"Blame" (Caution: Woke)

[K-dub]

It's about what you think it's about. It's based on a story of a friend.

The curious story of this production is it comes from three different recordings, amalgamated into a single piece. The last recording of it is the foundation. Notable are that the piece was tracked at my band's guitarist's studio - and he employs a Roland T8 (I believe) electronic drum kit. I stole the midi track of the live performance and used my own sounds for it. The drums are played live, though the recording is midi based (Addictive Drums 2).

The lead vocal is from my original demo recording. I liked it best out of all the takes I did. It had the best delivery.

The jangly guitars and background harmonies are from Stu Gort - a patron of this board. He remains one of my favorite guitarist ever. He works magic.

The initial challenge presented was that all three versions of the song were done at different tempos. Because the last version by the live band was base foundation, I had to slave the other two parts to that BPM. This was accomplished via determining the BPM of each version and using math to arrive at what percentage was relevant to match the tracks up. The original vocal was slower, so needed to speed up by a couple percentage points. Stu's guitar work and vocals were done faster - by quite a bit - and so they had to be slowed by nearly 12.4%

The conversions were done in Sound Forge on the original tracks and then inserted into the master file. They fit perfectly.

Then it was a matter of mixing it to where everything sounded like it was played together and intended as one. I used Cakewalk by Bandlab - which I've used for years.

Mastering was then done through Ozone 11 back in Sound Forge - and ... voila!

LMK if you hear anything "off" - and thanks in advance!

 

[Deylight]

Hi K-dub, thanks for posting this. Really fun rhythm guitar, and tasteful drums. Sounds like an extra crispy Nick Lowe song, which I love. Super beautiful ending.

Nothing bumps for me until 0:44, the "I -aye -aye knew all along" vocals come in. There's something off about them... too forward? Not quite in tune? Different/not enough processing? The bass vocal doubling too loud? I go from enjoying a professional, clever song to thinking, "woa something got overlooked."

My other thought is that at 1:33 a repetition of "I'll take back everything" starts. At 1:50 it complicates. For me, that's a long 17 seconds without a complication. Maybe cut out most of the instruments at 1:33 and start a build? Add a keyboard countermelody at 1:39?

Thanks for the listen, good song.

 

[TripleM]

I thought everything on this sounded excellent.

Vocals sounded real good. A bit of a strange reverb/delay on it. Seems stereo, and I'd prefer a mono reverb chain on it.

Clean guitars sounded real nice and were very well played.

The bass had a little grit on it that I liked.

Nice use of synth pads.

OK those background "oooo's" in the 1:50's were a little sketch in the performance. Maybe double or quad those tracks and they might mesh better.

 

[K-dub]

Hi K-dub, thanks for posting this. Really fun rhythm guitar, and tasteful drums. Sounds like an extra crispy Nick Lowe song, which I love. Super beautiful ending.

Nothing bumps for me until 0:44, the "I -aye -aye knew all along" vocals come in. There's something off about them... too forward? Not quite in tune? Different/not enough processing? The bass vocal doubling too loud? I go from enjoying a professional, clever song to thinking, "woa something got overlooked."

My other thought is that at 1:33 a repetition of "I'll take back everything" starts. At 1:50 it complicates. For me, that's a long 17 seconds without a complication. Maybe cut out most of the instruments at 1:33 and start a build? Add a keyboard countermelody at 1:39?

Thanks for the listen, good song.

Perfect - and thank you! I will look into everything you caught and/or suggested. I LOVE when folks listen and muse on what occurs to them during the listen.

Awesome and appreciated.

K-

 

[K-dub]

I thought everything on this sounded excellent.

Vocals sounded real good. A bit of a strange reverb/delay on it. Seems stereo, and I'd prefer a mono reverb chain on it.

Clean guitars sounded real nice and were very well played.

The bass had a little grit on it that I liked.

Nice use of synth pads.

OK those background "oooo's" in the 1:50's were a little sketch in the performance. Maybe double or quad those tracks and they might mesh better.

What - no clicks at 1:38?

I was using Waves CLA vocal plug pretty hard on the widening effect - and someone mentioned phase issues in my last post and I went, "Fuck. He's right." So, you know me. I had to go back and take it all down.

But I didn't eliminate it entirely - and I KNOW how good your ears are. Stu Gort did the bulk of the BGVs but some of them are me. If I can fix the "ooos", I will do so - I like the thickening idea.

Thanks so much, Trip!!