Highway Star - new 'Tuesday' mix

  • Thread starter Thread starter GONZO-X
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GONZO-X

GONZO-X

Well-known member
i really tweaked this mix...
alot.
everything got touched... eq, panning, levels, but in particular:

i took the bass guitar track, and patched it through a Sony plug, a distortion plug, and with some aggressive eq'ing, i got a lot of the 'synth' sound out of the synth bass patch, and added some bite with eq and the distortion....

streaming link: (newer mix, tuesday)
http://tinyurl.com/2ns5n3
 
That sounds way better than anything I could record. I really dig the energy and punchiness of it. The only thing I was unsure of is the panning on the drum OHs. Theres a few parts (towards the end of the chorus) that has agressive cymbal smashes that jump from speaker to speaker. It's just a little too spread out for me. They draw too much attention to themselves, and distract the listener from the rest of the music.
 
THANKS ANDY...

yep, agree with you on the drums..
tho, this was an early mix on the drums..
the guy i collobarated with on this project, only sent me a stereo wav of the drums, so i imagine, now that he's got all my tracks, he can tweak the drum mix for a better image..

i did all the guitars and vox...
he did the keys, bass, drums.

it was a blast trying to learn and pull off this cover.
i usually don't do covers....... but this one was like going to school.
 
That sounds really good. The guitar seems just a little loud on one side. It makes the mix a bit lopsided. If you thin the guitar tone a little [more quack]and ad another guitar part to the keyboard side it will sound more balanced.
 
THANKS for checking it out, OCNOR..

the original recording only has the one guitar on the far left side..
i was trying to mix it close to the original.

in fact, i brought my guitar track in towards center a little TOO far, compared to the original!
LOL

the original has the guitar pretty far back in the mix, but i decided to tweak it a touch.
 
I USED....
a 1981 Mesa Boogie Mark2B 60 watt tube head....

only, i've taken the original 6L6 tubes out of it, and replaced them with a set of GrooveTubes adapters, that allow the use of EL84's instead....

so, it's amazing that the original boogie circuitry works so well with the sound of the EL84's, which is more like the vox....

it'd be like if you hotrodded the AC30 with some boogie preamp gain....

if i really back the preamp gain down, on the boogie, and play really loud, it becomes very vox like...

i didn't have the option to play THAT loud during this recording, and opted for more gain, which starts to take it away from a 'real' vox sound.
plus, i was playing the rhythm track on a strat with a hand-made humbucker, instead of a true single coil, so that changes the 'real' tone as well.

i used a medium condenser mic, at about 2' away, and off axis, to approximate the 'room' sound that blackmore had on the original.

but i didn't dwell on trying to capture the 'real' sound, too much, cuz i just didn't have the gear to attempt it anyway.

a more modern 'approximation', is how i'd sum it up.

;)
 
I loved that song....it's been a long time since I heard it. Nice job!
 
That would be my only critique of your version. You've obviously got a humbucker tone going on, which is almost sacrilege. ;)
Now listen to my song snd tell me wht you think.
 
simman-
glad you liked it!



max-
yeah, i would have liked to use a single coil on that track..

i DID have the single coil sounds on the solos...
but not the rhythm.

one day, i'll borrow (or i may mod my strat) a single coil bridge setup, and re-track the rhythm.

i'd say, the rhythm was harder to track than the solos. it has a certain vibe to it, that's just hard to get without loosing yourself in the rhythm, rather than actually trying to play it.

if that makes sense....

checked your tune, and wrote a response in the 'other' bbs thread!
;)
 
That's the best cover I've heard of this tune. Great voice. Perfect arrangement, and awesome playing. The solos (both keyboards and guitar) kicked ass. Nice man....and one of my all-time Top 3 favorite tunes.
 
thanks Rami!

i know this tune, is kind of cliche..

but i remember when i was little, and listening to this song, i always thought 'this is quintessential'


so it was easy to sign on to it...
revisiting those old riffs...
and trying to cop a little of that 'vibe' in them...

it wasn't easy!
:D

and i didn't really do it.
but it was fun, and a very learning experience...
 
Gonzo,
Awesome guitar tone on this.

The distorted organ parts are missing on the intro???
Need a big fat organ tone on the intro parts.
The organ sounds fine later.
The vocals rock, no need for any change as far as I am concerned.
The lead guitar solo volume should be a bit higher,IMO. Blast that solo!
The cymbal ending goes on a bit too long, just nit picking.

Overall, I love it!
This is one of my all time favorite classic rock tunes.

Do another tuesday mix, and another, I'll listen to all of them.
 
Excellent cover of a great classic. You both nailed all the parts - vocals, bass, drums, organ. Definitely one of the best tunes I've heard on this board - performance and mix-wise. This is how it's supposed to be done.... :cool:
 
EL34
thanks for checking it out..
glad you dig it...

yep, the keys were left off the opening part...
don't know why, that's how i recieved them.
i've thought about cutting and pasting just a bit from the section when they DO come in, right there, but i haven't figured out how to do that in Sonar yet.....
i took your advice, and rolled the level off of that cymbal at the end...
the original, has that reverb splash from the keys that it goes out on...
i need to rock a hammond, like Lord does!
LOL

i'm re-mixing now, just trying to get the last of the tweaks in...

dan-
thanks man, kind words.

ido1957
"Definitely one of the best tunes I've heard on this board "
wow, quite a statement there!
well, whether or true or (probably not), i appreciate that!
 
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