mark skinner

Hello , I'm working on a new song with Sliding chord changes and am using several instruments. I'm having a Rough time with string finger squeaks and they're all building up in the same spots. It's especially bad on a "dulcimer" I'm using. I picked up a pair of thin Kevlar gloves from Amazon (G&F Products , yellow) for a wood burning project . I put one of these on my fretting hand for a test and was Amazed at the result. No Squeaking at all ! My strings and fretboard feel "smooth as silk". Unreal effect on fretless instruments and I can actually wear one and play everything with the exception of my mandolin. Doesn't look that cool but it sure works .. mark edit: I've been having a hard time with it.. the gloves are too thick on narrow fretboards . ms

Cool song Jack ! You've got a lot of energy going in this one. Great start for the New Year. Enjoyed it .. mark

Cool ! I enjoyed that . I think that was me , with the pen in the cassette .. Great Job .. mark

Hello , I Really enjoyed the song and agree with PhonoBrainers comments. I especially liked the interaction on the vocal tracks. Pretty cool the way some of the phrases swelled into the next ones. I also appreciated the live drums . There are some really good virtual drums out there , but they can't come close to a well recorded drummer. I thought the deep kick was perfect. Enjoyed it .. mark

Bruce , I found this to be a Hard song for me to mix and master .. I think You did a Superb job of it ! On the other hand , it was an Easy song for me to embellish playing against your wonderful vocals and writing skills. I thoroughly enjoyed working on another collaboration with you. I hope it's the shape of things to come. Sincerely .. mark

Keith , Great remix again. You had me smiling with this one. I noticed you also dropped the problematic lead break part , Good Call .. The transition is Much better now. Thanks for reposting this , you've for sure got a winner here . mark

"Amazing" you can play a saxophone that well in such a short amount of time. I have a room full of instruments I can't play , but the sax and violin are the only ones I've ever given up on. Maybe I'll revisit them .. mark

Great Chilly track. Sax is soo Soulful and you really bring out the soul and relaxed breathy notes . I always wished I could play one .. I do own one that needs a really good mechanical tune up , but I honestly don't think even that would help with my honking . Enjoyed the relaxed feel .. mark

Peter , Great song ! A couple of tweaks and you'll have this one nailed. But I think it's Fantastic the way it sits and have no crits or valuable suggestions . This sounds like Tom Petty and Peter D joined the Beatles. Enjoyed it .. mark

Great break at 2:07. I really liked the pristine sounding mix. Beautiful singing and harmony from Eva .. Enjoyed it .. mark

This was pretty dark and convincing. It really put me on the edge of something I've felt before about someone over the edge. Very effective.. Take a close look at 2:14 and 3:39. I think there's a little unintended stutter step in both places. Good Job .. mark

Perfect .. I enjoyed the crisp clear and icy visions this song invoked. I thoroughly Enjoyed it .. mark

Great Gary ! I actually listened to this yesterday .. I got a notice from Soundcloud about what I was listening to exactly 1 year ago. Seems like yesterday .. Always enjoy your vocals .. Merry Christmas mark

Thanks , @Lord Tim The #1 suggestion worked. I also found a thread saying that a "bounce to clips" would work also. I didn't want to go that route not knowing exactly what I wanted to keep without editing .. mark

Hello , I lost "all power" to my studio this morning while recording a vocal track. Of course I also lost the last 2 short sections I had sung. About an hour later my power was restored and my pc (and project) was opened up when I returned to my studio. Strange .. Looking at my tracks to see what I had lost , I saw all the waveforms were missing on all the clips on the vocal track. I can still hear it fine , but just a straight line where the waveforms should be. I couldn't find a way on my own to restore them or find any old threads about it. The track was "armed" but wasn't recording when the power went out on this beautiful 6 degree morning. I was reaching for the "save" button when it happened . Thanks for any direction .. mark

Keith , I'm by far no expert on de-essing , but a general rule is "before compression and after EQ". If the EQ is drastically boosting the highs , de-essing may not even be necessary .. only an EQ adjustment. It really depends on how well you control your voice and your proximity to the mic that causes sibilance issues. You normally do a Very good job of this , I'd just try an EQ correction first . If it gets dull sounding I'd go with de-essing. mark

Keith , Great Job on the remix ! You got the magic back. All the backing sounds nice and clear with good highs on my normal listening system. The vocals however are still pretty shrill in the real high frequency range. I believe I would look at your boost in the 8 to 12k range. Lowering it may reduce the amount of de-essing that it Really needs. This is for sure now my favorite song you've done. As far as tagging someone in a response , just type in the "at" icon and start typing their screen name. A list will quickly pop up of the names to click on and choose.. I hope you continue to improve this one to 100%. Later .. mark

Keith , I've been waiting for someone else to weigh in before saying .. your first mix was Way better. You lost the dynamics and magic you had going in the first one , even with the lower volumes on the verses. This one seems slammed into a limiter and for sure needs de-essing . A quick look at the waveform and listen between the two should confirm it. Best of luck with the song .. Respectfully .. mark

One thing I noticed is how "clean" the mix got when you dropped out the distorted guitar. The same thing happened at the outro. I think if I were mixing this , I'd try a little cleaner FX on the guitar , ease it down some and get it away from the center of the mix a little. Cool song .. mark

Evris , Have you tried dragging the "live track" into the timeline at the top of the page , letting Cakewalk build a tempo map based on the track ? Sometimes it works well , sometimes it doesn't . (depends on your source track). I run into this problem every time I do a cover song and try to use the original for reference. I usually just cut it up and move parts to keep somewhat in line with the metronome at a steady beat just to learn the parts. Mike from "Creative Sauce " has a good video in the tutorials section about making Cakewalk play with "you" instead of the other way around. May be an option .. mark

Peter, as usual this one flowed like water over glass. Beautiful melody's , you make it look so easy .. Congrats on your reunion . I had one a while back with some old mates , we are really spread out now , and not a lot of us left .. Enjoyed it .. mark

Great song Keith. I really like the different directions it travels. I didn't have Any problem with the lead guitar at 2:45 , in fact I thought it sounded Fantastic! I did have a problem with a muddy guitar at 2:20 leading up to the louder lead break. I also think your vocal needs to come up in the verses and the bridge when you're singing in a lower register. The parts with the harmony's and double tracked phrases sound good. The song has a wonderful feel to it , and gives me a little bit of a "Yes" vibe. I think you sat on this one the perfect amount of time . Loved it .. mark

Great Cover ! This one somehow slipped by me. I loved the power and overall feel of the middle section. You Nailed it , especially with the phased vocal section. It sounded so good I think I would try a little of the effect on All of the verses. The others were a little quiet. I think the last verse especially needs some boosting and fx. Loved it .. Hope your wife recovers soon .. mark

Cool Ride . This one could use a video .. I loved the way the volumes stepped up in the different sections. I especially liked the build up after the 3 Min mark. I did think the ending could have been faded .. Very impressive mix .. mark

Alex , after listening to "yesterday project" , my first and Main suggestion would be to "back off" from the microphone. I think you are causing most of the problems you're trying to fix later with all of the plugins. The proximity effect of the mic seems to be taking a toll on the low end , and your breathing is nearly as loud as some of the vocal phrases. "S" and wind problems get a Lot worse when you are right on the mic . If I had to "fix" that track , I would cut it up and edit out all the noises instead of using FX , and it would Never be as good as getting a clean mix to start with. As far as EQ , I would suggest turning the track input echo on , open up the pro channel EQ and expand it out using the >> arrows and pressing the pin icon to lock it on the page. Sing some and "look" at the EQ module to see what's going on before ever actually recording. It's pretty easy to see the giant jump in frequency's on the graph when you are too close. Respectfully .. mark