How would you make this sound better?

[ccweaver]

Hi everyone!

I've never tried this before...but I figured this would be good multi-instrument arranging/recording practice (I played all the instruments myself).

(1) What can I improve upon musically to make this better?

(2) What could I improve upon in the audio mix itself to make it better?


I made this super quick 35 second audio snippet *inspired* by a James Fortune song (I didn't play the exact chords/sound).

Instrumental version

Instrumental with scratch BGVS (Please pardon the singing, lol...it's just for context)

[Musician4JesusUK]

Hello,

Musically it sounds fine.
In terms of mix it needs more bass & the organ sounds too quiet.

[ccweaver]

Cool, thanks for the reply!

Lol, since no one responded a while ago, I forgot that I made this post. I definitely appreciate the feedback.

[lordluvr]

I'm just now seeing this.  "Better" is such a subjective term.  Likely everyone that listens to it will have a different reply.  For me, it sounded fine.  I didn't hear much, if any, lag that you sometimes get with these types of productions.  I guess it depends on what you're going for.  If you want more of a CCM feel, then keep the bass where it is, and maybe add some lead guitar.  If you want more of a contemporary gospel feel then yes, add more bass.  In all, I thought it was good- better than what I could produce.

[ccweaver]

I'm just now seeing this.  "Better" is such a subjective term.  Likely everyone that listens to it will have a different reply.  For me, it sounded fine.  I didn't hear much, if any, lag that you sometimes get with these types of productions.  I guess it depends on what you're going for.  If you want more of a CCM feel, then keep the bass where it is, and maybe add some lead guitar.  If you want more of a contemporary gospel feel then yes, add more bass.  In all, I thought it was good- better than what I could produce.

Oh wow, thanks so much for the feedback and the ideas! I definitely appreciate it.

[SketchMan3]

Drumming is a bit loose. Sounds like it's struggling to keep a steady beat. Bass and kick are a bit hard to hear... could maybe use more high end.. Sounds like it was mixed using monitors that overemphasized the higher end of the bass frequencies while deemphasizing the lower end... so you killed the highs and bumped up the really low lows (which my headphones can barely pick up) Would probably make my car go boom boom boom, hehe

Singing is great! Haha. Kinda drowned out the background music, though. At least with my headphones.

[ccweaver]

Drumming is a bit loose. Sounds like it's struggling to keep a steady beat. Bass and kick are a bit hard to hear... could maybe use more high end.. Sounds like it was mixed using monitors that overemphasized the higher end of the bass frequencies while deemphasizing the lower end... so you killed the highs and bumped up the really low lows (which my headphones can barely pick up) Would probably make my car go boom boom boom, hehe

Singing is great! Haha. Kinda drowned out the background music, though. At least with my headphones.

Cool, thanks for the feedback! Yeah, listening to it on some studio headphones now instead, I can hear what you mean about the frequencies not being quite balanced. Thanks!