Über dem Meer

[mschnell]

Über dem Meer

Vocals, Lyrics and Composition by Carolina Kraft.

Production and programming by Karlheinz Kraft, using "Band in a Box" and (of course) Reaper.

-> http://www.schnellphoto.de/ueber_dem_Meer.mp3

The singer and the guitarist in our band did a theater production of the fairy tale "Die kleine Meerjungfrau" (engl. "The Little Mermaid") by Hans Christian Andersen. They would have liked to do an adaption of the movie by Disney, but even for a non-profit production for children it seems to be impossible to get their permission. So they rewrote all text and music themselves. IMHO they did a great job.

Here is a preliminary mix of one of the songs (Carolina plays the title role on stage).

I already offered some suggestions, mainly regarding the reverb on the voice and the mastering, but before starting additional work on the mix we would be happy to get some opinions and suggestions from our friends over here.

-Michael

[fixerdave]

hello Michael, I don't speak German but the recording is so good, I had to listen to the whole track. the vocals are particularly very nice, pitch perfect to my ears. I would love to hear her singing something in English. dave

[mschnell]

With our regular Band we do mostly English songs and a little bit of Spanish.

We did not do any decent recordings though.

-Michael

[grandmogul]

Hi Michael,

what a beautiful song! Perfectly performed.

First thing catching my ear has been the guitar-intro. Imo it sounds a bit too far away. Maybe turning down the reverb-channel a bit, or mixing in some (more?) predelay and maybe some eq-ing on the reverb-high-end would give some more presence.

Same with that beautiful voice. The reverb is very present - and this on the other hand takes away some of the overall vocal-presence. Imo the amount of reverb would be ok for some backing vox, but for me it is a bit too much on the lead voice. On the aah-intro of the vocals the reverb sounds nice, on the sung words I would lower it.

Last point: the drums sound a bit tiny. Shure - this is not a rock-song, but slightly more level on kick and cross-stick would let it sound more balanced.

Greetings from Cologne,

Sampo

[mschnell]

For me, the reverb on the voice mainly is too long and too "undetermined". I'd use a studio or room sample from the Samplicity M7 collection that adds some more "character" to the environment. Maybe also placing the voice more determined in a room by "space360" might be appropriate.

OTOH, regarding the theater/surrounding situation with this actual play you might want to provoke some "under water" feeling (no idea how this could be accomplished) rather then just expose the quality of the voice. A Disney musical movie certainly would do that.

For a test I tried to run some mastering effects (EQ, MultiBand-comp, comp, limiter) on that mp3. I easily could get it more "impressive", compact and balanced. (Even though on headphones some disturbing artifacts arise.)

-Michael

[endorka]

Hello Michael - I have a few comments to make, but what strikes me initially most of all is that the vocal is very loud relative to the instruments. Prominent vocals are likely part of the genre, but not to that extent. The vocal reverb is also a bit washy - perhaps consider reducing it a bit and look into reverb ducking so it doesn't cloud the phrasing.

You could do worse than referencing Abba's "One of Us" for this track :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

[mschnell]

Thanks !

I'll forward your comments to the makers of the production.

-Michael