Anthropocene - new tune by SavantSyndrome

[Lt. Bob]

I don't mind people disagreeing with any of my opinions. But I don't recall ever insulting JDOD, and I didn't see a reason for him insulting me ("...no offence if your'e deaf...") as he disagreed.

I'm gonna have to agree with Triple nipple on this .... he made his comments as is the point of the clinic ... he wasn't insulting at all and simply because you disagree with his mix comments shouldn't be an immediate call to insult.

having said that .... I don't really agree with his mix comments.

Actually, to my ears, during the song the sax is mixed pretty far back so for that it sounds fine to me, ....

As for the solo .... well, let me wait till it comes around again, ok here it is .... man, I can't find any fault with that.
I would be satisfied with that tone on any of my recordings ...

It's a pretty good tone .... if it were in my mix I might bump up around 800hz 1 or 2 db to see if it gave a little more body to it.
But the tone is fine ..... also, I do personally find it the tiniest bit dry .... you might wetten it up with whatever room verb/delay you might be using .... a little bit to make it integrate a bit more smoothly.

But really, these are just ideas to tweak it a bit more and they're also based on my taste.
The core tone and the mix of the solo sound pretty good to me.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Hi, Steve - the soundcloud links are working fine for me .

The tone you find oppressive is probably the Rhodes piano patch in the left ear. It's quite a thick tone and does push the ear in a little on headphones. I've put a bit of low shelving on it and checked with my 'phones (they're open-backed, so the low end is quite "open" on them) and it seems to have improved the situation. I've put that sax up and down several times, can't make my mind up with it! The tones are quite different as the lead sax at that point is a soprano, whereas the soloing sax is an alto.

If I had a nickel for every time I misidentified a rock organ as a guitar...

I think it's just my PC hating SC all of a sudden. A podcast I listened to later yesterday had the same issue.

 

[andrushkiwt]

I thought this was fantastic. I really don't have too much else to say....really great all around on my HD280's. Hmmm, I'm realizing everything sounds good on those.

 

[Bubba po]

I'm gonna have to agree with Triple nipple on this .... he made his comments as is the point of the clinic ... he wasn't insulting at all and simply because you disagree with his mix comments shouldn't be an immediate call to insult.

having said that .... I don't really agree with his mix comments.

Actually, to my ears, during the song the sax is mixed pretty far back so for that it sounds fine to me, ....

As for the solo .... well, let me wait till it comes around again, ok here it is .... man, I can't find any fault with that.
I would be satisfied with that tone on any of my recordings ...

It's a pretty good tone .... if it were in my mix I might bump up around 800hz 1 or 2 db to see if it gave a little more body to it.
But the tone is fine ..... also, I do personally find it the tiniest bit dry .... you might wetten it up with whatever room verb/delay you might be using .... a little bit to make it integrate a bit more smoothly.

But really, these are just ideas to tweak it a bit more and they're also based on my taste.
The core tone and the mix of the solo sound pretty good to me.

Great specific stuff there, Lt. Bob. And of course I value your opinion as a sax man yourself.

I thought this was fantastic. I really don't have too much else to say....really great all around on my HD280's. Hmmm, I'm realizing everything sounds good on those.

Many thanks A decent pair of cans are a revelation, aren't they? I think the song might still be a little bare, but I'm not sure what else to add.

 

[rayc]

Update is up great mate.

 

[robgreen]

Very nice Bubba - lots of great tones throughout, especially on the rhodes, sax and bass. Your wife sounds good too, loads of improvement on that second mix.

Good to hear you keep trying out new things stylistically.

 

[andrushkiwt]

Many thanks A decent pair of cans are a revelation, aren't they? I think the song might still be a little bare, but I'm not sure what else to add.

i listened to the second mix, FYI. to be honest, when the sax came in, i really got into the groove. i thought it sounded phenomenal. was the lacking sax comment from an earlier mix?

 

[Bubba po]

when the sax came in, i really got into the groove. i thought it sounded phenomenal. was the lacking sax comment from an earlier mix?

That's what I thought myself! I was blown away by it. I don't think I've done anything much between the two mixes with the sax. it's slightly compressed, as you would a vocal. I may have added a tiny bit more reverb. the eq is flat. The saxes were recorded in my kitchen which is fairly large and has a tiled concrete floor, though the room is far from empty, using an SM57. Not much room sound is on the recording, but there will have been a small effect on the tone I think. I got three alto solos and two soprano ones. I was planning to comp the best bits but on listening to them all I realised that the one I ended up using was pretty much what I wanted.

I snipped out some phrases from the other solos to "decorate" the mix.

 

[Bubba po]

Very nice Bubba - lots of great tones throughout, especially on the rhodes, sax and bass. Your wife sounds good too, loads of improvement on that second mix.

Good to hear you keep trying out new things stylistically.

Thanks, Rob. To be honest, I go where Frank's drum parts take me. I slowed the original track by 10% to get the feel for this song. I think he has amazing feel - nothing like a metronome or drum machine. There's a fantastic, swinging sort of looseness to some of his grooves and fills that I absolutely love.
I'm still wondering whether it needs a short guitar solo between the verses. It's odd being the musician who has contributed the least to the track on his own instrument!

 

[Bubba po]

Bump.

 

[Nola]

I thought it was interesting...some jazz/lounge tones and harmony and even a bit of that in the beat. Which is all interesting and a relief from the norms. Not sure the vocal works. It's the weak link.

 

[ibleedburgundy]

I dig it man. I like how the tune starts out highly dissonant and then during solos it gets quite lyrical. It goes somewhere.

Mix sounds very good IMO. Everything is recorded well. Agree with Bob, the sax could have a little more verb or something.

I am still getting a bit of the patented soundcloud wash in the highest frequencies - on hi-hats. A touch of swirly phasyness.

I really like the violin synth line. Very classic how it weaves around the chords.

Vocals sound a bit sibilant and breathy. It works here but I don't think you'd want that all the time.

 

[kindafishy]

Very cool track! Although I would not go anywhere near a "sounds like", this made me think of both some of Bowie's latest tracks or even more so, the anime shows that my son loves to watch on Netflix. I could hear this being the main theme of an anime production.

Frank has a really great feel. I took a few listens through the song and I keep going back and forth between thinking that he could have pulled back how active the kick is in a few places and then thinking that it is just right. After a few objective listens, I am leaning towards "could have pulled back", but that being said, it is fully subjective and wow, does he have a great groove and nice dynamics. Just something for him to think on for future songs because there is the odd time that the kick sticks out and demands too much attention (IMHO), but otherwise the performance was just stellar.

I listened only to the most recent mix. Manda's vocals sound great. Whispy and ethereal. The delivery suits the feel of the song perfectly. Not only did the lyrics capture the vibe, but the overall production captured it as well. Little esses poke through here and there. Those could be fixed up a little.

The sax is sublime. Love it.

The bass is perfect for the production. It is wide and deep, and like many other elements of the song, it is contextually perfect for the production.

Strings are very tastefully done as well. Mix-wise, they don't have a lot of 'dimensionality' to them, in that they generally seem to sit on a single plane whereas all other mix elements move nicely from front to back. The strings by contrast are coming across as very even dynamically. Personally, I have no experience in trying to draw out more dynamics from something so I wouldn't really know where to go here. Maybe expansion or something? I dunno. I have heard of it but I have never needed to use it so that might not be helpful. That being said, if they are playing just the role you want them to play in the mix, then that's that. I just thought there was a slightly off sounding contrast there.

I think this is ace. Nice job to everyone involved. Really, everyone should be proud of this track. It sounds great. I listened through many times and I don't always do that. I think this is great.

 

[Bubba po]

I thought it was interesting...some jazz/lounge tones and harmony and even a bit of that in the beat. Which is all interesting and a relief from the norms. Not sure the vocal works. It's the weak link.

Thanks, Nola. The track is nothing like what I normally do, so feeling my way a bit.

I dig it man. I like how the tune starts out highly dissonant and then during solos it gets quite lyrical. It goes somewhere.

Mix sounds very good IMO. Everything is recorded well. Agree with Bob, the sax could have a little more verb or something.

I am still getting a bit of the patented soundcloud wash in the highest frequencies - on hi-hats. A touch of swirly phasyness.

I really like the violin synth line. Very classic how it weaves around the chords.

Vocals sound a bit sibilant and breathy. It works here but I don't think you'd want that all the time.

Thanks, IBB. I'm looking at de-essing the vocal, once I work out how to do it. I have a later mix where I've put some of the comments so far to good use, the sax reverb being one of them, but I'm waiting to post until I consider the track to be fully finished

Very cool track! Although I would not go anywhere near a "sounds like", this made me think of both some of Bowie's latest tracks or even more so, the anime shows that my son loves to watch on Netflix. I could hear this being the main theme of an anime production.

Frank has a really great feel. I took a few listens through the song and I keep going back and forth between thinking that he could have pulled back how active the kick is in a few places and then thinking that it is just right. After a few objective listens, I am leaning towards "could have pulled back", but that being said, it is fully subjective and wow, does he have a great groove and nice dynamics. Just something for him to think on for future songs because there is the odd time that the kick sticks out and demands too much attention (IMHO), but otherwise the performance was just stellar.

I listened only to the most recent mix. Manda's vocals sound great. Whispy and ethereal. The delivery suits the feel of the song perfectly. Not only did the lyrics capture the vibe, but the overall production captured it as well. Little esses poke through here and there. Those could be fixed up a little.

The sax is sublime. Love it.

The bass is perfect for the production. It is wide and deep, and like many other elements of the song, it is contextually perfect for the production.

Strings are very tastefully done as well. Mix-wise, they don't have a lot of 'dimensionality' to them, in that they generally seem to sit on a single plane whereas all other mix elements move nicely from front to back. The strings by contrast are coming across as very even dynamically. Personally, I have no experience in trying to draw out more dynamics from something so I wouldn't really know where to go here. Maybe expansion or something? I dunno. I have heard of it but I have never needed to use it so that might not be helpful. That being said, if they are playing just the role you want them to play in the mix, then that's that. I just thought there was a slightly off sounding contrast there.

I think this is ace. Nice job to everyone involved. Really, everyone should be proud of this track. It sounds great. I listened through many times and I don't always do that. I think this is great.

Wow, thanks for all the compliments, Kindafishy! I passed on your praise to my son - he's really happy. I may "swell" the strings a little in parts of the track, once it's all sunk in a bit.

Once again, many, many thanks.

 

[JDOD]

I have a later mix where I've put some of the comments so far to good use, the sax reverb being one of them, but I'm waiting to post until I consider the track to be fully finished

Always tricky when you start messing with that isn't it?

Do you find when you've got loads of stuff that's panned differently with different levels of reverb you end up getting totally lost and confused? I end up having to take everything off and start again!

 

[Bubba po]

Always tricky when you start messing with that isn't it?

Do you find when you've got loads of stuff that's panned differently with different levels of reverb you end up getting totally lost and confused? I end up having to take everything off and start again!

Not so much with reverbs. I use one main reverb buss and send varying levels of signal from each track. Once you've set up the sends it's confusing going to each track and fiddling with the send level. What you need to do is go to the I/O on the reverb track. All the receives are listed there and you have an overview of the relative send levels. Much less confusing.

 

[JDOD]

Not so much with reverbs. I use one main reverb buss and send varying levels of signal from each track. Once you've set up the sends it's confusing going to each track and fiddling with the send level. What you need to do is go to the I/O on the reverb track. All the receives are listed there and you have an overview of the relative send levels. Much less confusing.

Right. You've just totally lost me.

When I'm using reverb impulses I just add the impulse into each track and adjust the wet level individually in each track.

 

[Bubba po]

Right. You've just totally lost me.

When I'm using reverb impulses I just add the impulse into each track and adjust the wet level individually in each track.

LOL, Ok, what I do with reverb is to set up a reverb master track. Label it "Reverb" - that works for me.
Put your reverb impulse on the track and set it to 100% wet.

If you look at the tracks on reaper, there's a little button marked "I/O". If you click on that, you get an option to send a portion of that signal to another track of your choosing. There will be a list of the available tracks. Click on the "reverb" track and that's one "send" set up. There's a slider to adjust how much signal you "send" to the reverb, which is, in effect, a reverb volume control.

Rather than set up each send individually, which would be a ball-ache, you go to the I/O button on the reverb track and click on "add new receive". A list of all the tracks should pop up. Click on "add receives from all tracks", then delete the ones you wish to remain "dry" - for instance, bass guitar, kick drum etc. Adjust the relative reverb volumes with the sliders and Bubba's your uncle.

It's far, far better to do it this way - you're only using one plugin to do the work of ten or more, and reverb is a very processor-hungry effect. Reaper should run much better without stressing your machine.

Hope this helps.

 

[JDOD]

LOL, Ok, what I do with reverb is to set up a reverb master track. Label it "Reverb" - that works for me.
Put your reverb impulse on the track and set it to 100% wet.

If you look at the tracks on reaper, there's a little button marked "I/O". If you click on that, you get an option to send a portion of that signal to another track of your choosing. There will be a list of the available tracks. Click on the "reverb" track and that's one "send" set up. There's a slider to adjust how much signal you "send" to the reverb, which is, in effect, a reverb volume control.

Rather than set up each send individually, which would be a ball-ache, you go to the I/O button on the reverb track and click on "add new receive". A list of all the tracks should pop up. Click on "add receives from all tracks", then delete the ones you wish to remain "dry" - for instance, bass guitar, kick drum etc. Adjust the relative reverb volumes with the sliders and Bubba's your uncle.

It's far, far better to do it this way - you're only using one plugin to do the work of ten or more, and reverb is a very processor-hungry effect. Reaper should run much better without stressing your machine.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, I'll give that a go - I generally only use one impulse for guitars and two for drums (but I set the drums up differently anyway) I bung all of the drums in a folder and add reverb to the folder.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Cheers, I'll give that a go - I generally only use one impulse for guitars and two for drums (but I set the drums up differently anyway) I bung all of the drums in a folder and add reverb to the folder.

I have no idea what all that impolse stuff is but personally I use an overall reverb in an effort to create a 'space' that the entire 'band' is playing in and then simply put enough reverb send from each channel to make them all sound like they're in that space.
Using different reverbs on different tracks seems more like using 'verb as an effect rather than as a coherent space that everyone's in.