"Don't Sleep Your Life Through" - Serendipity

K

K-dub

Well-known member


... and now for something completely different.

Still bass and guitar to add (along w/ other stuff that may pop in my head).

This one has a little serendipity attached ... and comes w/ a story. I bought X3 (Sonar) last weekend -- and this is the second song I started work on. I was thinking of working on this one ... but really was just fooling w/ the stuff to see what came w/ the new toy. So Addictive Drums is included w/ the download ... and I started playing w/ the midi patterns that came included in the program.

I selected one entitled "Pop Song" ... and because I was thinking about doing this tune, I just started playing along w/ the midi drum pattern ... and every time the song changed a section -- the damn drummer kept right up -- the random pattern I selected fit absolutely perfectly. I said, "Holy Shit. I can't believe that just happened."

So I played around w/ it yesterday -- sort of trying this and that out -- but then went back today and put some earnest effort into it.

This is what serendipity delivered. Hope you like what I've got so far.

As always ... any/all comments are warmly appreciated.

Kev-
 
Very nice song, touching. The vocal almost has a Marty Balin quality at times. I mean that as a compliment.

I'm not sure the drum pattern is gelling all the time, particularly in the intro and into the first verse. After about halfway through the 1st verse things mesh much better, then a repeat of the intro later it goes out again. I like what it's trying to do, playing outside the beat or whatever, but it's not quite there yet, imo.

The mix sounds good to my ears, although somewhat wooden and listening on computer speakers.

Nice work man, I always like your stuff.
 
Yeah ... someone else thought the drums might be a little too "busy" -- and I get that. I'd already modified some of the beats in rough patches where they didn't "quite fit".

This is literally 5 hours into it ... so it's still in its infancy. I've much more to do with it ... but wanted to solicit comment early so that I had an early heads up on earworms that folks caught ...

I'm not so worried about the mix aspects until I get the rest built -- so I basically slammed the levels (hence the wooden quality). :)

... so thanks for the comments, Mick -- ALWAYS appreciated.

Kev-
 
My pleasure brother.

The wood is my ears, not your mix/levels. Call me a softy, but I really like this song. Dare I say, hit material, but perhaps of a different era or current adult contemp charts.

My wife likes it also.
 
Some cool chord changes.

Yeah there was a short section near the beginning, and again shortly after 3 minutes, where the drums and the rest of the tracks fought each other a bit. But you could just claim you're an eccentric artist and that's the way you roll. Everyone will then say you're a genius.

I really didn't have any mix nits. Sounded good.
 
Ah ... the old "eccentricity" trick to cover mistakes! Good ploy! :)

The drums are going to need slight attendance still ... but I'm going to wait for Wayne and Stu to send in their parts before massaging them.

I'm still amazed that the drums fit so well in the verse right "out of the box". It's probably the fastest I've ever constructed a drum track.

More to follow, Trip -- thanks for the pre-lim thoughts, bud.
 
Mick Doobie said:
My pleasure brother.

The wood is my ears, not your mix/levels. Call me a softy, but I really like this song. Dare I say, hit material, but perhaps of a different era or current adult contemp charts.

My wife likes it also.
Click to expand...

You're a softy. :)

But really, thank you for sharing that. It made my day ... and it's only morning.
 
New mix on top link -- added some guitar and then blended things together a little better. Tried to open up the space a little more ... lighten up on compression so that it breathes better ... changed the position of things etc ...

Still waiting for bass and lead guitar etc ... but the changes were substantial enough to share again.
 
Bass part received and added. More still coming ... hopefully soon. Mix is on link above.
 
Hey. I think what you have so far sounds very good. I particularly like the tone of the drum kit on this. It has maybe more of a modern sound to it than past tracks of yours that I remember. As simple as they are in spots though, I think I agree that they're maybe a little too busy in others.

The bass/drums together sound very nice actually. Your voice sounds good and the vocal melodies are very well developed. Not a huge fan of the synth "pad" (is it called?). The tone of that right now stands out as seeming a little dated to me in comparison with the other sounds you have, but I don't know much about that sort of thing.

I think you have a great foundation here for whatever else you want to do with it.
 
I only noticed things I liked on this one. It's pretty much ready, man. Maybe the sax sound could use some gnarling up. Maybe that last cymbal hit's a bit loud.

I like it. Nice.
 
Lots of snare reverb, but I thought it worked pretty well. Not very often I say that.

The bass sounds a bit boomy and rumbly. I think there is some low frequency taming that needs to go on.

Vocals sound excellent. Pad instruments sound good to me. Piano might be a little wooly, but not bad.
 
heatmiser said:
Hey. I think what you have so far sounds very good. I particularly like the tone of the drum kit on this. It has maybe more of a modern sound to it than past tracks of yours that I remember. As simple as they are in spots though, I think I agree that they're maybe a little too busy in others.

The bass/drums together sound very nice actually. Your voice sounds good and the vocal melodies are very well developed. Not a huge fan of the synth "pad" (is it called?). The tone of that right now stands out as seeming a little dated to me in comparison with the other sounds you have, but I don't know much about that sort of thing.

I think you have a great foundation here for whatever else you want to do with it.
Click to expand...

Thanks P -- I'm still waiting for the lead guitar parts -- and I'm going to take a couple passes at harmonies -- but I'm closing in. Thanks for the thoughts!
 
dobro said:
I only noticed things I liked on this one. It's pretty much ready, man. Maybe the sax sound could use some gnarling up. Maybe that last cymbal hit's a bit loud.

I like it. Nice.
Click to expand...

I wonder if I could get the Lt to an actual sax part(?) -- for I, too, think the sax could use some realistic gnarly growl.
 
TripleM said:
Lots of snare reverb, but I thought it worked pretty well. Not very often I say that.

The bass sounds a bit boomy and rumbly. I think there is some low frequency taming that needs to go on.

Vocals sound excellent. Pad instruments sound good to me. Piano might be a little wooly, but not bad.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the thoughts, Trip! I will extract some rumble from the lows. I've actually got 250 / 500 hz boosted pretty thick. I'll tail some of it back.
 
Bringing this back as I just received parts from the guitarist this morning and blended them in ... this is a completely different version of this song ... and it also happens to be the fourth final mix ... but I wanted to simply update this thread instead of burying it in the other one ... because it is SOOO completely different. Again ... thanks in advance for the patience as I complete the march to finish off the new release. New mix is on the OP, and here:




Thanks for any/all comments!

Kev-
 
FWIW ... so folks know. Based on input from other boards, I radically revised the drums to a much more "natural" sounding kit. New mix is on the links.

K-
 
This sounds really good.

Only two nits. The bass is a bit undefined and muddy. I'd nudge the vocal up just a bit - at least in certain sections. There are spots where it's struggling against the instrument tracks.

Other than that, I thought it was excellent.
 
TripleM said:
This sounds really good.

Only two nits. The bass is a bit undefined and muddy. I'd nudge the vocal up just a bit - at least in certain sections. There are spots where it's struggling against the instrument tracks.

Other than that, I thought it was excellent.
Click to expand...

Thanks bud! I'll tweak it just a little more ... I'm thinking it's a little tubby still also.
 
Was in Maine all last week ... finally got back to the studio this morning and made the final refinements.

I think this one's ready for the fork in it. :)
 
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