Bad News

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groucho

groucho

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Well, after my last fiasco of a song (took me 2 weeks to mix it and I never did get it right) I threw up the mic and did this whole thing - tracking, mixing, etc. in about 4 hours total, which is a freakin' world record for me.

Plus, on this one I FINALLY got lucky and got a bass sound I'm happy with (is hell freezing over?).

Anyway, I could use some other ears.

Thanks folks.

"Bad News"

 
You know what this reminds me of...

JJ Cale

Come to think of it YOU remind me of ole JJ.

I think it's the beat of the song that gives me that impression.
I'm enjoying this mix, I agree with you about the bass.
IMO I would like more prominant Drums.....

Great Content in this song!!!!!!!!!!
have I mentioned the content:D

Your leads are very "from the heart".
This may be some of the finest I have heard from you in my short time here:)

Dan
 
This is a hell of a funk ass groove, I was NOT expecting this ! :D

Yeah, I think the vox is a little low ... but , it's very hot in the upper mids ... so that's tough, gonna have to play with that.

Just before 1:00 the character of the vox changes for the better, but then it gets back to the same kind of thing.

It's just a hot vox, IMHO.

And I read this was done 'impromptu' and it has some very 'live' flavor. I could imagine this was a live band.

'Bad news in the mirror whenever I finnaly look up' , that's a hell of a line, I like.

Great blues guitar playing.

Twilight zone ending ... cool ...

Second Listen :
----------------------
Now that I'm not so shocked I'm enjoying this. Cool bass sound.
Your vox is so hot, I can hear the spit crackling in the back of your throat ... but that can be good with the raspy style voice you have, it's a great contrast.

Again I'm noticing the change in quality and character of the vox right around 1:00. Was that after the first sip of coffee :D !

I think you have some crafting left to do with the mix in general, but I think you got some dynamite tracks to work with, lots of energy in all this, very real and natural performing.

It's got a hairy-ass wild fucking feeling to it, but not crazy ...

'collective-unease' ... that's what all this is about, just a general feeling of neurosis, edgyness, like grooving through a bad time ...

Oh well, another keeper from you, if just to keep it because of it's 'live juices' ... :D

Thanks for sharing and working hard on your musicsssss
 
Thanks guys. Hmm, JJ Cale, eh? I'll take that.:) 'Preciate the comments, Hevy.

This was an interesting lesson in that I built a song around a beat for the first time. I have these Bossa Nova drum parts that just sound so much better than my "rock" drum loops, so I took a song that was originally kind of plodding and gloomy and mashed it into the bossa nova beat. Fun stuff.

SV: thanks for your ears. Yeah, I've got a little more fiddling to do. And good to hear you say "hairy-ass wild fucking" cause that's what I was going for.:) I tried to keep the groove from being too "smooth" - was wanting it to sound like it was on the verge of collapse.

Thanks,
Chris
 
Yea, I dig it but the vocal is a little over the edge. If that what you want thats cool. But I can hear spit and tounge and such. The delay on the guitar is good. The keys and bass might be a little too busy during the guitar solo. Its like you cant understand what the solo is trying to say because the keys and bass are talking to much during the solo. But thats not a huge problem. Interesting though. Not bad at all.
 
Really good stuff as usual. Different style than what I'm used to hearing from you. Although I'm learning that you like to work with lots of different styles while still keeping your unique feel.
The electric piano sound was a little thin sounding to me. What are you using for that?
Not sure that I understood what you were trying to do with the snare either.
Other than that - great tune and great arrangement. Keep 'em coming. I hope the new job doesn't slow you down too much.
 
I don't know man, your voice does it for me. This is unlike anything I've heard before and that's what is cool about it. Guitar sounds great, the keyboard seems louder than it should, maybe should be more in the back. Good job.
 
I don't know about the JJ Cale or Twilight Zone stuff but, I am hearing a huge Doors sound on this one. With the electric piano and spacey guitar work, it almost instantly brought up thought of them in this very tasty piece of music.

Did I mention that I liked this? I do, indeed.

As for the mix;

Perhaps it might be nice to hear a little bit more of the drums as they seemed almost buried back there somewhere.

The Bass guitar had a bit too much presence in the mix and could stand a 2Khz cut of about 2 to 3 db.

The vocals were very well Sung and sounded nice and crisp but might benefit from a slight 2 db cut in the 4Khz range as they were boarder-line raspy from this 320kbs mp3.

The guitar work was excellent through-out and I have no qualms with them at all. As well the keyboards were fine too.

This song shows off yet another side to your talent and I continue to be impressed with your song writing and performance skills.

Excellent stuff! :)
 
Alright, you guys have been way helpful as usual and I've made a lot of changes, but first, the shout-outs:

TJOHNSON: Heh, you got it... over the top is kinda what I was aiming for. I did clean up a couple tongue pops though after reading your comment. Thanks much for the listen.

PHIL: You were right on with your comments, IMO. Electric piano is my Technics digital piano. I usually just use the regular "piano" setting. Occasionally I remember there's also electric piano sounds on there (as well as a pipe organ - watch for that on the next tune). Anyway, you were totally right about the drums. More on that in a sec.

LYNX: You said the keyboard was too loud and you were right on the money there. Thanks for that. In the new mix I moved it back in the soundstage a bit and also just lowered the volume. Thanks!

GOFM: Thanks for your very accurate remarks. The vox were a little "crisp" (SV commented on that as well). They've still got a little more sibilance than I usually put up with, but it's kind of a by-product of the particular processing I ran on the vox this time around. I think they've been improved though (they just passed the "play it real loud in the car" test:D) Ditto on the keyboard comment as well.

So today I started kinda taking this song seriously as more than just a jam. I added a mess of new things, primarily in the drum/percussion area. For once I actually put some time into orchestrating the percussion so it isn't just the same thing droning on because I'm too lazy to put in fills or changes.

The feel of the tune has been altered a bit - it now more resembles what I'd originally envisioned. More of a sort of loping one-two feel. Almost reggae-sounding - or maybe I'm just high.

Interestingly I didn't have to change anything in the existing tracks. Simply adding some accents and cross-rhythms totally shifted the beat around and took it away from Bossa Nova land a bit.

Further comments much appreciated, and thanks for the ears so far.

Oh: the new one's up there in the same place:

Chris
 
You're getting better. :)

That guitar's a bit loud when it surges against the vocal, and it distracts a bit from the vocal - maybe lower it when the singing starts, maybe pan it further left?

The vocal works better on this one than on anything I've heard of yours before. Your style of singing suits this kind of song right down to the ground. Make your home in a minor key LOL.

The guitar break is a bit harsh/overbright - can you cool it down a bit?

I like the bass sound a lot.

The collective unease like the buzzing of bees I'm ignoring: lovely.

The guitar break at the end's too loud.

Really good one you got here. Thumbs up.
 
I love this, sweet keys. The bass tone rocks too, as do the guitars.
 
Man, you guys have no idea how exciting it is for me to actually get compliments on a a bass sound. This is truly a day to remember.

By the way, for the dial-uppers there's now a 192 mp3 up at:



Dobro, are you finally on broadband?:D

Chris
 
groucho said:
Man, you guys have no idea how exciting it is for me to actually get compliments on a a bass sound. This is truly a day to remember.
Click to expand...

Woohoo, I must check this out!
 
Last edited:
Nice vocal. That and the groove remind me of Chris Rea. Guitars.....blending real well. Hey this is almost top 40
 
groucho said:
Man, you guys have no idea how exciting it is for me to actually get compliments on a a bass sound. This is truly a day to remember.

By the way, for the dial-uppers there's now a 192 mp3 up at:



Dobro, are you finally on broadband?:D

Chris
Click to expand...

Oh Great! Just when I get the big one about 40% d/l'd. Oh well, too late now.... I'll be back in a month or so with some feedback.


bd
 
This is SUPERB! Well worth the wait. Mix sounds fine to me. No negatives. The music and vox did sound a lot like JJ Cale himself... guitar STYLE a bit different though not a bad thing. Excellent tunage dude!


bd
 
very nice.........i loved the vocal sound....i didn't love the midi keys...but that's just subjective.........

very nice guitar parts.........and again....cool vocals.........
 
Excellent job here Chris. The vox are again signature, and tastefully done. I liked the instrumentation, the twang guitar out of the slight left was doing some nice riffing.

One thing I heard some hard hits coming from the right late in the song, sounding like something from an ultra punchy but moist kind of drum. Like you were taking a drum stick and punching through a fresh watermelon each time.

It did have a high caliber quality of production to it as well, could stand up in rotation while not necessarily being overly commercial.
 
cool song.. some of those leads reminded me of Jimmy Page.. nice feel to this one..
 
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