bats brew

hi wookiee! furry lugs, funny.... pretty furry.... you'll have to buy the album to hear the 'finalised' version!! ;heheh

howdy chappel! thanks for listening.... steve morse, now THERE is a name to drop! heheh, i've seen steve play live many many times, have always been a big fan since even before the 1st dregs album was released. wouldn't call him an influence, but i love his music.

hi lynn! thanks for listening, and glad you liked this one! low volume, check.... i don't think i've done that with any of the 10 tunes, thanks for reminding me of due diligence!! heh i think, if you crank this song up thru a full range system, you will be shocked at how much low end there is in the mix. i MAY have to put a plug, like MaxxBass, on the keyboard bus just to see if i can tweak up the feel of the low end for low volume listening. truth be told: i don't care if anyone EVER listens to my stuff at low volume!! heheh, not how it was mixed.

hey douglas! yep, imagine a cool, crisp, sunny early morning in spring... that's kinda what i was going for. i'm still tweaking the mix, trying to find the right balance between the acoustic rhythms and the electric rhythms. i bring them up and down throughout at different times, to build and relax, but didn't have it dialed in on this mix.

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/spring-morning-demo-eq this is my 9th demo i've posted, will move into final mix this weekend. i really don't know how to categorize this one... any ideas? it's a melodic idea i've had for 20 years, finally put it down on virtual tape. love to get some feedback on the mix and balance of freq's.

hi andy! thanks man, appreciate the kind words. this is going to be a great album, if i may say so myself... i think it will be a fun listen.

HI DOUGLAS! thanks for the kudos on the drum tracks, i spend a fair amount of time writing those.

thanks man............ ha! insignificant, indeed! i'll tell you the story behind this one... in west virginia, there is a river called the Gauley river. the upper gauley has white water rapids that are world class. High volume, only runs in september and october, because it's an earthen dam release. Class III to Class V. you need to be experienced to do this river, the consequences are anything but insignificant. so the wifey and I did the Gauley some years back, and we had a guide, who went by the name 'gonzo'. she was very experienced, a good guide. there is a section of white water with a Class V rapid called 'Insignificant', and this particular rapid requires an extremely aggressive approach; there is a 'hyrdraulic' at the beginning that is basically a great big hole and it wants to suck your raft down in it....if you don't have the speed up, you can fold the raft. we had 2 couples that were completely inexperienced in the raft, who had lied about their ability level. when it came time to charge the rapid, their pulling (hard rowing) fell apart, and the next thing i knew, we lost both the guide, and my wife, down into the hole as the raft bent in half... i had my feet wedged proper, so i could immediately bend over the side and reach down in the water, i found one set of floatation gear straps; it was the guide. my wife had gone down into the hole, about 15 feet deep, and didn't come up until she was spit out about 12 yards down stream. again, this is a Class V rapid, one you do not want to swim. but swim it she did. and did NOT lose her paddle!! which was heroic on it's own... i pulled the guide into the raft, and she immediately swung the raft backwards, and we headed after my wife as fast as we could. the guide did everything in her power to catch up, and we did, but by then the rapid was done. Wifey was fine, just a bit spooked, and the guide read the riot act to the 4 people who did not paddle and follow directions, so it was a weird situation... but the guide, my wife and i more or less bonded over this precarious situation, and we ended have a great time for the rest of the trip (several hours). this song, is a sonic representation of how wild, and at the same time, mellow, this experience was. when i wrote it, i had mapped out the song in chronological time, to match the time we prepared when we got there, the put-in, the first few rapids, then the approach to Insignificant, then the raft collapse and the ride thru the rapid, the chase to get her back, the big sigh of relief, the re-grouping of the raft team, finishing the rapids and the time afterwards to reflect. so each change of the arrangement is basically telling the story as i told it above.

alright furry paw man, thanks for the comments.. yea, this album, perfect for a road trip. i mean, it will work that way, from beginning to end, that's how i hope people will listen to it.

so this recording, in fact, almost all the songs that will be on this new album, have been recorded using my new Strymon Iridium pedal. most of the tracks are direct, trying out new IR's, but some of the tracks are the iridium with IR's bypassed, directly into my Mesa Boogie Mark 2b, miced up old school, and blended with the direct tracks of the Iridium.

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/insignificant2 this is the 2nd final mix i've posted, of 10 current tunes slated for a new instrumental 'bats brew' release. would love some feedback on it, before i commit it.

hey wook! slick and greasy, YEA!!! heheh, "say bud, how do you describe your music?" "Well, i always say, SLICK AND GREASY!" ? THANKS WOOK, i'm claiming that one. the snare, yes, the snares.... i have about 30 snares to chose from, and i have it narrowed down to about 6 that i really like, this being one of them (i don't remember which one it is, now...i'm using different snares on each song) there are so many parameter to mix with superior drummer, that can dial in (or out) a snare... sometimes, i know i can't chose the 'perfect' snare, and i roll with what i have. snares are about the most personal piece of kit that there is, i think... moreso than guitars, or keys, or most any other instrument. i may try another snare or two before i output the final mix, so if i find a different one that i think it THAT much better, i'll post the mix before i roll with it. i appreciate the feedback

hi paul! just so glad you found the word....'transparent', yea, i guess that is a thing i look for while mixing, finding ways by either eq carving or panning, levels, etc, to make everything have it's own sonic space. glad you dig it, thanks for listening AND commenting!

hi douglas! glad you like the drum track, i spent quite a bit of time on it getting it right... really, boiling it DOWN, from where it started. lead guitar up, check. the idea of the level of the lead, where it is, is to NOT make it stand out so much, and make it more a melodic part of the whole band playing along... it's tricky, to make the call, where something can obviously be louder to be featured, but yet want to draw the listener INWARDS, and not hit them over the head with a solo instrument. i'm learning....restraint. LOL thanks for the comments, i'll be re-visiting the solo guitar levels...

guitar recording setup for "center of everywhere" 3 options: direct with the Iridium; dual path with iridium direct on left, right output to mesa boogie FX loop and out of mesa and speaker cabs using iridium as the preamp/amp signal (either miced cab, or line level via a Palmer PDI-09); and iridium straight into boogie and miced up typical. this recording uses all three mixed together.

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/centre-of-everywhere final mix #1 for the new album this is a rock instrumental, and i have no idea how to classify it. i would just call it rock. do you guys here any mix issues? this has been mastered, so it is kind of the "Template" for the other 9 songs that will go on the album.

ok this one's lost it's steam, moving on to the next one.

1 bump before its gone

hello wookiee! easy groove, yes, it's almost 'boring' compared to my normal stuff, but for this song, it had to be totally in the pocket. thanks for listening!

hey freddy!! yea, stax!! if i had some buddies that had horns, it'd be a neat experiment to strip out a bunch of the guitars, and put horn parts in there ala Exile on Main street.... maybe i'll DO THAT, with a lyric version of this song later. this recording features the use of the Strymon Iridium modeler, but a few of the solo tracks were actually the modeler used as a preamp into my mesa boogie mark amp. miced up, etc. there are a LOT of tones in this one. i should have called it 'frankenstein', but that name has been previously used. LOL

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/memphis-honky-tonk-1 kind of a cruisin' song. this is my 9th demo i've posted, working on a 10-song instrumental album, my first all instrumental. looking for any issues i've missed, 1st impressions, or other. thanks.

hey wookiee! a straight up song format, with lyrics! heheh, you should do more of these, the length is perfect, and could easily be attached to a longer instrumental piece. the guitar sound is very similar to tones from early genesis, i clue in on the straight notes with no vibrato. the snare could take a bigger verb or room sound, but not too obvious. this one is good to go, basically, thanks for sharing that.

ok, this one's gone now, i'll move onto the next one

Updated version of this mix: https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/hdn-eastwest3-eq changed a few things, kick level and eq re-tuned snare and bottom mic mix bass eq rhythm guitars punchier lead tones smoother spitballin' here

yea, i like that snare too. i'm using a bunch of different snares on the 10 different songs, but i may switch a couple out to this one.