Anybody Wanna' Play Bass On This?

  • Thread starter Thread starter chrisharris
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Hey man...I went a couple of days without getting any tracks, then I got like 5 all at once, LOL. You did a really nice job. I have a request...can you post your mix on Soundclick where I can download it and let the singer/songwriter hear the several versions and pick one?

What you played has a lot of similarities to what LT Bob played...I'm going to post his rough mix so you can hear it. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do this.

Here's Lt. Bob's rough mix...I don't have the bass track from him yet, so this is just his bass track shoved into my mp3.


Lt. Bob's Bass Mix

Cool. Glad you liked it. I didn't want to make it a downloadable without first hearing from you. Not my song, et al.

I like Bob's track also. A little cleaner than mine, maybe not as many fills. Let me know if you want the .wav file.

And remember, I'm just down the road a stone's throw!!! :rolleyes: :D
 
lol...you were a solid plan B, and I appreciate that you were willing to help me out. If you ever need something done, I'll be happy to tell you that I'll do it and then not deliver. :D

Lol. Sorry. My intentions were good holmes. I started it. I just couldn't focus on it. :o
 
Cool. Glad you liked it. I didn't want to make it a downloadable without first hearing from you. Not my song, et al.

I like Bob's track also. A little cleaner than mine, maybe not as many fills. Let me know if you want the .wav file.

And remember, I'm just down the road a stone's throw!!! :rolleyes: :D

Honestly, if you could encode your bass track at 320kbps, I think that would make sense. We won't lose much on a bass track at that bitrate.

Can you upload it somewhere? Of email it to me? I think gmail will take files up to 25mb.

if you want to email it to me, send it to chrisharrisweb AT gmail.com

If you can give me the bass file, don't worry about uploading a full mix to soundclick...I'll just mix it before I audition it to the guy.
 
Nice Song! Looks like Elton John. But, I think you could arrange it more, with keyboards and midi orchestra. I could try doing something for bass (and I will), but, I'm short on time, busy mixing other bands. I think it would be easier, for everyone, if you post the chords progression, so we wouldn't have to spend time getting the song notes, and just go directly to the bass creation. Don't you think that?
 
Sorry, I only saw now, that someone already recorded the bass!

Good bass fills...
 





Those are the ones I got. I sent all 4 mixes to the artist to pick the one he likes the best.

I have my favorite, but I don't want to influence the guy, so I have (and shall) remained silent.

Feel free to pick one and tell me how badly I fucked up all of them, LOL.


Sincere thanks to eveybody who volunteered and listened and participated by calling me a hack. I love these projects.
 
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why is it that the guy that wrote the tune can't do it? thats what i was wondering the whole time that i was trying to play to it. that guy should know more than anyone what he wants to hear.
 
why is it that the guy that wrote the tune can't do it? thats what i was wondering the whole time that i was trying to play to it. that guy should know more than anyone what he wants to hear.

It's a fair question, and it'll take me awhile to explain, but I sort of want to. Here's how it happened:

I have come to know and respect a singer/songwriter by the name of David Ramirez (different singer than this guy). I've known him for a few years, and we've played in the same circles, and my daughter has played probably a hundred gigs with him.

So a few months ago, after a gig, he told me he liked the recordings I'd done with my daughter, and he asked me if I'd be interested in recording some songs before he went to Nashville to book 3 weeks of studio time. Basically, he wanted something to be able to give to the session players ahead of time so that he wouldn't be spending any unnecessary time/money in the studio.

So I invited him over right then, we recorded all night (just vocals and acoustic guitars), and then over the course of the following days, I started mixing. While mixing, I had production ideas like "this song needs a shaker," so I did it...then I decided "these songs need bass," so I played it. Then I decided "these 2 songs need drums and electric guitar," so I got those...I did tons of background vocals, etc.

Long story shortened a little bit, David ended up with 4 songs that blew him away with stuff he wasn't expecting... fully arranged and produced, and even though he got them cut in a "real" studio a few months later, I can't tell you the number of people that have told me that they preferred my mixes...probably because I'm a huge fan and I was able to take more time. There's as much "me" in those songs as there is David, and I'm proud of them.

ANYWAY, one of the guys who heard those mixes is the artist who wrote this song. David calls me one day and asked how much I would charge to record a buddy songwriter of his (this guy). I told him I've never charged for recording people, but I have the luxury of ONLY recording people whose music I love...so I asked him if the guy was good. David's honest response was that he had a good voice, but he was "still working" on the songwriting. I told him I'd do it so long as the guy (who drove 200 miles from Houston to get here) would get here at noon on a Saturday and be gone eight hours later. Well, the guy showed up at 3 and I finally kicked him out of my house at 11pm...on a Sunday, and I didn't like the songs honestly. And he brought this other guy with him that I swear to God looked like he just picked him up hitchhiking...this other guy was the "lead guitar" player, but he was so fucking baked that no matter how loud I ran the click, he just couldn't play in time...or in key. It was laughable. I really should have saved those tracks, but I deleted them the minute they left my house. Then the songwriter got kind of pushy in the next few days when it came to giving him samples of the mixes, and he was making noise about coming back to do "another couple of songs," so I basically said "Fuck this...I'm not working for this asshole...hell, I'm not working for ANYBODY." It still kind of stuns me that somebody I don't know would take advantage of almost 8 hours of my time and eat my pizza and drink my wife's beer, then expect me to just JUMP RIGHT ON that free mixing job, and then ASK TO COME BACK FOR MORE, lol.

Anyway, a week after he left, my audio interface died. This was fine with me, because I was burned out on music, and it gave me a great excuse not to have to mix this guy's songs. Out of 5 songs, 4 of them were over 5 minutes long, LOL. The tune in this thread is by far the best tune, and I actually ended up kind of liking it, but the bottom line is that I told him my shit was broken, and I'd be happy to mail him his files so that he could find somebody to mix them. I didn't hear back from him on that offer.

But a weird thing happened. I actually felt shitty for not finishing the stuff for him. Like it or not, I said I would...so last week when I got my firepod fixed and bought some new monitors, I decided that it might mend some fences if I gave him more than he was expecting. So I did background vocals and electric guitars and drums and bass and acoustic leads, etc.

When I sent him the first song this week (with a "hey, I got my stuff fixed, and here's one of your songs") emails, he was sort of overjoyed and really apologetic and it just confirmed that I was being a dickhead and this was the right thing to do.

So to answer your question...the reason he didn't give me the chords or play bass on it is because it was basically a surprise for him necessitated by my own douchebaggery.

That's pretty long and honest, lol.
 
Greg Summary:

I hate this dude's music, so I took forever to mix it, and I felt bad that it took so long, so I put lots of extra stuff in it like bass and drums. That's why the guy didn't play bass himself on this...he had no idea that it would have bass at all...he was just expecting 2 guitars and a vocal. I over-delivered, lol.
 
But a weird thing happened. I actually felt shitty for not finishing the stuff for him.


...do I hear Guilt?? Are you kidding me?? And you call yourself a lawyer??

Like it or not, I said I would...

Okay, a lawyer with integrity. Kind of rare, but good.

I don't think you were being a dickhead by blowing this guy off. He gets to spend a weekend at your house, bringing along some unknown vagrant off of hiway 290 to "play" guitar. Ummm, I don't think so. And jeesus christa!!! he drank yo' wife's beer!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

But this one song is good. It is good. He sings good, too. nonetheless, you weren't being a douchebag. He over-expected!! You over-produced.
 
Listened to the bass submissions. The first hyperlinked one is best. Though I feel the song sounds a bit boring in general. The singer doesn't suffer but the listener does.
 
the first one is the only one Id think about using for that song, but I dont like the way its mixed...its holding down the bottom, but it should be much more present in the mid to upper in, imho...
 
I dont like the way its mixed...its holding down the bottom, but it should be much more present in the mid to upper in, imho...

I agree about the mix...I didn't really mix any of the tracks, honestly...I didn't want to spend a long time perfectly EQ'ing 4 bass mixes if 3 of them weren't going to get used. Once he tells me which one he wants, I'll treat them appropriately. Steve's definitely needs a pretty wide Q centered about 800Hz.
 
the first one is the only one Id think about using for that song

Not me. What I mean is, I'd definitely be happy with any of 3 of the 4 tracks. I won't say the one I wouldn't consider using. I'm an enigma, lol.
 
Though I feel the song sounds a bit boring in general. The singer doesn't suffer but the listener does.

It's definitely an uninspired project from my standpoint. I've tried to do no harm, but nothing about this project has inspired me to be creative in any way. That obviously shows in the mix.

I will be glad when he lets me know which bass track he prefers so I can be DONE.
 
oh, and the 4th link was dead so I didnt listen to that one..
 
oh, and the 4th link was dead so I didnt listen to that one..

Thanks...fixed it. LOL@ anybody who said they listened to all four on this board or the other 3 where it sits :D
 
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