X-53mph

One more nail in the coffin....

Thanks for the listen Lynn. It was quite weird that I had forgotten how I came to write the lyrics....until I read Paco's obituary....then it all came flooding back. Funny how memory works (or doesn't) like that.

I seem to remember that when I was a member of Taxi (now there is a money pit) I had Master Writer and quite liked it. Back then it was a stand alone program.

This was not the song I was expecting from the title. Great song, I really like it. I might change the title if I were releasing it to something that sounds less like a threat. I really like the writing and performance, but I also totally agree with what has been said about the drums. That busy Kick drum doesn't work well at the beginning. Perhaps if it got gradually kickier during the mix, rather than from the get-go, building up to those double kicks. Are you going to rework this?

Did you ever hear the story about a famous indie band who sent out their latest release to John Peel and he put it on the record player at the wrong speed....and simply loved it? So the band re-released the single sped up and had a hit on their hands.

Personally, I just cannot get enough of watching kids on TwikTwok in their bedrooms tapping pads like Tourette patients playing a demented game of Hasbro Simon I'll leave it up to you guys to decide whether I'm being sarcastic or not.

News of the passing of Paco Rabanne reminded me that it was the eccentric designer who inspired this early track entitled MIR (now added to the Drunken Eyes EP). https://53mph.bandcamp.com/track/mir-4 Back in 1999, the lyrics were inspired by Paco Rabanne and his predictions in Fire From Heaven that the Russian MIR space station would come crashing to earth, destroying Paris, based on his readings of Nostradamus. I ran with this image and went where it led me creating an apocalyptic chain of events. I've got to pay my tributes to Paco for inspiring me (in ways he never intended). The recording is what it is; this was done in the early days of 4 track demos. I recorded the drums with 2 mics in a rehearsal room in Archway, London, playing along to an acoustic guitar track booming out over the PA. There was a lot of bleed and timing issues. It's amazing I was able to get it to this state. But despite all the imperfections, I kind of love the energy of these early demos - back when I was unafraid to fail.

Yep. Broken link.

@mark skinner thank you so much! The lead vocal was done with the old recording technique that Elliott Smith used, double tracking the vocals (sometimes layering them) and using some fine tuning/editing to avoid strange phasing. A friend in NY also gave me some tips in using pitch-shifted vocals to subtly lift my baritone voice. I worked on the outro and mid-section a lot, so I'm pleased it works. @Jesse Screed I'm playing almost everything on there, except for the main drums. I do play the percussion drums though which are a mixture of body hits, cajon drums, and shakers. I don't have a drum kit, so I've gotta fake it somehow. And, yes, this mix was done in response to the muddiness of the first mix. I listen to every piece of advise that people offer me and try to improve where I can. This mix has now gone to radio stations and to streaming services. Thanks everyone. ❤️

Mini Tool Partition Wizard. It's has a function that will look for errors on the drive and repair them automatically. And best of all, it's free.

@fossile thank you for the help. Luckily I was able to revive the drive using a disk partition tool. It seems the directory had become corrupted and just needed rebuilding. Luckily no data seems to have been lost. I then spent 2 days backing everything up onto 2 extra external drives. I've had problems with the power cable in the past. I had to splice some cables in that case. Cheers

If you're considering a tablet/laptop, look into a surface pro. There's a great site where a guy takes you through the setup and tweaking to get the best performance. http://surfaceproaudio.com/

Has anyone mentioned Faith No More yet? They went massive after the original founder/singer left and was replaced with Mike Patton.

In my experience (which is limited), it's not what you've got - it's how you use it. I know guys who can do wonders with nothing but EQ. I agree with @SuperFreq that Cakewalk Sonar VintageChannel V64 can do some pretty impressive stuff (if used right). I will reveal that there are two plugins that always seem to end up in my FX chains. Nembrini LoFi Vintage Clipper and Slate Digital Fresh Air. They both do different things, but very well.

Updated radio-friendly version of track in the first post. All and any feedback appreciated. Thanks

I appreciate everyone's input on this. It's great to get an extra set of ears, and I'm trying to incorporate all the changes into the mixes without losing sight of what I wanted to achieve in the first mix. We are now up to version 16.5 (see original post). I've tried to make the "No-one'll believe..." line more prominent. There are about 10 voices in that line, all with their own eq settings, so it's a balancing act to get it sitting nicely. I hope I've achieved it in this mix and not over-cooked it. @noynekker @mark skinner @Larry T. Thank you for your encouragement. Really appreciate it.

I've added a bit of side-chaining to some of the instruments so they pull back a bit. Toned down some of the EQs to allow other frequencies in and tried to allow the strings to cut through a bit more at the end. I hope it hits the right spots. Mix No 16 is above in the fist post. @FreeEarCandy I tend to mix everything full on - wall of sound - and it's become my preferred mixing style, like some of Elliott Smith's tracks. I know it's not a 'pro' sound, but I'm not sure I really like the sound of a lot of Pro mixes. I find them 'castrated' - empty and clinical. I like music to force me into corners and occasionally make me feel uncomfortable. Not being snobby about it, just how I feel.

I'll be giving this a read tonight. Thanks for the link.

I've added an updated version above in the first post.

Thanks everyone for the advice and input. Jesse, yes that is me playing the piano. I'm a traditionalist in that I refuse to make any music that I'm unable to play with my own hands, so I never use guitar or piano samples. I even play most of the drums myself. I'll sit down and write out the lyrics soon, then I'll post them for you. Originally there were a lot more lyrics to this song, but I've been cutting it back to get to the sound i want. @Larry T. Thanks for the mixing advice. I'll give it a try and see if I like the end result. I'm not a big fan of reverb myself, but occasionally, I like to use it for atmosphere.

I think you need to pay for the data recovery option. But if it's an emergency, I think you can get a free trial, which might give you a window of opportunity to recover your files.

Ok, this is not so much a deal, because it's free, but I just want to sing my praises for this free software. I don't know how many times it's saved me. This week my WD Book Studio drive just stopped working. I thought I was going to have to shell out for data recovery, but this little tool has got the drive working again.....so now I'm copying all those sessions over to other drivers like crazy, before something goes wrong with it again.

My WD My Book Studio has suddenly stopped working. It contains ALL my backups of sessions (yeah I know. More fool me). Does anyone know how to recover lost data? Any advice would be warmly welcomed. 🙏😢

If you need to rebalance an already mixed track, izotope Ozone has an option that is very easy to use. Another far cheaper option than either ozone or spectral layers is Acon Acoustica. It has a very effective rebalancing feature, plus many of the features that special layers has, at half the price. https://acondigital.com/products/acoustica-audio-editor/ This has become my substitute for an old copy of Cool Edit Pro 2 that I used for those quick audio editing jobs that don't require CbB. Acoustica loads up in a second, is super fast at rendering and is not a CPU hog. I really recommend checking it out.

I seem to remember using the Antares Throat plugin way back in the 1990s or early 2000s. It was cool as hell back then because you could shape the sound of your voice to make it more husky or breathy. I don't know if I'd bother using it these days as there are so many other plugins that do the same or similar. Has anyone given it a try yet?