bats brew

thanks gary, for listening and commenting. yep, a LOT of frequencies! LOL, maybe too many... i do a lot of subtractive eq with parametric eq and linear phase eq (depending on the source) this seems to be the best way to even certain tracks out. now, the pink floyd thing, i don't know what to say. i came to pink floyd via dark side of the moon, which from beginning to end, is just a perfect album. then i went all the way back in their catalog (they started in '65), then stayed with them up thru the wall... and they have a certain vibe, a certain chemistry, that is VERY hard to find in other bands of the time, and impossible to find now. but this is all subjective to a point: They ARE one of the most commercially successful and influential groups in popular music history, and by 2013, they had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, with The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall two of the best-selling albums of all time. so, there's that. 😁

hi andy! glad you dig this one, thanks for the comments.

hey wookiee! you know, i wonder, if ANYONE uses stratty tones, a vibe, and a fuzz, and plays simple blues riffs, if they would sound like gilmour.......!!! NOPE! heheheh i loved his 1st solo album, i had it on vinyl and cassette. hi daryl, thanks so much for listening to this one, and thanks for the comments.

hey oskald, appreciate the review! i've always liked DT, since the first album.... but i kinda think of this is not really prog, just some spacey blues, really. so, when i mix, i mix into a master bus at K-18. then, out of the master bus, i got to the MAINS, and i output there with a -2db true peak, and an RMS of about -14 LUFS. that becomes my 'high def' file, at 24 bit/48khz. if anyone ever wants a high def file, that's what they get. then when i master for CD, for my own music, i target a DR of no more than 10. typically 11. that is very conservative. if i random poll the most recent pro cd releases, here's what i get: DR= DYNAMIC RANGE Santana Africa Speaks 2019 DR 04 Miley Cyrus She Is Coming [HDTracks 44.1/24] 2019 DR 05 Thom Yorke ANIMA 2019 DR 05 Weezer Weezer (teal album) 2019 DR 05 Megadeth United Abominations (2019 - Remaster) 2019 DR 05 Black Mountain Destroyer 2019 DR 05 Cardi B Invasion Of Privacy 2019 DR 05 It goes on and on and on.....ad nauseum DR 05 seems to be the current target. HALF the dynamic range of my masters. half. LOL i think i'm ok in the loudness wars.

hey grem! i've got two keyboard tracks playing together, i think one is a wurlitzer, and the other is some synth i tweaked from scratch. i'm just getting back into keyboards, so i've got a lot of experimenting to do. the master is just a trial run, i'll get it more dialed in when i go after all 10 songs at once. thanks for listening

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/lost-dream-mix2 this is a mastered file. it's not very hot, comes in about DR10, -11 LUFS. first one i've mastered out of the 10 songs total on the upcoming album. i'm toying with some plugs i don't normally use, figured, why not. maybe it's hard to judge 'mixes' with 'mastered' files, i dont know, ideas? i can always post JUST the mix. this is my 'floyd' influence showing.

yep. 4 days it was here posted, i've already re mixed it.

hey wookiee! thanks for listening to this one, bass present without dominating, that is the goal! ok, so i shouldn't mess around with that one too much

hey tom! thanks man, for listening... more beater, check. that's easy, i've got 3 kick mics, one dedicated to sub, and the other two i can tweak a hundred ways! LOL you say the low end sounds balanced, yet someone elsewhere just told me that the balance of the low end is completely off!! LOL which makes it hard to determine if it's my playback, or their playback, that's off. cuz it sounds good to me! but what do i know....

HEY GREM! THANKS for the review.. yea, the harmony lead, i had to learn the harmony AFTER i did the solo! LOL it wasn't easy, cuz the fingering i chose to do the melody of the lead with, proved to be too weird to reproduce on the harmony... so i did it so it didn't line up properly, and gives the impression of a hot mess! LOL again.... which i kinda like, it's in keeping with the furious intent of that part of the song. i just can't decide if i have enough low end in the mix, i'm trying to keep it clean and punchy, but i don't want it too light weight.

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/michaels-house-mix2 this is the vocal version (there is an instrumental version as well) of a song, that in a way, is kind of a eulogy for a friend. this will be on the upcoming bats brew album called "the wild animals" i'm looking to find out if the bass and drums are translating well or not, on different playback systems. tnx for help.

hey T, bose cans, check. hey harry! on drum tracks, i decided to use the room mics instead of 'verb', it sounded more natural to me. in the mix, tho, they sound pretty dry, but they would REALLY sound dry if i took those room mics off! i appreciate the comments, thanks john b, thank you for listening... vox NOT too loud, check, i ended up eq'ing them a bit, which also had me bring them up in the mix. i've been mixing pretty loud, i'll do my 'soft' mix check before i get them mastered. freddy, YEA! a bit different! LOL, appreciate the review and comments. sorry there, wook.... moving quick on these.

i'll take this one down tomorrow.

hey tom! sorry i missed this post, i had moved onto working on the secrets tune, and just had tunnel vision i guess!! LOL i DID end up working on that kick... i added some oomph at 55hz, and tweaked the beater click range around 2-3 khz to get it to stand out more at lower volumes. at least, that's what i hear at low volume, listening to other stuff... thanks for the input

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/secrets-mix-2 totally different approach on this one, i left the other one up (which i never do) to a/b the two mixes. this mix was faders down, start from scratch, spent about 45 minutes total on it. the original mix, 6 months worth of half hour increments...! LOL the diff on this one, is mostly where the synths are panned, and where the rhy guitars and solos are panned. all levels are new. i think i could STILL beef up the lows in the kick,and add a bit of meat to the primary synth line on the left. vox too loud?

thanks for listening, T.... the synths are really tricky to mix, i co wrote this with a musician that goes by 'virtualan', he did the synths and programmed the drums, i did the rest, and wrote the lyric. i have 3 tracks of synths, but the main one is the one that carries the tune. i have a lot of guitar ear candy in there, but i mixed it all down, so that the synths rule, and the guitars are meant to draw the listener deeper into the mix, and not be obvious. the story, I got to thinking about aboriginal beats, for some reason.... something in the music that Virtualan (co-writer) offered up, drew me to this.... anyway, i found an aboriginal story, that has a tie-in to telling stories thru songs and dances.... the aboriginal people have this thing they call the dreaming: The Dreaming -- also means to 'see and understand the law' the Aborigines believe that the Ancestor Spirits came to the earth in human form and as they moved through the land, they created the animals, plants, rocks and other forms of the land that we know today. They also created the relationships between groups and individuals to the land, the animals and other people. Once the ancestor spirits had created the world, they changed into trees, the stars, rocks, watering holes or other objects. These are the sacred places of Aboriginal culture and have special properties. Because the ancestors did not disappear at the end of the Dreaming, but remained in these sacred sites, the Dreaming is never-ending, linking the past and the present, the people and the land. one of the most famous of these stories is the "Wagilag Sisters".... The Wagilag Sisters The story goes that the two Wagilag sisters, one of whom was pregnant, were fleeing their home and were being followed by clansmen. On their travels they come across many animals and plants and brought them in to life by naming them. Eventually, the Wagilag sisters set up camp beside a fertile waterhole at Mirarrmina. There, one of the sisters pollutes the waterhole and the pregnant sister gives birth, which causes Wititj the python to wake up angry and pissed off. Wititj creates a storm on emerging from the waterhole and attempts to wash the two Wagilag sisters in to the well with his downpour (the first monsoon). The two Wagilag sisters dance and sing sacred songs in an attempt to diffuse the situation and keep them safe, but when the sisters become too exhausted to continue, the python is able to swallow them up (including child and dog)! However, soon after, Wititj develops stomach pains and groans skywards above the land where he attracts the attention of other great snakes who also rise up in to the sky. The great snakes talk and they discover they all have different names but they wonder why the python is ill. Realizing he made a mistake, Wititj lies about what he has just eaten but the pain becomes so unbearable Wititj falls back to the land and vomits up the sisters who regain their life from the stinging bites of caterpillars. Undeterred, Wititj beats them with clapsticks and eats them again. Later, the Wagilag sister's clansmen, asleep in the hollow left by the python's fall, were visited in their dreams by the sisters who revealed to the clansmen the secrets of the songs and dances which had been performed in an effort to stop the rainstorm. leads to my version of the story: : "the secrets of the songs and dance" 2 sisters, 1 with child runs away to trees and water in the wild birth of a child brings out the snake, and both their lives it will take rain and song to no avail, both are swallowed inside the tail snake does lie about the meal, the caterpillar bites to heal eaten again, and snake is gone, the dreams reveal before the dawn--- the secrets of the songs and dance... secrets of the songs and dance... the secrets of the songs and dance.

another reason i love my RME Babyface Pro... excellent headphone driver.

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/secrets working on final mix on this one, it's a tricky one, because of the synths. looking for mix issues and translation issues. my short list: 1. vox too loud or too bright. 2. synth needs more meat, or maybe, roll off the high end to make it a bit warmer and bring it up. 3. rhy. guitars too edgy. got any ideas on this one? tnx in advance.

hey freddy! hey, thanks for the words of encouragement... it's lonely out here in space. LOL

hey grem! glad you caught this one, i'm moving quick now... i'm getting consensus on the drum mix being a bit low, tho it's kicking on my system, i'm guessing i've got some bass freqs masking drums. but it's got to be driving on the bass, so that's the area i'll concentrate on. the lyrics are basically about how big pharma, doctors, the fda, and stockholders, are phucking over americans with the prescription drugs. especially the opioids. "it's a cautionary tale..." thanks for listening grem.

this is my last mix on this one, as i wrap up final mixes on 8 new tunes for a new album. looking for how this translates on your playback, particularly, if the kick and bass guitar are coming across good. tnx. https://www.dropbox.com/s/zuks1u56mkke6kv/WILD ANIMALS-5.wav?dl=0

well, i DID post this last thursday... and only got two reviews, so it was time.

ok, took this one down, i'll post a new version a bit later

hey JW, yea, this one isnt really a standard form, which was the idea. thanks for listening