Jazz Fusion Tune Mix 1

ibleedburgundy

The Anti-Lambo
OK this is my first mix in Logic - been a PT guy for a long time but I never upgraded. Needless to say Logic X is better than PT 6.9. I am not familiar with the plug-ins at all. I did a lot of experimentation with this one. First time recording new drum set. First time playing drums in a long time. First time using Glyn Johns technique. First time really blending crazy midi stuff into a tune. First time recording with this bass player and the guy who did the guitar solo. First time writing a song that was so aggressive in key changes.

Lots of tracks. I am playing drums, keys, and rhythm guitars. I wrote the tune on a midi keyboard and then added the live instruments. It starts out fairly traditional sounding and then increasingly goes off the rails with the electronic stuff. So that's the theme - shit starts out fine and then gets overloaded until it pretty much explodes.

All types of comments are welcome. I am open to re-tracking any parts.
 
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Man IBB, This is killer! Great groove, tight performance, and outstanding tones all the way around. I love this 70s style of funky fussion. The only problem is sometimes the Solos on this genre were overplayed. Not here though, everything is just right performance wise. That makes for a very tasty total package. No nits from me.
fantastic work man!
 
I dig this too. Very funky. Nice sound to the kit overall, and that snare is righteous! Are you using live drums of samples? Bass sounds great. Balance between bass and kick is perfect. I guess I'd have to say I'm not crazy about that fuzzy synth you've got doubling the bass line early on. Just personal preference, but I like to hear the bass establish itself early in an arrangement. I'm hearing more synth there, less of the bass. Again, just preference. I didn't have a problem with the guitar solo--it's playing a line that sounds like it would be more at home in a blues or rock composition--but then that's the point of fusion. Happens a lot in funk too--that's Prince's stock in trade.

Very good work. I don't hear anything that needs retracking.
 
I dig this too. Very funky. Nice sound to the kit overall, and that snare is righteous! Are you using live drums of samples? Bass sounds great. Balance between bass and kick is perfect. I guess I'd have to say I'm not crazy about that fuzzy synth you've got doubling the bass line early on. Just personal preference, but I like to hear the bass establish itself early in an arrangement. I'm hearing more synth there, less of the bass. Again, just preference. I didn't have a problem with the guitar solo--it's playing a line that sounds like it would be more at home in a blues or rock composition--but then that's the point of fusion. Happens a lot in funk too--that's Prince's stock in trade.

Very good work. I don't hear anything that needs retracking.

Thanks! The drums are all real tracked in 1 take and they aren't edited in any way - just EQ and reverb. Not even compression (although there is a touch of limiter on the overall mix but it's barely ever hitting). It is a pork pie snare drum I bought recently. It is not an expensive drum but it certainly punches above it's price IMO. It is very easy to control the overtones on that drum - something I think is generally difficult on cheap snare drums. It's an SM57 on there - I messed with the position extensively before I found one I liked.

I agree with you on the synth that doubles the bass. Good catch! I was having second thoughts on that for a while. At one point I took it out and then I put it back in. It's a patch called modern prophecy - a standard Logic midi instrument. The bassist is doing all sorts of phrasing and the modern prophecy is straight perfect midi rhythms. So they kinda don't jive.

We struggled with the guitar solo. The guitarist is a pretty awesome blues/classic rock soloist. This was not in his comfort zone. He came over and played the solo probably 35 times. This version is pieced together from 6 of them.
 
OK I finally remixed this thing. I took Robus's advice and took out the bass doubling synth but I only did it inn the beginning and then it creeps back in. I also cut the bass frequencies of that track so it wasn't competing with the bass so much. Did a lot of other things too - completely changed the reverb on the drums to a much more understated type.

There are some new keyboards on it too. A friend of mine came over and tracked with his Nord.

Also, I am done with sound cloud. We work way too hard on these things to have them ruined by a cheap format conversion. Hopefully the MP3 is not too bad.

Please let me know what you think!
 

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  • JFT Mix 3.27.16.mp3
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Big step forward. That synth line doubling the bass sounds pretty cool now that I can hear the bass under it. Is that lead synth doing the arpeggios in the middle the Nord? Sounds great.
 
Big step forward. That synth line doubling the bass sounds pretty cool now that I can hear the bass under it. Is that lead synth doing the arpeggios in the middle the Nord? Sounds great.

Nah, those are stock midi sounds in Logic. The Nord is at the very beginning, the very end, and a short lead at 2:49. Thanks for listening!
 
It's a fantastic piece of work IBB. I listened to this second mix and I have to tell you...IMHO it sounds better and has that old school groove with the synth doubling the bass. The synthetic was a little flabby on the first mix but by cutting all the lows on it you have ducked the life and punch out of it. That doubled synth/bass bass line is a signature 70s staple to this type of groove and almost had it nailed on the first go around.
my 2 cents.
take it with a grain of salt.
 
Thanks. I think it sounds a bit dry at the beginning now - right after the intro. Might have to add something back in or something completely new.
 
This is super tight man.

I love the blend of organic, analog sounds and digital distortion/delay on that low synth part. There's some bits that sound like nintendo samples later on. This is really intricate.

The drums are tight, but the kit sounds somewhat choked to me. I'd like it to breathe a little more maybe?

This was very creative and the musicianship was on display.
 
Wow, crazy good performances. This is kind of what I imagine Herbie Hancock or Weather Report sounding like, without being uber familiar with either.

Great use of space and stereo spread, especially where the bleeps come in around 2.16. Niiiiiiice. Might be cool to hear something in that space when they drop out around 2.50. Tough to fault the mix though, it's pretty tight.
 
This is super tight man.

I love the blend of organic, analog sounds and digital distortion/delay on that low synth part. There's some bits that sound like nintendo samples later on. This is really intricate.

The drums are tight, but the kit sounds somewhat choked to me. I'd like it to breathe a little more maybe?

This was very creative and the musicianship was on display.

Thanks! I have the drum overheads pretty low for this mix. Maybe if I bump them up a bit the drums will feel a little more live. I am trying that for the next mix.
 
I listened to this a couple of times over the last few weeks. Everything is super tight. Some noticeable influences in the keyboard parts; ELP and Herbie Hancock. And the bass comes off like Jaco sometimes.

I've got no suggestions for the mix. I think it all sounds good.

Thanks for sharing...
 
I swear I commented on this before...did you have another thread at some point? sorry if not.

This sounds great man. that guitar at 1:05 is awesome. great tone. nice spacial arrangement there too. everything def has its place and fits in it very well. nice composition. nice clarity all around. love the bass line during the breakdown.

how many tracks were in this session? incl all drum tracks
 
I swear I commented on this before...did you have another thread at some point? sorry if not.

This sounds great man. that guitar at 1:05 is awesome. great tone. nice spacial arrangement there too. everything def has its place and fits in it very well. nice composition. nice clarity all around. love the bass line during the breakdown.

how many tracks were in this session? incl all drum tracks

26 tracks. 8 on drums. Lots of synths. This is the only thread for this tune. Thanks for the comments!
 
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