"Clear Blue Skies" - Guitar Instrumental

[daren_woodall]

Here is another another guitar instrumental from me that I hope some of you will find interesting enough. It's pretty up-beat, light-hearted and energetic. Should be easy enough to listen to.

I struggled with the mix on this one. I think that, well in the case of the verse parts, having the rhythm and lead parts operating in the same frequency range made is difficult to create enough separation between the parts and removed the heavy mids this song seems to have (with my ears anyway). I have chatted with one member that has considered doing a re-mix for me, and I'm still anxious to hear what someone else's perspective would bring to the table. I've come to the conclusion that the end result is only as good as the up-front sounds can deliver. I mixed, re-mixed, re-recorded and tweaked for days (calendar weeks) trying to maximize the quality and I currently don't have the skill (or equipment) to take this one further.

I'm all ears with suggestions. Shoot me straight and let me know where I can go next from here.

Thanks, Daren

 

[jamtheguitarman]

This sounds great man!

Satriani'ish vibe going + a little Sonic the hedgehog (thats a compliment, it just reminded me of the sweet music to that a little bit)


The mix sounds nice on my phones, sounds really clean to me. Guitar tones work well together.


Only thing i would personally like to hear is when the rhythm guitar chords come in about half way through, i would turn them right up in the mix and make that whole section more powerful. Just to add more of a contrast to the rest of the song which is centered around the lead parts.



Nice work though!

(why have there been no responses to this yet?)

 

[Gorty]

Here is another another guitar instrumental from me that I hope some of you will find interesting enough. It's pretty up-beat, light-hearted and energetic. Should be easy enough to listen to.

I struggled with the mix on this one. I think that, well in the case of the verse parts, having the rhythm and lead parts operating in the same frequency range made is difficult to create enough separation between the parts and removed the heavy mids this song seems to have (with my ears anyway). I have chatted with one member that has considered doing a re-mix for me, and I'm still anxious to hear what someone else's perspective would bring to the table. I've come to the conclusion that the end result is only as good as the up-front sounds can deliver. I mixed, re-mixed, re-recorded and tweaked for days (calendar weeks) trying to maximize the quality and I currently don't have the skill (or equipment) to take this one further.

I'm all ears with suggestions. Shoot me straight and let me know where I can go next from here.

Thanks, Daren

Hey Daren,

Nice playing, the guitar tones sound sweet. Listening through a few times I think you have plenty of separation of the guitars in the stereo field, panning wise I think it sounds great.
The only suggestions I have is that the bass is a little up front maybe a few db's cut.
On my third listen I picked up that the rhythm guitar in the main solo section sounded like it was panned to the right and the bass to the left???...If so I would double track the rhythm guitar and pan hard left and hard right and the bass down the middle or slightly off centre. The volume of the rhythm guitar in the solo section was miles too low in volume but by having two rhythm tracks that are hard left/right will help that immensley by increasing the fullness.

Great tune! Thanx for sharing.

 

[Greg_L]

Yeah just bring the bass down a hair and the kick and snare up just a little. All the guitar parts sound great. Very Satriani-ish.

 

[daren_woodall]

Thanks guys for the complements and the recommendations.

The bass being too forward in the mix has been mentioned a few times now. It might be one of two things, my home monitors don't seem to project the bass as much as other listening sources,... or begin a bass player, I have an inherent bias and don't want anyone to miss a note. The bass is the real showboat in this piece and,.. well... I guess I want all the "juicy" bits to shine through.

The section starting at 1:22 is meant as a kind of break-down with a short bass feature. This is common in my arrangements,... ya know, a breather before the solo and some limelight for the bass. I wanted to give the bass more definition here and move the rhythm guitars out of the way, so to speak. I think the result fell just shy of goal.

... the rhythm guitar in the main solo section sounded like it was panned to the right and the bass to the left???

Interesting thing you detected, and I've listened back with that perpective.
In reality, the bass is centered and there are two vastly different rhythm guitars, a strumming part to the right and a muted eighth note part to the left. This is most evident at 1:39. I think the two parts don't balance well making the whole mix "lean" and giving the perception you hear. I'll look to correct that. Thanks for the observation, very helpful.

Thanks for listening. I really appreciate the constructive feedback.

Daren

 

[bagpipe]

I really enjoyed it - great playing throughout. I'm new to this forum, and to recording, so I dont have anything to add on the technicalities of the recording or the mix (hopefully I will in the future though). On the tune itself, I'd say it sounds a little "busy". To me, when a tune is centered around a complicated bass, or guitar, or keyboard part, all of the other instruments have to step back and play something relatively simple. I find the bass part and the rhythm guitar part competing for my attention.

But hey, if I could play the bass like that, I'd probably write lots of tunes which featured it too!

Oh, and I really like the guitar harmony parts at 1:17. That sounds like it would have taken a while to work out.

 

[bigbubba]

Don't have any nits. Sounds jamming. Wouldn't change anything really.

Vote for bass staying where it is. Vote for slight raise in rhythm guitars, if you must make a change.

 

[daren_woodall]

I'm new to this forum, and to recording, so I dont have anything to add on the technicalities of the recording or the mix (hopefully I will in the future though).

I've only been at this for two years, so I won't take you long before you feel you're getting a handle on things.

On the tune itself, I'd say it sounds a little "busy".

Oh yeah! Very busy indeed. The bass part alone is grinding out eighth-note phrases at 188 bpm for the whole song. What is that, like... 1,200 plus notes in a three minute period. Thats gotta be some kinda record?

Your points are well noted. This song's bass work is over the top, even by my standards. As far as the parts competing, it is my view that if mixed a little better, the parts wouldn't compete as must as they appear to now. The rhythm guitars are actually very simplistic if heard on their own.

You can imagine the internal conflict of being both the guitar and bass player and having to mix your own stuff.

Oh, and I really like the guitar harmony parts at 1:17. That sounds like it would have taken a while to work out.

Wow, thanks for picking up on that little bit of detail. I'm really pleased with that outcome.

It was a trick, and one that I stumbled on. I'm hesitant to reveal this, but here goes... It is a single decending/ascending guitar line that I copied to another track, offset it by two beats then panned opposite. Damn cool result, I must admit. The chorus harmonies are made up of four relatively simple melody lines panned all around that mesh well into a single melody line. I wanted an orcestra type sound. To make it better, I should have given more tone distiction to each part of the harmony. Or maybe not... its so easy to over think these things. Anyway, thanks for noticing that little part. You have to be listening close to catch it.

Daren
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