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"The Serenity of Distractions" - ambient, jazz funk?


PhonoBrainer

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I really liked this piece,  but very candidly,  I loved the intro part so much I wished that the piece stayed with those instruments instead of going somewhere completely different. It felt like two very separate pieces of music.  

Edited by PavlovsCat
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On 1/31/2022 at 4:42 AM, Wookiee said:

@PhonoBrainer I have to confess Tom I am not a fan of pseudo vinyl noise, it irritates the { insert expletive of your own personal choice here } sorry.

The opening piano is cool and does not need a supporting act of scratchy noise, just my own personal furry opinion. As for the rest of the song when the bass kicks in nice groove you have going on that bass, sounds like it might have a bit of dirty Wurli supporting it? Are the horns to in the face not for me the sound OK here on the Adam's

hi also @AndyB01!

 

I appreciate the song thoughts and here's what I did - I dutifully took your advice on board about hating the vinyl crackle thing, I was not married to it - so I opened up Omnisphere and spent an hour going through presets, grains, noises, pads, hisses, then went through my file collection for sound effects, then opened up a few Output plugins and looked for whooshes and such. It was alas a fruitless search so I kept the abhorrent crackles, having no other option other than simple city traffic noise, which I thought might be overly cliche to start the song with.

But I do feel this fruitless process at least put me in mind to use the also-cliche crackles a bit more sparingly in future efforts, because yes they can get annoying. thanks both of you for the observation . . .

 

cheers, my musical friends,

-Tom

 

 

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On 2/10/2022 at 3:04 PM, PavlovsCat said:

I really liked this piece,  but very candidly,  I loved the intro part so much I wished that the piece stayed with those instruments instead of going somewhere completely different. It felt like two very separate pieces of music.  

this is a totally legit comment, I think it could go either way. thanks for the listen!

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On 2/10/2022 at 10:08 AM, steve@baselines.com said:

Absolutely professional and fun, both audio and video - I didn't hear anything wrong with the mix at all.  Is that a real bass?  If so is it a fretless?  Totally blown away by this.  Great.

Hi Steve! I was emulating a fretless bass with a patch from Dune 3, primarily, mixed in with a bit of ABJ jazz bass in spots. So glad you liked it, and thanks for the comment!

 

On 2/10/2022 at 7:47 AM, Douglas Kirby said:

Wow - that's quite a production - not just the music but the video as well. Quite creative all around.

The horns sounded fine through my cans - they added to the excitement of the listening experience, so I think they are spot-on.

Thanks Douglas! Glad you dug it, and in the end I chickened out and dropped the horn leads 1db just so as not to kill anyone's hearing. Many thanks for the thoughts and the listen!

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On 1/31/2022 at 5:14 PM, Lynn Wilson said:

Stellar music and a stunning video!  Your take on the video is right on!  Once upon a time, I used to be in a horn band, so the volume of the horns were about right for me.  Do you mind if I borrow this song as a template for mixing?  When I hear how pristine your mixes are, I start to understand what you are telling me about mine.  Please, Phobra, keep writing masterpieces like this.  

Well Lynn, truly kind of you! I just ruthlessly carve away anything below say 400hz if it's not a bass instrument, and often suck "350hz out of most of the bass tracks (like bass guit, piano, kick) because things usually sound better with a big hole in them, around 300-350 hz. You can always add it back. Other than that, I've got nuttin'. Appreciate the comment and the listen, thanks!

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On 2/3/2022 at 9:22 AM, Larry T. said:

awesome music....totally engaging video....notes while enjoying: great electric piano intro....finally, maraca's!!, i love maraca's....nice clavinet, wasn't expecting that at all but fits perfectly....great horns, maybe down a dB or so....nice drum entrance....nice riffing on synth....great entrance by trumpet....and they all come together at the end....the serenity of distractions, indeed!!!! 👍👌🎶🔊

 

 very cool comments, yes I agree the horns down a tad, and that clav was a fun add for sure. I appreciate the listen and the thoughts, thanks!

On 2/1/2022 at 6:14 AM, Makke said:

Excellent composition. Well done structure and arrangement.
Nice groove  and mix. Sounds good.

thanks, Makke! I did sweat the structure of this and it went through more than a few revisions - thanks!

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On 2/3/2022 at 9:25 AM, garybrun said:

Hi Tom.
I missed this one.

I always look forward to your productions as I learn a lot from them.

Your use of panning, delay, and use of eq is amazing to my ears and I make note of the subtleties to add to my learning skills.
Do you use automation?  You just have a liveliness to your mixes.
I'm experimenting with automation now.. but it gets pretty hot on the mix buss quickly.. so I drop the automation I have done about 10% and that puts it back in the ball park again.

Thanks for sharing.

Gary

Nice, Gary, thanks so much! Do I use automation? Yes, on every. single. track. I'm always doing volume automation, pulling things forward, pushing them back down. 

You know how you can have a 160 bar song, and let's say a track of tambourine or whatever that only plays for eight bars? I always automate the volume of those tracks completely down to zero if there is no information coming from them. Something about a bunch of empty tracks adding whatever preamp noise into your mix - I don't know if it's a real thing but if I get rid of all "empty" volumes, I think the noise floor goes way down on the whole piece. Did that make any sense? Probably not, just a ramble then!

I also mix directly into the "mastering" plugins on the main bus, so any adjustments in tracks can have the overall effect judged immediately at the master bus. I know that's a crime in the minds of better mixers than me!

many thanks again, I sure appreciate the encouragement! cheers! and I hope you are receiving good news on the issue you shared recently . . .

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