
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Old 06-02-2022, 02:00 PM   #10
Stinger
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Sorry 41TWIN....track is now public. New link is below (or also now in original post).....

New Link....
https://soundcloud.com/bruceavery/small-american-town-1
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