I think I solved the bass issue now, using EQ (thanks, @howard).
The bass is present enough now, vocals are clear … and the mix sounds good on all my devices.
I rerecorded my vocals and also experimented with vocal effects to get the distortion I want. I’m quite happy now, except for some f#cling crackling I hear in the vocals. But I can live with that … I see it as part of the vocal distortion effect, so it’s art 
This is the beta version:
I listened to your finished song (Ohne Halt) and it is awesome! Looks like you put a lot of work into it. You might end up either in a band or as a music producer, or both! Very cool song!
Thanks! I really love it too.
I’m especially proud of the lyrics, though I hate to write serous stuff…
And of course I could not do it without my beautiful & complicated singer.
Unfortunately, my skills are to limited to have success in music and my taste is not really compatible with the masses.
I stick to revising my unfinished novel. I can handle a word processor
“My skills are limited” is the reason why most of us are here. And you sure have learned a lot from this project. Life is learning, always. That’s why practicing music is so rewarding. Just continue doing what you’re doing, and I’m sure you will come up with lots more interesting projects.
Just as I was about to get around to a reply to this question I saw that you released a new version. The vocals are definitely more out front. It sounds like you did some of the EQ that Howard mentioned. It also sounds like you did some of the things I was going to suggest. One was adjusting the relative levels between the instruments and the vocals. Another is doing things with panning.
I was also going to ask if you have separate ‘clean’ tracks and ‘effects’ tracks that you can blend or reblend in the mix so that you have more control than just the effects settings.
I also like how the bass and synthesizer sort of blends together at times and has kind of a Devo feel to it.
I like this version more than the previous version.
Yes, I forgot about the panning before. One hour work, and … upload, that’s the reason
Panning can make all the difference.
Also, I did change the relative levels significantly, great catch!
I always have the bass guitar as loud as possible, same for drums. Vocals are just a little louder, mostly.
But the guitars were much too loud here and made the mix muddy, maybe cause of all the distortion & reverb going on. So I reduced the level, so they still sound effective, but not overwhelming.
One more thing: I am running my vocals through a (virtual) guitar amp. The reason for that is that I tried to imagine how my favourite EBM & Industrial bands from the early 80s did it,cause they did not have money nor advanced technology.
I’m pretty sure that they also used guitar amps and guitar pedals to achieve that 80s underground effect.
For the vocals in this version, I removed the reverb pedal though, which added some nice effects on the one hand (it sounded like some crazy people were quarreling in the background), but made the vocals muddy too.
Now it’s (almost) perfect for my voice.
Oh, and I became more confident when singing. I do understand my severe limitations as a “singer”, but I embrace it fully, which in turn makes it better.
When in doubt over my voice, I listen to Alien Sex Fiend
Still, I would prefer others to sing my stuff. It’s great fun though to sing, I admit, especially my own lyrics!
Hahaha, yeah, no: I have experimented with separate bus f/x, but as I still don’t understand those properly, results are hit&miss.
I cannot get to a systematic approach for this, but I will experiment more with this, as everybody tells me to do so.
LOl! That’s funny.
I only use bass, guitar and drums. Well, I use two bass tracks and three guitar tracks, which I overlay when I want more impact.
Also, they play slightly different melodies (more complex vs simplified).
Maybe this results in a synth-like effect?
Where do you hear synth? (mm:ss)
I was tempted to use synths, as it makes everything so much simpler.
But for punk I wanted to stay pretty basic (ok, three guitars and two basses are not basic, but you know what I mean).
Thanks!
I think, this version has some commercial appeal. My park punk chick already told me: “F#ck you, I’m not doing that!”
For her, it’s like having to sing a Scorpions song, I guess cause of the guitar noodling.
It’s what we call “Schweinerock” (pig rock)
She will do the electro version (where I had to remove the very funny trombone part and all Jungle samples, WTF?) .. and thinks about doing the punk version, if I ban all spandex wearing guitars from the equation
In fact, learning (about anything) is my raison d’être, hence “WHYING_Dutchman”…
Music-wise, I have some songs in the pipe line, no worries.
Yesterday I started working on “Alter Sack (hihihi)” (= “Old f@rt (giggle)”), about an old man (= my age) complain about the youth of today and everything else.
I will “sing” this like the old pedo guy from “American Dad” … that will be great fun!
I also have a great idea for a video: me, sitting on a bench, dressed like an old f@rt (with a hat, moustache and some 40s glasses), feeding the doves (which are some hot girls I know, badly dressed up as doves) … and sometimes standing up for doing a strange spastic pogo dance for the punk parts in the song.
I really hope this will happen! The girls are not convinced yet, but they never are, initially
I was serious about my novel.
I am in an on-/off relationship with quite a cool little story, where I could put to words a lot of absurd stuff, some science and some remarkable personal experiences, but something was missing.
This weekend I had to think about my park punk chick, with her kaleidoscope of qualities, many of which are shining brightly and some dark and mysterious.
My novel went nowhere before, just noodling around (much like my songs). It has a strong protagonist, but it was missing … somebody like my park punk chick!
Somebody that would inspire, somebody that put f#cking hurdles in the life of the protagonist. Somebody who’s mind he could not read … ever!
I was missing utter frustration in my story, and now I have it. It’s great
DEBUGGING VOCAL EFFECTS (aka getting rid of crackling)
I’m now looking at the causes for the slight crackling I hear in the vocals when using effects. Somewhere the levels must be to high, I guess!?
These are the effects I use:
Details:
Izotope Vocal Doubler
Just to give the vox some meat. Might remove this and use a whisper track instead.
Fell in love with whispering anyway.
Fender Compressor
Cause of @howard
The culprit was here. Input levels were already to high, but I couldn’t see it in the “end” level.
I reduced input gain to -12dB now.
Fender Pro EQ3
Getting a slight megaphone effect and adding more substance, cause I still sing to “shallow”, due to the neighbours (it’s a process).
After I set level in the effect before, I had to change input gain here too. This is true for every effect that follows…
Fender Fat Channel
Did some stuff until it sounded right. Don’t know what and why
Maybe I revisit this and remove this plugin, as I’m using everything (except limiter) in the effects chain already.
I’m a little reluctant to do this, as it sounds right now. But my sense of “beauty” tells me to remove anything that can be solved in a simpler way.
Somewhere I need to put a limiter instead of this plugin - I’m thinking of putting it somewhere at the very beginning of the effect chain, so I eliminate level issues early on.
Fender Mustang Native
I only use the amp, not the pedals … especially NOT the reverb, cause it added muddiness and strange ghost voices (which are great for other songs).
This is the most important plugin for getting the effect I’m looking for.
Fender Room Reverb
When I switched off the reverb pedal, it sounded too dry, so I brought back some more controlled/cleaner reverb, without the funny ghost voices.
Fender Compressor
Cause more compression is more better … for this genre.
Sonible Smart:EQ
Just to put EQ in perspective to the instrument tracks
The new version where I implemented all changes is much cleaner now, but I won’t bother anybody with it now, no worries.
I’m still hopeful, that my park punk chick will sing for this version, so this was more of an exercise to learn about level and effect chains.
For her vocals I don’t use plugins at all, except some slight reverb.
I know she likes cookies … I just purchased her brand, so let’s see if I can bribe her…
EDIT Removed Fender Fat Channel and inserted the Fender Limiter at the very start:
Also, I had to optimize all levels again.
Now it sounds 99.99% clean in terms of crackling, but the 80s effect is still the way I want it. The vocals became more present in the process, while the bass is dominating the guitars, just like the old and the new Gods intended.
This will be the standard effects chain for all my vocals from now on.
Yesterday I met a music producer in the park, and told him about my various genre versions of “Tu es!” … he told me that this is a great way to explore different melodies , and I should try to finish each and throw away what’s sh#t - while reusing great parts of the sh#tty versions in the surviving tracks.
Now I have three versions:
Much to the displeasure of my girlfriend I will finish a country version, a ballad (the “banana” version) and a f#cking German rap version, as a good natured middle finger to my “Deutschrap” friends.
This is the draft tribal drum and bass version of “Tue es!” (two basses & a “girl” … and some drums):
It’s optimized for headphones and speakers, not mobile phones and laptops…
Now, my old nemesis is hunting me again: how to get the drums almost overwhelmingly loud … and still hear the vocals and the bass clearly.
If there is one issue I would like to solve for all my tracks, this is it: how to make each track clear and present!
Anyway, the whole experiment of reusing the same lyrics for different genres is very exciting, though very very very boring for my girlfriend, who is by now fed up of hearing the same lyrics in different disguises…
Great advice and I love to see how much you’re getting in to the production aspect (which you initially assumed you would hate ).
It’s my favorite part now too.
Still around! Though Bandcamp isn’t exactly doing it any favors
I didn’t realize that they were still around until I came across my old .WRK files that I wanted to convert to MIDI. Fortunately I had Cakewalk 4.0 on that old CDROM and it runs fine in emulation.
It’s a really weird feeling listening to tracks I made when I was 17 or 18, especially with the original M1 patches.
My favourite part is dancing on the balcony to my own music, really.
As soon as that happens, I know that the track is promising…
Production to me became more fun and more challenging with using a singer.
You are forced to apply different rules, also in terms of quality.
What I hate most is having all those melodies invading my mind before I sleep. Keeps me up half the night.
I need to find a way to recording those song sketches quickly (in bed) , without bothering my girlfriend…
When SPlat went splat, I switched. Don’t miss it.
Yesterday I had another vocal recording session with my park punk chick.
Spoiler: it totally s#cked and was utterly frustrating.
After 3 hours of restless sleep (insomnia: my mind was playing new song ideas all night!), I packed my (quite heavy) recording travel backpack, biked to the other side of Hamburg, only to find her unprepared, as in: not knowing the lyrics nor the actual melody of the songs.
WTF?
I started recording, and she sang something totally different, badly too. At first I though that it’s an elaborate joke. It was not!
So, I asked for a pause and took the opportunity to investigate gently about her neurodiverse issues. Turns out she takes medication for three different issues: bipolar disorder, depression and ADHD.
I don’t know if the pharma industry has improved much, but in my time as a psychologist, taking strong medication for such different issues is prone to having all kinds of unpleasant side effects.
In my opinion, the side effects are worse than the actual symptoms, so I asked her to stop taking medication for ADHD at least (after talking to her therapist, of course), and work together (using some behavioral psychology “tricks”) to reduce the symptoms of ADHD and rechannel them to something usable for our Rock’n Roll endeavours (and life in general).
It tears me up, to experience such a talent (singing is in fact the least of her talents, she’s also a painter, sculptor and lyrics writer) going to waste, cause (in my opinion) over diagnosis and over medication.
Sometimes, she’s like a zombie. I’ve seen it before, with other cases of over medication.
The plan for yesterday was to sing 3 versions of “Tu es!” (electro, tribal, punk), one more straight punk song and possibly one more electro song.
In the end I asked her to just pick up some random lyrics she wrote, and sing it over some (really mediocre) punk song scribble I made. This was more to have an emotional reset and make her feel good about herself and let it all out.
That was actually not bad (also not great), and I looked at some other lyrics she wrote.
Wow - those were raw, direct, unfiltered and very very very hateful lyrics about men! I did not dare to ask her about her experiences in her youth (and probably now) with men.
But I can imagine…
One piece (actually a poem) stood out, full of bitterness, hate and violence, and we are going to make an old school hiphop track from that (think: Public Enemy - a band she did not know!), but with a modern tone (a lot of sub bass) … and some bass guitar and screaming lead guitars, like old school cross over sound (aka Urban Dance Squad).
It’s kind of funny, me being an old white male, to work on such a song!
I think we need to make some of her stuff first, to get her anchored and more disciplined too…
I am looking forward to technical issues now - so much better than personal issues
Yeah that could be highly motivational for her and a good production exercise for you.
I am guessing likely some self-medication going on too?
Yeah - I guess so.
I wanted to do a (ironical) hiphop thing anyway, but now I have to work on something serious and aggressive. Not something that is part of my world (anymore).
Though: I found a way to sneak in something funny, something to make the catcalling men (which is the object of hate in this song) appear even more silly, f#cked up and generally impotent (as they probably anyway).
This is what motivates me.
I have an interesting beat already and a bass line that I wanted to use for something else originally. Now I just need to understand how to match a rap to that and we’re finished. Or not
Yes, but she uses them for social reasons. Amphetamines don’t work with her as intended (one of the consequences of ADHD), but she takes them to be part of the group.
Psychoactive drugs do work, and of course she smokes lots of weed.
The weed is part of the coping process…
All of her friends are heavy recreational drug users, some are outright junkies (not the good kind).
I don’t judge, but I do tell her that this might be part of the problem, especially the weed, as it just takes away her energy.
In my opinion, it’s ok to take drugs, as long as it does not interfere with your future, work life and general happiness.
Song: “Vielleicht kastrieren?” (“Castrate, maybe?”)
Hmmmm … the last vocal recording session went soso again. Except the hiphop song we did, which turned out quite cool.
She had a poem full of hate about cat-calling men.
I created a hiphop melody and some slow beats that contradict the lyrics (and emphasize the silliness and stupidity of the cat calling men), but I found this very boring initially (I’m not a hiphop fan).
So I added (my own, very simple minded sounding) cat calling vocals, some monkey and pig samples … and guitar/bass variations that ends up a little punky … and asked her to “sing” additional “f#ck you!” and “shut up!” vocals to make it more in yer face…
The result is a proper crossover song, yay! Two days ago I didn’t know that I would have done a song like this today.
Being no hiphop expert, I don’t even know if this counts as hiphop.
Don’t care!
Pity that most of you don’t understand German … the lyrics are very men-hating - I really love it!
On the production side, I worked with those modern sub bass beats that you hear in every contemporary rap production (while still trying to have an old school feeling in the beat, think “Public Enemy”, which I like).
I still can’t find the right place in the mix for the sub bass tones, so I ordered a brand new pair of Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X headphones.
Those will solve everything
For the park punk chick vocals I tried to approach the vocals from “Now you s#ck!” by Consolidated (one of my favourite songs!):
This is the result:
I’m always open to criticism. This is my first rap experiment, so there’s much to learn!
As is the title 
Ahh I see now you put it in bold at the top of the post, lol.
