Island Hopping with ibleedburgundy

Yeah, I'm liking the drums. I tracked those sounds down--room noise in the vocal mic. They'll be gone in the next mix.
 
Hey Robus & IBB, this is really good. You seem to have a knack of writing stuff with a strong emotional hook. The instrumentation's all good and the unusual vocals give a bit of edge & stop things getting too smooth & MOR. You may be a bit self-conscious about them, but they're distinctive and cool. So, did you auto tune them in the end - I wasn't quite sure what your OP edit meant?

For some reason it all reminded me a little of Future Islands. I think other than the pool ball cracks it's all good as is. Nice work.
 
I really like this. I like the arrangement and the mix. I like the rough imperfection of the vocals. When it gets to the chorus, I think it would sound good with some harmonies.
 
the unusual vocals give a bit of edge & stop things getting too smooth & MOR. You may be a bit self-conscious about them, but they're distinctive and cool.

That's exactly how i feel about robus' vocals, rob. i told him that exact same thing in a pm!
Your MOR comment is funny but on point, and the vocal keeps it from going there.
 
your drums are sounding great. Do you play/record to a click? Or to the programmed drums in the original file?

Thanks! I prefer click - but not metronome sound. High pitched jam bells or some other midi cowbell-ish sound cuts better on phones when playing a drum set. I listen to the programmed drums to get an idea what Ray wants. Tracking along with programmed drums is trouble IMO - I need to hear unadulterated acoustic drums.

I write out the song structure on a piece of paper and tape it to a nearby mic stand. Then I jam with it until I have enough ideas, try a bunch of fills. Then I listen to rough takes a few times. I select the fills and nuances that make the final cut while listening, or even write new fills. By the time I am trying to lay down the final take I have planned out every single drum hit in the entire song. This way I have zero uncertainty, just focus on groove - which Ray is big on.
 
ah cool! been wondering how you guys do that and what your approach is. thanks for sharing! yeah i can see about metronome compared to drums... makes sense.

weird...i thought i was the only one finicky about the sound of the metronome. lol. i think i have a tambourine style on the 1-2-3-4 and then some clicking noise for the off beats, and then there's a third option I use as well. All 3 options I have turned on. That's for guitars and vocals though.
 
What seems to be working lately is this. I'm sending Dave four files:

1. An mp3 of my rough mix with demo vocals and sample drums, to give an idea of what the song is about.
2. A wav file of the sample drums only
3. A wav file the guitars/bass/backing vocals only
4. A wav file of the demo lead vocals only.

That way Dave can plug the files into his DAW and decide which parts he wants to hear while tracking.

I may start breaking the bass out into a separate file as well. The reason is that the bass will have been tracked to the sample drums, and may not have the right feel for what Dave is doing. In all the songs we've done except the first one, I went back and retracked the bass after Dave recorded the drums so it locks in (and I need to retrack that first one too).

Then for Nick, I've been sending him three files: A test mix with my demo vocals, a track with my demo vocals only, and a karaoke track without vocals.
 
Why send Dave #4? I don't see why he needs that...? Have you thought of forgetting about bass until he writes a drum part? I'd think writing bass to drums is more coherent than writing drums to bass. I know you retrack it, but I mean don't even write a bass part until a drum pattern is set in stone.

I don't know..that's just my approach so maybe I'm biased toward it. Bass is the second to last thing written...just before lyrics.
 
The reason for #4 is to give Dave control over the level of the lead vocal when he is tracking, or turn it off if he wants. I tend to mix "vocals up" these days, but I can understand him not wanting to listen to that numerous times while working out the drums.

Bass comes early in the songwriting process for me, usually before vocals. Some of my songs are built from the bottom up, and I tend to use a lot of partial chords on guitar that are ambiguous without a bass line under.
 
Top tip:

I think I've mentioned this before, but if you want a decent-sounding Soundcloud clip, then you simply HAVE to upload it in WAV format. It takes no extra space on your account, but the sonic difference is like night and day.
 
The reason for #4 is to give Dave control over the level of the lead vocal when he is tracking, or turn it off if he wants. I tend to mix "vocals up" these days, but I can understand him not wanting to listen to that numerous times while working out the drums.

Bass comes early in the songwriting process for me, usually before vocals. Some of my songs are built from the bottom up, and I tend to use a lot of partial chords on guitar that are ambiguous without a bass line under.

Yeah, I like to have a separate vocal track. I turn it down so I can focus on groove, but I keep it audible to make sure I am not playing over them at key times.

I also like having bass for groove reasons. If you sent me just guitar, I could certainly work with it. But if you send bass then I will have that much more of a clue about how the feel should be. I like fitting drums to your writing, as opposed to the other way around. It's your vision, and the more of it that's communicated, the more I can get with the program.

BTW if you re-track bass on Crop Circles you may notice some mild imperfections in the drum timing. There were some points where the bass/guitars were not super tight with the click (but sounded just fine without it) and I opted to go with the bass/guitars. There is one particular spot where I left out some bass drum hits to accommodate flow. I'm not saying don't do it, just know that there are some organic things going on there that may be hard to reproduce.
 
Top tip:

I think I've mentioned this before, but if you want a decent-sounding Soundcloud clip, then you simply HAVE to upload it in WAV format. It takes no extra space on your account, but the sonic difference is like night and day.

didn't think to do this. good to know it doesn't eat up your allotted space. good idea!
 
Is it me or has Robus stepped up his game?

I like his demos almost more than the collabs, tbh, though the collabs have some positives.
 
I love the warm clarity of the vocal on this. It's what I strive for, but I haven't achieved anything like this. You mentioned flanging effects with the double too loud, so I assume you artificially double tracked it. Manual double tracking might be worth experimenting with. I have a feeling it could go either way with your style of singing, either thicken it up nicely or make things too loose. In any case, I like your style. It's interesting and intimate. It makes me think 80's, but I can't think of anyone in particular.

The drums sound great. Personally though, I think they're a little dry compared to the other instruments. Just a touch of whatever your preferred method of adding ambience is would be nice, and help them blend with the more lush-sounding piano and guitars. That snare is really nice though.
 
Thanks Paulman. I doubled it manually. There is still another mix to go. I've been delaying it to get some distance. The double will come up a hair. I'll try your suggestion of more ambiance on the kit.
 
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