fanfare

[TripleM]

Soundwise and mixwise there's nothing I can think of that can be improved upon. Real cool guitar sounds as always. Some good playing as well. I liked the tremelo stuff in the intro. That keyboard stuff from :24-:34 was quite Beatles-ish.

Arangement-wise, there's a bit of disjointedness between some (but not all) of the sections IMO. I'm speaking a little bit about the transition at :35, a little bit about :46, and more about :58.

And of course feel free to disregard any of this crap I've put forward and tell me to pound sand.

Later Sam...

 

[dtb]

something like Sgt. Peppers comes to mind. and as usual, a great recording and mix from the great one. and chops, well you know, you are the man.

 

[dobro]

LOL - this one made me laugh during the funny parts. But they're not funny really. It reminds me of watching and listening to politicians on the TV.

You've come up with some really inventive stuff in this one and you keep coming up with sounds you haven't used before. Zappa would have liked this one. I have no idea how you're doing these days, but your *music* is doing fine. You're a very creative guy - I love watching new music find its way through you to us.

Look, you've got 25 tunes up at Nowhere. How about an album? Sure, I could just put a dozen of your tunes together and call it a Samicide album, but I'd rather have a CD with a picture of you dancing around in your underwear on the cover. Much more civilised.

Really good piece of music, Sam. You just keep exploring.

As for the guitars, it seems you actually turned the mid-song wall of guitar sound *down* on this one from what you usually do. They're not too loud.

 

[Toki987]

really got me stumbled here on this one. I`ll have to listen tonite again a couple of times. It's kinda like distilled till there`s no impurities in it, the top shelf brand of Samicide . Fascinating twists and turns down and around in the mix. It's w i d e and has that far away horizon behind it with plenty of separation between the instruments. All the tones are good and organic sounding. I`m a big fan of that drum kit tone. All that I really noticed at all outside of the enjoyment of it was a slight difference in the drum kit mix in part one and part two.

" better watch out for him, he`ll rip your lungs out Jim....."

 

[elephant]

reminded me of danny elfman (a complement coming from me)

really great sounds

loved the leslie effect (or panning)

I thought the drums could use a bit more punch, because the rest of the sounds are so commanding

 

[SLuiCe]

LOL...nice. We gotta do a Roland and Korg collab some time. Neat stuff!

 

[B.SABBATH]

I just lost a huge reply.. normally I copy it into notepad, but before I got a chance, the site conked out..

thanks for the ears guys.. I'll respond properly to this tomorrow..

btw, as unmemorable as it may have been, this song has the best guitar solo I ever did.. damn that's sad..

I can't believe I lost that whole reply!

 

[Giganova]

LOL -- that's an "interesting" tune! Totally love it, although the fact that almost everything sounds "synthetic" bothered me.
I couldn't listen to it twice. Nevertheless, a great piece of work! The mix sits perfect, BTW.

 

[Stratomaster]

Cool tune- Begiining section I loved- it got a little on the whimsical side after that, I kind of liked the eerie stacatto violin direction.

Love the guitar solo-you manage to play atonally and tonally at once-awesome.

I've said it before-you have the mind of a composer.

Give you a big ole satchell, a full symphony and a years time and you'd give the world something like its never heard before.

 

[GT]

Man you are one wicked guitar player!!

That sounded great!!

I get the feeling you've got a laboratory, instead of a studio.

Man, how did you get that fx on your guitar, too cool!!

GT

 

[Pedullist]

Terrific! Intriguing.

One nitpick: could you be so kind to add some tremelo guitar (true tremelo I mean, not whammy bar) or mandolins (ask MC Milan) during the tremelo strings intro (and when it returns). Somehow I'd love some dirt and randomness to that synth sound. But you can ignore me too if you want. LOL

Hey, you can use your beloved ebow for the tremelandi (is that a word?) as well. You can bounce it on your strings. A....eh....swell sound.

"What, an ebow tip from a bassplayer?"

Yep, my wife gave me one you know? One year anniversary...well....one year married, but we're together for almost 12 years. Hence, time for presents.

An ebow on bass are amazingly cool too. Expect it appearing on a new song of mine in the near future.

 

[Jagular]

Hey Sam...this is fantastic. You really have a creative ear when it comes to music. I think you have a sound that is all your own and could be quite well identified with you. IMHO of course. You are very talented man. Nice work.

Sounds too good for these ears to find anything wrong.

 

[groucho]

Dang man, you *really* should be doing movie scores.

I don't have much time so I didn't read the previous comments, but mix-wise nothing leaps out at me as being wrong. One thing: I feel like the mix could use more "space". Everything feels kind of smushed together.

That sounds more critical than I mean it (I'm nitpicking here). But I'd like to hear a little more, um... how to put it? Seperation? Between the instruments? Does that make any sense.

Maybe "sharpness" would be the right word.

Overall, sounds great. Any nitpicking is just that.

Chris

 

[Doug H]

Is "headroom" what yer getting at?

 

[participant]

I heard this right when I got home from Canada late Sun/early Mon... sounded cool, and different... like a Broadway thing...

...will give it another listen and some comments tomorrow after work... (just got home from school...)

 

[groucho]

Is "headroom" what yer getting at?

Well, headroom implies *vertical* "room", & I guess what I mean is more *horizontal* "room" or "seperation".

It's this thing I hear a lot on tunes that have a lot of synths and "articficial" instruments. Sort of a lack of clarity or "sharpness", or however you wanna put it.

Sam's tune is far from your average synth user's both with regard to sound quality and music quality, but I thought maybe it was worth mentioning.

Chris

 

[dobro]

I know what you're saying - I hear it as a kind of claustrophobic quality in the music - but I like it. I think the very lack of definition that you're asking for is an essential part of the music here, and not only that I think one reason Sam keeps reaching and reaching for this or that element he hasn't found yet is to balance the 'lack of clarity' you talk about. It ain't conscious - it just happens cuz it needs to. Like the excellence of the mixes he does.

See, different people hear way different things in his music:

1 "very creative if nothing else....the mix sounds good, but kind of plain in a vanilla way. Everything just sounds too synthesized for my tastes."

That's what one person said.

2 "Fascinating twists and turns down and around in the mix. It's w i d e and has that far away horizon behind it with plenty of separation between the instruments. All the tones are good and organic sounding. I`m a big fan of that drum kit tone."

It's like they're listening to two different tunes. Whenever somebody starts coming up with something truly new, lotsa people don't know how to listen to it, don't know how to categorize it.

 

[Guernica]

....788 compression is a beautiful thing

..Im off the subject here ...kinda, but i think that alot of the "tight and confined" feeling some mention might be a result of that compressor. I dont know if you even used any in this tune Sam because its so full of synth, but i have noticed it in other things youve done. ....and its IMO the finest aspect of the 788. I love what it does... Its a meat masher. It doesnt seem to emphasize the high end as much as some compressors do. Instead, it seems to focus more on tightening up the meat. The compression on my new board (and from what i hear, compressors like the rnc) is the opposite, and i find that it doesnt do the job of finding a "place" for lower freq. instruments(bass,etc.) that the 788 comp. does. ..I dunno why...

 

[MC Gitarz]

A new fan

This really isn't about your mix - I already told you I love that - this is about my son who's a budding musician/writer. His style is reminiscent of yours only his is much, much more primitive. I suggested he listen to this - he wound up downloading a bunch of your tunes and proceeded to critique them for me. You got him thinking, man!! That's more than I can usually do!! It's the power of music - and you be one of the leaders, guy!! Thanks!!
~Milan

 

[participant]

Kind of starts off in the same zip code as "Head Bag"... and then goes Broadway, or something...

I like that thing at 1:20... the mono-ish bass synth ... really tight in the very center...

Nice guitar lead (melody)

The string synths sound "furry", for lack of a better word... not really your fault... could be the 788, cables, patch quality... nothing to do with performance or musicianship, which was typically a ways above par...

As part of something, it could really work.... something with a lot more soundscapes, textures, etc.... would be mind blowing to hear real strings plus your guitar and drums.