Tim Smith

9 hours ago, Bridget Murphy said:

Thanks for the insights! Excited about the potential purchase. I enjoyed the free version and agree, Arturia's sound design is impressive. The $29 deal is tempting for unique strings. Your mention of Pigments has me curious. Despite a technical interest in synths, I lean towards acoustic, especially with the bodhran—it adds a unique touch. Appreciate your experiences; it's reassuring to connect over the charm of instruments like the bodhran amid the virtual options.

I used pigments on a few electronic songs and it has worked well. Still trying to figure out how to get UNIFY to recognize all of my plugins so I can combine it wil other elements in that program.

But yeah, I like acoustic stuff. A lot. Here is a random pic I snapped just yesterday of some of my instruments. I keep them handy so I can just grab one if I need it. Not as fast as changing a synth patch, but more rewarding.

My  latest. 

This is probably my first delve into Country Rock, which I really am beginning to embrace as a new favorite. Not all of my music has religious themes but this one does.

After mixing it and coming back to it, it seems to be a bit sloppy in some places. If you can get past the intro the song livens up. After all these years mixing I still encounter issues with having a master that needs some control on the master buss of the DAW, so like any person who wants to make a good mix I will not drive limiters to the max, but try to keep it plenty loud.

The headphone output on my UA Volt 4/76 is at about half volume and when playing my mix back through it my computer volume controlling it needed to be at 66% for me to be happy with the volume. After I dropped it into TRacks for mastering, My LUFs were ok and on to SC upload. Then  the track seems to have less volume. I particulalry noted a difference in experience here between headphones and listening on my monitors since I did a lot of panning which sounds better on your ears directly.

If I drive the track really hot it looses all dynamics which seems to be the only way to make it comfortable loud on SC.

I think probably the very first country like tune I've ever made. I realize I need to get a new neck for my main guitar so solo parts were a little bit of a struggle. I was messing about with guitar tones and found this nice "toner rock" setting in my old HD500 that worked well with the tele setting in my variax.. I erased the rock parts I had been working on and this evolved. If tele isn't country I don't know what is.  I'm all over the flipping place lately. I just sit down and whatever deveopes develops. The graphic looks a lot better in SC. The link here blows the pic up so you can't really tell it's a set of hands holding a man.

@Paul Bush Thanks for listening and comments.

@KSband  Working on tryiing to get these rock mixes right. One reason I'm here. Thanks for your advice.

Nothing wrong with a wah, you do it well.

Thanks.

Can anyone tell me what this actually does? I was playing with the version in Cubase, and it had me baffled, mainly because I didn't know what it was supposed to do. I've used spectral displays before like the one in Ozone. The learning curve on this seemed to be a bit steep, but if it removes guitar squeaks I might be willing to learn.

Anyone compared this to the Arturia verson?

Nice memories I'm sure.

My old studio desk is presently under a tarp on my side porch until I can get the space i intended for it finished. No other place to put it for now, so I'm parked in my dining room and it's tidy if that is even possible with 6 keyboards and various guitars. Plenty of working space though, just not extremely intuitive.

I tried to give it a vibe with wifi lights, and it sorta works. 

Is he still alive? Strummy I mean?

Here is one I've been working on. I used sidechain techniques to try and get the vocals in. Basically side chained everything when I sing by a few db. I used Guitar Rig 7 Pro for this and my old Laguna HSS. I bought this new interface and didn't realize a few buttons needed to be unpushed, so I was originally mixing way too loud. The thing I find with a rock mix like this is peope don't like loud up front, but make it too low and it really isn't rock. My Tesla has a good sound system in it, so I was playing it this morning and found I still had to jack the volume way up to make it sound the way I envisioned it to sound, which is better I guess, than making people deaf when they play it. Kept the master at  what I thought was a happy medium while still in agreement with LUFs.

Lyrics-

Who's Laughing Now?

One day you'll wonder
what went wrong
everyone sees all along

Who's laughing now? Can't you see?
Who's laughing now? It ain't me.

Sitting smug there
in that chair, you think you have it figured out
Answers are guesses and guesses are lies
conratulations a useless prize

One day you'll wonder what went wrong
everyone's seen it all along
Answers are guesses and guesses are lies
congratulations, a useless prize

Who's laughing now? Can't you see?
Who's laughing now, it aint me.

One day you'll wonder what went wrong
everyone's seen it all along

Who's laughing now? Can't you see?
Who's laughing now? It ain't me

I really like this and was trying to place it in the type of rock it is. I wouldn't say it's soft rock, certainly not hard rock. Maybe rock with some pop overtones in it. Nice work.

Really warmed up to this version.

I wisd I could get a new MOJO.

Ya I've been pretending to understand for years.

I like IK. IK likes me, or my money. 

In any case, their guitar simm vending machine idea works for me on a good day.

Alternately Guitar Rig Pro 7 takes my cake.

I think there is a different language spoken here. Bap tongue. It's ok once you get the hang of it.

Great use of the wah! Kick sounds fine here.

19 hours ago, treesha said:

Sounds great. I'm with you that when I first started liking instrumental music, it could be spacy, but now I like a beat. I think I heard some aliens in there. Love when the bass comes in. When the lead guitar came in I had to turn down my volume it was a bit loud in the mix. Nice pitch shifting stuff. Good changes in intensity for the different parts, good variety and interesting elements. Its a journey.

Always appreciate your comments on my mixes @treesha. Noted the electric guitar is a little loud. Will see about pulling it down. I am presently working on a more hard hitting rocker, so this was a nice change for awhile. Not sure how I am aquiescing to this genre. I like playing with the tech and the synths. I just ddn't want to make something that sounds like bland synths droning on. IMO Tangerine Dream is a little too sedate for me

Get him talking about plug ins.

I just bought a UA interface that came with a few free plugins. Can't wait to try this one out.

Thanks!

Thank you @Xoo 

I was talking to a friend who likes Tangerine Dream, and she had me curious to listen to more of their material. I had no intention to sound like them, but maybe similar to them. They tend to have long drawn out sequences that are more relaxing than lively. I tend to like more rhythm in my creations, but I like many of the elements TD have in much of their material.

I'll check out your album!

Nice job on this old tune!