The KEEPER - Pygmy Beat Extended

[rayc]

Greg_L on guitars.
Bubba po on vocals.
Bandi on drums.
Me on bass.
Is this the sound of 78 or 79?
Lyrics...
The Keeper
And the keeper did come
Bringing keys for the cage
He walked through the corridor
And onto the stage

As he turned to the crowd
Seated in his mind
And searched all the faces
For a love lost to find

His tears fell like kisses
On dark xenophobes
And his eyes blinked like lanterns’
Beneath unlight strobes

As he turned to the crowd
Crowded with their thoughts
Subconscious of the time
And of how it distorts.


And so bowing he turned
And he walked to the wings
His mind floated in mem’ries
Of less painful things

He followed the chalk marks
On the bare timber walls
On past lighthouses dormant
And through empty halls

As he turned to the crowd
Pinned like ghosts enthralled
In the spotlight’s arc
As his past reinstalled

Still on through the evening
Of a starless white sky
To a place where the hangman
Himself had to die

As he turned to the crowd
On earth and on snow
To fade into Present,
Past Future to know

 

[ido1957]

Stuck here with no HP so I'll listen when I get home
My earbuds only put out 1 side because they are for an iPhone arghhh!

 

[Robus]

I remember this one. Good song, good performances. I know it's a punk mix and you want your guitars loud and aggressive, which they are. That said, I'd look at the balance between the guitars and everything else. It seems inconsistent. The vocal is poking through well early in the song. Later on it seems to be fighting to be heard. I'm not hearing the lyrics as clearly as I would like. Toward the end, the lead guitar steps on the vocal. Wouldn't mind hearing the harmony vocals more clearly. These are minor points. Overall it sounds very good.

 

[ido1957]

Cool tune - love the leads in this one (but everybody has contributed nicely
My work hp have no bottom end but your bass definition comes through nicely as always.
Guitars may be too loud overall so if they go down a bit the vocals/drums may come up which sound low.
Intro lead could use a tweak of high end eq (mainly close to the beginning) as it is a little harsh. The rest of the song it sounds good.
Yes - I'm getting the vibe you mentioned in the OP...

 

[RAMI]

I almost missed this one. Too cool.

I think the vocals need to come up. I get what you're going for, but they're still too low, in my opinion. Instruments sound good, love the snare and the leads especially.

There's something I can't put my finger on that's making the stereo image sound weird to me. I can't explain it, but if you've ever wired your speakers out of phase by mistake, you know how that makes you sort of tilt your head to try to get your bearings? I sort of get that in the song. Is anything copied and pasted and nudged or something along those lines?

Anyway, cool song and performances.

 

[heatmiser]

Cool! I think it sounds great overall. Great energy. Bass sounds really good. Drums...check. Vocals very nice, but I agree they could come up a little.

Guitars sound kind of sim like...you should try putting a mic in front of an amp and cranking a marshall or something. lol

I always am interested to hear what you're doing as I never know what to expect. This tune is a little more accessible than most, which is a nice change...it still has what I think of as common with your work...lots of verses with somewhat esoteric lyrics and not a whole lot of dramatic arrangement deviations...no real chorus/hook going on necessarily, but very cool sounding and uniquely yours.

 

[ibleedburgundy]

Everything sounds really good individually. I think you need to try and open up some space for the vocals and get them out front somehow. Tons of ways to do this.

 

[rayc]

I remember this one. .

Thanks for the close listen. The levels are pretty much as the participants wanted them though the guitars may have crept up a little even though the last tweak was to lift the vocals.. According to the dials the vocal levels are consistent & the lead only plays over 1 line which is a repeat of the last.

 

[rayc]

Cool tune - love the leads in this one.
The rest of the song it sounds good.

Gerry, thanks. the drums lost a tiny bite of presence as I had to EQ the stereo track to reduce the HiHat a little. I understand re the vox but, personal preference time - I like where they are.

 

[rayc]

I almost missed this one. Too cool.

I think the vocals need to come up. I get what you're going for, but they're still too low, in my opinion. Instruments sound good, love the snare and the leads especially.
There's something I can't put my finger on that's making the stereo image sound weird to me.
Anyway, cool song and performances.

Thanks Rami, I'm unable to adjust the snare as this is a Band In A Box stereo track. To tweak a slightly too loud HiHat I had to do some EQing and that seems to have reduce the cut through of the snare.
I've listened on a few systems in the last few days and don't get the stereo out of phase feeling but my ears aren't as good as yours. I will suss it out though.

 

[rayc]

Cool! I think it sounds great overall.
Guitars sound kind of sim like...you should try putting a mic in front of an amp and cranking a marshall or something. lol

Thanks heat. Greg'll love the jibe about sims. The last couple or three tunes I've knocked out have been shorter and more direct than my usual stuff. I considered dynamics in the arrangement but for a little over 2 mins I figured I'd stick with the original brief and hit hard & consistently between the eyes. The lack of hook is my lack of melody making skill. I relied on a slight variation and the tag line of "As he turned to the crowd" to indicate the chorus - that & the tremolo guitar, different progression and such.

 

[rayc]

Everything sounds really good individually. I think you need to try and open up some space for the vocals and get them out front somehow. Tons of ways to do this.

thnaks for the thoughts ibb. My biggest struggle with this mix was getting the vocals to sit in rather than in front of the mix so I'll have to live with this.

 

[RAMI]

Thanks Rami, I'm unable to adjust the snare as this is a Band In A Box stereo track. To tweak a slightly too loud HiHat I had to do some EQing and that seems to have reduce the cut through of the snare.
I've listened on a few systems in the last few days and don't get the stereo out of phase feeling but my ears aren't as good as yours. I will suss it out though.

Don't worry about the stereo phasing. It might just have been how I heard it last night. I don't get the same impression this morning. I had no issues with the snare. Funny thing is, I thought I read that it was Greg on drums, so I was like "This doesn't sound like Greg, but the drums sound good anyway", so those Band in a Box drums sounds pretty damn good.

 

[JDOD]

Listened to this a few times now... I like it!

 

[TripleM]

Dang, now they're blocking Dropbox at work. I'll try to get to this later at home.

 

[ido1957]

Gerry, thanks. the drums lost a tiny bite of presence as I had to EQ the stereo track to reduce the HiHat a little. I understand re the vox but, personal preference time - I like where they are.

That's cool - personal preference trumps all imho (otherwise all songs would sound the same wouldn't they

 

[Bubba po]

The vocals are too quiet and too dry to me, but this is Ray's baby. Actually, they're fine in the "turned to the crowd" parts, but buried in the others.

 

[TripleM]

Sounds very good to me. Who's Bandi? Drums sound good.

I'd maybe pull down the guitars a db and push up the lead/backing vox up a db.

The bass part jumps out a little bit here and there. It's on certain notes. Not sure if compression could do anyting about it. I wonder if you can find the frequency(ies) that are doing it and notch it somewhere.

The lead-ish riff at the beginning could maybe be notched at maybe 2400hz or so. Just a bit.

Very nit-picky to be sure. It sounded really good to me.

 

[RAMI]

Who's Bandi? .

LOL! "Band In a Box".

 

[TripleM]

Dang - you kids and all yer new-fangled ter-min-ah-luh-gee.