Goodbye Mr Pills*

Sorry Arm, it is Tull. You've got a bit of a limey accent when you sing.

This song could have used some Chili. Ah-hem... :D
Just kidding (are we allowed to say that anymore? I know things are changing around here.)

I thought the bass guitar was solid and filled out nicely. I would like to hear some more punch in the kick.

The vocals get buried sometimes. This is a lyric centric song, so gotta bring them out. I agree with the other comments about vocals fighting with the guitars.

Having heard the song before vocals, I really like the almost narrative theme of the delivery. Good addition. Not sure I could have added any more without adding confusion. Good choice to just go with what you had.

Cheers,
 
TAE said:
Good Job Arm!

Yep it was my brother in law...and though you didn't know him you nailed him in certain parts... he was smarter than that and least he thought he was.
Man he dodged the bullet so many times but definitely got caught in the crossfire more than once...

Did 2 three year stints in State prison mostly working at firecamp both times...He was so close this time to getting clean...had over 60 days at Christmas and then his last binge..damn knucklehead...he was a PITA but he is missed and left a lot of people that loved him brokenhearted. :(

Baby T on the left in back and his 18 year old son who is a junkie heading down a very short road...

View attachment 93998

Always lived on the edge...


View attachment 93999
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Thanks TAE - was a bit nervous about you finding the song, but glad you like it. Like I said, it wasn't really about your B-I-L specifically, seeing I didn't know the guy, but about people like that everywhere. Far too many of them, alas. Thanks for the seed of the idea, although I'm sure it were otherwise. Cheers

famous beagle said:
Very cool tune, man! The guitar lines are awesome and sound great. I'd like to hear more presence from the drums --- a little more "thwack" in the snare --- but that's just personal preference. The vocals definitely reminded me of Tull before I even read people mentioning that. Your style and tone is very reminiscent of him. It doesn't sound derivative, but it's very similar. The vocals also sound a little dark to me --- especially in the chorus. I think they could do with a bit more air or presence maybe.

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for the listen oh famous hound.. :D I've some "final" (yeah right) adjusting of drums, voice etc just now.

Chili said:
Sorry Arm, it is Tull. You've got a bit of a limey accent when you sing.

This song could have used some Chili. Ah-hem... :D
Just kidding (are we allowed to say that anymore? I know things are changing around here.)

I thought the bass guitar was solid and filled out nicely. I would like to hear some more punch in the kick.

The vocals get buried sometimes. This is a lyric centric song, so gotta bring them out. I agree with the other comments about vocals fighting with the guitars.

Having heard the song before vocals, I really like the almost narrative theme of the delivery. Good addition. Not sure I could have added any more without adding confusion. Good choice to just go with what you had.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Oh enough with the Jethro Tull... :laughings: I'd better send it to Ian Anderson, see what he thinks... :( I have put a bit more crispness into the kick and upped the vocals a tidge as well doing some more (godamnn!) automation on the lead vocals. I think it's perhaps the rapid fire delivery of certain phrases that might be causing people issues... I'm not the most clear enunciator you'll ever meet in real life. Might be a bit easier to understand now. Thanks for the listen. Will definitely do something with you when I've got something that's not so far along... :thumbs up:
 
I notice the Tull thing but to me it's more from the instrumentation, particularly the intro. Vocal a little influenced perhaps, but it's in the slightly medieval feel to the instruments that I notice the influence, and appreciate very much! Agree with others that lead vocal appears and disappears a little throughout. May be my system but not much low and low-mid on this...a little top heavy.

Nice job with this one!
 
It would be really good if the words were just a bit more discernible. They're halfway there now. I didn't get all of them until I read the lyrics while I listened. It shouldn't be like that. The words for a song like this that tells a bit of a story should be right out there. Parallel compression, yeah. A touch of distortion, yeah. And turn the vocal up a bit too. The space you have on 'em is about right.
 
einstein magoo said:
I notice the Tull thing but to me it's more from the instrumentation, particularly the intro. Vocal a little influenced perhaps, but it's in the slightly medieval feel to the instruments that I notice the influence, and appreciate very much! Agree with others that lead vocal appears and disappears a little throughout. May be my system but not much low and low-mid on this...a little top heavy.

Nice job with this one!
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Thanks einstein! I'll address the intelligibility of the vocal below. Appreciate your input. I put some low end back in as a result.

dobro said:
It would be really good if the words were just a bit more discernible. They're halfway there now. I didn't get all of them until I read the lyrics while I listened. It shouldn't be like that. The words for a song like this that tells a bit of a story should be right out there. Parallel compression, yeah. A touch of distortion, yeah. And turn the vocal up a bit too. The space you have on 'em is about right.
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Thanks for the listen dobro.

You've just listened to what must be the 6th or 7th version since the original post. On each version I have adjusted vocal automation, EQ and/or bumped the volume a bit. If you think they're not easy to understand now, you should have heard them then... :laughings:

The vocals are now way out there - almost to the point of burying the music. I'm considering turning them back down as I'm quite fond of my triple interweaving guitar lines, the skittering and harmonic lines in the bridge and the bass / drums which are being somewhat lost perhaps with the focus on the singing/lyrics. If you're (I'm using the global "you" here dobro:thumbs up:) not getting them now, then I'm not sure there's anything that I can further do that will help the situation. I think it's two things - enunciation and the style.

I've played this (latest version) to several people who are used to hearing me and other Australians sing and they get pretty much every word, first time, despite my singing on this tune in a partial American accent, which they've noted. And some of them aren't native Australians themselves. If they don't get every single syllable, they're in absolutely no doubt about the content.

So I think it's a combination of the rapid fire delivery of certain words, the accent and the way the tracking ended up - more volume on a couple of the really short words wouldn't make a difference even if I could do it, which I can't really... and... I'm perfectly fine with it. Working out the words is part of the joy of music, isn't it?:) Imagine we poor Aussies spending all our lives decoding Yank and Brit pop...

Anyway, the music existed well before I took the seed of the idea that TAE planted and turned it into this set of lyrics in about 10 minutes one night. I'm OK with how the vocals have ended up and the fact that some people can't understand them all.

Thank you all for your comments and assistance in the fine tuning. Any other suggestions, I'm all ears.:laughings:

Cheers
 
Just listening to this now. I wrote my own 'Goodbye Mr Pills' lyrics when TAE told the story of his BIL. I can hear the Tull comparisons in the vocals - but not the music, which in the chorus reminds me of old Moody Blues more.
I think the bass could come up in the mix a bit. Good tune.
 
good song,great lyrics :)

i don't hear much tull,but i do hear the police in the guitars :D ... would be a great contender for the mix me clinic thing,be interesting to hear other peoples takes on it :)
 
I think the rework made a noticeable difference. Vocals are where they should be. I find them still buried through the middle section, but it works well like that. An underlying spoken narrative, sort of speak.

I would like to see the drums be more prominent. This is a rock tune, they should be there in force.
 
mjbphotos said:
Just listening to this now. I wrote my own 'Goodbye Mr Pills' lyrics when TAE told the story of his BIL. I can hear the Tull comparisons in the vocals - but not the music, which in the chorus reminds me of old Moody Blues more.
I think the bass could come up in the mix a bit. Good tune.
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Thanks mjb - I remembered someone else said they'd written a GMP song... but couldn't remember who it was... did it ever get posted?

cakewalkKaKed said:
good song,great lyrics :)

i don't hear much tull,but i do hear the police in the guitars :D ... would be a great contender for the mix me clinic thing,be interesting to hear other peoples takes on it :)
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Thanks for the listen cakedude - hmm... Police. I'll have to break out the chorus pedal... :D

Chili said:
I think the rework made a noticeable difference. Vocals are where they should be. I find them still buried through the middle section, but it works well like that. An underlying spoken narrative, sort of speak.

I would like to see the drums be more prominent. This is a rock tune, they should be there in force.
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Of course it's never just as simple as turning up the drums.... I had to go through the whole louderizing process again, as when I'd turned them up even just a smidge, they were slamming a bit hard on the limiter. But I think I've reached a happy medium...

dobro said:
Sure, a decibel on the drum bus. I bet he experiments with two though :thumbs up:.
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No... in the end it was probably 1db, then a bit of a boost in the low end on the master EQ, shift the snare compressor threshhold back about 1.5db, then peel back about a third of that db on the snare and kick while boosting the overheads another third, then back to redo the loudening via the clippers and limiter plug...:(

2db and I would have been reaching for a bottle of something for assistance. And it's only Monday night... now, there's a thought.:D
 
Armistice said:
No... in the end it was probably 1db, then a bit of a boost in the low end on the master EQ, shift the snare compressor threshhold back about 1.5db, then peel back about a third of that db on the snare and kick while boosting the overheads another third, then back to redo the loudening via the clippers and limiter plug...:(

2db and I would have been reaching for a bottle of something for assistance. And it's only Monday night... now, there's a thought.:D
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Sure, otherwise, what's the point? I mean, you sound like someone who's overthinking it. C'mon, simplify. That's what mixing's all about.
 
Armistice said:
Thanks for the listen cakedude - hmm... Police. I'll have to break out the chorus pedal... :D
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Don't do that! :) That's a common misconception. Summers never used a chorus pedal. It was actually his EH Electric Mistress flanger pedal, along with an MXR analog delay and/or or a Maestro Echoplex, that gave him his sound.
 
Armistice said:
Thanks mjb - I remembered someone else said they'd written a GMP song... but couldn't remember who it was... did it ever get posted?
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It's in my 'pile of lyrics'. I've been concentrating on the current batch of songs, and haven't been (completely) writing too many new ones recently. Also, summer is not a good recording time for me, with open windows, fans and a/c noise all the time.
 
Listening to the mix in post #1, I didn't see if there was a more recent mix.

Nice guitar work, drums sound great as well. I think that the vocals sound great, although they're still fighting to stay on the surface. For the most part that doesn't bother me too much, the vocals are buried in most of the music that I listen to. A little variation in the vocal melody would go a long ways though, if you end up retracking at some point.

This reminds me of something but I can't put my finger on it. And no, I'm not gonna mention the J-T-word :)
 
famous beagle said:
Don't do that! :) That's a common misconception. Summers never used a chorus pedal. It was actually his EH Electric Mistress flanger pedal, along with an MXR analog delay and/or or a Maestro Echoplex, that gave him his sound.
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Apart from the occasional "effect" track as a highlight, I rarely use anything modulaty these days ... so no police revival gonna be happening here.:D
 
I like it. Good groove and especially strong chorus. The mix was too guitar heavy for my taste. I'd like to have heard more drums and bass. Neat bass lines that could be more forward. As far as the arrangement goes, the guitar riff was cool but got repetitive and overbearing. I was looking for it to it drop into a simpler line to open up breathing space for the vocals during the verses.
 
Robus said:
I like it. Good groove and especially strong chorus. The mix was too guitar heavy for my taste. I'd like to have heard more drums and bass. Neat bass lines that could be more forward. As far as the arrangement goes, the guitar riff was cool but got repetitive and overbearing. I was looking for it to it drop into a simpler line to open up breathing space for the vocals during the verses.
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Thanks Robus. I've cut the guitars away a little when there's singing going on. Can't do much about the riff for ya though... I like it! And it's a guitar song..:)

Final (!) mix up.
 
cool song with a great lyric. The music at the beginning, before the vocal came in, made me think of Tull. The vocal not so much. Great playing and good mix IMO. The chorus is very nice. The verses have a lot going on in terms of riff, timing, and lyric. It's almost like the music is competing with the vocal for the attention of the listener. Maybe it's just me. It's a great lyric and a great riff.
 
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