New Song, First Mix - Help please

Pretty neat!

Nice arrangement, dynamics, texture, form.

And I liked the way the pan spread gradually around 1:00...I was clicking in and out of mono to see haw far the panning was spread in the first minute...thinking I oughtta tell you to spread things, when the eaves filled with sound. A nice device.

The playing was real careful. There was one beat early where something was off the line. Only one I noticed.

But the playing was too careful, I think: it's nice to allow some soulful slop, occasionally; the restraint and care you took tend to sterilize the song.

Some randomness in the drums would be a nice place to add flavor...like the snare 12/4 rolls at the end....graduate the velocities....change up the roll once or twice: too predictable...gotta let the listener guess right 1/2 the time; and surprize them the other half, roughly.

The solo got a little loud in a couple spots.

The vocal was very good, and the recorded sounds a pleasure to listen to. And there's no hiss..the floor is really low..and with a tune like this, I can hear it sometimes....you took good care in the tracking and editing, I think.

The bass sound is a little underwhelming. Narrow and midrangie. If that's what you were trying for, you got it. But there's space for a little invention, growl and saw there....like an upright would get going down to the low E on the turnarounds...something that punches guts a little.

So, overall, an 'A'. My suggestions for improvement would be to loosen up a little, pay attention to real drums, and learn to breathe some life into the midi drums, likewise, on piano roll using the midi tools...or use pads to create the hits and velocity variances organically.

One nit...there's a part in the solo near the end where IIRC most of the instruments are playing chromatic lines in opposition. In a slow tune like this, some of the chords created during longer moments are unpleasantly dissonant, because the slow tempo allows the ear to lay on that moment.

I might analyze the lines, pair them up and let them play over the bass...to see if there are better note selections in parts of the passage....see if I can more strongly outline a quirky turnaround...without chordal confusion...which I might be able to get away with, at a quicker tempo.

Nice stuff. Film-music quality and playout. That's where I hear it.
 
Hey K, the mix sounds pretty good to me. Maybe the snare could be a bit beefier, as in the mix I’m getting more slap than body – by itself it sounds okay so I can only guess there is some masking going on. I hesitate to suggest a course but I’d start by looking around 150-200 Hz and either cut something there or boost the snare.
The kick is either totally not there or way back. Maybe it fits this style but there is a bit of lackage in the low end.

Arrangement wise, and I know you didn’t ask but at 1:30 --> that little interlude to the build up left me a bit flat. I get what you’re going for but man that is hard to pull off alone. You know a group of warm bodies would knock that out of the park.
The vox at the ending are really well done, some tails could be tightened up but that is really getting picky.

Great tasty guitar as always.

This reminds me of Ruby Baby – ever heard The Nightfly by Fagan?
 
good job..all seemed great to my untrained ears...maybe Jeffs right, a little bit of sloppyness wouldn't go a miss..this is professional dude :)
 
jeffmaher: Thank you very much for the close listen and comprehensive critique; valid comments that I will seek to incorporate in mix number two. I agree completely with the "sterile" factor you mention and, as an avid listener of 50's and 60's jazz, only wish I could capture a "live/spontanious" quality in my own recordings.

Manslick. Thank you. Maybe I can tweak the snare. Nightfly? One of my top
ten albums of all time. Sooner or later we've gotta do a collab friend.

kcearle: Thanks - sloppy seconds coming up (if I could only find the lead in my pencil).

Nicole: Many thanks.

K.
 
Yeah it does remind one of Ruby Baby, but hey....one learns from the masters and Donald Fagan is certainly that. It's got a nice vintage club blues feel to it with that walking bass, drums kind of laid back and tired smoky club vocals. Nice piece, really well done!

Joey :):):):)
 
I was trying make the link between this song and Fagan's "Ruby Baby". At first I couldn't hear it, but when I think about the vocal harmonies at the end of both Ruby and this tune - yea, there is similar quality.

Kinda flattering.

Thanks.

K.
 
I didn’t make the connection while listening to Its Not Just Gold. Your song as it is had me at the word cajoled.

It wasn’t until after your song was over and it kept rolling round my head that it kind of morphed into Ruby Baby, I guess because Ruby Baby, like so many Fagan and Steely Dan songs of late have really really long drawn out outros.

Check out some of the tunes on Morph the Cat, Bright Nightgown seems to go on forever.

To me it’s the sublime ending section of Its Not Just Gold that conjured Ruby Baby.
 
Like the song, agree with most of the comments so far. I'd like to hear a double bass playing the bass part, the current bass sound may be a bit too dry/clean.

Very minor thing that I noticed, there's a bit towards the middle of the track, possibly between a verse and chorus, where through headphones there's quite a noticeable cut in the slight background hiss associated with the vocal track. Guess you could paste in a 'silent' section from elsewhere in the vocal track to eliminate this. I didn't notice that there was any hiss at all until it dropped out abruptly, so it sort of suspended the disbelief of me sitting back in a jazz club! But again, very minor, and only noticed through headphones.

Thanks for the song, i don't listen to jazz often, but am partial to it now and again!

Jamie
 
Hey man! Good to hear some more tunes from you.:cool:

Very cool tune...largely understated which I dig.
Nits: That bass tone is a bit harsh...the tune really cries for a lush bottom (don't we all?:D) since the kick drum has pretty much left the building.
The quantization of the drum track is pretty distracting...you're really trying to lay back with the phrasing and the metronomic drum track just snaps you back in line. A human drummer would really kill on this tune. :cool:
The arrangement works..but I felt like the guitars were fighting for real estate starting at about 3:15. I'd think about featuring the rhythm guitar in that final push...there's some real nice comping goin on that gets lost in the mix....then bring in the other guitar for fills, sparingly at that.

Tracking is, as usual, very well done with a very sweet overall mix.

Killer tag at the end.:cool:
 
Thanks for the feedback Jags and Tey.

Am not noticing the hiss outside of the count-in.

Tey. you were on my mind when I mixed this... . More bottom-end :) coming up together with a less "cluttered" outro.

Thanks guys.

K.
 
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