steve@baselines.com

On 12/15/2023 at 8:06 AM, Wookiee said:

Being more a Pagan Yule type of Wookiee until the  Shaman gives the word celebrations don't begin.

Back to this, I don't know if you fixed the piano yet but it still seem a bit over the top for me. Otherwise very much what I would expect mix wise for you Steve.  

Thanks for stopping by - I did bring one of the pianos down a little on this, but probably can stand to come down more!

11 hours ago, Keith Wilby said:

It's a damned sight better than the Xmas song I once tried to write 🤣

Only critiques I have are that I find the intro a bit uninviting, if that makes sense, and I find the mastering a tad harsh, but otherwise, great job 👍

Hi Keith - thanks for the feedback.  Once I signed up for the UAD Spark program, I decided to go back and redo a bunch of the songs I finished before I had the UAD stuff.  I bet that this is where the harshness comes in.  I am almost positive I overuse new toys for a while until somebody says something 🙂

On 12/11/2023 at 7:11 PM, Lynn Wilson said:

It's not easy to write a good Christmas song, and this is a good one!  Congrats, Steve on a super production.  Merry Christmas to you, too.

Thank you Lynn - I hope you have a great Christmas season this year!

On 12/8/2023 at 4:35 PM, bjornpdx said:

I like it.  Good to hear a new Christmas song now and then.
Can't wrap my head around Christmas in summer, like in Australia.

-Bjorn

 

Thanks Bjorn.  Someday I would like to visit Australia.  Some of the pictures I have seen look great.

5 hours ago, Bajan Blue said:

Hi Steve

A Christmas song!!

Very nicely done indeed

sounded good to me

Cool

Nigel

 

Hi Nigel thank you for listening!

Steve

2 hours ago, jack c. said:

nice.merry christmas.jack c

Thanks Jack.

4 hours ago, KSband said:

Nice little Xmas song. Sounds good except the piano is overpowering the song, otherwise  great.

Thank you!  Good comment, I will fix that!

Great job!  I saw them back in the 70s - they were an opening act for someone, maybe Jethro Tull, maybe Alice Cooper, I can't remember for sure.

One of the loudest guitarists I had heard at that time.

Steve

Fiona Lunney from Australia wrote this Christmas tune and performs the vocals.  Recorded and Produced at Baselines Designs Studio in Boston. 

https://baselines.com/?p=6946

I hope everyone here is having a great Christmas season and is at peace with your family and friends.  Life is fleeting and while we may be miniscule in the realm of the universe as a whole, we are all important in the moment. 

2 hours ago, Keith Wilby said:

By sheer coincidence I happened to be working on my version of this Beatles song when I spotted @steve@baselines.com's version.

I think I've previously posted my "archive" tape recording from the late 90s, long before I could use something like a DAW. I've never been able to match that vocal performance, and now, with AI, I'm delighted to have been able to isolate it from the tape recording and use it in this project.

A lot of the sounds come from my vintage Yamaha PSR-SQ16 but there are new drums, bass and strings. Comments welcomed.

https://www.bandlab.com/post/0008bd79-0e8a-ee11-b75e-000d3a428fff

Hi Keith!  This is a really nice version - I like it!

Steve

18 hours ago, Larry T. said:

Faithful rendition done exceptionally well. Nice vocal. The tone of the bass is really nice🎶🎶🎶🎶

Thank you Larry!

On 11/21/2023 at 2:27 AM, bjornpdx said:

Very well done Steve.  I appreciate all the historical notes on the song too. I had no idea that George and John didn't perform on the song.
-Bjorn

Thanks Bjorn - I would have loved to be part of any of the studio sessions!

On 11/21/2023 at 12:16 AM, John Vere said:

Great job as always. There are a lot of great Beatles songs that never were the big hit.

We cover The Things we Said Today.  People sort of remember it. I chose to play bass on it cause it’s the way to sing like Paul. 

Hi John - That's another great Beatle song - another one of my favorites.  Thanks for listening.

I like it, but I think you need to fix one note in that main run.  It happens first at 13 seconds.  Currently it is an E flat before the Cm run, but it needs to be a D.  

Hi, Thanks for listening.  I used a couple of Waves plugins on the bass, Maserati B72 and RBass.  Maserati treble at 1 o'clock and the other controls default.  Rbass intensity at 6.6 and gain at -3.  I think the Capitol Compressor on the master buss with the saturation also adds a lot to the bass.

Dave Overland sings on this one.  One of my favorite songs from the Revolver album.  I used the Capitol Compressor on the mix buss - what a great plugin - the saturation knob does wonders I think.  I also sent vocals to the ReelADT plugin from waves and the Hitsville reverb chambers from UA.

https://baselines.com/?p=6931

On 10/25/2023 at 1:51 PM, Wookiee said:

Nice mix as ever Steve works on the cans.

Regarding you notes on the conflict, I thought the conflict went back little further to when that old chap Moses came over the hill and said hey guys this is the promised land, pointing down to the land occupied by the Palestine's, I may be wrong.

Thanks Wookiee - you are probably right - or maybe even before that!

Steve

10 hours ago, treesha said:

Hi Steve, thank you for listening and your feedback. I enjoy knowing about the background of posted songs so I usually say a bit about my songs, nice to know you appreciated it and that it enhanced your listening. Cool indeed! Glad you loved it. I'm going to refrain from making any hoe jokes 😁

The good sisters would approve of your restraint! 😄

Haven't heard this one in a good long while.  Everything is beautiful here from the vocal to the synth coming in, to the mandolin.  You truly captured the meaning of the original for sure.  Nice work!

Steve

2 hours ago, Ross Smithe said:

Really fabulous work on this Steve! Amazing performance, really enjoyed the listen 🎶🎶🎶🎶👍

Hi Ross - thank you for listening and also leaving your comment!

This is great Jack, I really like it.  Both the music and the lyrics and vocal tone fit perfectly.

10 hours ago, bjornpdx said:

Nicely done classical piece Steve.  Love the interplay of instruments and themes. The piano starting ~1:50 is outstanding.
Thanks for posting the article. They have a long convoluted history of conflict which will likely never be resolved.

-Bjorn

Thanks very much Bjorn - really appreciate it!

15 hours ago, freddy j said:

You must have fixed it --- I did not hear a pop!  This is indeed an impressive piece of music. The synopsis on the region was appreciated also.  I did have to go back a couple of time and listen to the music as I got distracted by the music.

It struck me as sad that for at least 6 millennium Europe and the mid-east have experienced wars.  In many of these times it has been among different factions of those who all worship the God of Abraham.  The unfortunate result of all these wars is that it is the average citizens, trying to make a living and survive,  who are the ones that suffer the most.  --Bless the peace makers--

Excellent music and historical summary.

 

Yes - rather than go back in and fix/remaster, I just used RX10 - I thought maybe it would do damage somewhere else in the song, but it seemed to work out well with the de-click module.

The thought of all those poor 'normal' people (throughout the world) that are affected by war without having any involvement in it at all really just makes me sick.  In the US, I think people lose sight of how great they actually have it - even on awful days we don't even come close to what those people are going through - and it's not their fault!

Awesome!  I love this style.  Over the past month or so, I watched a few of those YouTube videos about Kensington - I knew things were bad these days, but had no idea how far we had fallen.  Great lyrics and I love the music changes when the 'She didn't even get to say goodbye,' part started.  Great job!

That's a great intro piano, and the vocals fit right in the mix - I got a little Mark Cohn vibe.  Great lyrics...and of course cello when used correctly as it is here is always just the coolest instrument ever.