Satisfaction

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Thekesslerboy

Thekesslerboy

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Well, in my mind when this was written, it was intended to be a 90s shoe-gazing, reverb drenched, House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, type effort. Droney, moody, etc. But something happened in the recording, and it came out as a poppy 70s glam rock, art school song! A cross between Roxy Music and Chas and Dave! Maybe the key, E, also took it in a twelve bar blues direction. Trumpets (again) presented themselves as I hummed along to the evolving song, so the Roland GR-55 came in handy once more, to emulate them. It's long at just over five minutes, but I already cut a minute of repeats and longueurs out, so I don't know what else to do.

Original mix:



Work in progress remix. All tracks remixed from scratch, tried to avoid artificial distortion, but I like real distortion so that doesn't help! Some other guitar parts added as they occurred to me. Still fighting a losing battle against throwing the kitchen sink in there. Mastered volume lower overall at the end. First attempt at basic drum sequencing and not got it right yet, but just experimenting, so be gentle.

 
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Thekesslerboy said:
Well, in my mind when this was written, it was intended to be a 90s shoe-gazing, reverb drenched, House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, type effort. Droney, moody, etc. But something happened in the recording, and it came out as a poppy 70s glam rock, art school song! A cross between Roxy Music and Chas and Dave! Maybe the key, E, also took it in a twelve bar blues direction. Trumpets (again) presented themselves as I hummed along to the evolving song, so the Roland GR-55 came in handy once more, to emulate them. It's long at just over five minutes, but I already cut a minute of repeats and longueurs out, so I don't know what else to do.

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The playback is tremendously distorting.
 
Papanate said:
The playback is tremendously distorting.
Click to expand...
FB_IMG_1735030344756.webp
 
Yeah blew my ear buds out. Had to quickly pull the volume to 33 to avoid permanent ear damage :D
Has a nice groove under all that distortion. Vocals are good & I like the Roxy style wall of sound
 
I think the limiting is causing some distortion and a bit of pumping in spots.

Nice smooth vocals - good performance.

I like the level balance. A bit light on the low end - just like I like it.

Nice catchy tune.
 
Thanks all. I am working on a ground up remix to try to avoid the baked in distortion. Will obviously temper the overall volume at the end, too.
 
Upon hitting 'play', it's fairly evident that the loudness of this song is causing pretty heavy distortion. I immediately turned it all down (which generally is not something you want your listeners to do). So, other than the overall volume level, I don't hear anything too crazy - but, sad to say that the aural assault caused me to want to stop the song before it finished. I'd recommend mastering this song to something like -10LUFS or thereabouts and I'll have another listen.
 
On my system it's not too loud. It is distorted, so that should be fixed, but the loudness seems actually maybe too quiet, relative to a pro level.

That graphic is hilarious but also 100% true. I master for that nice rectangular shape more than sound.

I like the song a lot. If you're still mixing, maybe a dynamics shift somewhere?

IMO something is off about the beginning. The drums are confusing the pick up notes from the horns? Maybe just the horns for the first two notes, then everything else kicks in?
 
I'd have listened longer, but I had to stop to stem the bleeding out of my eardrums. Yowsers!

:D
 
Work in progress remix. All tracks remixed from scratch, tried to avoid artificial distortion, but I like real distortion so that doesn't help! Some other guitar parts added as they occurred to me. Still fighting a losing battle against throwing the kitchen sink in there. Mastered volume lower overall at the end. First attempt at basic drum sequencing and not got it right yet, but just experimenting, so be gentle.

 
Thekesslerboy said:
Work in progress remix. All tracks remixed from scratch, tried to avoid artificial distortion, but I like real distortion so that doesn't help! Some other guitar parts added as they occurred to me. Still fighting a losing battle against throwing the kitchen sink in there. Mastered volume lower overall at the end. First attempt at basic drum sequencing and not got it right yet, but just experimenting, so be gentle.

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When everything is up front and forward all the time, the presentation takes on a monotonous linearity that fatigues the ear. This is 1000x a better mix than the first, but I'm going to give you homework.

Start cutting out what isn't absolutely essential and try to create valleys and peaks to your piece - so that there is a "lift" in the appropriate place. In this current form, aim at reducing some of the background "drone" employed so that you keep it stripped back in say, the verse, and then bring the chorus out "punching" w/ the full arrangement.

That said, I very much like the material and the performance. It's just that it opens at 10 and stays at 10 and closes at 10 - and that can get ... uninteresting - so the trick becomes pulling back during passages where it doesn't have to be at 10 - and then bring it up to 10 and then down to 5 - carrying the listener on your ride and basically giving their ears a needed rest in between your high points. It's all in the art of cutting out what's redundant when not needed, and then bringing it in for emotional impact to lift the production.

That's my two, anyways.
 
K-dub said:
When everything is up front and forward all the time, the presentation takes on a monotonous linearity that fatigues the ear. This is 1000x a better mix than the first, but I'm going to give you homework.

Start cutting out what isn't absolutely essential and try to create valleys and peaks to your piece - so that there is a "lift" in the appropriate place. In this current form, aim at reducing some of the background "drone" employed so that you keep it stripped back in say, the verse, and then bring the chorus out "punching" w/ the full arrangement.

That said, I very much like the material and the performance. It's just that it opens at 10 and stays at 10 and closes at 10 - and that can get ... uninteresting - so the trick becomes pulling back during passages where it doesn't have to be at 10 - and then bring it up to 10 and then down to 5 - carrying the listener on your ride and basically giving their ears a needed rest in between your high points. It's all in the art of cutting out what's redundant when not needed, and then bringing it in for emotional impact to lift the production.

That's my two, anyways.
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Thanks for the listen and detailed analysis. You're right, that's the gold standard of production, isn't it? Highs and lows, loud and quiet. Always the aim, but I usually fall short on that one. This one is a pub rock plodder so it's hard to change the DNA of it too much. I have kept the verses fairly minimal (for me) and the loud guitars and horns drop away for them, it's just a sparkly set of electrics in the background.

Points taken though, overdubbing lots of guitars is my failing, and as much as I try to keep them all individually audible, it inevitably becomes a wall of sound, a bit of a mush and drone. My ears don't automatically reel back against that, as it's the type of music I grew up on. Husker Du, Pixies, REM, Buffalo Tom, Grant Lee Buffalo etc. Not trying to emulate them, but the distorted guitar rhythm backing is something I instinctively hear in my head and end up with. Will keep working on the dynamics!

Like what I've heard of your stuff too. Sounds very professional.
 
Thekesslerboy said:
Work in progress remix. All tracks remixed from scratch, tried to avoid artificial distortion, but I like real distortion so that doesn't help! Some other guitar parts added as they occurred to me. Still fighting a losing battle against throwing the kitchen sink in there. Mastered volume lower overall at the end. First attempt at basic drum sequencing and not got it right yet, but just experimenting, so be gentle.

View attachment 149633
Click to expand...
This is a thousand times better. Great work! Also - I gotta plug the K-Dub's response. Ebb and flow in music gives it life. It's easier said than done, but if you can get away with taking it out, take it out - whatever it is, be it instruments or frequencies or plugins. Often times, less is more. Again - great progress so far!
 
The second mix is much better. It feels like the vocals could be a little more forward (and could stand to have some more presence; chorus, reverb, etc.). Something about the sound of the drums feels a little off; they don't pack as much punch as I think this song calls for.

I do really like the song, though. I definitely get the 70s glam feel, but at the same time I can imagine how it could be transformed into 80s shoegaze.
 
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