" False Idols" An International Collaboration.

[ShanPeyton]

Hello Fellow Home Recorders.

This is, so to speak my first collaboration effort. I found this guy on the interweb and i really really dug his sound and style, it is a little different than my usual tastes but there was just something about it i could really get into.

It had no bass or anything and we started talking and hatched an idea to to add some bass. When i got the file from him all i received were the drums guitars and vox. They were all recorded as stereo tracks as opposed to mono. All the backing vox were recorded to the right side of the stereo channel. So mixing it down almost became a bit of chore. But also a welcomed challenge.

In the end:

- i split the guitars up and sat them a little better into the mix. Tried to find a bass sound that complimented them.

-The vocals were interesting. I think they got recorded on a fairly cheap mic and the entire track was riddled with this odd clicking and popping. I tried to filter them out and it didn't work so good. I just ended up cutting out any non singing parts. The pops and clicks are still audible through out the song. I added my own back ups vox to the track and sat them over on the left to even out his on the right. It went over well. He enjoyed it quite a bit.

I also took one little liberty and added that little bit of guitar noodling/solo at the beginning of his own little guitar intro. I thought it sounded cool. Sort of glued the pretty guitars to his vocals?

The drums there wasn't a whole lot i could do with. It was a pretty much an "as is" situation. I am not entirely sure what he used to make them, they sound like a program of some sort? But having been sent to me in in one Stereo track i felt it safe to just leave them. And to be honest i kind of suck at making drums sound good anyways.

I was hoping i could do a before and after, but he has removed the previous version from his account. But there was a pretty big difference.

Sorry for the long winded reply i just wanted to run you through the project.

Give me some feedback, i might dink around with it. This is the final version i guess as he is really happy with the end result here.

Enjoy.



feel free to follow us both on soundcloud if you want:

https://soundcloud.com/smpeytone
https://soundcloud.com/owlsneagles

 

[jonny deep]

Wow - I love this! Thanks for posting! Another example of why I prefer this place to the radio.

Vocals kind of remind me of The Killers and Snow Patrol. I like how you left him clearing his throat in - was that deliberate? Drums sounded fine to me - I'm not a drummer, though!

 

[Greg_L]

Pretty cool song. I like the vocals. I also like how he used the same drum fill for everything. Lol. Awesome. It's a good mix with not so great sounds. The guitars have that sort of midrange sim blanket over them. The whole thing has a sort of canned sound to it. It sounds like literally nothing was mic'd. It has no air or depth. That's just how it goes with sims and canned drums. That's my guess anyway. It's not bad. I'd just like more dimension to it.

 

[ShanPeyton]

Wow - I love this! Thanks for posting! Another example of why I prefer this place to the radio.

Vocals kind of remind me of The Killers and Snow Patrol. I like how you left him clearing his throat in - was that deliberate? Drums sounded fine to me - I'm not a drummer, though!

Thanks. If you like it stay tuned we decided to keep doing some some more stuff together. Song two is in the works already.

Yes i did leave the throat clearing thing there on purpose. I think it just added a nice element to the whole thing. I debated on just getting rid of the whole thing but it is just one of those one off things that sounded cool.

Pretty cool song. I like the vocals. I also like how he used the same drum fill for everything. Lol. Awesome. It's a good mix with not so great sounds. The guitars have that sort of midrange sim blanket over them. The whole thing has a sort of canned sound to it. It sounds like literally nothing was mic'd. It has no air or depth. That's just how it goes with sims and canned drums. That's my guess anyway. It's not bad. I'd just like more dimension to it.

Yea, the song itself is cool that was my initial draw for sure. It just had a different vibe altogether than what i am used to. I think that is what made it so fun for me. A breath of fresh air maybe?

Ha! I can't make any excuses for the lack of dimension. There is a very real possibility i totally misused my limiter and it ate up some of the dynamics? Is that a possibility?


Both of us are bound by sims and canned beats. The drums fills have been the most glaring criticism i have got so far. Just blatant obvious they are not played by a human. I have been working on my stringed instrument tones and what not and they are coming along o.k. Hopefully my own solo shit won't be as obvious.

Thanks Greg.

 

[Greg_L]

I have been working on my stringed instrument tones and what not and they are coming along o.k. Hopefully my own solo shit won't be as obvious.

Thanks Greg.

Keep in mind that I'm just micro-nitpicking. The average listener will have no idea, nor will they care, that these are sim tracks. The guitar tracks are good. They sound good. There's a little room for improvement though even for sim tracks.

 

[ShanPeyton]

Keep in mind that I'm just micro-nitpicking. The average listener will have no idea, nor will they care, that these are sim tracks. The guitar tracks are good. They sound good. There's a little room for improvement though even for sim tracks.

Oh yea! I get what you were saying. I come here for the micro-nits Greg! I would ideally like to have the best possible sound as i can. It is stuff like this that keeps me moving forward and doesn't leave me feeling like "I won" If you catch my meaning?

I got a lot of texts from friends the day we posted that up saying "Holy FCK man that sounds so professional compared to your old stuff blah blah blah"

Meanwhile, i am sitting here thinking to myself "really"? There is always so much room for improvement. Anyways, Looking forward.

 

[Greg_L]

Oh yea! I get what you were saying. I come here for the micro-nits Greg! I would ideally like to have the best possible sound as i can. It is stuff like this that keeps me moving forward and doesn't leave me feeling like "I won" If you catch my meaning?

I got a lot of texts from friends the day we posted that up saying "Holy FCK man that sounds so professional compared to your old stuff blah blah blah"

Meanwhile, i am sitting here thinking to myself "really"? There is always so much room for improvement. Anyways, Looking forward.

With every sim I've ever used, there's a little range in the mids-to-upper mids that kind of clouds the tracks, and you don't get that with a real mic'd speaker. A real mic'd speaker generally has tighter lows and cleaner highs, so you can simulate that (no pun intended) by finding that muck in the sim's mids and notching it out. I've found that when I nail the frequency down and then play with the Q to get just that bad bit and nothing else, the track will come to life and the lows and highs seem cleaner. It's not just a mid scoop. That's too broad. You gotta really fine tune your way into the band and hunt it down. It's there though. I'd bet in your tracks, just a guess, you're gonna find some muck in the 600-700 range and maybe some unnecessary fizz somewhere in the 2k-3k area.

 

[ShanPeyton]

With every sim I've ever used, there's a little range in the mids-to-upper mids that kind of clouds the tracks, and you don't get that with a real mic'd speaker. A real mic'd speaker generally has tighter lows and cleaner highs, so you can simulate that (no pun intended) by finding that muck in the sim's mids and notching it out. I've found that when I nail the frequency down and then play with the Q to get just that bad bit and nothing else, the track will come to life and the lows and highs seem cleaner. It's not just a mid scoop. That's too broad. You gotta really fine tune your way into the band and hunt it down. It's there though. I'd bet in your tracks, just a guess, you're gonna find some muck in the 600-700 range and maybe some unnecessary fizz somewhere in the 2k-3k area.

Hmmm. I may have to check that out. I think i actually over compensate on the mids a little to even up the lows when i am building new tones. Maybe I should go back and revamp my thinking.

 

[ido1957]

Great tune - love the vocals. Well everything is good lol. I'm listening through laptop so just enjoying the overall vibe and can't get too mix specific.

 

[ShanPeyton]

Great tune - love the vocals. Well everything is good lol. I'm listening through laptop so just enjoying the overall vibe and can't get too mix specific.

Thanks. And a big hello from Northern Alberta! Were sitting at 0 degrees up here today! Nice for a change.