bats brew

hottie! heheh, i appreciate the 'candor', tom... just glad you dig my stuff. thanks!

hey jesse, thanks for the heads up on the link, it's fixed now. i don't think i use too much limiter, just enough to soak up the extra headroom, i always track very conservatively, but this particular album is the last album that i'll push to somewhat 'commercial' levels, i've made that decision. the stuff i'm working on now, will be quieter, but more dynamic. stats on this version/mix: Statistics for: 07 - Bats Brew - on your way.wav Number of Samples: 11888772 ----------------------------------------------- left right Peak value: -0.90 dB --- -0.90 dB Avg RMS: -12.10 dB --- -11.71 dB DR channel: 10.14 dB --- 9.90 dB ----------------------------------------------- Official DR value: DR10

hi andy! appreciate your comments... steve hackett, now THERE"s a name that doesn't get dropped very often! i like hackett. he did some good pure prog stuff. very melodic. thanks again!

this song is for all of those who battle with addiction, and want to win the battle against it. i have a friend, who is battling against addiction, he inspired this lyric. this is a groovy, slightly progressive tune, with a swing inside a straight time sig, and a heavier 2nd half. sounds way cool in the cans.

can't get it to play

hi wookiee! dig the soundscapes, your style is becoming more familiar to me... and of course, i hear guitar parts everywhere! LOL, tho they are not needed. i think this piece of the tune must be a transitional piece, to a 'bigger picture' piece... i'd love to hear one common melody, in the background, that plays thru the spacier parts, just to tie them all together.

hey wook! i knew what you meant, sorry for the confusion. you still rock even with all that hair. ? hi bjorn, glad you checked this one out then! i think i WILL take your suggestion, and do more of these! thanks for the comment hey daryl! thanks for listening, man, and the panning... you know, deciding how hard to pan things, and when to bring them in and out, has become 'active arrangements' to me, i've not been doing things this way for very long so i hope i'm getting it!

thanks so much andy! hey douglas! appreciate the comments, yea, i dig that shure ksm44, i picked mine up used, so it didn't hurt the wallet as bad as a new one. these days, with covid and all that, i don't think i'd be brave enough to buy a used one anymore! heheh thanks alot, steve, i appreciate the support on the SC and here.

right away, i like the low end in the acoustic, it sounds full, without being boomy. good capture. vocal performance is excellent. i think the drum track sounds good, but is a bit busy for the mellow quality, i think if you simply took out every other snare double hit,, that'd do it. there are too many in a row, and it's a bit distracting. but that's the only thing i'd change. excellent captures on the harmonica, and slide. great tune.

that warms my heart, starise. good places, yes. and yea, playing like this, is PRETTY EXPOSED! LOL, but i love the expressiveness of the acoustic guitar, it's a proper real sound. immediate, requires a bit of effort and focus. i like it!

hi wookiee, thanks for listening to this one, yea, it's gonna sound a bit like zep, just because it's acoustic and rock style, but honestly, i'm familiar with their entire catalog, and i can't find anything they've done that sounds like this, arrangement wise. definitely mine originally.

hey mark! glad your diggin' this one.... def not a 'strummer', tho i'm not sure exactly what inspired this particular approach. probably something like old dan fogelburg, or eagles, or sumptin' i have some older material off of previous albums that is in this style... probably not enough to put together for an entire album of mellow stuff, but i've been thinking about doing just that.

a hottie. heheh not what i think of when contemplating the term 'hottie'. ?

hi freddy! yea, softer tune, for sure... i write a LOT of this kind of stuff, but not much of it makes it's way to bats brew albums, maybe i should have a different band for more of that style of tune! glad your a fan! thanks!

that's a really nice thing to say, david! a lot of the tunes on my previous albums have been about less positive issues! but this one is pretty straight up. thanks for listening

hey java! thanks for the critique on the mix, this one would seem to be easy to mix on the surface of it all, but blending the 4 guitar parts required some eq carving, as to not get freq masking. took some trial and error passes before it seemed to be right. the bass was probably the hardest to decide on. it's funny, but on any given day......

thanks so much man... appreciate it.

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/lake-katherine this is a song off of my new album, called "The Wild Animals" it's a love song! ha! I used the Taylor 414 and Seagull Artist Mosiac seen in this photo: miced with a shure KSM44, pointed somewhere near the neck/body joint. vox with a ADK Hamburg. bass direct.

hi paul~! thanks for checking this tune out, i thought a few here, would really dig the spacier vibe.

damn freddy! thanks for the kind words man, appreciate it. this lyric, is pretty much a real dream i had, forgot it when i woke up, then re-dreamed it with a different ending!! LOL i'm actively working on slowing down meters on tunes right now... when i feel it's totally in the pocket, i slow it down just a few BPM more... seems to work out well.

hi starise! hey thanks for taking the journey, for me writing this kind of stuff, that is definitely the vibe i want to put across, and if you are in the right head space, i know it'll be a cool vibe. so thanks again, for listening, and commenting

HI andy! vocals should ALWAYS be in tune!!! LOL and without that danged new fangled contraption that takes a poor voice and makes it stellar!!! who knew!!!! heheh, ok, off of soap box for now. thanks for listening, man, yea, coming up with the right formula for dreamy and complex, aint easy! i had long lasting slow delays on the voices, just like you said, and after i lived with it for a while, it was too distracting for me, it took away from the tension i was building after the voices quit... seems like there is always a compromise to be met, maybe one day i'll nail the mix just right. means i gotta write some more spacey songs so i can experiment!

hey douglas! thanks man, glad you dig the vox, i work the hardest on the vox. i pretty much keep at each track til i get something that doesn't cause me to make that face that you get when you eat lemons. heheh

hey tom! yea, i just love that organ sound... i guess i must have spent the better part of an evening just trying different sounds... the vst i used had about 200 different sounds, so i had to learn what i liked best, by just grinding out several hours of demo'ing. i think it starts with a simple electric piano blended with a B3 organ sound...two keys at once. underneath there is a big horn kind of synth, playing real low, and then i bring the B3 sound in more dominant. then when the song starts, it's that pure electric piano blended with the hammond again, but put thru several distortion elements. makes it kinda spooky. the 'ahhh's' at the end, were actually there (conceptually) before i even started to record this.... in fact, maybe i wouldn't have done it if i HADN'T heard those silly aahhhhss. LOL thanks so much for listening

hey paul! thanks so much for listening. yea, the wah.... that was my very first effect, so i've always been drawn to it. hendrix did that to me. hi andy! yea, i dig the floyd too... you know, if i didn't work a full time job, and could just write tunes, i bet i'd have 3 finished, every week... x4 weeks a month, that'd be 12 songs in a month, more than enough to release an album!!! as it is, i have to steal time, usually an hour at a time, and piece it all together from memory, and my memory's not that good!! LOL