Artist Name: Tony Stevens Title: Man Outta Time Genre: Hard Pop Rating:
Equipment
Dell Desktop, Steinberg Cubase Pro 10, Tascam US-2000 Interface, KRK Rokit 5 and KRK sub, Avid Eleven Rack, Tube Works Blue Tube, Marshall JMP-1, Superior Drummer 2, AKG 214, ART Pro MPA II preamp, Sony MDR 7506 headphones, various plugins.
Music
“Man Outta Time” is a male vocal, one-man-band pop track.
Reviewed By Marty Peters
Tony has submitted a super catchy effort with an awful lot going on, most of it positive. First up, very important, and once again—the song is super catchy! The a cappella intro features some nicely stacked harmonies. In his production notes, Tony tells us that he follows Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander’s technique of “not listening to each background track after you record it, which makes vocals sound much fatter than carefully listening and trying to match what you just sang.” [I can’t wait to try this! -Ed]. The music bed comes in at the 18-second mark. Unfortunately, the volume of the vocal-only intro is louder than the ensuing track, resulting in a dropoff in presence and energy. While the instruments are well played and reasonably well programmed, we found the mix to be dense in the center, causing some frequency masking that affects the intelligibility of the bass guitar and kick drum. In addition, through our speakers, the snare drum is quite prominent (more on that shortly), really popping out in relation to the rest of the proceedings.
Suggestions
Tony has spent a lot of time on this project, and it shows. He wanted the drums “in your face,” and his layering of six separate electric guitars in the mix to achieve a single big fat guitar sound was also intentional. While those decisions resulted in a congested mix to our ears, as a wise one said, “One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.” In the final analysis, the artist’s vision carries the day.
Summary
Fun!
Contact
Tony Stevens, [email protected]