Brown Haired Ordinary Looking Girl

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K-dub

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ONE question:

Is anyone hearing ever so slight crackling of what sounds like a driver crackling/breaking up?

I can't tell if it is in the recording itself or is occurring on my system alone. It is really hard to hear, but if it is there, I know Trip will hear it.

That's basically all I need specifically on this one.

Again - thanks in advance for the extra ears!
 
K-dub said:


ONE question:

Is anyone hearing ever so slight crackling of what sounds like a driver crackling/breaking up?

I can't tell if it is in the recording itself or is occurring on my system alone. It is really hard to hear, but if it is there, I know Trip will hear it.

That's basically all I need specifically on this one.

Again - thanks in advance for the extra ears!
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I hear something - guessing I think it’s the guitar - something about the distorted sound is adding to the crackling - and it sounds like you’ve pushed the vocals to much.
 
Papanate said:
I hear something - guessing I think it’s the guitar - something about the distorted sound is adding to the crackling - and it sounds like you’ve pushed the vocals to much.
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I think you're right. It's ever so faint, but since the guitar is the primary driver of sound in this piece, it think whatever is breaking up is triggered by the guitar. The weird thing is it is so fast and so faint - and the kicker: So random.

It was worse in a prior version - where it was much clearer. The trouble being, I got a lot of it out by re-exporting the file from the DAW. I may have to slow the drivers down even more though. My wonder, because it is so fast and faint, was whether I'd become so sensitive to listening for it that I was hearing phantom crackles (versus it actually being embedded in the processing). It's not in the audio. I can solo the guitar track and I can't hear it. It's occurring in the export.

That points to the audio drivers being pushed too hard.

Thanks also for the two cents on the vocals. All info is good info.
 
60's guy said:
I always enjoy listening to your tunes, K-dub, but IMO, Soundcloud has always had a bad habit of....
www.musicradar.com

“We hear you, and I swear we’re working on it”: SoundCloud responds to online criticism that its compression algorithm is ‘destroying transients’

The music streaming platform commented on the discourse, and revealed that it's aware that some info ‘gets lost along the way’
www.musicradar.com www.musicradar.com
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It DOES make the detective work more difficult, but in this case I can't shine the blame on them. My suspicions are rooted in the original file as well. It's really right at the edges of the sound and the casual listener isn't going to hear it.

We, collectively, aren't casual listeners.

:D
 
I found it.

It was in a Waves compressor plugin on the organ part. The odd thing being that it was kind of unnecessary anyways.

I also took the opportunity to slightly readjust the guitar levels AND roll back the vocal levels as advised as well.

 
K-dub said:


ONE question:

Is anyone hearing ever so slight crackling of what sounds like a driver crackling/breaking up?

I can't tell if it is in the recording itself or is occurring on my system alone. It is really hard to hear, but if it is there, I know Trip will hear it.

That's basically all I need specifically on this one.

Again - thanks in advance for the extra ears!
Click to expand...

Very strong composition - the guitars were really nice, perfect tone/vibe...I think this sounds flawless. Cool and catchy rock track :)
 
Extra Terrestrial said:
Very strong composition - the guitars were really nice, perfect tone/vibe...I think this sounds flawless. Cool and catchy rock track :)
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It was measurably improved after finding the crackle. :D

The tale of this piece is weird. I literally wrote it in my sleep. I was dreaming, and I'll not bore w/ those details, but the song was being sung by an Irish Tenor on a church stage - kind of in a "Danny Boy" style. Guy had a marvelous voice I remarked to myself until I realized I was dreaming and said, "You've got to remember this song."

So I forced myself to wake up and I ran upstairs to my studio, grabbed my guitar and sketched out what I could remember from the dream. All the high points - "Hot dog days of summer, her hair was blowing in the breeze." and "Brown Haired Ordinary Looking Girl" were all lyrics remembered from the singer.

I had a creative session scheduled with my group later that evening and when presented to them as something brand new in germ form they might want to craft, they jumped at it. What's heard here is largely what they came up with that very evening in fleshing out my earlier sketch.
 
David Holmes Out of Sight style opening bass riff 5 seconds in, cool. Great feel as the groove kicks in at 0:25. Bit of Lenny Kravitz in there. The repeated motif we first hear at 28 secs is the hook for me. A bit too much American drawl in the vocal delivery for my liking. The "hypnotarzing" word stood out a few times. But that's personal preference. I like the direction the pre-chorus takes us. Nicely crafted sections, but I don't think the title should be repeated in both lines of the chorus. Feels like a different line needed for the second line. Something like "The best companion in the whole damn world." Good 70s style hooky backing vocals 3:06 onwards, which suit the Stillwater feel to the track. Expertly recorded and mixed. Often sounds like just one guitar, bass and drums. What is the full instrument line up? A song that sounds like an old classic.
 
Thekesslerboy said:
David Holmes Out of Sight style opening bass riff 5 seconds in, cool. Great feel as the groove kicks in at 0:25. Bit of Lenny Kravitz in there. The repeated motif we first hear at 28 secs is the hook for me. A bit too much American drawl in the vocal delivery for my liking. The "hypnotarzing" word stood out a few times. But that's personal preference. I like the direction the pre-chorus takes us. Nicely crafted sections, but I don't think the title should be repeated in both lines of the chorus. Feels like a different line needed for the second line. Something like "The best companion in the whole damn world." Good 70s style hooky backing vocals 3:06 onwards, which suit the Stillwater feel to the track. Expertly recorded and mixed. Often sounds like just one guitar, bass and drums. What is the full instrument line up? A song that sounds like an old classic.
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Although I wrote this, I'm not the singer on it. We brought in the drummer's brother in law (who is a friend of mine as well) to sing it. The funny thing is is he's pretty much mimicking me.

Drums were a Mapex kit w/ 8 mics - Mitek Sm condenser OH (2), Sennheisers on the rack toms and fl (3), Audix on the kick (1), E300 (Blue) on the snare, and another small condenser (can't remember on the hi hat)

Bass went direct - as did the organ via midi recording. Voicing on that is Native Instruments B4

Electric guitar is a Yamaha through a Fender modeling amp ... which I miked w/ a Sennheiser 421.

Vocals were all done through a large condenser mic - probably my K8 tube mic, actually. I like tube on vocals. It warms it.

I mixed the drums in stereo pan from perspective of the drummer. Gits go left, bass up the middle, keys lean right.

... and it is that simple.
 
I will also share a little bit of a trick on the guitar. During the leads, I set up a complimentary clone track and panned it opposite the original track. Then you dial things in ever-so-slightly and the stereo image of the guitar will shift wider and louder to bring more detail and broadness to the sound and "lift" it during those passage where you want it more prominently featured.
 
K-dub said:
It is really hard to hear, but if it is there, I know Trip will hear it.
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I hear a couple of little pops. In the intro at: :02, :05, :07, and :09. Another at 1:22. Some more in other places. But I'm not sure it's an "unnatural" sound. All the pops are coming from the right side. There is an electric guitar over there. Are they little pops coming from an amp? They don't seem to be those nasty "digital pop artifacts". They seem natural and don't bother me too much.

But try to mute that crunchy guitar track on the right and see if they go away. If they go away, that's probably your culprit.

Otherwise, it sounds great. Real nice balance. Like the tone on everything.

<<Hang on - on second listen, the pop at 1:22 is down the center. That one might be something different. Not sure now.>>

Possible this is my favorite song of yours.
 
TripleM said:
I hear a couple of little pops. In the intro at: :02, :05, :07, and :09. Another at 1:22. Some more in other places. But I'm not sure it's an "unnatural" sound. All the pops are coming from the right side. There is an electric guitar over there. Are they little pops coming from an amp? They don't seem to be those nasty "digital pop artifacts". They seem natural and don't bother me too much.

But try to mute that crunchy guitar track on the right and see if they go away. If they go away, that's probably your culprit.

Otherwise, it sounds great. Real nice balance. Like the tone on everything.

<<Hang on - on second listen, the pop at 1:22 is down the center. That one might be something different. Not sure now.>>

Possible this is my favorite song of yours.
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Down thread, you'll see I found it. It was in a Waves LA3A compressor I'd put on the organ. The DAW just didn't like it and it caused crackling. I deleted it and voila! Crackling gone! I posted up the remix on 4/20 down a ways. I also every so slightly rolled the guitar and vocals back - db or two, tops.

Great catch (as usual)!
 
K-dub said:


ONE question:

Is anyone hearing ever so slight crackling of what sounds like a driver crackling/breaking up?

I can't tell if it is in the recording itself or is occurring on my system alone. It is really hard to hear, but if it is there, I know Trip will hear it.

That's basically all I need specifically on this one.
army pt score calculator
Again - thanks in advance for the extra ears!
Click to expand...

The crackling could be coming from your system or the recording itself. To identify the cause, try playing the same audio on different devices or headphones. If the crackling is still there, it might be in the recording. If it’s only happening on your system, it could be a driver or hardware issue.
 
scottmartin said:
The crackling could be coming from your system or the recording itself. To identify the cause, try playing the same audio on different devices or headphones. If the crackling is still there, it might be in the recording. If it’s only happening on your system, it could be a driver or hardware issue.
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Morning Scott!

Down thread it is revealed that I found the source: A Waves compressor plug in on the organ. I removed it and the crackling disappeared. No clue WHY it was doing that, but I narrowed it down to that malfunction. The 4/20 mix is the cleaned up mix. Thanks for the help!!
 
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