Lesson in Life

[K-dub]

New arrangement/mix I think I may have finished up ... an orchestral acoustic rock piece that I believe will be the lead off tune on my next compilation.

Lesson in Life

Any and all comments about any and all things are warmly appreciated.

Best,

Kev-

 

[DavidK]

Very nice Kev,

good song, good production.

My only nit is with some of the high-end drum stuff. It is hard to put my finger on it, its maybe a delay or something that is muddying things up. Or a left/right reverb. Does any of that make sense??

Other than that it is terrific. Love the orchestra samples and the ending, err, lack of one.

 

[K-dub]

Hello Mr. K!

Thank you, bud. I think this one is ready ... and I may have screwed up the quick mastering job, since I'm absolutely NOT an M.E., but I play one because I post on bbs's ... but I may have caused the high end clutter ... which is why I send my mixes out to other professional ears. On the mix itself, I roll most of the highs off the drums ... at least the cymbals/overheads ... and I tend to mix the drums dry -- only applying reverb ... a plate on this, I believe -- to the snare.

Yet ...

One works with the tracks one is sent -- and the drums are slightly "ringy". The performance is spot on -- and I tried to tie it all together. I believe that most casual listeners will get merely an impression from the overall presentation, and so the drum's influence isn't going to distract too much. It's always challenging to post when those listening have such discerning ears.

The ending of this tune will actually resolve with the start of the next tune -- a guitar in E ... as I'm using the sequence to move the flow along.


Kev-

 

[Archiegood]

Well, well, Mr. White!

Are we to believe that you have no violins at your disposal? I believe a tribunal should be called to a quorum to determine the nature of the black arts that you wield over your computer!

The vocal harmonies are most impressive. Yet, unlike your private advice to me, I wonder what they would sound like if expanded to the outer edges???

I like it a lot. I find no problem with the drums, other than a couple hits which might be impossible for a two armed drumer; but maybe Steve Reid lives in your basement?

A non-musician friend of mine listened to some of your tunes and commented on the Bowie influence. Are you consciously aware of that?

I look forward to your next installment!

 

[K-dub]

Yeah, I'm actually David Bowie doing my best Billy Joel impression.



I think we're all a confluence of our influences, and Ziggy Stardust is IMO in the top 5 of best rock albums ever made.

The drums are actually live, and performed by a real drummer.

The background harmonies (save the second verse) were provided by Tjarko Busink (as well as the bass), and he's the foundation upon which this tune is built. He's phenomenal.

In each background section, there are roughtly three parts each ... call them low/med/high harmonies. Each part was doubled live -- so there are six tracks in total -- and each part has one track panned all the way left, and the other panned all the way right. All the tracks are sent to a master sub buss, which is then sent onto the master bus.

The sub mix is eq'd to have a lot of the lows pulled out ... so as to thin the energy out a bit on the low end (there are a lot of tracks at work) but I accented some of the highs because it's a dense mix, and the bgvs need to fight through for attention.

Directly patched into the submix effect panel is a limiter set very hard ... which makes things loud, yet more two dimensional. This is effective on bgvs because it allows easy locational placement in and behind ... yet not so dominating as to overwhelm. It also "evens" the harmonies ... blends the tones together so that one doesn't stick out more than the others.

Lastly, this compressed signal is again auxbussed out to a very wide chorus (which is sent on to the master bus) ... and blended to suit in behind for tonality and richness ...

... and that's how they came to sound how they sound ...

... btw ... no violinists were harmed in the making of this ...



I plan on giving your tune a listen later, but I've been at full run lately. I've barely had time to tend to my own stuff.

Best,

Kev-