Psychedelic Reggae Rock - "Colors" by Who We Are

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K-dub

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Any/all comments warmly welcomed!

Just finished mixing this this morning.

Thanks!
 
The guitar solo work has a good sound and development; the tone and to some extent style recalls to me certain early Steely Dan; somewhere between Bhodissatva and Haitian divorce. BTW tried to visit the web site and did not reach it with mozilla or microsoft products.
 
number six said:
The guitar solo work has a good sound and development; the tone and to some extent style recalls to me certain early Steely Dan; somewhere between Bhodissatva and Haitian divorce. BTW tried to visit the web site and did not reach it with mozilla or microsoft products.
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Ha! Quick story about that. Our guitarist is British.

He is learning American Music. You cannot imagine how much stuff we do off the cuff -- and reference U.S. rock and roll standards ... and he looks at us blankly, going, "I've no clue what you're talking about."

So -- we're preparing our stage set -- and original bands are funny beasts. If we did a whole show of only our stuff, folks would get a little tired of "Yet another song we've never heard." -- so we're peppering our show with some cover tunes to provide an accessible blend of familiar and unfamiliar.

... and one of the tunes we just turned him onto is "Rikke don't lose that number." -- and he came in all excited, exclaiming, "Skunk Baxter is a genius! I'd never thought of phrasing in the way he puts his fingers." -- and JJ (our guitarist) can play that solo now to the exact notes.

So he turns up at practice on Monday -- and hands me a thumb drive. He says, "I channeled Skunk Baxter into my new tracks for this tune."

-- and then you mention Steely Dan.

He's going to be absolutely thrilled you noticed.

---------- Update ----------

Oh -- and I've no clue why Soundcloud isn't working with those browsers. They all work fine for me.
 
Am I hearing that accurately that the bass is leaning right, and the guitar is leaning left?

You've been doing most of your mixes as almost live one-takes lately, right? Did you use that technique here too?
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Am I hearing that accurately that the bass is leaning right, and the guitar is leaning left?

You've been doing most of your mixes as almost live one-takes lately, right? Did you use that technique here too?
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Yes ... and no. I think that about covers it! :D

This is a live take by all members of the band. Again, guitar/keys/bass went in direct to the Ui24r -- and the drums were the only live mics in the room.

THAT said -- the guitarist made a huge error coming out of the solo section (if you listen closely - you can hear him groan through the drum mics) -- and really wasn't happy with his performance -- so although the keys, drums, and bass are from the original take, JJ's part is wholly overdubbed.

Pan scheme on the tracks:

Kick - C
Snare - 10% L
Hhat - 25% L
RTom 1 - 30% L
RTom 2 - 30% R
FTom - 50% R
OH L - 100% L
OH R - 100% R

Bass - C

Organ/Piano L - 40%
Organ/Piano R - 60%
(Backwash - right leaning)

Synth solo - 10% R

JJ L - 80% L
JJ R - 20% R

Vocal - C
 
KDub, Haitian Divorce might fit nicely with you guys as well. Nicely coordinated dancing girls in the video above, too.
 
Nice mix Kev, clear open sound. Was this one of your older tunes? Drums sound excellent, nice weight on the snare
 
Bulls Hit said:
Nice mix Kev, clear open sound. Was this one of your older tunes? Drums sound excellent, nice weight on the snare
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You may have heard an earlier incarnation of the piece, K, but it would have been midi drums. This is the first actual "live player" version of it.
 
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I love the guitar on the left. Great tone. Nice playing.

Vocal was nice and clear. It was just a bit harsh. A bit too much reverb on it - seemed like more reverb on it than the other tracks.

Synth was nice, but not my musical thing.

Drums sounded good. Especially the overheads. Snare was a bit far back and had a bit too much reverb.

My only big complaint was the bass. It was muddy and rumbly and loud and didn't fit the song. Seemed over processed.
 
TripleM said:
I love the guitar on the left. Great tone. Nice playing.

Vocal was nice and clear. It was just a bit harsh. A bit too much reverb on it - seemed like more reverb on it than the other tracks.

Synth was nice, but not my musical thing.

Drums sounded good. Especially the overheads. Snare was a bit far back and had a bit too much reverb.

My only big complaint was the bass. It was muddy and rumbly and loud and didn't fit the song. Seemed over processed.
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The weird of that is that I tested it on multiple systems, and the bass seemed to hold together. As you so know, bass is the toughest freq range to control -- and when one is doing a reggae song, it is kind of the central instrument to said type music.

But you know I trust your ears. If you say muddy and rumbly -- then I need to go back and look at that. I actually, originally, had the OH mics WAY down ... but brought them up to bring the high end more into balance. Everything else was kind of clearer w/o them ... but the sparkle was lacking.

I will never talk to you about synths ... because ... well ... I know how you feel about that shit.

Thanks S!

K-
 
Ha on the synth stuff.

I'm surprised about the bass. It's not a typical bass sound from you. Honestly I really didn't like it. Usually your bass sound is tight, level, and solid.
 
TripleM said:
Ha on the synth stuff.

I'm surprised about the bass. It's not a typical bass sound from you. Honestly I really didn't like it. Usually your bass sound is tight, level, and solid.
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I've got a Waves Maxxbass plug on it ... which may be the root cause of it going a little "fuzzy". Even though I've panned it center VHS thought it leaned right -- so there may be something I'm missing on my system.

This is why I always check here. The extra ears are critical to get input from.
 
I thought the bass was ok, except during the synth solo section, it did seem muddy there. Snare could come up in the mix just a bit, and a little less reverb.
 
mjbphotos said:
I thought the bass was ok, except during the synth solo section, it did seem muddy there. Snare could come up in the mix just a bit, and a little less reverb.
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Got buried and just got back -- thanks for the thoughts, Mike! I really to need to "de-fog" the bass.
 
Cool tune kdub!.
great arrangement. I love the 60's fuzzy lead guitar and that trippy echo part during the main solo. The only nit I have is that the vocal has some kind of effects artifacts in it. May be compression or a boxy sounding reverb or a combination of both. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is but I'm hearing it.
Sorry I couldn't be more specific.
Good job!
 
jimistone said:
Cool tune kdub!.
great arrangement. I love the 60's fuzzy lead guitar and that trippy echo part during the main solo. The only nit I have is that the vocal has some kind of effects artifacts in it. May be compression or a boxy sounding reverb or a combination of both. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is but I'm hearing it.
Sorry I couldn't be more specific.
Good job!
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It's a doubling plug, Jimi. When used too much, it hollows out the sound ... and if you're hearing that, I've taken it a little too deep. Thanks for the notice, and the comments!!
 
K-dub said:
It's a doubling plug, Jimi. When used too much, it hollows out the sound ... and if you're hearing that, I've taken it a little too deep. Thanks for the notice, and the comments!!
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ok...
I started to say it sounded kind of like phase issues from a doubled vocal. But usually on a doubled vocal the phrasing isn't exact and a word or two will spill over. It's not real bad, backing off a hair should fix it
 
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