Does Crawdad Know Yet?

this is way smoother. I wouldnt do any mutes on any of the bass notes until i got to the double notes in the chorus thing, i`d just let sustain from each note to the next, bring it up a little and it keeps a wide foundation for the other stuff to dance on. The slide is good but a little gritty for the smoothness of the tune. I maybe wrong for what your shooting for, but I`m thinking a clean crying steel sound with a touch of verb. Then we got the B3 to contend with for the backdrop behind it all in the choruses.. oh wait, there aint one in it. Spank me Momma. :)
 
Big improvement over the mix I heard earlier.

I think you might have gone just a tad too far on the kick, although it's not consistently too hot. Maybe it's just got too much subsonics for the tune. It's hard to pin down without my hand on the controls. Could be the bass too. High-pass 'em each in the mix at about 50hz, and see which one is the culprit.;)

Acoustics sound nice 'n full now, but didn't lose their sheen. The vocal could use a bit of presence now though. :D

Ah, the joys of tweaking. :rolleyes:

Not tryin to bag on ya, dude, but I think having crawdad track that slide is good idea: the man plays a mean slide!:cool:
 
Well. Lets see. I like it. I know there's been some talk about lowering the vocals a bit, but I say leave 'em be. The slide makes me think "country", and when I think "country" I think of songs that are really lyrically driven you know?. In all the GOOD country songs (yes there are some) it seems to me that the music, while obviously important, is mostly for creating the mood the story teller is trying to convey. That's why the vox belong up front. Because this song has great lyrics and a great voice to pull it off.
I think it's a winner. I'll play it for my woman later, because she's a chrisharris fan. And did crawdad write and perform all the music? That's some cool shit.
 
M.Brane said:


Not tryin to bag on ya, dude, but I think having crawdad track that slide is good idea: the man plays a mean slide!:cool:
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No doubt. In fact, I may have another idea entirely that would be easier on both me, and the clinic. Crawdad's gonna' track this (I think) for something he's working on...what's to prevent me from just grabbing his mix sans vocals and pasting my howls in there for "my" version of the song. That's easier than Karaoki, right? I'm soooooo all about the "easy" route, lmao. Thanks a ton for the second listen, btw. And yeah, it's the bass that's the culprit...I got silly and actually ran it through a limiter??? I've never tried that before...now I know why. Seriously good tips, btw.

Toki - I don't know if you saw my response in the thread that I deleted, but your post helped a lot (I think)...hehehee... Crawdad on slide seems to be the way to go...or on the entire track, if you ask me. All we have to do is talk Al into it. You're totally right about the bass too...I tracked the whole thing in pieces, and I STILL don't know what feel I was going for, lol. Anyway, thanks a lot for the second listen.

jcmm - Okay man...feel free to critique away. I'm posting the last version for a day or 2...I need some space between and this mix right now, lol.

I basically left all the subsonic problems alone until I can listen at high volumes again, but I jacked around with the "tone" of the slide track some...and just about dropped it out of the mix altogether, lol.

LAST MIX (for tonight)
www.nowhereradio.com/honestmango/singles "JULIET"

Thanks again people...I really REALLY REALLY appreciate the help.
 
mbuster said:
And did crawdad write and perform all the music? That's some cool shit.
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This version's all me...you can tell by the fucked up levels and off pitch slides...and total lack of tone. That's kind of my signature sound, lol.

However, crawdad has recorded a version. He pointed me toward his recording, and then I kinda' started trying to write a little different story. His version is on NWR; and it's great. This was just my attempt to convey the re-writing of it to him, w/o doing it on paper...lyrics look so gay on paper, lol...unless they're totally abstract poetic type stuff...and I'm not poetic. lmao.

thanks busta-man. Oh, lemme' know if I can delete those collab tracks yet.
 
chris, i think it breathes a lot more now........i like it at that level.....it's far enough back that sometimes it almost sounds like a violin, then sometimes it's obvious that it's a guitar....i like the ambiguity of the sound....it kind of adds to the atmosphere of the song more than it did before
 
Your self-depreciating sense of humor cracks me up! LOL!:D

You've got a good balance going on the bottom. I think all you need now is a bit of presence on the vocal (is that possible with a 58?) bring the cymbals up (especially the crashes), and you'll be happenin'.:cool:
 
Chris - sounds good overall to me. There's a little wierdness to my ears on the clean elec. guitar sound in some spots. I can't put my finger on it. Like it might be too up front in some spots, but not others. There it is...at 3:01. Is it fighting with BG vocals or something? Can't tell. Computer speakers ya know (I don't know what I'm gonna do when I don't have that excuse anymore:D. Also, there's a little kind of break at 2:03 that sounds a little loose. It sounds like you couldn't decide if there should be a pregnant pause there, or some instruments playing...so it sounded like a little of both to me. It almost sounds like the song is ending there, but then I figured...nah...this is a Chris Harris song we've got to have at least 3 minutes left ;) :D. That's all I can hear. Sounds good overall to me.

I listened to Crawdad's version as well (first time). I liked both versions. I intend to listen to both a bit more to study the genesis of the song. But it sounds to me like the two of you together are putting together something quite good. BTW...Crawdad...the elec. guitar tone on your version kicked ass. Very country sounding (good in my eyes). I need to figure out how you got that tone to see if I can find a reasonable facsimile of it on my gear. What did you use? I can't get tones for crap w/ my guitar. Of course I'm sure my equipment doesn't help (mid 80's Peavy Horizon II, Peavy MX amp (130w w/ BW speaker - can't turn it up loud enough to make it sound good in my neighborhood :D & POD) but maybe I can find some way to dial in something close?. Of course needing a new neck doesn't help either :D:D

I'm starting to get the impression that Crawdad and Chris Harris can write a pretty good song ;) :D:D

Nice work guys :)
 
OK--I'm gonna tell the REAL story because Chris is way too modest. If he wrote "Yesterday" he'd call it junk.

Well, I was working on this song, and I was just running it into the ground. I'd been with it too long, had no objectivity and my vision for it was burned to a crisp. So I asked Chris if he'd like to mess with it. I gave him full carte blanche and told him to do anything he felt like to it. So he comes up with a much better feel, a much better story line and some cool melodic twists. Hell, he even picked out the good parts and kept those! In my opinion, he took it from semi-decent to outstanding.

Like many of us, I hear something magical in Chris's writing and I'm pleased to have a guy who can take my messy songs and turn them into gems. In fact, I'm sending his about a hundred rejects to work on, so he might not have much time for the board until 2008! :D

Chris--I haven't heard the latest mix yet--just got home. I did hear the first electrified version. Tell you the truth, I liked it better without the extra guitars. It reminded me of the sound of Tangled Up In Blue, where the music just supports the singer perfectly. If I did a track of this, I'd be going for the same feel. In fact, if I do, I'd prefer that you sing it. The combination of your voice with that lyric really sells it for me.

Off to hear the latest version!
 
crawdad said:
OK-- If I did a track of this, I'd be going for the same feel. In fact, if I do, I'd prefer that you sing it.
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Okay, are those tracks ready yet? lol...Nothing would make me prouder than to sing over one of your arrangements.

Oh, btw...I lied; I put up another mix, lol...the low end might be under control if M.Brane is to be trusted :D - I'm probably back to where I started, lol.

I'll definitely do a mix w/o the electrics after your comment. I think I'm just stuck in "acoustic-land" until I start working on some electric tones that don't peel the eyebrows off. I don't know why, but I've always liked weird, out of place, loudly abrasive electric parts, but they're really more of a distraction than anything else, lol.

Anyhoo...thanks for the post, crawdad.

Jagular - thanks for taking the time. I'm ditching the clean guit on the next remix...that should fix it, lol.

M.Brane - thanks for following this and helping.
 
erichenryus said:
just listened to the latest. still think you need an ultra low cut.
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You're right. The car never lies, lol.

Hey, if anybody is totally bored, I did a totally different mix cutting out 95% of the electric stuff. I think crawdad (and others) were right...less is usually more when it comes to me and guitars, lmao.

It's called "JULIET (Acoustic)"
www.nowhereradio.com/honestmango/singles

Thanks for your continued tedium :D
 
Q!

I've heard it five times now. I still haven't figured out how the chorus works so well - it intrigues me - I'm gonna hafta analyze it. :)

If I said this was quintessentially American music of a high order, would I sound like I spent too much time in college? Country's supposed to be unsophisticated music, but this one's got subtlety, and I love that.

The mix: the sound's clean and good, panning and levels are good, EQ's well-balanced.

The performance: you sing better than me and you play better injured than I do intact.

Anything to change? Well, what's that buzzing instrument? Slide guitar with fuzz? Here's an impression: whatever that instrument is, it seems kinda lost in the mix a bit but you can't bring the level up because the sound's doesn't exactly fit the song. I don't mind it, but I can't think of anything else that I would tinker with in the hopes of improvement. I'd ask Crawdad or someone to do some pedal steel. :D

I love Crawdad's internal rhymes and storytelling. He knows his way around a song, don't he?

I still can't figure out what makes that chorus so good. Ha! :D

Good work, Chris.
 
I think I like the acoustic version better, but I think I only heard the version from yesterday so I did not hear the changes that were made after that.

Everything seems a little clearer to me this way. I like the background vocal mix. I also think you sung this better, well I think you resang it from the first version.

Really good as usual.

Hey, listening again. I don't think I like when the acoustics drop out to just the to right one at the beginning.

*****
 
Re: Q!

dobro said:
what's that buzzing instrument? Slide guitar with fuzz?
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Yup...lol.

Thanks for checking it out dobro. I'm not sure which version you listened to, but if the buzzing noise was just in a few places, then it was the Acoustic version. Yeah, this needs pedal steel bigtime. I found that before I recorded the fuzz version, I was literally HEARING steel on this, and I don't mean, in my head...I mean, my brain was filling in the gaps with a high pitched moaning steel. I don't have one, lol...so I think the slide was an attempt to fill in what should be there.

That chorus...I know. When I heard Crawdad's version, that first line just stuck in my brain in a very good way. I don't know what it is either, but you don't tinker with that...you just try to grab it and exploit it for all you can, lol. I played a gig last Friday, and I found myself humming that damned chorus in between sets, which is weird b/c usually singing 40 or 50 songs has the effect of clearing out any and all musical ideas I may have had earlier in the day, lol. THAT's when I knew this could be cool.

Anyway, I'm rambling...I appreciate your post a lot.
 
Re: Q!


I love Crawdad's internal rhymes and storytelling. He knows his way around a song, don't he? [/B]
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Credit where credit is due--dobro, most of those internal rhymes are Chris's lines. In fact, when I heard his rewrite, I called him the King of the Internal Rhyme!
 
Skids - I missed you there. Thanks for going through it again. Yeah, that part at the beginning wasn't really all that intentional from a planning standpoint. I've joked about this a lot, but the truth is that I'm really having an incredibly difficult time playing rhythm guitar right now...(little hand mishap), so syncing up 2 guitar tracks is kind of a bitch for me right now...if I can't play them "together", then I have to edit one or both of them after the fact to make them sync...this works okay for most of the tune when drums and bass can cover up some of the dropouts, but it was too obvious on that first part, so I just ditched one of the Acoustics...unfortunately, the one that I had to keep was the one that I put a chorus on...I would have MUCH preferred to have used the guitar that's on the left, but anyway...I'm just letting you know that I agree with you...but I like the idea of it just totally breaking down right there...so the idea won out over the execution, lol. Thanks for the post.

Crawdad - quit doing that, lol. "Credit where it's due" my ass. How about this...you wrote the song, without which, I'd probably be covering a Beach Boys tune or something right now. You da' man.
 
Dude, you totally should cover a Beach Boys tune! I would love to hear what you would do with something like "Help Me Rhonda" -- a challenge, do I hear? :)

Okay, now on to the song. It grew on me :) and by the end I really liked it... I thought the drums were kind of low in the mix, but that is probably just on my end.

Very cool vocals. I like how you changed the style a bit during the chorus (dammit, now it is stuck in my head...) There were a few places where the gee-tar seemed a bit up in the mix especially during the small breaks when the guitar comes in for a bit of lead.

Very cool of Crawdad to give you free reign. Creativity is a wonderful thing!

Now, if you wrote Yesterday, would you really be that hard on yourself? :)
 
Yeah...I like this better. Less busy sounding. But damn...am I off my rocker...some nice banjo picking would kill in here :D. Seriously...I'm not kidding...I can totally hear it.

On my computer speakers when you go down for the lowest notes in this song like at "since our graduation" at 00:56 your voice sounds a little bass heavy. Only in spots like that though. It sounds good to me otherwise :)
 
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