1.5 Minutes of Fun!

DonF

DonF

Call Me "Grandpa"
The Old Dish Rag
http://www.nowhereradio.com/donf/singles

Written by my older brother in the early 70's, when he was a teenager and I was in grade school. He was my hero, so I naturally have a lifelong love for the tune.

I ran across an acoustic guitar track I recorded a year or so ago. I had forgotten about it. Decided to import it into ProTools FREE (it was tracked in Digital Orchestrator Pro) and mix it down.

Everything except the guitar is coming from the Roland HP335 as a stereo mix, unfortunately including a pseudo-guitar you can hear off to the right. Any reverb you hear on piano and drums is coming from the HP335 as well. The guitar is capo'd up a few frets, and I think it adds a nice sparkle to the mix. I avoided quantizing and overly editing things, to keep the feel kind of loose. I admit I did fix a couple of major gaffes in the guitar part.

My mixing environment is far from ideal, so I'd appreciate any comments regarding the balance between the instruments. I have to go largely by feel and by looking at a graph of the spectrum, etc.

Thanks,
Don
 
Cute tune, nice stereo panning, timing was impeccable, the only possible niggle is that lead instrument (synth of some sort) needs to come down just a little bit.

OTOH, I'm listening on headphones so it might not be as pronounced as I think.
 
Not my style, but good nonetheless!

This really isn't my thing but it is definately very well done. it reminds me of a super mario bros. game. Like the music when you are swimming under water levels. Very good recording.
 
Phyl: I think I'm gonna remix this soon, and I will pay attention to the dynamics of the pseudo-clarinet. I would like to get a real clarinet on it, but the budget probably won't allow that any time soon. "Impeccable" is one of those words people love to hear in regard to their work. ("Brilliant" is another!)

AnalyticalMan: LOL about the Mario Bros. comment. I hadn't thought of that!

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to listen and respond!

Don
 
Everytime I read about something being written by teenagers, I automatically think "ech!! Blink 182!" for some reason. :rolleyes:

So, this ragtime was ditty was a nice surprise!

Nice stereo panning, with guitar in the left and piano being nicely played.

I was almost fooled by the lead synth instrument (it got kinda wiggly in the bridge area). If you could get someone to play a clarinet, that would be way cool!

Nice stuff!!!
 
Wow, you need some guys coming in singing barbershop quartet! Or the thing where the guys sings through a megaphone.

Sounded great! Lead instrument (clarinet?) was maybe a tad loud, and the kick could use a little more whump, and less click.

good job!
 
Shaky Tee: Ironically, my brother Tom's teenage son is a Blink 182 fan. I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing their work. If I get a chance, I'll see if I can dredge up a clarinet player for a future session. Or maybe I'll just get a clarinet and give it a try myself. (Of course, the gadget freak in me would love to have one of these! :D)

schenkerguy: Unfortunately I'm kind of stuck with the kick sound coming from the HP335. I could isolate it and use some compression and EQ, I suppose. I will definitely consider that.

Again, thanks for listening!
 
If anyone cares to listen...

... I posted a remixed version last evening (Saturday). I left the old one up for comparison; so if you comment, be sure to tell me which version you're referring to. The revised version is called The Old Dish Rag, v2.

What I did:
  • Put each instrument on a separate track in ProTools FREE. (No more stereo mix or reverb from the HP335.)
  • Now that it was feasible, gave each instrument its own EQ and/or compression. This got me a lot more "whump" in the kick drum, I think, and toned down the lead instrument a bit.
  • Laid down a new bass track. The original one was just the left hand of the piano part stripped off and assigned to a different voice.
  • Gently compressed the entire mix (in Audacity).
All told, I spent about four hours doing these revisions. I hope it helped!

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to listen.

(BTW, I got a clarinet, but I think it's going to be a while before I get my chops back!)
 
Hi Dom,

I listened to both versions,big improvement with #2.
Everything has more space and sounds much warmer,nice job remixing.

This is real toe tapper,I kept thinking how great it would sound played fingerstyle guitar.

I listened to O Holy Night also,my all time favorite.
Very nice rendition,just great.

Pete
 
Pete,

I think I tried to do fingerstyle, but just couldn't make it work. I am a poor excuse for a guitar player, I'm afraid. I was thinking maybe a banjo would give the arrangement a bit of a lift.

Thanks for listening!
 
What, only 1 cymbal crash in the whole thing? :) ok it ended, there was #2. But that one there in the middle sure was a shocker. It kinda made me laugh, or at least smile. :) Am I wrong or is that the only cymbal up to that point? Why is it bugging me? I'll move on....

Very classic sounding and fits well within the style. Nothing to throw the listener off, no surprises, well, except, you know....:)
 
DonF said:
Pete,

I think I tried to do fingerstyle, but just couldn't make it work. I am a poor excuse for a guitar player, I'm afraid. I was thinking maybe a banjo would give the arrangement a bit of a lift.

Thanks for listening!
Click to expand...

I don't think it needs banjo, but if you do it, I'd like to hear it.:cool:
 
Geez, I had Explorer opened in a small window, Now I see you did a second version. I think I like the original better, but both are fine but have different attitudes. 2 is way more modern sounding somehow.
 
That's very cool, and happy!!

Recording sounded very pleasant too!!

Good work

GT
 
junplugged: My philosophy on crashes is that they're like exclamation points -- use too many, and they lose their impact. I find it interesting that you prefer the original mix, considering that it was just "quick and dirty". As for the banjo, I don't have one, and even if I did I wouldn't know what to do with it. Not any time real soon, anyway.

GT: Thanks very much for your kind words.
 
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