more adventures in MP3 land

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Monroe
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Richard Monroe

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Well, the next song is up, but I'm getting various amounts of skipping. It seems to occur at different points during each playback, so I think it's not a problem with my upload. Anybody have insight into this problem? We're a little new to this MP3 thing, so it could be something we're doing something wrong.
Anyway, it's called "Sunset Nostalgia", and is probably the most pure folk on the CD. As before, it is a mono house mix. No panning, no EQ, no reverb, no compression. The guitars were mic'd with a single C414B-ULS into an Avalon AD2022, using a TC Electronics M300 with all FX bypassed, for A-D conversion. Main vox with B.L.U.E. Kiwi into the Avalon, same deal. Fretless bass DI into the Avalon.
Snare was mic'd with the 414 on top, into the Avalon, and Shure SM7B underneath, into a DBX386. The overheads are Studio Projects C-4's into a Joemeek twinQcs, X-Y. Kick with AKG D112 into the Avalon. Backing vox- Mo (the low contralto) into Studio Projects C-3 and Carolyn (the mezzo) with AKG C2000B. Both backing vocal tracks went into the Joemeek with the compressor on but disabled, as a filter. (ratio 1:1, threshold max'd out).
I hope y'all can get it to play without too much skip. Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=3239/album680

Thanks for listening- Richie
P.S.- Sorry about the size of the file, but when we posted up on low resolution earlier, I got my balls busted for it by audiophiles. You can't have it both ways.
 
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Richard--no facility to play on Nowhere--I'll try again..
 
Interesting.- I don't know whether nowhereradio has disabled it, ot what.- I'll get back to you-Richie
 
Yo Crawdad (and others)- I think Nowhere was in the midst of changing our contract with them and they changed the link slightly. I've edited the post, and the current link seems to work. Let me know if you have problems.-Richie
 
You haven't enabled downloads or playbacks on the file... Go to you artist admin, add/edit albums, add/edit songs, edit the song, and turn on the flags to the right.

W.
 
NO WONDER it's skipping! You uploaded it at 320KBps! Rarely 10% of people on the internet will be able to play that without skipping!

192kbps is about that max most hi-speed connections can handle streaming.

W.
 
The webmaster is working on it as we speak. Hopefully we'll have it figured out within a day or so. We will need to rip from the CD at a lower resolution rate, and re-post the songs.-Richie
 
I downloaded it. I didn't notice any skipping. I suspect it's related to to streaming. It's encoded at too high a bit (320kbps) this time. Some good options are: 192, 160, and maybe 128. 192 may have skipping issues - it depends on quite a few factors. But the others ususally work.

Nice song. The guitars sounded nice. Maybe a little on the muddy side - a notch EQ cut at 280hz or so might help a little bit.

The vocals sound ok, but could probably stand some compression. Additionally, it sounded like the singer was maybe a bit too close to the mic.

Guitar solo could be more compressed. The dynamics are quite high. Nice sweet playing though - I liked the part.

There was what sounded like a clip at :22 smaller one at 1:16. I think the vocals were the single biggest factor.
 
TheRealWaldo said:
NO WONDER it's skipping! You uploaded it at 320KBps! Rarely 10% of people on the internet will be able to play that without skipping!

192kbps is about that max most hi-speed connections can handle streaming.

W.
Click to expand...


OOooooooooo!

I uploaded mine at 256kbps


It plays fine on my computer.
 
Thanks for the input, 3M. Yes it was close mic'd a bit, to increase proximity. My voice has very little bass in it, and the mixing engineer has requested the maximum proximity that's feasible.
EQ is not an issue, that would be the mixing engineer's job. My job is to get the best sound I can with mic placement alone. I fight the urge every day to start EQ'ing and compressing these tracks. I know I could make them sound better, but I would just be screwing with Littledog, who has better ears, better FX boxes, and more experience than I do. These are raw tracks. I'm unaware of clipping, but I'll review the points you mention, it could very well be true. If so, I probably clipped the M300.
Visual indicators say I came nowhere near clipping the recorder, and I don't think I could possibly clip the Avalon if I wanted to. When the clip indicator goes red, and the needle is pegged, you still have 32db of headroom! God, I love that amp. Well, we'll get the resolution issues cleaned up in a day or two. Everything I know about computers will fit on an index card.-Richie
 
Sweet guitar tone and playing. Drums sound a bit muffled and the vocals sound a bit stuffy. Cool song though. (I say that too much, heh.)
 
Richard,

Man! that was a nice track with great lyrics and very good guitar playing.

The song really hit home for me and brought back a lot of memories from that era.

Recording notes;

The comments about the guitars and vocals needing a bit of compression are ones that I would echo.

A little bit of verb on the lead vox would also be nice and not totally out of place. The vocal as well could probably com down a db or so.

Great track!

Thanks for sharing! :)

The 320 kbs stream worked flawlessly for me but, I am on high speed DSL so no problems for me. 13 megs might be a lifetime for someone on dial up though.

Cheers! :)
 
Thanks for the kind words. Ah, reverb, just one more thing I don't get to use. Can't you feel the pain? Those vocals were run through a TC Electronics M300 that was *disabled*! With one twist of a dial, I could have reverb, but that's reserved for mixdown, not my job. I am probably more aware than anyone of how compression and ambience and EQ and panning could help this music, but I'm committed to not doing it- yet.
As far as the vocal being a little up front, in the end, it will be Littledog's call, not mine, and I do have a mission. Namely, I know I'm a storyteller, not a real musician, and I have some stories to tell, that I think are good ones. I can't carry a solo project on the strength of my musicianship, so I'll have to carry it with my story. If the vocal gets mixed so it's an instrument, and intelligibility is lost, I'll still be a mediocre musician, and my story will be lost. The other idea is to bring in some buddies of mine who really are musicians. Their job is to try and make me sound good. My job is to make their job possible, by not totally sucking.
I can tell you, this old folkie is a little intimidated. Christ, my violinist is a full professor at the New England Conservatory! That is scary. I've been driven for 18 months by the mission to learn enough about basic tracking so I would not trash these people when I tracked them. The good news is- some of the best musicians I've ever met believe in my story, enough to lend me their talent. The two ladies on backing vocals are some of the finest singers I've ever been honored to work with. Do you think we want reverb? You bet we do! We're about 3 weeks away from sending these tracks to Littledog. Ha, if you think people here can be brutal, I'll tell you, Littledog is a hard sell, but I think he's actually started to like some of it. As far as the drums being muddy, I think that's just my bad mixing. Soon, we'll see and hear the truth. Thanks for listening.-Richie
 
Now coming to a home theater near you uploaded at 192 kbytes/sec. More songs will follow soon. Hope y'all like them-Richie
 
Grace Slick is dead? When did THAT happen?

Hey, the tracking sounds solid. The drums are right for this. All the goodies will only add to the final product (or detract, if you use them like I do, lol).

Best of luck in all your endeavors,
-Another Nobody.
 
Not dead (the only one on the list except possibly Timothy Leary) More like an artist in Santa Monica- voice destroyed by poor lifestyle choices, mind numbed by the pablum that passes for the information age. Another great poet lossed to us, although I expect she's a hoot at PTA meetings- upper middle class.-Richie
 
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