PhonoBrainer

The Best Deal would be to have Larry back.

She could be married to a guy named Paris.

Breaking Free could be . . . elimination of gear credits and jam points, and just putting a simple single price on their items?

https://www.uvi.net/store Thru July 19th

sorry double post

Someone talk me out of c2 or mb compressors.

I thought your mix held up quite well and the second half of the song was more on the EDM side, kind of felt like a bit of a wait to get there tbh. But while you are waiting, here's the silhouettes. So all good. nice one! cheers, -Tom

I think I heard this before? This mix has a lot of "tension" in it which makes for a good listen. Was that an organ or oboe that came in in the middle? Nice tone on that. I hope God had a breath mint. cheers, -Tom

Huuuuge Knopfler fan here! Your guitars are credible - I'd say your vocal needs to be more prominent in the mix, and maybe processed with a goal of adding some weight or heft to the vocal - like a multiband compressor primarily working on some lower frequencies? Just a thought. Maybe the vocal could be doubled? It's got some cool interpretations and inflections in your performance. A blast from the past, nice job, thanks! cheers, -Tom

Hey nice one, held the interest! I noticed you used Heartbeat, and while the machine-gun snare in your song was the only thing I didn't really dig asmuch, I was wondering how you found using Heartbeat in general? I've looked it over a little . . . Loved the composition. cheers, -Tom

This was me as well, for my first years playing in the early 90s I was lugging two JBL 15's with a dedicated Crown amp, just so I could play gigs in stereo. Beautiful, digital piano of the early 90's in stereo. Gaaaaack. Of course for the cheesy early 90's organ patch, I had a Motion Sound real fake rotating horn Leslie simulator, which I stereo mic'ed and fed to the P.A.. Truly not even mildly authentic. The good news is, whenever you wake up and realize that playing keys in stereo at gigs is truly stupid and pointless, you at least by then have a decent stereo P.A. to play mono in.

The lead guitar tone is very listenable, and your choices of where the melody goes have a lot of feel, so both give this tune a great start. I liked the sax as well, and the piano throughout supports everything! I think you moved the piano to the edges, to make room for the featured stuff in the center? It works! Maybe you could focus on drying the drums up a little, or making them more present in the mix somehow? The combo of the snare and ride cymbal having a sssssst sound, in addition to the string pad which seems to filter in and out with fizzyness, might be creating some washiness that I think distracts from your excellent leads and other elements. Just a thought fwiw. What do you have as a filter on those pads? I really liked it! cheers, -Tom

@Douglas Kirby - thanks for the listen and glad you liked the video as well! The video took a while with the edits . . . @David Sprouse- thanks, that's a good idea with a female vocalist, but my wife is territorial and sings like a hinge. @jwnicholson78- very glad you liked it, many thanks!

For me the vibe was Simple Minds! Very pro production, those drums especially really breathe in the mix. Killer vocals! I found the video a bit random at times but I guess you bring your interpretations to the party. loved it! cheers, -Tom

Was this one posted before? Great tune and I can't think of any mix things except the bass guitar seems to fill up a bit much of the bottom, maybe try cutting a dip out of the bass guit somewhere, does the bottom breathe more? Great voice, great guitars, great song! cheers, -Tom

Well it's a hooky tune, and the bass and drums keep the pulse and rhythm going well. Maybe a bit less flange on the hi-hat/cymbals, and I'd say the now-infamous "guitar on the left" is more of a problem in the verses than it is in the chorus. Prolly just dial back the distortion? The piano sounds like it's in a much drier space than the drums? I think you might find mixing this a more cohesive experience if you dried the drums up to match other elements - but the drums really aren't drenched to begin with. Just an observation, might be worth a look. Cool lyrics and lead vocal? I'm not sure about the high harmony part, or high unison. The strongest part was the outtro - that thing was groovin. The weakest part imho was the too long intro build. You might stick the outtro on the front, and have that be your intro? Crazy ideas, I got 'em! cheers, nice work! -Tom

I liked it, a good old pop song. That spanky Strat guitar sounded great as the bones of the funk. Mixwise, maybe more snap on the snare, your snare has mostly fizz which is ok. Maybe layer the snare with a clap or something? Cool, I didn't know that was "the Swedish trick" cheers, -Tom

That was a super pleasant tour. You are a good photographer, nice original content! Are the boats up on the dock because a tidal surge was coming, or is that the usual? cheers, -Tom

Gary, thanks! Exactly the specific feedback I need! Much appreciated, I'll track down those issues.

Some changes, better bass, better horn section (I think?) and fixed some video sync problems! Many thanks for the helpful feedback! - I would sincerely take on board any critiques, especially the mix - help me make this better? Please bump the settings up to 1440p if your connection can manage? There is a Bandcamp or Soundcloud link below the video if you don't need the visuals. thanks! -Tom https://phonobrainer.bandcamp.com/track/for-the-masses

What a great vocal! Very hooky like a classic '70's piece. The drums and bass I think sit perfectly, maybe the drum fills up a bit when they happen. I agree, the lead guitar section was too thick and needed to breathe more with some added upper frequency eq, as a starter. That chorus is great, love the background vocals mixed subtly with an organ? And the claps on the snare hits on 2 and 4! Super cool chorus. cheers, -Tom

Killer composition. It evokes the title very well. I think you could play more with the mixing, which is actually harder to do (I think) on this type of classical/new age/ambient stuff, than the rock and roll mixes where errors have plenty of room to hide. One idea, when the tin whistle comes in about half way through, there is an airy sub-rumble that comes in with it . . . hear that mud down low? High Pass filter that stuff and rumble begone! "Airy sub-rumble", I just realized, makes no sense at all. But can you hear it? Just curious. Mixing a piece like this is brutally unforgiving, because the mixing errors absolutely pop out of the spaces between. What fun! Your piece is excellent and I look forward to hearing how your bring it along! Totally worth the effort! cheers, -Tom

I very much enjoyed this normal piece, and count me in for those who want vocals and lyrics, even heavily processed vocals, or interesting spoken word snippets. It works as is, of course! cheers, -Tom

Very glad I had headphones on! A great compilation composition . . . you may have intended it, to me the mix tilts towards the lower eq regions, some of those bassy pads are filling up the low end nicely, but I'm missing some brightness in this I think. Could be the headphones perhaps? Love the journey, the "world music meets the outer world" vibe . . .very groovy indeed! cheers, -Tom