PhonoBrainer

EZ Like Sunday Morning?

A rap sample library? EZ Eazy-E? RIP, btw

Ok for expansion 2 I found a price mentioned. 199 euro. Translates to 219 USD. So again I don't know how this is in the deals section? But it's only me that really gives a rip, apparently! And the crickets I am hearing use roughly the same kinetic motions as a violinist 😵

Yeah I've looked but I can't find what the original price was.

Is this a sale? Or a virtual sale?

Yep the lyrics are pretty special and phrases well turned. The drums are fresh and lively. I can tell more on this is coming. What's the plan for the guitar? Sounds naked and could use just a bit of chorus shimmery something. Vocals are a treat. Could come up a bit in the mix perhaps. This dude has raw energy. The arrangement is nice and unpredictable, which I always like. cheers, -Tom

Hey welcome you rawk star. The highlight is that crisp guitar riffage which is an awesome performance for sure. Vocals I could hear Rik singing just peachy. Mixwise you might look at the drums, especially the hi hats, they have a bit of flange going on which I think you could do without. It could be the conversion to mp3 if that's what happened? Did you start with a .wav and upload to Soundcloud a 128kbps mp3? Or did you upload a full blown .wav to Soundcloud? It kind of sounds like you started with a 128 mp3 and then uploaded that to Soundcloud, which might have degraded the high end a bit. Wish I could sing like that. Welcome to the medium show! Looking forward to the opus, Magnum. cheers, -Tom

OK it's 80's all day and I love it. That percolating string triplet pad in the background was killer! The chorus is so bright and poppy and great. That lead synth right at the end of the chorus comes in early, just wonderful! The theme is dark as hell and imho the lyrics are so great with the bright upbeat vibe. I think the internet can handle it no problem. Mixwise I'd say you could let some of the bottom eq of the bass and kick back in. It's pretty tilted to the bright side. This is my favorite song today. cheers, -Tom

Wow. That thing grooves hard. Vocals up would be my only offering. Well done sir! -Tom

OK I bought this, and it's quite good but super complex for a beginner I would think. I previously have Zynaptiq's Adaptiverb, Intensity, and the freebie Subspace so perhaps I'm just a bit more adept at their weird nomenclature universe. The only way I got on with Unveil is by watching this video, at least twice, while playing with the demo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL9cRsF2IFA I tried Unveil at the task of reducing some annoying reverb on the Hollywood Pop Brass horns. They are excellent funky horns but, even with all their reverb turned off, there is still a high shiny ringy parking-garage reverb baked in. Unveil got rid of 80% of the 1-second tingy tail, and that's all you need to get the horns to sit much better in the mix. It is also fantastic on drying up drum tracks and old spoken word audio from some ancient movie. Nicely incorporates a bit of a graphic eq (in Zynaptiqspeak: "focus bias") so you can tell it to dry up just the frequencies you want to dry up. And it has a treble make-up add ("Presence") to put back whatever high end the processing took out. So it's kind of a multiband transient shaper but a lot deeper in the toolbox of usefulness dept. There - so I'm not that lazy after all ! This will be a good plugin and a good buy for some people but yes perhaps maybe for the upper level dark arts sort. cheers, -Tom

Does it actually work? Would it dry up a cinesamples brass or some other kontakt thing dripping with room? Does it just truncate a tail? Does it sound unnatural? Should I demo it? Am I too durned lazy?

Well, how perfectly boring. I can't tell you how many times I've heard of bands breaking up because of this. Even VH-1 "behind the music" wouldn't bother recycling this timeworn, threadbare trope of a narrative.

Friend of mine just shared this. I'm 8 years too late.

Sure hope they sampled it in 196k with ultra premium converters.

God those up front keyboards sound good! And the percolating bass!!! The vocals obviously have a different tambre but they work because of that. They are good. Hard for one guy to be Fagan, and Michael McDonald! So glad I listened. When the lead guitar comes in, it sits purrrrfectly in that excellent mix. Or, the song itself is just so well written, any deaf monkey could throw crap on the wall and it would still sound good. No, your mix is really really good and totally worthy. Very well done!!! Want a nit? The part at 1:19, and later in the song, that McDonald bgv note is a little loud for how abruptly it ends. cheers, -Tom

Dude I'd bring those Moonlight Sonata arpeggios up in the mix, they are fun!!! cheers, -Tom

1:27 the violin and the flute are competing pretty hard for mix space. It's undeniably a thoughtful composition, and not having ever heard the original, it's hard to compare your work to any original. But you do your usual job of equalling the thoughtfulness of the piece with the thoughtfulness of your mix. I'd give the violin a kudo, that was nicely brought out, very realistic. The ending was very nicely sustained and faded. Your Albinoni piece is forever in my playlist. cheers, -Tom

The Great Hi-Hat Controversy of 2020! The question is, if you hadn't mentioned it, would anyone have picked it out as an issue? I'd say probably yes. Good news, it's not sibilant, at least not that I can hear anyway. I'd drop them hi hats half a db during all vocal sections, and because it's just a bit too far panned right in my opinion, is it over 60%? . . .I dunno, just a guess there . . . it would stick out in the mix less if you swung it back to center a bit, maybe no more than 30% right. ??????? And you could always eq more low end off of them to make them less present. Put that in your hi hat and smoke it! 🥴 Did I forget anything??? Oh yeah, it's a great song, I love the positivity and the groove. And your vocals were wonderfully delivered. cheers, -Tom

you had me at "spacey rock" love it when the organ comes in. awesome vocals, awesome mix. those vocal "ahhhs" towards the end, nice! cheers, -Tom

I liked it, a cool Rick Springfield vibe. On the lead vocal where it's not doubled, I'd be tempted to sing another nearly identical take, get it tuned nicely, and then mix it in compressed and at a lower volume. I can hear you do this sort of thing elsewhere in the song. Mixwise I think the bass guitar and kick drum could come up a bit. fun listen! cheers, -Tom

Love that guitar riff. And the other one with the phaser (flanger?) Vocals egg-sell-int!!! Another great one from you. Mix-wise I'd suck away a lot of the boom from those drums, and rein in the bass guitar as well. cheers, -Tom

Drums are sooooo good. Overall quite the creepy vibe. I think you are using bgv's as pads, which works to a point. I'm feeling these don't really hold the center of the tune. I dunno, is some more powerful element missing? The guitars are pretty understated in the mix, until that lead guitar comes in, and that is really really nicely done! I might boost it as well. Opinions are like a$h wholes. Keep them clean! Your Youtube video only allowed me a max of 780 p and you might want to go for the whole 1080 enchurrito. Overall a pleasure to listen to, and I agree it has a theatrical quality, I could see Meatloaf giving it a go. A while ago. cheers, -Tom

Very lively, and would dig hearing it live! Have you ever had any of your excellent compositions performed? I bet that would be cool. The panning really helps in the mix. It reminds me, mood-wise, of Bach's Sinfonia to Cantata No. 29 which is a very good thing. That's one of my favorites. cheers, -Tom

I hope you left that quickly arpeggiated part to an arpeggiator. Doctor's orders! 🥳 It was very peaceful and kind of hypnotic. Is that beep beep beep towards the end some kind of hospital monitor? I'm glad you are back to the music, and keep 'em coming please! cheers, -Tom

The song itself is very original, thoughtful, and well put together. The vocal treatments give it a lot of edge. The lyrics are quite good. I like that chromatic dropdown in the verse? towards the end. Really cool choice there! I too thought of the drums, but I think they punch OK - the issue might be a kind of flat 2D quality to the drum kit overall. I don't hear much 3D space of those drums in a room. It might be something as simple as adding back in some of the high eq on that drum kit? Did you have a black raven or similar sitting on your shoulder as you recorded this? I bet you did. Nice birdie!!! cheers. -Tom