Dame Oh Musa - WIP

[mobius017]

I wonder if anyone might have some feedback on my current WIP?

My most specific question relates to the guitar. I'm using the "Nylon Guitar Reverb" that came with Studio One, at the moment. I actually like how it sounds in the song pretty well, but I had to turn up the sustain a lot to make it sound this way, and I'm not sure how realistic that is. Here's a short sample with just the guitar:

Dame Oh Musa - Guitar Sample

For full disclosure, I'll admit that my guitar credentials are basically, "I think I held one once." That, and a bunch of flamenco research I did for this song to try to imitate some flamenco guitar techniques with MIDI. (Though I didn't choose to incorporate flamenco's rhythmic cycles.) So I'm sure there are many here who know more about guitar than I :) .

I'll also include the full song as it currently is. There are lots of other things I'm going to do with the song as a whole--some tuning, mixing, mastering--but if anyone has thoughts on the full version or the short guitar bit above, I'd appreciate it!

Dame Oh Musa - Full WIP

For anyone wondering about the lyrics--the song is in Spanish!

Thank you for reading/listening!

 

[Deleted member 1036]

I actually like how it sounds in the song

That's your answer right there.

I saw an interview with Chris Lord-Alge where he states that mixing is an opinion. And I'm now at a point where I can understand what he meant by that statement.

Not so long ago I used to worry about "what's the correct method/level/frequency/etc.", and that sort of information can be useful for beginners—at least to a point. But as you gain experience, you'll slowly learn what is meant by "use your ears."

In regard to your guitar sustain, you've used your ears and decided that you like the setting. Consider that a small step toward training your own ears.

Now the trick is to shape all the other elements to your liking.

And it will take time to learn what to listen for and how to identify/fix problems. But step-by-step you'll work your way out of the Dunning-Kruger valley of despair, and before you know it you will be ascending the slope of enlightment.

 

[mobius017]

Thanks very much @parallax_fifths! I really liked your post; it makes me feel interested and excited for this process of continuing growth! The bit about Dunning-Kruger was particularly encouraging.

It's interesting that guitar VSTs seem to want to use a low sustain value; I personally dislike how clipped it makes the sound (i.e., it ends right away when the note ends, whereas if you pluck an actual string, it should sound and then gradually fade away, at least I think moreso than what the few guitar VSTs I've tried want to provide by default). Personally, I think the higher sustain is better. I've been looking for guitar VSTs that might have better-sounding samples and more sound effects/more realistic scripted behavior than my PreSonus one, so I'll just have to keep an eye out for guitars that allow higher sustain values or else handle that aspect without the manual sustain adjustment.

Thank you again!

 

[mobius017]

Wow, thanks so much, @AALLF!

Ah, I think I know the part you mean with the repeated notes--it's probably the higher-pitched tremolo bits (or at least what I intended to be tremolo bits, though the notes they accompany are often short enough that you don't get many accompanying tremolo notes) in the second part. As best I can tell, it sounds to me like "Nylon Guitar Reverb" only uses one sample per note, but I think those notes would benefit from humanization of the velocity, and possibly the timing as well. Especially when you get a run of them, they can sound a bit machine gun-y. It's probably a bit like the rasgueado strumming from the bridge, which didn't sound right at all without humanization.

Thanks for the feedback on the EQ! I'll keep those ranges in mind when I get into mixing and see about boosting them. Most likely I'll add some compression and maybe an overall volume boost, too. I'm planning to put iZotope's Nectar on the vocals, at least, and it's amazing how much louder it usually seems to want to make things, at least by default.

I'm really glad you like the song! I took Spanish in school, so I was able to write the song myself. Do you speak the language?