Acoustic Rock original- "Pura Vida"

  • Thread starter Thread starter GONZO-X
  • Start date Start date
Really nice playing! What do you call that body shape of that Taylor? Grand Auditorium?
 
foulphil
thanks for checking it out...
but let me know what it sounds like on GOOD speakers!
heheh

i don't care about the 'crappy' ones....

i know what you mean about 'highlighting poor' stuff...
they're great for checking mixes on

i have a couple of little jambox speakers i use for checking, along with my monitors, tracking headphones, earbuds, and home theatre and home stereo....
 
POETIC
thanks for listening...
it's cool to come up with any comments, i appreciate them all, even if they diss..., that's cool too.


i guess the mid range is just that prominent Taylor sound, it's hard to tame that sound.
but the looseness was by design, it was supposed to almost feel like a jam.

i literally made this one up as i went along, and them multitracked more on top.
 
dave andrew
thanks dave, i appreciate it.



craigocaster
hey craig.
thanks for listening.
that's a 414, a grand auditorium.
it's big!~
LOL
makes me want one of those parlor sized GS models...

but man, does it sound good!
 
I just listened to it on my pickup truck system...it's pretty decent alpine stereo. It sounds really good gonzo. The bongo or timbales sound very good and I know it's hard to get a realistic sound on them when tracking. The only suggestion I have is maybe a bit of compression on the vocal. When the singing first came in I though "the vocal needs to come up" but on the parts that were belted out a little harder it was perfect. It just needs a tad more level on the softer sing passages for my personal taste. As far as the performance goes it was IMO flawless all the way around. Great guitar work and drum work. The arrangement was very good and seemingly very well rehearsed. I really enjoyed it.
 
When are you going to post this at the Acoustic Guitar Forum? There's a boatload of people there who would enjoy hearing this.
 
igorw111
REALLY APPRECIATE THE COMMENTS!




jimistone
thanks for letting me know about the translation in the truck...
that's probably the single hardest place to get something to translate.
the 'congas' were pretty simple to track, i just sat underneath a slightly overhead mic, pointing down between the pair, and used a bit of compression off of the preamp, which was set pretty clean.

it's funny, but that arrangment:
like i said earlier, i made this up on the fly.

recorded the main rhythm track with no click or guide, just me playing a rhythm pattern i had rehearsed a few times, i was more or less winging it...
then i went back and tracked everything else to sit on top, then wrote a lyric and came up with the melody.
it was a real quick writing session, pretty much wrote it as i recorded it.
thanks for listening!
 
Very cool

I am not worthy!!! Great playing and vocal work. Nice to hear this acoustic vibe. cmi
 
cmk
thanks alot!

you know, i do so much electric, sometimes it's really nice to go all acoustic.

it kinda reminds you what real 'sound' is, without the juice!

LOL

but i still like the juice the best.
 
60's guy....

right now, there is not a way to download it.....

it is off of an earlier album that is currently out of print.

but if you will PM me with your email address, i'll email you an MP3
 
Sounds nice. It's a great mix and it sounds professional to me.

With that said, I'm going to go down a philosophical rabbit-hole for a second. Please indulge me. The only input I have is purely subjective and it's what has already been touched on previously - the vocals need to come up front. I get letting them sit in the mix and even being buried a bit to feel more ambient and live, but when those harmonies hit I wish they popped out and shimmered a little more. If the vocals weren't very good I would say to keep it where it is, but the vocals are done well and match the song and the harmonies are arranged well - so they should be heard more.

It's because of this that I would venture a guess that you may consider yourself a guitar player first and a singer second, right? The reason I say this is as follows (it's my own logic leap, but follow me won't you? hehe): As guitar players, or drummers, etc. it's very easy to key in on your own instrument when listening to other people's music or your own. I would always joke with my drummer that when we compared our own mixes of a song we both worked on, the guitars on mine were huge and on his the drums were in-your-face. I'm not saying that if you play an instrument you are automatically biased and will make that instrument stand out, but it does mean that you listen to music differently. It's easy to forget that the non-musician is usually paying the most attention to the vocals, and secondly to the underlying music as almost a single harmonious body. I've had non-musician friends talk to me about music in terms of, "Not the singing, but the instrumental" when referring to any of the instruments that are not vocals! Unless it's an intentional, artistic choice to push the vocals down in the mix for a specific reason, I think it's helpful to try and remember the average listener is going to want to hear those vocals more.

Again, I don't think you need to change anything on your mix. I just went on a mixing philosophy rant that can apply to everyone... or no one (how zen is that?).
 
DogmaticVox
thanks for the review!

i do like talking about the deeper aspects of arrangment and mix elements....
i don't consider it a rabbit hole at all...
it was an artistic decision that was made at the time of mixdown (has nothing to do with whether i'm a guitarist or singer; when i mix, i'm a producer).

i would consider myself a singer first.
i've been singing a good deal longer than i've been playing guitar.....
but i know what i like as far as the mix of my music....
and i do not judge my mixes by 'pop' standards, and i do mix my own differently than i do other projects i work on....

i've been wondering what compromises the 'average' listener, and what i'm finding among the group i survey, is that there is no average!
heheh

seems everybody likes something that's different from the next guy....
i've even had people mention that the liked the vocals on this one because they were 'hot' in the mix.
LOL
makes you wonder...

it also seems that playback systems vary greatly....
some really bring out vocal freq's, and others diminish it.
but the goal, is trying to get the mix i want, that is still going to translate on most all systems.


this is an older mix, done in 2006.

since then, i've gotten much more proficient in mixing, and mastering the songs to be more 'translatable' across the playback spectrum.
i did NOT master this project, it was done at a professinal facility.
i did final mixes.
 
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