Music to Murder - The Presence of Loa

[RAMI]

Man, I've been looking at the thread title for this for about 2 weeks and I just realized it's a new song. I thought this was the same tune I commented on a few months ago, so I didn't come in to listen. The "Music to Murder" title threw me off.

Now that I know it's a different tune, I listen. I really love this kind of slime/funk/swampy/rock. Love the drum sounds. Levels are great, too. I'm not a fan of 1,4,5 progression in songs, but that's just a personal thing and has nothing to do with the mix. I really love the vocal interplay. Really nothing that I don't like about this generally. Pleasing to listen to and groovy.

 

[kindafishy]

Man, I've been looking at the thread title for this for about 2 weeks and I just realized it's a new song. I thought this was the same tune I commented on a few months ago, so I didn't come in to listen. The "Music to Murder" title threw me off.

Now that I know it's a different tune, I listen. I really love this kind of slime/funk/swampy/rock. Love the drum sounds. Levels are great, too. I'm not a fan of 1,4,5 progression in songs, but that's just a personal thing and has nothing to do with the mix. I really love the vocal interplay. Really nothing that I don't like about this generally. Pleasing to listen to and groovy.

Ha! Thanks RAMI . Music to Murder is the band. This is the third M2M song I've posted up here. Working on a new mix now. Should be up in a couple weeks. The next one isn't the same sort of sleazy rock tune as the first three, but it still sounds like us.

Thanks for the kind words, man. It means a lot. This version is based on a lot of refinements resulting from forum comments. Love these forums. What is 1,4,5 progression?

 

[RAMI]

What is 1,4,5 progression?

It's Johny B. Goode and every 12 bar blues tune ever. In this case, I think the song is in E, right? So, you're going E to A back to E to B and A then E again. To me, a predictable and over-used progression. But it works, that's why it's been done a lot.

 

[kindafishy]

It's Johny B. Goode and every 12 bar blues tune ever. In this case, I think the song is in E, right? So, you're going E to A back to E to B and A then E again. To me, a predictable and over-used progression. But it works, that's why it's been done a lot.

Ah! LOL, I guess I should know this, eh? You are right about the base notes of the riffs. Grounded in the blues to be sure. Embarrassingly, I don't know the slightest bit of theory (not even to such a simple level). I always just let a song go wherever it wants to go. Ends up in cliche's sometimes I suppose.

Cheers, man! Thanks

 

[RAMI]

Ah! LOL, I guess I should know this, eh? You are right about the base notes of the riffs. Grounded in the blues to be sure. Embarrassingly, I don't know the slightest bit of theory (not even to such a simple level). I always just let a song go wherever it wants to go. Ends up in cliche's sometimes I suppose.

Cheers, man! Thanks

Nah, it's something some musicians might notice, but they shouldn't be your target audience. I know very little theory myself, but I know a blues progression when I hear it.

 

[dobro]

Pass on the reefer. Have another glass of wine.

EQ-wise, it's great. I could listen to this all day. I'd still put something on the master buss, though. It's worth it. It's an enjoyable listen.

 

[kindafishy]

Pass on the reefer. Have another glass of wine.

EQ-wise, it's great. I could listen to this all day. I'd still put something on the master buss, though. It's worth it. It's an enjoyable listen.

Thanks so much, dobro. What are you thinking for the master bus? Right now, I've got some light 2 bus compression on the order of maybe 1dB - 2dB reduction here and there. It makes a surprising difference to the punch and glue of the mix overall. We are planning to have this mastered, so any mastering type ideas can be passed on or if you have some mix thoughts, I can play around with it right now.

 

[dobro]

Thanks so much, dobro. What are you thinking for the master bus? Right now, I've got some light 2 bus compression on the order of maybe 1dB - 2dB reduction here and there. It makes a surprising difference to the punch and glue of the mix overall. We are planning to have this mastered, so any mastering type ideas can be passed on or if you have some mix thoughts, I can play around with it right now.

I forget what I was thinking of when I made that master buss comment. Piddle. But typically, I have two things on the master buss in a full mix like this - light compression, and EQ. I find that even if I get things balanced by EQing individual tracks, I can still coax a useful tweak or two by EQing the whole mix on the master buss.

Two impressions on this new listen, though: I like the tune even more on this listen. And the vocal can come up in some places - the 'watch me run' bits, for instance.

I love the combination of swagger funk and good sound.

 

[kindafishy]

I forget what I was thinking of when I made that master buss comment. Piddle. But typically, I have two things on the master buss in a full mix like this - light compression, and EQ. I find that even if I get things balanced by EQing individual tracks, I can still coax a useful tweak or two by EQing the whole mix on the master buss.

Two impressions on this new listen, though: I like the tune even more on this listen. And the vocal can come up in some places - the 'watch me run' bits, for instance.

I love the combination of swagger funk and good sound.

I'm a fan of doing processing at the bus level lately (both at the master and sub-group level). At first I was doing it because I was getting lazy, but now I'm finding that it really helps for getting a cohesive feel.

Thanks so much once again, man. I agree with the vocal thought. I'll make some adjustments to those vocal bits and take another pass through the automation to do a bit more tweaking.

 

[Philly Duffy]

Listened to Presence of Loa - Sounds like it was recorded live off the floor, which is a good thing you've captured a real good live feel here.

Mix wise i think the guitars need to come up, did you double track the guitars? sounds like it's just one track. I would either double track them or bring up the guitar level a bit on the single track.

A cool thing i've done before to create a 2nd guitar track from one that was already done was to solo the guitar track through a stereo and MIC the speaker and record it on a separate track, you get the exact same take but with a totally different sound.

I like the song, the all the instruments work well together and i really like the live feel which is what music is all about!

 

[Philly Duffy]

The cymbals seem a bit loud in parts - Hi hat and crashes.. I would compress them a bit like 2:1.

One thing i do to make the cymbals softer sounding is add a tiny bit of reverb to the overheads hi hat and ride, it just kind of smooths out the dynamics and tone.

 

[kindafishy]

Listened to Presence of Loa - Sounds like it was recorded live off the floor, which is a good thing you've captured a real good live feel here.

Mix wise i think the guitars need to come up, did you double track the guitars? sounds like it's just one track. I would either double track them or bring up the guitar level a bit on the single track.

A cool thing i've done before to create a 2nd guitar track from one that was already done was to solo the guitar track through a stereo and MIC the speaker and record it on a separate track, you get the exact same take but with a totally different sound.

I like the song, the all the instruments work well together and i really like the live feel which is what music is all about!

The cymbals seem a bit loud in parts - Hi hat and crashes.. I would compress them a bit like 2:1.

One thing i do to make the cymbals softer sounding is add a tiny bit of reverb to the overheads hi hat and ride, it just kind of smooths out the dynamics and tone.

Thanks, man. I appreciate the careful listen and thoughtful comments.

I always like to hear a tightly double tracked guitar, but that's just not my thing when it comes to my writing and recording for the most part. There might be the odd thing that I will double, but generally it is something I stay away from. It is mostly because I don't play the same song the exact same way twice, but it is also because I do like to go for a live band feel (as you've noted) and this is part of it for me.

I like the idea of re-recording the track through a mic-ed speaker. When I was using amp sims, I would sometimes do that sort of thing (virtually). I have a friend who likes to mix an amp sim under a real mic-ed amp as well. These are all techniques that can work well for filling out a tone. One just has to watch out for comb filtering issues, but those are easy enough to sort out of course.

Cymbals still loud, eh? I've brought them down a couple times already. Ha! They must have been insanely loud at first. I very often (like many of us), normalize things in my head and stuff that should be obvious escapes me. I really like getting another pair of ears on tunes. You guys are great at picking up on everything.

Much gratitude for taking the time to listen and leave some great thoughts.

I am going to do one more pass through this mix before putting it on the shelf, so I'll definitely play around with your suggestions.

Thanks!