bats brew

you have been deleted.

i've had one burning at the top of my neighborhood for almost 2 weeks now... 60 acres, and 200 fire fighters working in the most steep and untouchable terrain possible, and they still only have it 35% contained. lightning hit a tree (dry lightning, never even saw or heard it), and it's like kindling up there. we have not had one drop of rain since june 30 here.... since the threat to the super expensive houses at the top of the neighborhood is low, no evac plans issued yet. they are being patient. but i've been breathing toxic smoke fumes for over a month now, from washington and oregon, california, and now here (salt lake city) i don't think my lungs will ever recover, and i haven't been able to sing in a month.

yea, babies, they're a bit of a pain, eh?!

yes, organizing something new MIGHT be enough to make you use them more... get organized!

of course you do!! gentle stuff, sometimes benefits the greatest from 'coloring' from various compressors and limiters. do not use them for level: use them for color.

i've been mixing into a 2-bus compressor for 20 years. not going to stop now. but i think, even IF you leave a ton of headroom for mastering, and your intent is ONLY to get your mix louder.... once you put a limiter on, ANY limiter, it does change the frequency spectrum of almost any instrument or voice that touches that limiting. with that said, why not mix into a limiter set for just a db or two? just enough to get the limiter actually doing something. you know, after the 2-bus, maybe not even on the master bus itself (which is what i use for all tracks and sub busses to end up on, routing to the interface MAINS output (rme babyface pro)... the idea is, any decisions you make on highly dynamic tracks (hot vocals, snares, kicks) will already have a touch of the limiter effect doing 'some' of what is going to happen when you have it mastered... and then simply TAKE THE LIMITER OFF when you do your final bounce. then, when the ME puts their 'better' limiters on, you will still be in the ballpark of where it's going to end up after mastering?! why would this not work at MINIMIZING the effects of mastering limiting on your mix? no surprises?

ah, sundays..... a wide open day with nothing to do but..... frikin' everything!! LOL chores, yard, car, etc.... i said ***** it. i've been meaning to re-arrange my studio ever since i started on the 'elemental' project... but wanted to wait until that was finished, hate changing horses in the middle of the stream... NOW, granted, my studio is small, but stripped down and built for speed of production, for my own purposes... so, now that elemental is done (at the cd printers now...), i decided to take everything completely out of the room, and re-arrange it. i've got speaker cabs i'm not using anymore, a demeter isolation cabinet that is basically just a great big ship anchor, i've got my last set of monitors that i can't seem to bear to let go, i've got power amps i don't use, mic preamps i dont' use, just a bunch of collected crap!! so i boxed it all up, using the collection as my first serious bass trap (i cannot afford to properly treat my mix/track room, but i do have SOME treatments, including using IK Multimedia ARC room correction software, which really works well)... found a new position in the room to set the video and playback monitors, new positions for everything, basically everything now is a mirror image of what it was, as well as rotated 90 degrees in the room... wow, much better. i still have some excess low end coming off the monitors, because the wall behind them is hollow, and i'm in the middle of the long wall, instead of at the end of the room on the short wall, as before. the takeaway: yes, moving positions in any room changes the sound you hear, sometimes worse, sometimes better. but often times than not, cleaning house and getting rid of spider carcasses and dust and whatnot is worth the effort all by itself.

guess he's out of power..

been thru quite a few.... worst was Hugo. no water for 2 weeks.... and when we DID get it back, it tasted like pine sap. no electricity for 6 weeks. 6 weeks. i had a pignose amp and a bag full of batteries, thank god. 22 foot storm surge. yep, 22 feet. and i get 70 mph winds in my backyard! downhill from Mt. Olympus, it can get crazy. hang in there!

heheh thanks... took it down now. getting final mastering tonight

well thanks so much gary, glad you caught this one, focal trios, i'd love to move up to a pair of those, alas, i'm mixing on $200 speakers!! heheh

hi leadfoot! i'm glad you chill with this song, that was kinda the intent.... a tune that can make you reflective, or just space out on the tones, or think about becoming an astronaut!! LOL

hey douglas! thanks man, yea, i dig the acoustic stuff too, i do a lot of acoustic work, but folks mostly miss it.

heheh, hey tom, appreciate the listen and comments, thanks.

bjorn, rubber stamp, that's funny man... thanks..

hey allan, thanks for lisetning...i appreciate the kind words.

OH YEA BROTHER, send it my way.... i need a bit of distraction between mixing my new album and mastering it... batsbrew@gmail.com

hi wookiee, two listens, awesome!! heheh thanks man

the backing track sounds very similar to some tunes off of Bucketheads' album "Colma" dig the guitar overdubs... sometimes the pick sounds on multiple parts step on each other with the maracas, i think.. it only happens when everything piles up on each other. i dig those parts at that moment, but collectively it does't work, as there's too much info going on at one time. love the juxtaposition of the acoustic against the electric. i think the bass could come up a snidge. nice performances!

man, wookiee, you REALLY tripped out on this one... its the perfect soundtrack for hang gliding over the mountains, it needs a sailing guitar melody way above the slower sections...? but love the flute solo. that is bad @ss. what is the genesis of the mellotron samples on this one? they DO sound very reminiscent of the strawberry fields recordings, maybe not as wobbly....

thanks so much andy! you got the gist of the song, the journey. and didn't even mind the amateurish slide guitar!

i think this one is close! this will be one of the songs on the new bats brew album "Elemental".

really dig this one starise! i like the fuzz on top of all the acoustic stuff... nice mix, and i like the tempo you chose. it's got a lively step to it, even tho krakens can slow things down quite a bit. until you feel sullied and unusual. LOL

well, you don't have to do it that way. it's your choice, no one else's. always use your ears, not meters.

dig this cover! nailed all the parts! excellent effort here, my only issue is that the guitars all sound a bit fuzzy, and the overall level seems too hot, like it was mastered too hot. all issues that can be addressed in the mix... carlos alomar would be proud! ?