I Wanna' Start Threads Like Jake

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chrisharris

chrisharris

King of Bling
Okay, being the reactionary that I am, I took every single piece of advice given on this tune, and did something about it...I'm not saying I did something GOOD about it, but I made a real honest effort at mixing and mastering this one...If you like to share opinions with others about musically related topics, then please tell me which one you think sucks less at this point;

Juliet (Acoustic); or
Juliet (Acoustic) #2
www.nowhereradio.com/honestmango/singles


(or just tell me #2 is okay, lol).

I'm actually planning on using one of these mixes for the final when I get some sonic goodies from Crawdad.

(if you have time and have always wanted to hear what an acoustic guitar sounds like for a bass, lol)

Some things you probably won't notice or care about; I...
1. Ditched the "Bronco Bass"
2. Brought drums up;
3. Brought "bass" up;
4. Jacked around with reverbs and predelays a lot...it's probably the same there.
5. Busted out enough "mastering" plugins to choke Bill Gates...I quit using all this junk awhile back b/c all I've ever been able to do with them is add noise, but I wanted to try again...because I'm OLDER now.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR TELLING ME THAT #2 IS WAAAAAY BETTER...

or not...I totally mixed it on the cans, too, lol...sonic maximizers sound GREAT on headphones, eh? Watch your eyebrows on this one... :D
 
Yes !!!!

This version (Juliet #2) is much better. This one has room to breath. The last one left me "breathless". LOL. I've done some A/B-ing and the previous version (5/8/03) sounds muddy compared to this.

Did you add some bg vocals around 1:35 that track with the slide? They sound sweet. I can't hear it in the previous version.

Drums sound much better IMO. But, I'll bet you get crap that the snare is too loud.

Another winner.

Now, like I said before, get out your nose ring and let's hear a punk exploration tune from you.

BPOCO
 
BPOCO - Funny, I just hit this on the monitors, and all I could think was...DAMN, THOSE RIM SHOTS ARE LOUD!!...hehehee...

You're a champ for helping out. I'm thinking this is gonna' fill out nicely with some tastey Tele Fills and pedal steel (see, I've already added an instrument to Crawdad's "to do" list, lol). Punk, that's a stretch...I'm catching enough grief for my Avril Lavigne imitation in Mbuster's thread...lol.

Somebody hold me.

Damn, that snare's loud, lol.
 
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and yeah, I changed that vocal there at 1:35 a little bit. There was *something* there, lol. I'm amazed you noticed, lol.

Man, I hope Toki sees this. He told me to play those half notes in the verses, which is the right thing to do, but my acoustic "A" string doesn't have the greatest sustain in the world...

My eventual goal is to record an entire song with nothing but 3 spoons and some duct tape. I'm well on my way :D

WHOA, those bass flubs didn't sound NEARLY that important when I' played them...I'm getting ready to drown this whole mix in verb...yup, needs more sonic muck right now.
 
Noticeable difference. The snare sounds a little thin or something? But then again what do I know, I've been recording for all of 9 minutes now.

The rest of it sounds real smooth, I like the vocal and where it sits.

I think the backing slide licks behind the vocal should come up.

A great job overall

Joe
 
Toki was listening and comparing while you were typing. :)
I haven`t seen Jake around yet so I`ll step up as Grand Heckler till he gets here..:cool:
#2
To me, This mix is cleaner, smoother, with less distractions to the message in the storyline. The drums sounds nice and almost organic sounding, especially the snare :)
There`s a couple of spots where the temptation to do fills almost takes over but I could hear you holding back on the drums, nice.
Kudos on "making" that bass. I was gonna ask if you used a compressor cause one string was not holding the sustaining foundation like the other was, but it was smooth. The guitar sounds smooth and clean. The vocal was smooth and articulated well, it has a few spots of bobbing in level but it was consistent enough to make one want to listen closely for the story.
"Saying more with less" takes a lot of discipline. The temptation to go primal and let emotion over take is strong. But when controlled and done with authority the impact is far greater and focused, ("groove"). Congratulations on stepping into the ranks of "bassist". :)
 
I was hoping to piss you off by saying #1 was better. But #2 is. The guitars are bigger and fuller sounding. The whole song is fuller sounding.

Nice "countryish" harmonies (either version). What were those "strings??" I'm referring to the part that comes in first at about 1:35. They sounded weird, but better on #2. To me that didn't work so well.

Nice pretty song. Good lyrics.
 
Listening for the third time on version #12 of Juliet ... lol :)

OK #2 louder ... lol again :)

Really #2 does sounds better to me. More polished. You buffed out the rough edges. I can hear all the instruments clearly. I won't comment too much on levels as I am on cheap headphones.

Real good song with a great performance to boot.

The "bass" sounded pretty good from here. Although I did not care for the tick tock bassline during the chorus.

Looking forward to version #26 :D with crawdads goodies!
 
That's the spirit!

Chris you're killing me here...haha.

I can't listen yet but I'll be back-a-bitchin after work.
This mix has come along way now...it'll go further I'm sure (just like a 6 day three thread mix by jake).
 
Smokepole said:
Noticeable difference. The snare sounds a little thin or something? But then again what do I know, I've been recording for all of 9 minutes now.
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That made me smile. (9 minute comment). As for the snare, yeah, it's pretty thin for a snare, but it's louder than hell for a rimshot, which is what it's supposed to be...I'm playing around with more reverbs as I type this. I'm sure if it's close to being okay, then I'm on the verge of obliterating it. The slide stuff...yeah, it's in there temporarily for filler right now...I keep forgetting to turn it back up. Thanks for listening.

Toki - Your whole post made me grin, lol. I really do appreciate the help, btw...so maybe you could help me out with something else...most of the bass stuff is just me trying to capture subharmonics from an instrument that has no business providing the low end for this tune, so yeah...I squashed it like a grape...and I've enveloped it some where I hit an actual string, lol... Now, this is temporary...I've decided to buy another bass, but in the meantime, do you use any FX on your bass tracks to fatten them up? I'd be scared to death to put verb or something on it, but I'd like it to be smoother. Chorus seems like a bad idea to me for some reason, but I'm no bass player, lol. Thanks again.

Trip - Yeah, that part at 1:35 is...well, it's just odd - It's supposed to be 3 vocals, actually, with a flange...and they were pasted together...I call it "human ambience," which is what I use in place of the synth pads on my keyboard that don't work, lol. It sounded pretty fucked up in the car, though...so I'm working on that too. Thanks (again)...

skids - you and Toki have had to listen to this more than I have, lol...but I appreciate it a ton.

jake - eat me

I know you're all glued to the edge of your seats, lol...but I promise I won't beat you over the heads anymore with the rest of the stuff on this tune until Crawdad sends me magical additives. THANK YOU.

(session's open, btw...now's a great time to tell me things like, that internal rhyme...doesn't in the 2nd verse...I'm fixing it, I'm fixing it). You guys are the shiz-nit.
 
"..but in the meantime, do you use any FX on your bass tracks to fatten them up? "

I use a chorus with the speed at almost zero and the modulation maybe at 1 or 1.5 so that it sounds like the envelope of the note is still developing even after it flatlines. You can`t hear it in a mix but by itself you can detect it. kinda like a snake stretching when it wakes up, without wiggling. :)
 
I use some verb on bass depending on the mix. If I have a few verbed tracks already I'll stay away but if it's a pretty dry mix I will add just enough to give some room flavor. The song (I know your sick of it chris) give up has a good amount of a short room to liven it up a bit.


Ok I have listened to both of the song versions a few times and I have a couple things to say. I didn't bother catching up here so excuse the hell out of me if I repeat.

As for which mix is better, I like them both...ha.

The bass is bugging me in both tracks. It gets all om pa om pa on a few passages. I would like to hear it swung into the grove a bit more. It kicks a bit too hard in the first mix but no.2 fixes that.
You know, omm pa-poom...pa-poom rather than poom poom poom poom(like now). Whatever, this singing over keys sucks but I hope you hear me because what I have to say is really...important for some reason I can't quite think of right now.

I'll be fucked, the slide is growing on me.....go figure. Probably just too many damn listens.

The singing sounds mellower in the second version, more friendly.

I know you don't care what I say but I still love you Chris, you will always be my favorite country star.
 
jake-owa said:
The song (I know your sick of it chris) give up has a good amount of a short room to liven it up a bit.
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Actually, I even listened to yet another mix that you didn't even have the decency to start a new thread about...lol. You dialed it in quick. See, to me, I'd rather see somebody like Powderfinger or you or Sluice who keeps tweaking with the mix as if the time people take to comment actually matters...I'll listen to 50 versions of a song I hate (not directed at anybody in that group, obviously)...It's just a bonus when the song and the performance are cool to boot.

Thanks for the comments on the bass, b/c I'm still working on it...on the second version, it's just an acoustic guitar, and I'm thinking I'll have a much better feel for what it needs by the time I get the final tracks from Al.

Hell, I just resang it again because 2 lines were annoying me... I never finish recordings, btw...I just eventually abandon them for something new.
 
chrisharris said:
Actually, I even listened to yet another mix that you didn't even have the decency to start a new thread about...lol. You dialed it in quick. See, to me, I'd rather see somebody like Powderfinger or you or Sluice who keeps tweaking with the mix as if the time people take to comment actually matters...I'll listen to 50 versions of a song I hate (not directed at anybody in that group, obviously)...It's just a bonus when the song and the performance are cool to boot.

Thanks for the comments on the bass, b/c I'm still working on it...on the second version, it's just an acoustic guitar, and I'm thinking I'll have a much better feel for what it needs by the time I get the final tracks from Al.

Hell, I just resang it again because 2 lines were annoying me... I never finish recordings, btw...I just eventually abandon them for something new.
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I totally feel ya there. I have already finished songs that sit for months...years and one day I will just feel like retracking some line or two and end up redoing it complete.

I think things are getting better but I can never tell anymore.

I'm looking forward to the final version of this song, give it a while...I'm there too.
 
mix #2 sounds good to me chris......seems to have more space than the last version i listened to........what kind of stuff do you do to "master"?
 
I guess I can let this one pass....

Just kidding I think it sounds real good as usual. Dig the lyrics. I think it could use a well placed "backwards scream" though. And this would actually be a killer track to drop a couple lines of that jangly, tremolo'ed guitar you've been talking about into. Did I tell you I figured out how to do it? Anyway, goood job on this. Can't remember the original real good, but did you lose some of the slide?
 
mbuster said:
Can't remember the original real good, but did you lose some of the slide?
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Hey, I didn't get a chance to respond to your BRAGGING in the other thread, lol...but yeah, this song would be PERFECT for that (unattainable) tone. I'm getting lucky on this recording, b/c Crawdad is going to send me some electric stuff...his electric tones rule, ESPECIALLY on the "semi-clean, semi-dirty" bluesy stuff.

See, my problem with recording electrics is two-fold, really...I have a couple of decent rigs and electric guitars, but I never use them. Not one gig in the last 10 years...I play an electric/acoustic through a bunch of stuff, lol...I CAN get some decent tones out of my acoustic, even distorted ones, lol...b/c I'm so used to jacking around with it, but I don't have the experience to get decent electric tones...so any help you could give me in terms of getting started on finding THAT tone that I posted would be great. I've got a Mexican Strat and a Gibson SG,...a Fender Twin, a Roland Jazz Chorus, and a little one speaker Mesa Boogie that kicks ass, lol. Otherwise, just some foot pedals for EQ, compression (Marshall, mostly) and some distortion pedals...tubescreamer...I'm limited on the electric side, lol.

Thanks. Yeah, I took some of the slide out of this one. It's gonna' be gone completely pretty soon. I think I've got a much better mix in the mixer right now, if I can just tame the hat a little without remixing...BUT IT SOUNDS HUGE...lol.
 
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