Factory Joe

TripleM

Well-known member
Probably nobody will recognize this tune. I posted it years ago. I used to collab a lot with a guy who went by the name of Village Idiot here and TheCrappyBeatle on another site. He was a great guy. I've lost touch with him over the years. Anyway, we did this tune a long time ago. We co-wrote it. I probably wrote more of it than him, but it's a co-write. He did the drums. I retracked everything else to his original drums. I'm going to email it to him to see if I can get a response. But I thought I'd put it through you guys first.

Mix #1:


Mix #2:
 
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Cool song. I like the harmonies. Drums sound good to me. Nice clear mix with lots of space for the vocals. You could do a little tuning here and there. Guitars are dark and muffled. I'm missing something brighter and with more bite to drive the song.

I'll listen again later.
 
Cool tune dude. Has a lot of personality. Hilarious actually. I think the intro kinda lets us know, hey, this one is going to be fun lol. Factory Joe gets his Joe sneaks in a creamer cause he's ashamed he can't drink it black and makes union grievances stick lol. He's got seniority. He's a big fat slop who eats all the donuts and the donut holes. Haha this shit is awesome! :D

I like the guitar - kind of has a fuzz thing going on that fits, especially with the vocals.

The bass guitar sounds a little boxy or something. -Like it's not being impacted by the same room acoustics as the guitar and drums. Maybe experiment with a mid cut in the 500-1K range? Eh I'm not real sure about that. Something to try.
 
Robus - thanks for the review. Guitars are definitely not as bright as I usually do. I could certainly brighten them up. But I sort of like them the way they are. I used an old Cheap Trick song for a guitar reference, but I'll usually use something more recent (I often use a Weezer song). If I post a second mix, I'll brighten them up just for comparison.

IBB - thanks man. I'm glad you liked the song. Yeah I don't think the bass had much EQ going on. If I post a remix, I'll cut some low midrange for comparison.
 
Listening again. I miss hearing this kind of guitar pop on the radio. The song got me thinking of Supergrass. I'm getting used to the darker sounding guitars. On first listen, I guess what struck me was the contrast between the biting quality of the lyric and the dark, smoother sound of the guitars. The writing is excellent. Great lyrics, tight structure, verse, chorus and bridge all work together. Your harmonies totally make the song. My favorite part is that lead in to chorus where the harmonies kick in.

When I crank my speakers up, some harsh frequencies start becoming noticeable in the lead vocal. I don't know how much of those you would want to tame. They are part of what makes the voice engaging, that kind singing on the edge of a scream, and up high in your range. But you might be able to smooth them out a little if you want to. The song needs to be heard loud.

Quality stuff man.
 
Very catchy melodies. Could listen more than once this one. Listening on cans it all seems fine mix wise too. I also would like this style of music in the radio. For some reason it sounded a bit like the Beatles to me. Great!
 
Robus - thank you for the second listen. I was hoping to post a 2nd mix last night (and review your tune as well as a few others). But other crap came up. I'll try again tonight. I'll see if I hear the same thing in the vocal when I blast it. But if fixing it requires losing clarity, I'd probably live with the harsh-ies.

Music Box - I'm glad you liked it.

Maybe a second mix tonight. With a brighter guitar and a less boxy bass.
 
Cool song. The only thing that popped out to me mix wise was the guitars are a little dark (but not so dark that it takes away from the song), and the snare sounds like the mids have all been sucked out. I personally would focus on the drums a little to make them sound a little more natural. They don't need to really pop hard or anything, but I think more subtle/natural EQ would serve the drums well.
 
I like it. I agree with Boz's comments on the guitars and snare. I also agree that none of that takes away from how fun this tune is. Who does this remind me of? Weezer? One of those 90's bands that were pop with an edge. I found the drums low in your last couple of tunes, but the drum volume is great on this one. Drives the tune. Good stuff.
 
Nice one, TripleM. Reminds me of the Kinks.
The mix is fine other than the boxiness that's already been mentioned. I can't tell where that's coming from...sounds more like the guitar than the bass to me, but others said the bass. Cool to hear something from you.
 
Hey Boz/RAMI/Nola. Thank you guys for the listen. I probably won't have time for a remix until tomorrow. But I'll brighten up the guitars, check out the boxiness in the bass, and relisten to the snare - I thought it sounded natural enough. But I'll give it a re-listen. I'll try to get up something tomorrow.
 
I just dig the composition overall. It has been in my head all day.

It's a classic form:

Intro, verse, bridge, chorus,
verse 2 (with ornaments) bridge, chorus,
breakdown (relative minor for a second there?)
Chorus, blend of hook and chorus fade out.

Great harmonies. Clever lyrics. Great chord progressions.

You guys knew what the fuck you were doing.
 
Factory Joe! of course I remember this one...sounds great, Vocal harmonies are awesome and the break up on the lead vocal, while just a bit grating, is very lennon-esque. Lyrics are great...I actually remember most of them from before. Great songwriting and arrangement.

Agreed on the snare sounding like the mids have been sucked dry...guitar tones you choose are never what I would go for personally, but I can't complain, as they usually fit in your mixes, and I think at this point, it's obviously just a taste thing...less gain might be nice though? lol

I do think the bass guitar is a bit rumbly and indistinct though? It really pops out towards the very end to me, especially during the fade out, but maybe that is an auditory illusion of some kind when it's practically by itself there? During the meat of the song, I thought the bass sounded more or less ok.

I was happy to get to hear this again.
 
Thanks again IBB. That was really nice of you to say. And I'm glad you liked the writing.

Heat - hey a long-timer that remembers! I think the next song I do, I'll experiment with less gain on the main guitars. It's something I've been thinking about doing myself.
 
I met Dougie at jamfest ('03, I believe.)Collabed on a song around that time.Great guy. He completely disappeared. I heard he had health issues. Hope he's doing OK.
Song's great fun. Only major nit is the muffly quality of the lows.
 
Hey Beez. Good to hear from you. He'd talk about you from time to time - kept talking about what a great player you are. Yeah he had some health issues. But the last I talked with him, he was managing them. But it's concerning not hearing from him. It's been a long time. For those of you who didn't know him, you missed out. He's a great guy. He's the only guy from the board that I've ever met in person. Every once in a while, one of us would spend a long weekend at the other's house, just playing and recording.

Anyway, new mix at the top. Summary of changes:

1. I boosted the main rhythm guitar a couple of db's at 3500hz to brighten it up.
2. I removed the very low end from the bass. I also found a nice spot to notch at about 800hz to get rid of some boxiness.
3. The snare didn't have anything sucked out of it EQ wise. I backed way off of the compression I was using. It changed the tone a bit.
 
That's night and day better. Cutting the mud made all the difference. Vocal is a hair loud, imo, and somewhat fighting with the guitars now.
 
Guitar are sounding more lively. I'm not hearing mud, but the bass is a touch loud for me. You kept the harmony vocals loud--good.
 
That's a really good song. I love the "he's got seniority" lyric. I thought the mix sounded great, something for me to aspire to. I agree that the harmonies are the bomb here.
 
A disclaimer is in order: I'm pretty new to this, so don't treat my comments with any authority.

Very nice song, made me happy! What more can you ask?

I too agree mix two is a big step in the right direction, but I think you might have taken a bit too much meat out of the guitars. Somewhere in between mix1 and 2 would be better in my mind.

Sounds to me like there are some timing-issues with the intro beat samples, but the beat itself is awesome. Would have loved to have it there right up until the vocals begin, in time, and perhaps revisited as a hook of sorts later on (if only for one round). It really sets the stage for the song!

The cymbal in version two has some resonant frequencies in the highs that are quite uncomfortable to listen to. A little more sizzle, a little less ringing would be nice. Could have nice side-effects for the vocals for all I know too.

Keep up the good work :-)
 
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