Joe Jackson song - Bubba Po and NotThatBright collab.

[Bubba po]

NotThatBright describes Elvis Costello as the "poor man's Joe Jackson"; I would have to take issue with that statement.

Anyroad up, as we say in Yorkshire, England - this is a song from the "Challenge" thread. NTB challenged me to do Joe Jackson's "Don't Wanna Be Like That". It's a song I'd never heard before the challenge. Seeking to put NTB on the spot in return, I challenged him to provide the drum track. He duly complied, but in order to make my life difficult he played the song about 6 or 7 bpm faster than the original.

This is my first rough mix; could you please let me know of anything that is glaringly shite, so I can put it right before he returns from "working away"?

Thanks.

SECOND MIX:



Mix based on Greg's recommendation:

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

This is cool!

The guitars a bit low or muddy.
The bass sounds fine to me.
The drumming is good for the most part. There are a few slip-ups. The snare sounds good, the cymbals sound a lot further away than the rest of the kit.



I've been trying to get a hold of that bastard for a few days but hasn't been online all week. Tell him I'm looking for him for a collab as well!

 

[Bubba po]

This is cool!

The guitars a bit low or muddy.
The bass sounds fine to me.
The drumming is good for the most part. There are a few slip-ups. The snare sounds good, the cymbals sound a lot further away than the rest of the kit.



I've been trying to get a hold of that bastard for a few days but hasn't been online all week. Tell him I'm looking for him for a collab as well!

Thanks, Schwarzkopfenmunchengladbachverstellengeselleschaft. Good call on the guitars and cymbals. I realise the balances are not quite right, yet. I've been working mostly on the drums and bass, trying to make them into a cohesive, punchy unit. On the whole I think I've succeeded, at the cost of not really doing anything with the rest of the instrumentation.

"That bastard" told me he was away "working" for two weeks. (Read: slacking off and getting rat-arsed for a fortnight, while I try to make a silk purse out of his sow's-ear drumming. )

Actually, the performance was pretty good. I've only had to do a small amount of tweaks to the timing. The kit has had very little done to it, other than the kick - that needed two lots of eq to get it rocking.

Thanks again for your ears.

 

[rayc]

It sounds pretty good but the slight speed up really knocked the recognition factor for me.
I think you did a good job.
I don't hear muddy guitars but they might need a little top end.
JJackson was a poor man's ECostello to my ears. I liked his 1st album but it was a stylistic copy that lacked the angst & anger let alone the biting lyrics. Then he went all jazz/Steely Dan sophisticated (in that, at least he was WELL ahead of EC) and I had no interest.

 

[Bubba po]

It sounds pretty good but the slight speed up really knocked the recognition factor for me.
I think you did a good job.
I don't hear muddy guitars but they might need a little top end.
JJackson was a poor man's ECostello to my ears. I liked his 1st album but it was a stylistic copy that lacked the angst & anger let alone the biting lyrics. Then he went all jazz/Steely Dan sophisticated (in that, at least he was WELL ahead of EC) and I had no interest.

Thanks, Ray. My opinion is the same as yours about who is the Daddy, here. I've done another mix - I think it's much better.

 

[Tadpui]

I like all of the performances on this. Either the bass or kick have some mid-hi frequency click to them, I can't tell which one. I'm thinking its the kick with a little too much beater.

Oh, I just saw mix #2. Listening to that one now. I do think it's better balanced, I can hear more guitar and more bass. I can't decide if the kick beater is still an issue. Maybe a tiny bit, less so now that everything else is filling out the space better.

Love the vocals.

 

[dobro]

Backing vocals: I really like doing bvs. I pour a drink and do 'em for a while. I pour another drink and do 'em again. The nice thing about this approach is twofold: first, the bvs get better, cuz their genius is to be an echo. Repetition serves that. The other thing that's nice about that (I pour a third drink and do 'em again) is that you get to record and record again, which I find pleasant, cuz most of the time I'm primed when I record and by the third take I've nailed it. But backing vocals reward the person who does them again and again.

Well, that's what I'd do with this one, anyway.

 

[Bubba po]

Backing vocals: I really like doing bvs. I pour a drink and do 'em for a while. I pour another drink and do 'em again. The nice thing about this approach is twofold: first, the bvs get better, cuz their genius is to be an echo. Repetition serves that. The other thing that's nice about that (I pour a third drink and do 'em again) is that you get to record and record again, which I find pleasant, cuz most of the time I'm primed when I record and by the third take I've nailed it. But backing vocals reward the person who does them again and again.

Well, that's what I'd do with this one, anyway.

So in summary, I ought to record more backing vocals? Would you turn them up a bit?

 

[Bubba po]

I like all of the performances on this. Either the bass or kick have some mid-hi frequency click to them, I can't tell which one. I'm thinking its the kick with a little too much beater.

Oh, I just saw mix #2. Listening to that one now. I do think it's better balanced, I can hear more guitar and more bass. I can't decide if the kick beater is still an issue. Maybe a tiny bit, less so now that everything else is filling out the space better.

Love the vocals.

Thanks, Tadpui. I was going for a click on both bass and kick drum, so perhaps both together are a bit much. I ALWAYS hate my vocals, so that's a nice comment.

 

[dobro]

So in summary, I ought to record more backing vocals? Would you turn them up a bit?

'Whoa-ho-ho-hoooah!' The harmony vocal right at the beginning, when it comes down the steps (the one at 1.45 works better, I think) - I'd be wanting to do it again to try to get the harmony tighter.

Hey, when you're singing 'take me away, take me away' what do you have behind the vocal?

I think you did a really good job of this one. I like it.

 

[Bubba po]

'Whoa-ho-ho-hoooah!' The harmony vocal right at the beginning, when it comes down the steps (the one at 1.45 works better, I think) - I'd be wanting to do it again to try to get the harmony tighter.

Hey, when you're singing 'take me away, take me away' what do you have behind the vocal?

I think you did a really good job of this one. I like it.

Aaah, I see! Yes, well I could probably get that vocal tighter, and I agree with what you say about backing vox. I LOVE doing backing vox - there's just something awesome about doing the third or fifth above the lead vocal; you're soaring higher than the main singer and that feels so, so good.

Regarding the "take me away" part, I just have an old-fashioned harmony vocal, but it's backed off quite a bit because I didn't want to drown out the drums and bass that I'd worked so hard on.

 

[NotThatBright1]

Greetings from 3000 miles from where I should be! While the weather here beats the shit out of the weather the east coast got this morning, I don't have to work 70-hour weeks when I'm back home, so all things considered, I'd have rather been shoveling snow this morning.

This is the first time I've checked out the site since sometime last week. My password is stored in my personal laptop which I didn't bring on my trip, so I had to create this dummy screen name, which is certainly that in every sense of the term. I will get to excoriating Dog In Door for calling me a bad word in due time. For now, here are my comments on this song. Forgive the bullet points... I have been wearing the "consultant" hat for far too long in recent days.

-Song is excellent. I have never been so proud to have my idiotic screen name associated with a song before. Bubba did a fantastic job. Vocals are great. Guitars are great. Bass is excellent. It's a bass-driven song, and the tone and performance of it are both worthy of much praise.
- I gave these drum tracks to Bubba completely raw, and he made them sound good. This is proof that a real DAW can make just about any drumming sound decent. I am using my computer to mix from now on instead of my dp-24. I'll be leaning on Greg for advice until he tells me to fuck off.
-This was fun. Let's do it again if you need drums. Also, if any of you other guys that have been cool to me want some sub-par drumming for a song, feel free to ask. Use my real screen name, though. This one is going away as soon as I get home.

Nice job, bubba. Now I won't make you thank us for bailing your ass out in WWII.

 

[NotThatBright1]

Ray and Bubba

When I get finished with this nightmare assignment on the west coast and get home next week I will teach you two about who is the real "elvis costello" in the whole "elvis costello vs joe jackson" argument. I'll give you a hint... it ain't elvis costello!

 

[Bubba po]

-Song is excellent. I have never been so proud to have my idiotic screen name associated with a song before. Bubba did a fantastic job. Vocals are great. Guitars are great. Bass is excellent. It's a bass-driven song, and the tone and performance of it are both worthy of much praise.
- I gave these drum tracks to Bubba completely raw, and he made them sound good. This is proof that a real DAW can make just about any drumming sound decent. I am using my computer to mix from now on instead of my dp-24. I'll be leaning on Greg for advice until he tells me to fuck off.
-This was fun. Let's do it again if you need drums. Also, if any of you other guys that have been cool to me want some sub-par drumming for a song, feel free to ask. Use my real screen name, though. This one is going away as soon as I get home.

Nice job, bubba. Now I won't make you thank us for bailing your ass out in WWII.

Hiya, NTB! Don't put yourself down - your drums were well-recorded, if a little hot. I really only needed to do work on the kick. The overheads were fine, most things had some compression on but not a lot. The snare had a bit of top end added, but then again, nothing to write home about.

I'm glad you liked the bass - you're no slouch yourself on that instrument. I had to practise for two days to get it good enough. I also spunked fifteen quid on new strings and did a complete setup on the bass so it played fast and low enough to actually play the thing cleanly! Glad I did, though - it's like a different guitar now.

 

[ido1957]

Sounds great - the harmonies are just right for me. I grew up doing a lot of BGV (and still) so I can appreciate the feeling.
Mix sounds good - everything has the right levels and tone. I listened on speakers and headphones and both sound good (but different of course).
What kind of bass are you using on this?

 

[Bubba po]

Sounds great - the harmonies are just right for me. I grew up doing a lot of BGV (and still) so I can appreciate the feeling.
Mix sounds good - everything has the right levels and tone. I listened on speakers and headphones and both sound good (but different of course).
What kind of bass are you using on this?

Hi, Ido - thanks for commenting. The bass is a 1980's Fender Japan precision bass. It's a good guitar - it belongs to my brother who hasn't played for twenty years. The re-string and setup has transformed it. It now has the best action without buzz of any bass I've played, and I've always loved the tone of precisions.

 

[dobro]

The best action without buzz. That's half of what makes you love a bass. Question: should you be able to play a bass as hard as you like and not get buzz? If you're playing hard and getting buzz, does it mean you're playing too hard or does it mean you should get a new bass? (I'm asking here cuz it's timely and because I'll probably get more responses than the other forum.)

 

[jonny deep]

Hey Bubba - I like this a lot! I don't know the original, did you change much? Love the vocal - don't know why you don't. I think it might come in a little loud on the second mix. The two vocals together at the start sound tighter on the second mix, I think. Nice bit of distortion on the lead vox - what did you use? Nice job!

 

[Bubba po]

Hey Bubba - I like this a lot! I don't know the original, did you change much? Love the vocal - don't know why you don't. I think it might come in a little loud on the second mix. The two vocals together at the start sound tighter on the second mix, I think. Nice bit of distortion on the lead vox - what did you use? Nice job!

Thanks very much, Jonny. I don't know what's going on with the vocal - can you hear distortion there? I'm beginning to think my new Rode NT1As don't record my vox very well. I could possibly have been slightly overloading the input of my interface as the Rode is quite a "hot" mic, but if I do that there is usually a tell-tale peaking on the channel in the DAW. I recorded with some compression on the channel input this time, which may have allowed the interface input to distort without clipping the channel, I suppose. You've got me wondering, now.

 

[Bubba po]

The best action without buzz. That's half of what makes you love a bass. Question: should you be able to play a bass as hard as you like and not get buzz? If you're playing hard and getting buzz, does it mean you're playing too hard or does it mean you should get a new bass? (I'm asking here cuz it's timely and because I'll probably get more responses than the other forum.)

Hi dobro; I'm no expert on basses but I know what I like. I play with a pick, but I'm no power monster- I don't dig in with the pick like some players do. I don't mind the occasional clacking of string against fretboard and so on when I'm playing a song with a bit of oomph like this one, but I would hate fret buzz interfering with every note on a more laid back number. I think you just have to set it up how your playing style and the song you're doing needs it to be. I know that's no answer.