Walk Me On the Water with Jimistone and ibleedburgundy

R

Robus

Well-known member
Here's another song we have been working on. Dave did the drums. Jimistone sang the lead vocal. I have been wanting to do a collab with Jimi as long as I've been on the forum. It's great to finally get the chance.

All comments welcome. Thanks.

Latest mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzqJIqBR8uJedUFfekF3bWNSWm8/view?usp=sharing

Walk Me on the Water
Words and music by Ray Taylor, 2016

You did not leave your business card, your name
And the ages pass, breezy winter still cuts the same
Could you be right near me
Though you might not be at all?
But Jesus, if you hear me there’s a cold wind at my throat

Well I’ve been told we get those things we chose
Through the crow don’t know the hows or whys
And still he flies
Would you lend me a dollar or two?
Cause I got no bone to chew
And if Resurrection’s open and the word is truly spoken

Take me through,
Take me through
Take me through
Would you walk me?
Would you walk me on the water
Though my feet have turned to clay?

I’ll be right here where the backs are bent low
Where the nets are heavy but there ain’t no fish to show
Before I leave this vineyard, got a few things I want to grow
Cause there’s a revolution brewing
And a tugging in my heart to heed that call

Take me through
Take me through
Take me through
Would you walk me?
Would you walk me on the water
Though my feet have turned to clay?
 
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Def a different vibe with Jimi instead of Nick. This works too. That says a lot to your tunes, Ray. Is this a couple BPM slower?

You seem to have that twangy guitar under control now. Cool. "take me through", that section, sounds really good with the panned matching guitars. Probably irrelevant, but that delay ringing at the end sounds really cool. I'd edit out whatever other sound is in the background there and just have that sound going. Maybe even raise that waveform a few db's.

Nice work guys. So, is this the new band? :guitar:
 
The lyrics are inconsistent in terms of the picture they paint...
"You did not leave your business card, your name
And the ages pass, breezy winter still cuts the same
Could you be right near me
Though you might not be at all?
But Jesus, if you hear me there’s a cold wind at my throat"
The breezy is usually a term referring to a light wind and most commonly associated with a cool breeze in summer - relief from heat, pleasantness etc etc. whereas a cold wind "at my throat" suggests a threat of knife or hands.
"I’ll be right here where the backs are bent low
Where the nets are heavy but there ain’t no fish to show" has potential to show futility but what weights the nets - expectations, life, responsibility or similar isn't suggested.
"Would you walk me on the water
Though my feet have turned to clay? " I can't fathom this but have no bible knowledge to call on to decipher it.
It's a quick end to the track - it was signposted by the chord & melody but a bit sudden.
 
Hey ray, of course Robus is the writer but the expression "feet of clay" is used to describe a weakness or flaw in ones character. It's not a very common expression, but I have heard people use it enough to be pretty sure of its meaning and say that it isn't out of the Bible.
 
Feet of clay reminds me when we used to get stuck in the sticky spring mud and would have to leave our rubber boots there and walk home in our socks.
No offence to your previous singer but Jimi's vocals are better in tone and timbre. It gives the song some real beef in that area.
This song emphasizes the vocals which I prefer (although I'm guilty of over-lead-guitaring myself ;) )
The snare is very "woofy", or "cloudy", sort of like a kick drum. I thought it was a kick then I listened closer and realized it was the snare.
Somewhere in the snare eq is the snap, which could help that.
Not mix related, but the song kind of lacks a solid chorus or something, something to lift it up a bit, as it just plods along in the same musical area.
Mix is good (besides snare), nothing else came to mind while listening.
 
This snare sound was an old wood slingerland 6.5 depth snare de-tuned to the point where the top head had wrinkles. Very unconventional but I wanted it to have some bass. I was going for that boooof sound lol.

I did mess around with mixing the drums on this one. I used some minor automation reductions where the snare was louder on the fills. I'll contrast what I was doing with the drums with this mix tonight and see if we can fine tune. Between the top and bottom mic and the OH's, there is some flexibility here.
 
Thanks guys. Listening again this morning, I can hear straight off the bat the the vocal level is too high. I'll get another mix out today if I can.

Taras--this is 110 BPM. I seem to write a lot of songs in that 125-140 range, so this is a bit slower than average. No, this is not a new band. Work continues on the album with Nick and Dave. We may even be on the verge of deciding a name for our project!

Rayc, I thought about "cheesy winter," but that seemed potentially offensive to the lactose intolerant. "Sneezy and wheezy winter" had too many syllables, while "easy peezee winter" seemed not to warrant divine intercession. So by process of elimination, "breezy winter" it was. ;) Have you forgotten Daniel's interview with Nebuchadnezzar?

ido1957, I was worried about direct comparisons between singers, having two songs up on the Clinic at the moment. IMO there's no point as they are two really good singers with different styles. I was going for a kind of gospelly, Levon Helm thing here that seemed right up Jimistone's alley.
 
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Quick new mix in the OP. I was focusing on getting the lead vocal at the right level. I think the vocal needs to be forward--as ido1957 says, it's very much a vocal-centered arrangement. But exactly how forward is the issue I'm struggling with right now. Possibly it needs some automation, a bit lower in the opening, then building as the song progresses.

Let me know what you think.
 
Sounds great guys, outstanding vocals. I kind of liked the lead a little more forward like in the first mix. It sits a little under the snare in the new one. Both are very clear though, I don't think intelligibility is a problem either way.
 
I went to the latest mix (#2 I think).

The guitars sound very good as usual.

I think the bass could come up a couple of dbs. It's getting dominated in the low end by the kick.

Drums sound good. Levels are perfect. Great balance of overheads and kick/snare.
 
Love the guitar tones. Lovely right from the start. That first lead is my fave. I keep telling you to write down these settings! :mad:

Love the arrangement and instrumentation. Utterly tasteful IMO.

I am happy with the drums. I love this snare sound. Mix 2 in this thread.

At 1:54 were there some chimes or something in the background there? It is very faint. I keep hearing it and imagining it more than is there, and now I kinda feel like there needs to be something there.

I like the way the vocals sit in the mix in mix 2. Vocals are very nice. I like the harmonies on this one - they're only there if you're looking for them, but they add something.

The bass guitar - it sounds like there is some string buzzing going on. It is prominent right at the beginning of the song. Haven't noticed that on our other tracks. It's not bad as is but I am wondering if it could be cleaner.

Interesting this is a 3 minute song but it feels real short. I think that's a good thing. Sometimes you shouldn't give people as much as they want.

At the very end there is some scrubbing to do. The left guitar doesn't hold as long as it should. There is a residual soft key sound on the right side.
 
Thanks Dave. I took the overheads down a little from the first mix, so the chimes you mentioned might need to come up again. I've got a fair amount of tidying up to do.

I see what you mean about the string rattle on the bass. It's actually pretty pronounced throughout the song. When did I track this, back in February maybe? Weather must have been changing. I did a setup on that bass a couple of weeks ago and found the neck needed some relief. Anyway, I just took a couple of decibels away at about 2500Hz, which seemed to help. Should sound better in the next mix. If it remains bothersome, I'll just retrack the bass. The line is dead simple.

I do sort of take notes on the guitars. What I do is label the tracks so I know what guitar, amp, channel, and mic I used. I don't note down the EQ settings, but those are fairly simple to dial in and don't change much from song to song.

The lead guitar at the beginning is an SG through the clean channel on the Mesa 5:25, miked with an SM57. There is a clean boost in front of the amp to drive the preamp and increase the sustain. Other than that, just a Memory Boy delay in the loop and the amp's spring reverb, FX tracked as always. The line repeats during the first chorus. It repeats again under the second chorus, this time with a sorta-kinda double playing a similar part. The double is the SG again using the iic+ channel on the same amp, captured direct out using the amp's speaker emulation. The two are panned about 70% in opposite directions.

The lead part under the third verse is the SG again, iic+ channel, direct out with the speaker emulation, as is the solo that follows. The speaker emulation is really pretty useful on this amp.

The only other guitars are two doubled Strat tracks played through a Fender Princeton, miked with a 57 and hard panned opposite. They are low in the mix and just play chords throughout the song.
 
Nice tune, very clean and open. Nice clean tones on the guitars. Snare is a little bassy, kind of sounds good though. Great drum mix overall.

He does have the perfect voice for the tune, so good choice on that. Vocals are mixed great.

I, too, heard the weird string buzz on the bass. When you tracked the bass, were you sitting on a creaky chair maybe? :guitar:
J/k, it's not too bad, but if it was me I'd probably re-track it.

Little extra noise from something at the very end, nothing an edit or fade can't fix.
 
Jumped straight to the second mix.

I like the subdued "ahs" in the background.
It's overall a little down-tempo for my taste, but it seems pretty solidly mixed.

"Feet of clay" is from the book of Daniel. In one of his visions, he sees a statue with a bust of gold, torso of silver, hips of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay and iron mixed. A rock strikes the feet, shattering the statue and then grows into a mountain.
It's generally interpreted as each segment representing an empire (gold is Babylon, silver is persia... down to Rome for clay), and the rock is Jesus who ultimately destroys all empires.

Not entirely sure how that evolved to its current meaning of essentially Achilles' Heel, but that's where it started.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Jumped straight to the second mix.

I like the subdued "ahs" in the background.
It's overall a little down-tempo for my taste, but it seems pretty solidly mixed.

"Feet of clay" is from the book of Daniel. In one of his visions, he sees a statue with a bust of gold, torso of silver, hips of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay and iron mixed. A rock strikes the feet, shattering the statue and then grows into a mountain.
It's generally interpreted as each segment representing an empire (gold is Babylon, silver is persia... down to Rome for clay), and the rock is Jesus who ultimately destroys all empires.

Not entirely sure how that evolved to its current meaning of essentially Achilles' Heel, but that's where it started.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the legs of iron were the Roman empire. The legs went into the feet and it wasn't a different metal (Rome wasn't concoured, it fell from within.). The feet were iron mixed with clay. Symbolizing a revised Roman Empire, that isn't like the military iron empire that fell
but is a weaker, maybe just political, version of it.

I never really thought the expression "feet of clay" derived from that chapter in Daniel though.
 
New mix in the OP. This is getting closer. I retracked the bass and fine tuned the levels of the vocal and drum tracks. I need to let it rest for a few weeks for perspective. Thanks for the help.

Dave, good catch on those chimes. It was string noise on one of the doubled Strat tracks, low in the mix. I never noticed it until you mentioned it.
 
Sounds great to me, vocals especially-very good singing I like his tone of voice and the key and tempo of the song really make for a good vocal showcase. Drums sound simple and solid, I like sound of the toms even though he doesn't him them too much. Cool background vocals really gives the mix depth when they happen-almost has a keyboard pad feel. Mix ends abruptly which I guess you're aware of, but yeah would have been nice to hear that final minor chord ring out. Anyways-sounds great no real criticisms I can think of.
 
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