"Long Days Passing Fast" (Redux)

[K-dub]

Many many moons ago, I started coming here to this board to learn how to record. I had just started to record this album, my first. 8 albums later and miles upon miles of travel in between, I decided to rework every album from the ground up - because I'd approached the whole process bass ackwards: Each collection was simply "What I had done at the time I released it."

There was no plan, little cohesion or intention conceptually behind the album flows etc ... very little of anything more than simply, "Well, that's done." Usually this resulted in "one offs" that stuck out like sore thumbs among the other songs. I vowed I could do better.

So, many many moons later, I restructured each album with a central concept in mind. LDPF is straightforward 70s singer-songwriter pop rock and roll - hearkening back to the bands of the era - from The Eagles, Tom Petty, Billy Joel etc ... melodic rock, if you will.

A good portion of the original album is still present, holding down the central core of the work. But I grabbed later recordings that fit the central theme and fit them in with the others, seeking a listenable song flow.

Accordingly, each album got a remix from faders down for sonic continuity, using new tools and techniques garnered from the intervening years. Curiously, whereas I used to send things out to be mastered, I bought Ozone's Mastering Plug (11) that features AI processing assist in determination of levels/style etc ... and I have to attest: It doesn't completely suck. In fact, it's REALLY good at setting EQ levels and stage imaging. Where it is deficient is loudness/limiting levels and other nuances that still require human ears to add taste.

This collection was mastered with that AI assist (and my adjustments)

To those who are now trying to figure out how to do all this, my advice is this: Don't overthink it. What used to take me weeks to figure out now can be accomplished in a half hour. Part of that is because I simply don't have to think about what tools I need to get what I want. Part of it is knowledge that although I painstakingly pedantically mired over every frequency and clarity when I first started, I'm the only one who ever noticed my fussbudget, until I learned less is more.

Former members of this board have the fingers all in the pie of the material presented here.

Although I'm not seeking any feedback regarding the mixes, I will answer any questions folks might have about the process involved - including details regarding how sonic choices were arrived at.

Enjoy the listen if you've time! Hope this finds all my friends on the board happy and healthy!!

Kev-

 

[K-dub]

For instance - most of the drumming here is a live drummer: Frank Basile at Smart Loops, to be exact. That said, I didn't get to make the sonic choices for kick/snare/toms etc ...

So in each track, I used Sonar's "Drum replacement" tool to take Frank's performance and identify all the various pieces of the kit (but for cymbals). I then converted the tracks into midi parts and supplemented the original drum tracks w/ layers of other samples to achieve the exactly drum sounds sought.

Since synths have zero background noise, the key parts could be recessed (this minimizes bleed, increasing more detailed sonic edges) and the synth parts forwarded. The OH mics, therefore, pick up the room sound of the kit, but the overall result is a very zero noise background to the kick w/ all the EXACTLY sounding snares/kicks/toms and otherwise you want to insert to fit the arrangement.

Some of the songs did not have - or could not receive that treatment for a variety of reasons. For instance, "Vanlytne" original tracks were lost - and all I could do was use the stereo drum stem I found. "Orayo", though employs 3 various drum synths triggered off the same midi track (cloned) - so it has a really BIG DEEP sound to the kit through the master drum bus.

As I said - if anyone has any interest in how these sorts of techniques were utilized, lmk and I'm happy to chat about the process.