bats brew

thanks nigel! guitars were really fun on this, once i had the tones i wanted dialed in, it just kinda flowed.

Yea, links to my album are on the song links

HA! lost art, i agree... for me, it's always been about 'the album', not the singles. but hey, that's me. when i sit down to program an album song sequence, it's a long process, a lot of thought goes into it. hopefully, when someone actually sits and listens to 'the album', they get a better experience for it. hopefully! thanks john

that is phuckin' ugly.

hey mark! thanks man, yea, the wah at the end, that felt pretty natural. i usually don't walk up to the wah and say 'i'm going to use you now...', i kind of mindlessly walk to the pedalboard and suddenly i'm on it, so i don't use it unless that willful mindlessness takes over. now, i never use reverb for anything, unless the production calls for it. as a rule, i don't ever think about reverb. if i can make a good mix without reverb, i will. i'm ok with using delays, more than reverb. now, if i wanted to push something BACK in a mix, i'd use verb, but not to pull it forward. that kinda goes against the verb laws. LOL but yes, as a 'producer', i listen to my mixes that are dense, and work for clarity and a 'hand in glove' approach with parts vs volume vs panning vs arrangement, with 'arrangement' being the most important element.

hey andy.. stormbringer hadn't thought about that album in quite a while.... i liked burn so much, loved the dual lead vocals...hard to believe that was way back in 1974!! According to Glenn Hughes, the slurred gibberish that is spoken by Coverdale at the beginning of the title track just prior to the first verse is the same backwards dialogue that Linda Blair's character utters in the film The Exorcist, when she is questioned by the priest. LOL Lady Double Dealer, soldier of fortune , the gypsy, all really good tunes. another amazing album by Martin Birch.

hey andy! i loved purple, growing up, it was all about trying to learn the ritchie riffs! but, after i did all that, it was really the GROOVES that kept me coming back... so yea, purple, would be an influence, rhythm guitar is where this song lives, for sure. but since there's no keys on this, and very little jazzy drums, and quick turnaround, i don't hear the purple directly... it's quite interesting, what different people hear when listening to new music, i think it's fascinating.. i appreciate your sharing that!

THANKS JACK!

thanks for those kind words larry yea, i dig wilson's stuff, the solo and the tree

Headin' EastWest https://batsbrew.bandcamp.com/track/headin-eastwest there is a little eastern intrigue happening in this slow heavy rock tune. It is a hopeful feeling song about taking journeys, long sojourns, to places you’ve never been before, and hoping for the best outcomes. You don’t need to know exactly what direction you are going, only that you are going. Could be east, could be west.

occasionally i'll try a stereo widening plug, i have waves S1, and it works quite well... but usually , by the end of the mix session, i'll take it back off, and 9 times out of 10, i'll leave it off. it seems to mess with the proper imaging of everything else...and i've had too many folks complain about super wide imaging in headphones, and you typically wont hear it anyway in a proper playback system, unless you're standing dead center of a triangle setup.

i master using several Waves plugs; L3 H-comp G-series SSL master comp Pultec EQP-1A F6 dynamic EQ ii don't use them all at the same time, the L3 is the only one used as brickwall at end of chain for all masters. sometimes i'll use a native EQ, but typically, the mixes are ready before mastering, so very little is done for EQ and Compression at the mastering stage.

HI JEFF! thanks for the comments, tho i don't think any organ is going to make it into the mix here....

john, i like hard panning, if the parts are either dead on, or completely sympatico. but yea, sometimes panning inwards makes more sense. or, taking a stereo track, and slightly panning it out of center as well. you weight one side or the other with it. works great.

hi Nigel! thanks for listening, i know from listening to your stuff, you are a stickler for both sounds and arrangements, this was my attempt at trying to nail both, plus it was an inspired performance on my part, i was really feeling it! i used my good ole usacg strat for this one:

yea, always go to the source!

stereo speakers were never designed as a 'reference monitor'. the whole point of mastering your songs, is to get them to translate over the majority of systems. if you are starting out referencing using speakers that were designed to tweak your sound to begin with, then you are chasing your tail. there's nothing wrong with listening to your mix thru stereo speakers, but it will not tell you what you need to know. you will realize this fully, the next time you play your songs that were deteremined thru home stereo speakers, on someone else's home stereo speakers by a different manufacturer. been there, done that.

hi mark! thank you for listening to this one in particular, it's an important piece for me. yea, lots going on, but i tried to mix it more like a soundtrack.. so things come and go into focus, without being too obvious. tho i work in studio one now, once upon a time, i was a pure SONAR user... made it up to version 6, and held onto that well into the x1 period... i was building a DAW right when sonar went T!TS up~!~ what timing.... without any other options at the time, i turned to studio one, just because it seemed the closest in my work style to sonar. so, pretty much every move i learned, about mixing in the box, came from this forum, and from SONAR as a DAW... and i still feel like a member here, so i post here, in hopes that anyone who is into mixing (everybody here) might learn something, or ask something, or enjoy something. this one's no different, and the fact that you can hear the grounding of the parts, in spite of business in places, is one of the things i learned here at this forum, about panning, verb, depth, and height, and i'm glad you did hear those things, they were the hardest things to attain in this mix.

thank you eric! hey wookiee, this was a real cool experience tracking this one... using a new effects device, is always fun, especially if you find something cool you were not looking for!

thanks so much john, i'm glad you enjoy my stuff. i'm sure i've stolen more than half my ideas from bits and pieces of stuff i've heard over my entire life... sit com theme songs, dittys in the elevator, stuff i'm more familiar with, i can avoid (i'm not going to write another stairway to heaven!) LOL the Wah pedal, was my very first effects unit. i used to play along with all of 'electric ladyland' and tried to copy every hendrix wah riff i could.... so yea, wah's my thing, but i'm keen to not over use it. the ending, used a lovely little plugin that i just dig completely, it's the Valhalla Super Massive. great free plug. all of valhalla's stuff is really good.

hi david!! i grew up in NOLA as a kid, but have lived in slc for 22 years now. rush, would def be an influence in the long run, but locked in with covid was the influence on this one! heheh

THANKS JACK! appreciate it wishing peace for Ukraine.

nice tight arrangement... great performances, dig the vox. i like how the vibe is maintained thru the entire piece the lowest low end seems to be too light for this mix, if the mix is too hot, does utoob turn it down/compress it? it's hard to tell with streaming services, to make any real suggestions about mix or mastering...