# My entry for the PRODUCE THE SUMMER OF SOUND competition.



## Nigel Andreola (Jul 2, 2022)

The rules asked that contestants create a summer anthem. This is the first piece I've shared publicly where I focused on singing. I used a $12 mic. It took quite a bit of work to get it to sound alright. I'm looking to buy a better mic. What mic do you think would be a good match with my voice?






metapop







metapop.com


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## JokerOne (Jul 2, 2022)

Very good. If you told me it was a $2K mic I would have believed it.  


Has sort of a Beatles/John Denver feel to it.


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## tressie5 (Jul 2, 2022)

Not bad. Pretty memorable song. I suppose if I was mixing it I'd use a compressor to tighten it up. Sonible smart:comp comes to mind. You can demo it free for 30 days if you don't have it. I'd also bring the bass up. I kinda have to strain to hear it now. I'd also bring the crash cymbals down a bit.


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## Nigel Andreola (Jul 3, 2022)

tressie5 said:


> Not bad. Pretty memorable song. I suppose if I was mixing it I'd use a compressor to tighten it up. Sonible smart:comp comes to mind. You can demo it free for 30 days if you don't have it. I'd also bring the bass up. I kinda have to strain to hear it now. I'd also bring the crash cymbals down a bit.


Thank you for the advice. I did use a lot of compression on the vocals, but chose to use very little on the the rest of the mix. I got my teeth cleaned two weeks ago. The dentist had a 1970s soft pop station playing with almost every song featuring the piano or keyboard. That was the inspiration for the instrumentals and song structure for my piece. The piece is arround -13.8 LUFS overall. I wanted it to be in keeping with the dynamics and overall volume levels of the 1960s - 1970s soft pop I grew up listening to. I have compared my piece to those old pieces to make sure the levels were similar. I did try a bass synth and bass guitar, but it didn't sound right with the cello and piano also playing bass. I attempted to bring up the bass in the piano, but it just sounded bad when I tried that. I'll likely replace the keyboard with a grand piano from Synthogy. They have really nice bass presence without being muddy. For this competition though, I needed to use the instruments from the Komplete Start package. In my case I used the piano from _HYBRID KEYS._ The crash cymbals sound just right to me, but than, I have noticed that my old speakers are a bit soft on the high registers.


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## Nigel Andreola (Jul 3, 2022)

JokerOne said:


> Very good. If you told me it was a $2K mic I would have believed it.
> 
> 
> Has sort of a Beatles/John Denver feel to it.


Thanks! It would appear that my labors were not in vain. I believe the benefits of a good mic, is not having to work quite so hard to get a nice clean sound. Yes, the Beatles and John Denver were inspirations for my piece. I grew up listening to them.


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## Nigel Andreola (Jul 9, 2022)

tressie5 said:


> Not bad. Pretty memorable song. I suppose if I was mixing it I'd use a compressor to tighten it up. Sonible smart:comp comes to mind. You can demo it free for 30 days if you don't have it. I'd also bring the bass up. I kinda have to strain to hear it now. I'd also bring the crash cymbals down a bit.


Now that the contest is over, I don't need to feature instruments from Komplete Start anymore. I'm playing with swapping out better instruments for my piece. While none of the basses included in Komplete start sounded right in the mix, despite playing with effects and eq, the free bass from Impact Soundworks works great and doesn't muddy the mix or drown the cello. I also took your advice and lowered the volume of the crash cymbal a little and applied a tiny bit more compression to the mix to bring up the volume a tad. Anyway, thank you for the help.


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