PhonoBrainer

Greenday meets Rush meets Plimsouls. In a pro mix. Any q's? awesome! cheers, -Tom

Jeeze that was fun. I appreciate the drums, super clear in the mix. Don't fix your vocal mic for this one, it works. Love the originality, which is becoming too weak a word to use for your songs. cheers, -Tom

Pretty wonderful. Very subjective as to what a person would do to this mix. Your tastes are not horrible. I would make the lead tremolo guitar "brighter" in the mix. There is a bit of rumbly muddiness that could maybe be thinned up, in your bass guitar I think. I assume you have eq's away everything under like 50hz from your bass guitar? Is it a bass synth with a really delayed attack? Maybe cut a notch out of 300hz or so as an experiment. I hear the boomy bloom of mud gloom pop in @2:49, that might tell you how the bass is overfilling. ? Probably the constant tremolo effect on the guitar might be adding to some over thick bass moments? Did you eq away the lower guitar frequencies you don';t need, say below 300 - 400 hz? Just checking. I like the arrangement, the theme, and the mellow! Another personal taste for me would be to eliminate that buzzy synth that wanders in. For me it all has a 70's vibe like a cool Joe Walsh instrumental. Some real piano would solidify its left coast rock cred! keep this going, it's cool. cheers, -Tom

Hi Jack! Awesome how you don't have to bend the rules because there are none. That's creativity! The vocals totally work, the processing is nice. If you are using reverb on them, you might as an experiment pull the reverb off and replace it with a tight slapback delay. ? Might be worth the time to explore. The only other mix comment would be, in the first (and last) section - listen to your chipsynth thing panned left - it's probably louder than your excellent vocal. If this were my mix I'd get the vocal more prominent and the lefty chipsynth down a db or so. Again might be worth trying, or not. In this song you are going for extremely minimalist robo-drums? Works for me, but all I can remember hearing was a cymbal, and the kick thunks were kind of competing for the bassline. Hard to avoid that one. Lyrics I catch in most cases but sometimes intelligibility gets tough because maybe they need to be boosted and more dominant in the mix, and reverb can slurrrr things so sometimes simple delays thicken better than reverbs in a mix. Your bgv's that are actually lower in pitch than your falsetto lead - that's a great choice right there. Thanks for the 80's! cheers, -Tom

Lilt for days. I agree mixwise the fiddle might tuck back just a bit, but it has a good tone generally. I liked the reverb settings you chose, especially for the steel stringed guitar or whatever came in that sounded like a harp. Bjorn, or Bairn? Nice tune! cheers, Tom

Were they sisters??? ? Now that's a cool blues car wreck story song! I liked how tightly your bgv sticks to your lead vocal, and good bluesy guitars, well timed and in rhythm. Good groove! cheers, Tom

Man o man, good choice having no bass guitar in there. Love the tones, so clean. I get the early Cockburn reference, and can only add Michael Hedges. This composition has an energetic purity to it. A wondrous listen. cheers, -Tom

Here's some lesser Larrys to tide us over while the real one is away.

Thanks Bajan B, so glad it sat well with you! Appreciate the comment and the listen.

thanks so much, Tom! Like how a short, simple phrase, repeated over and over, loses all literal meaning, and with increased repetitions you find a zoned-out state of mental non-focus. Sometimes spelled "mantric" . . . like the classic "ohmmmmmmmm" becomes a mantra when repeated into unconsciousness. Or so ommm told. Now what about that hat again??? ? cheers mate, thanks for the comments!

Gary my friend I know I can rely on your ears and comments, they push me to finish things properly. Truth is I'm never 100% mix-happy with clarity between bass and kick. Did you mean add a click on the kick, or take the kick click down? I'm too close to it to tell. +1 on the "check the mix lastly at big volume" because thats where you find the pokey icepick stuff. Many many thanks for the observations!

Hello France!!! Thanks John for the nice comment, and the subscriber boost! ? much obliged!

Thanks for the awesome comment! I mixed and remixed, having issues always with "is the low end swamping everything???" Flipping back between decent monitors and headphones. Perhaps the low end was overtamed, I'll give it another test drive, thanks for the observation! The first funky guitar lead in the reggae groove is Orange Tree Rick 12 guitar jammed through IK's Amplitude 4 (free version) with the problematic Leslie speaker. The lead guitar at the end is a combo of OTS Dracus + Three Body Tech's Heavier 7. Plus effects! Drums are a lot of SD3, but frequently blended with some Ujam modules in spots. The snare has Audiothing Clap blended in. Yeah, a fair bit of trickery! And a fair bit of length, too! Sorry for the eight minutes, a bit too long of course. . . oh well!

Thanks Kurt, I can't get much bass on my crappy ear buds either! Bon voyage. awesome comment, made my day, thanks!! TFH is due for a vocal mixover, it's too crispy and overcompressed. But I'm so glad you found it amusing!!! Thanks. The cat was just the best attention-grabber I could find. Cool lookin' dude.

If you soloed the drums, and put a metronome on them, I bet they would sound fine. I think you just need to slice and slide the guitar strums around to match the drum timing. Very cool 80s vocal throwback fun! Catchy too. cheers, -Tom

Self-explanatory? I'd love any mix comments. What is poking out or too buried? Help!!! Headphones recommended if you have them / please watch video @ 1440 p for max res if you can stream that / many thanks y'all! audio only, Soundcloud:

cool song with an especially innovative video. I really liked some of those effects! Well put together! cheers, -Tom

Great mix and production - I especially liked the bgv's which brought Styx of all things to mind! Super cool! cheers, -Tom

So much variation and cool chord changes inside a boogie piece! My favorite part was in the 2:20's. Your piano capture is very smooth, clear highs and solid lows. What did you use? Kudos on the ending as well - busting out the jazz chords! Great chops. cheers. -Tom

that guitar lead in the intro could be louder. I appreciate the hammond backing track in the chorus and in the pre-verse (is that a thing?) - super great barely discernable leslie wobble! What were you using for the organ/processing? It adds a ton of vibe, very authentic!! I'd be proud if this were my song. It makes regret feel good. cheers, -Tom

well if you are asking, maybe pull the scrap metal off of the vocals, stand the vocals up, dust them off, let them have their say. I liked it otherwise but it's a bit cacophonous of course. Poor chap is giving us pearls without being properly intelligible. just my .02 pineapples. cheers, -Tom

Catchy, catchy, catchy. That cool 80's guitar tone really serves the song, once I hear that I can't imagine any other guitar tone fitting as well. Jangly chorusy goodness. love the drums and bass together, great balance there. nice! cheers, -Tom

holy crap, wish I could do harmonies like that. Just great. I'd agree the violin is a standout. The drums for me are the letdown, they really place your very fine song into the "unfinished" category. More snare variation? The thing is five minutes long and I didn't get bored, so that's a good sign indeed! the acoustics panned to the edges were very well done as well. I think this is the best overall tune I remember hearing from you - thanks for posting it! cheers, -Tom

I just read this thread twice.