Taco Night

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TripleM

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I posted this a couple of years ago but was never satisfied with the mix. This is a remix with a new lead vocal. Please let me know your thoughts.

Mix #1


Taco Night
Well we just got home, and everything's tight
See we made a decision about dinner tonight
We were dragging all day, but that's gonna change
Gonna get out some beef, gonna turn on the range uh huh
Ain't gonna be no Taco Bell stuff, not tonight
Everyone on the block can tell that we are doing it right
We're gonna ignite

Tacos are the dinner we have in our dreams
This stuff's is even better than it actually seems
Sometimes we eat'em in a cowboy hat
They got way too much saturated fat uh huh
Don't ever need to ask her what she can endure
We're gonna make 'em hot as a reactor, that's for sure
Baby that's the cure

CHORUS
We know... It's Taco Night tonight
We know... Everything's gonna work
Just right
It's Taco Night
We haven't done it in a week, but that's alright
Because we both know, it's Taco Night tonight

Gonna turn up the pepper, how far is too far?
Gonna drive around the block in our getaway car
Gonna load up on beef and forget about fruit
They're perfected in Texas - we're gonna follow suit uh huh
Flames coming out mouth like a cartoon
We can eat 'em soft shell hard shell maybe even with a spoon
'Till our head goes boom

CHORUS
BRIDGE
Our tacos slay, that's what we purport
But that's based on unconfirmed reports
It's not a crime it's just a tort
Oh yeah

CHORUS
CHORUS
 
Hey Trip I remember this one. I think the bass is masking the guitars to some extent. Vocals are really good.
 
I don't have any mix input other than, mixed very well. I didn't hear the bass/guitar issue. If that is an issue, it sounded intentional.

I have noticed you love quirky, do you have someone that kind of influences you? Hopefully this doesn't come off wrong, but Weird Al vibe?
 
Hey @Bulls Hit thanks. I *think* the guitars and bass are playing nicely together. But I'll take one more listen with your comment in mind.

Hi @DM60 thanks for the listen and comments. Lyrically there are a lot of people that influence me. But I think a lot of the quirkiness comes from me often trying to write about something that I've never heard before in a song. That's how you end up writing a song about "taco night" for dinner. Having said that, I like the quirkiness of They Might Be Giants. Other writers that a love... off the top of my head.... McCartney, Lennon, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Pete Townshend. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch.
 
Awesome I remember this one too. I feel the lead vox could be a slight nudge up but you can still hear them well as they play with other frequencies well. Cool song
 
TripleM said:
Hey @Bulls Hit thanks. I *think* the guitars and bass are playing nicely together. But I'll take one more listen with your comment in mind.
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I listened initially on my monitors, and that was my first impression but listening again on earbuds I'm not hearing the masking any more.
Lesson here is take any feedback from with a couple of lbs of salt :D
 
Bulls Hit said:
I listened initially on my monitors, and that was my first impression but listening again on earbuds I'm not hearing the masking any more.
Lesson here is take any feedback from with a couple of lbs of salt :D
Click to expand...
Everyone is off sometimes. But your feedback is something to which I always pay attention.
 
Love the fun and joyful vibe of the song. The guitars and the drums sound really nice. Enjoyed it very much!
 
Man... It's been years since I've visited this site... The mix sounds good... If I were to nit-pick, I would say that the bass guitar is low-mid heavy. I would cut the bass at around 350HZ by as much as it needs... What a fun concept for a song! Also - I would bring the drums up just a tad... maybe 1dB. Vocals are nice and up-front. Well done! Thanks for sharing, man!
 
at :36 there is a bass sound that sounds out happens each time but first one is way jump outish. Vocals sound good Song is fun!!! The ride definition is good during the bridge nice ping. Catchy as usual triple!
 
Okay - here's what I'd do: There's too much straight up the wide middle. The guitar and vocal (verse) are competing for the same space ... so what to do is take the guitar out of the middle entirely. Throw it off to the side. Let the vocal sit in the center pocket. If you've multiple guitars (hard to tell w/ the bunching), throw them to the side as well. Keep the bass dead center. Bass and vocals don't fight for the same frequencies (mostly).

LEAVE THE CHORUS VOCALS WHERE THEY ARE. When they come in, they're supposed to "fill the sound stage". Drums are generally fine where you have them, but see if you can give the snare a little more snap to the clarity - dependent upon which frequencies (crack or thud) you prefer.

But those verses are all about too much up a wide center - clear the path for the vocal - so that it sits in the pocket and the gits fill the wings. As is, you've a bit of a frequency fight going on and the result is muddle in degradation of clarity of everything fighting to occupy the same sonic space
.
 
@K-dub - I think I know what you're saying. The guitar is a doubled part, with the parts already panned 100% L and R. I suppose I could pull some mid-2Ks out of the guitars during the verses and it'd probably clear it up. But honestly, IMO the problem is pretty minor.
 
TripleM said:
@K-dub - I think I know what you're saying. The guitar is a doubled part, with the parts already panned 100% L and R. I suppose I could pull some mid-2Ks out of the guitars during the verses and it'd probably clear it up. But honestly, IMO the problem is pretty minor.
Click to expand...
The result of two similar gits playing the same thing tends to be phase. At issue is you wind up with a wide phasey center. There has to be enough distinction to split the sound L/R and open the middle. You cannot have the same sound L/R or it results in "wide phasey mono". I think that's what you've got in play here.
 
Hey Dub.

I think you had a point on frequency masking. I think the problem is small, but it's still a valid point.

And keep in mind the huge amount of respect I have for your opinions when you read this. But I just think you're wrong on phase issues.

First and most important - I don't hear any phase issues.

The two guitar parts are panned 100% L and R. They're double tracked - not copied/pasted/delayed-on-one-side. So they share 0% of the stereo spread, leaving them no room for cancellation/phasey-ness (does anyone sum to mono and check for phase anymore? I don't. anyway...). Phase tends to happen more prominently with cleaner tones and at lower frequencies. The guitars here are quite distorted and have a somewhat small amount of low frequency content.

So even theoretically there is only a small chance at phase issues. And again, most importantly, I'm not hearing them.

I'll bet I could cut the mid-2Ks from the guitars, automate it so the cut only happens when the vocal is present in the verse, and address your original point on frequency masking.

But phase? I don't think it's an issue.

And I've made way too big of a deal out of this. Sorry.
 
I love this song, especially the harmonies in the chorus.

I haven't seen all of the feedback others have left yet, but if I had some constructive criticism I'd say the lead vocal doesn't have enough presence in the mix. It both needs some room in the center of its own, and also could benefit from some thickening. (Saturation, chorus, doubling, slapback, etc.) The harmonized vocals sound fine to me.
 
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