All mine, long time no bash

Well , its been a while, but I finally got a new track to bash. I’ve been having a lot of computer problems, which took up a lot of time.

You know the feeling you have after a couple of weeks of vacation: all rested and relaxed, you’re in some beautiful place feeling at peace with the world , with your loved ones, and you know the next day is the day you drive (or fly) back home . After that it’s back to the office (or wherever you work), into the darkness and cold of winter…
I wrote this song to remember this perfect moment, to take it with me and help me to get through winter.

When I play it live I get my audience to participate in the chorus (not something I’m prone to do very often, I tend to be the introvert type), but it usually works well. They love it :blush:
In the recording I did a lot of backing vocal takes (5 parts on 12 tracks? I’m not sure) . Wonder if that worked.

Anyway: please bash away!

1 Like

Hey Evert - this has a great energy and optimism. I really love the acoustic guitar sound. Quirky vocal kind of reminds me a little of Ray Davies… Great syncopation & and a nice mix!

Tony

I am digging the groove. The vocal is sounding good. I find that the instruments are a bit of a muddy mess mix wise. I think some judicious eqing could help a lot.

Thanks guys for the compliments. Yes, on doing the car stereo test I also realised it was still pretty muddy. I think somewhere near the end of my mixing spree I decided to beef up the bass a bit and got stuck in the mud… ’
Ray Davies… haven’t heard that comparison before, but nothing to be ashamed of :sunglasses:

I like the general vibe, but as others have said it’s a bit muddy. I think if you can remove the mud and control the bass everything will sound great.

I took my time but here’s a new version. Hopefully without the mud as well as a couple of other improvements.
Any progress?

Thank you for the review! Now your song (listening to the latest mix): Your vocals are good. This song reminds me a bit of the Kinks, which is good. It has kind of a late 60’s to early 70’s vibe for me, including the audio. I don’t think it sounds muddy. Your accent sounds more like it is from the U.K., as opposed to Dutch to me. As an American, I find European accents interesting. I listened to this twice; the intro sounded better on second listen. The melodies are good. Really nothing significant to complain about. Nice job! :slight_smile:

Thanks Aaron,
I used to write more complex songs, but the last couple of years I tend to come up with more basic tunes, and indeed with a sixties vibe. I guess as you get older you fall back on your earliest inspirations? About my accent: you’re right. Most Dutch people speak understandable English, with a tendency towards American, overlaid with a terrible Dutch accent. When I was young I lived 4 years in Australia and 3 in England, and I kept the (mild) northern English accent. But it also depends on the song. I wrote a country song once which really needs a Texas drawl or something similar. So I try that, and it comes out as something similar to the Beatles trying to sound American (e.g. Rocky Rocoon).

Hi Great vibe in that catchy little riff. The mix is just not very clean for reasons I can’t figure out.

Good stuff

A bit of clarification on the sound of the acoustic guitar: its actualy 2 different acoustics, both of them doubled. I strung the second guitar ‘Nashville’ style: comparable to the thin strings of a 12 string. I started out just doubling the same chords as the other acoustic , trying to get the 12 string sound. But that didn’t work very well, so I used the Nashville guitar with a capo on the 5th fret to get a mandolin like sound. That with some delay, reverb and extra wide stereo is what you’re hearing.

It is sounding better but still i feel that you could clean things up more. One of the things i am noticing is that you really can’t tell that there are are drums for most of the song. now i am not saying that they should be front and center but they should at least be there if you are listening for it. I am really digging this song.

Your wish is my command :grinning:.
I gave the drums a bit more room and cleaned it all up a bit more. I also found that some of the problems have arrisen in the recording stage. I should rerecord the bass in places, and tune the acoustic guitar… I´ll get around to that some time. For now I just attenuated the string that was out of tune with an EQ.
And did a bit of mastering as well. Any better?

yes that is better in my mind. nicely done.