Percussion check..thanks for all the help and Michelle on mastering

Bash This Recording
#1

I am starting today to put my best songs (IMHO) on a cd for the family. My grandkids asked. This song is my fav off the hundred plus I have. I like the imagery of the whole thing the best and I think the chorus is decently catchy.
My only worry card is whether to have drums or not. And if they are needed, do these sit alright in the mix? thanks in advance
post listen…sounds guitar lacking on one side…I missed that

Ok I took the advice of my friends and: repaired and increased the bass volume…changed the early on drums that were mostly rim shots…played many guitar parts over that were pretty bad. Only thing I haven’t addresed is what Andy just posted. I think it is better. thanks much guys


New EZ drummer track. Andy was right. I had a “train” beat in there?? I compressed the drum track and added a mix verb that says “big drums” haha
They might be a little hot or over the top.

lowered the cymbals and removed the mixverb…sung a few parts over…lowered the entire drum track…repaired bass artifacts

I had some noise on this track but I never ran it down. I did clean up a ton of stuff and got rid of one track completely that almost sounded out of tune? The other tracks had some timing issues and I don’t know how to use automations so I just chopped and them in position. haha
Michelle did an awesome job with this. I just thought I would post a final track that I tweaked as good as i could. Maybe less noise now. Started a rocker tonight. Should be fun

Kissin on you

There you are just a talkin up a storm…ya act a little nervous so close to me C

Lookin at your lips…I’m a thinkin up a plan F C

I haven’t got to say one single thing…yur still yackin on that same first breath C

But I got one question to ask …maybe luck will do the rest… F C G
I can’t take it no more here I go

Can I please start kissin…kissin on you…just a little ole kiss…that’s all I wanna do C

Come on girl… I’m about to go mad…I’m sure it gonna be the best one I’ve ever had F C G

You just stared and finally stop talkin…I pointed down the road and we started walkin C

into the night… I took your hand F C

We slowed down came face to face…put her head to the side and I saw a little smile C

I said thank ya lord …she’s still close by…here I go gonna try again F C G ….chorus/break F C G C…

She said I don’t think I should be kissin on any ole stranger Bridge Bb C Bb C G

Don’t you know there’s always a hidden danger…of fallin in love…chorus

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#2

Hi feaker,
This song is an excellent composition.
I am so happy to hear that you are making a cd for the family, this is a very good move! On this song song, definitely have drums. By the way, is there a bass guitar on this track? The bass has to up a bit louder, as I am not hearing it very well. The bass should be driving this song. The electric guitar and the solo is great. The mix sounds good to me, and the vocals are mixed ok, as it sits on top of all the instruments. I like this song a lot, another happy tune to enjoy with friends and family.
Great work, Paul.
Rene

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#3

Great song there!

I think the track could benefit from some real drums and a break before the first chorus.
Otherwise it sound good.

The vocals are a nice surprise.

#4

Good morning. Man I just pulled up the track and found so many mistakes that were made a long time ago. Guitar out of tune. Bass fragments and frett noise, percussion that was copied and pasted with sharp noises or half muted. Bass timing way off. A complete mess. I should have first reviewed it.
I will turn up the bass volume Rene. I have about half the line done in repair.
Glad you liked the tune. Never did find out if he actually did get to kiss her. ha ha

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#5

Hi Cristopher I just gave away my electronic drums to a friend band member after hanging it up with the group a few weeks ago. Yes live drums are always good and I can get our drummer to do that. I am presently tweaking all the original mistakes that I thought were decent tracks back then. I wish I had the original vocal. It was so much better than this older voice. ha ha Thanks for stopping by

#6

Great composition Paul! Groovin and has classic Eagles (Take it Easy) vibe. (Though not a huge fan of Eagles, but I do like some of their songs)

that is more of a production choice. It seems fine with drums. Nothing irked me.

They are a bit upfront for me. You could compare to “take it easy”, they sit decently in the mix.

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#7

I think for your family this is great. It’s a good tune and there is nothing here that interferes with that. The drums and mix could be improved but that’s up to you. When you change things the vibe changes.

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#8

Another fun sweet song Paul! My initial impression is that the drums/percussion works well for this song. I like how the intro has none, and then from about 0:18-0:37 there’s some ‘stick’ sounds that are similar to a snare rim-shot but a little different. There’s a little cymbal splash on the right side too, in that section, kind of quiet but actually seems to work for the style. Then when the full drums come in it works well too. The whole song has a “strumming on the front porch out in the country” vibe IMO. Yeehaw!

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#9

[quote=“Stan_Halen, post:8, topic:6284”]
The whole song has a “strumming on the front porch out in the country” vibe IMO. Yeehaw!
Ha ha Thanks Stan. I have found many places to repair unfortunately. I will shoot the next improvement out soon. Not that it matters.
I am advancing thru our collab. I have your lead in there and when I get it close an PM a demo. thanks for your take on the back porch :slight_smile:

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#10

Awesome song, Paul! Really nicely done. The only thing that would improve it IMO is a “train beat” on the drums (with a tiny touch of swing). :grinning:

The mix sounds pretty good to me as well - it could use a little master buss compression to glue it altogether a little more, but that’s me being really picky.

Great stuff!

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#11

I was just thinking of you this morning. Not so much about this tune, but just not seeing you as often as I was used to. I missed getting the update before you listen by minutes.
If the train beat is what is in the first part, I replaced it. But you might have been refering to another area. I kinda scrapped EZ drummer and have been using only S1 stuff. Very limited choices.
Quiet frankly I didn’t know you could use compression on the whole song. duhh
There is mastering also in S1, but way over my head as you know. I do use a final limiter tho on the master volume. haha Glad you like the song and thanks for the tips…now back at it I wish I could hear things on your stuff, but I fall short in helping…sorry

#12

That’s an interesting shift with the early (verse) drums, I think I like that even better than the rim-shots! That beat ties in well with the bassline too, and the drum change going into the chorus helps keep things energetic and interesting. A nice contrast. The bass is much easier to hear now, maybe could be just a tad louder even, to lock in the country feel and drive the song. The kick drum could use a little bump too, and if you can get the kick and bass about the same volume, and really thumping (without drowning anything else out) I think that would boost the toe-tapping, finger-snapping potential. Maybe even jump up and “cut a rug”. :cowboy_hat_face: :man_dancing:

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#13

[quote=“Stan_Halen, post:12, topic:6284”]
The bass is much easier to hear now, maybe could be just a tad louder even, to lock in the country feel and drive the song. The kick drum could use a little bump too, and if you can get the kick and bass about the same volume, and really thumping (without drowning anything else out) I think that would boost the toe-tapping, finger-snapping potential. Maybe even jump up and “cut a rug
I guess just by looking at the bass fader isn’t the way to go. Right now it is pretty high vs the other tracks but doesn’t sound that loud. I isolated it and I think it was about -9 db? I will punch it up higher. so easy. I don’t know if I can boost the kick. I know in EZ it was simple. I could easily just boost each one on the track for a count of eight and then just copy and paste. That is how I cheat.
Andy just talked about compression on the whole mix. I just watched a youtube video and ended up yelling back “yur not talkin to a twenty year ole here” haha Back at it bud…like the cut a rug

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#14

it is sounding better yes. If you are happy with the mix, would you like me to master it?
I haven’t busted out my mastering chops in a while and I can take a crack at it for practice. If you dont mind that is :slight_smile:

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#15

[quote=“FluteCafe, post:14, topic:6284”]
it is sounding better yes. If you are happy with the mix, would you like me to master it?
I haven’t busted out my mastering chops in a while and I can take a crack at it for practice. If you dont mind that is :slight_smile:

So glad you are here. Thought you were a gonner forever.
Not sure if it was mastering, but what you did with 'I think I am in love with you" was amazing. I just couldn’t understand how you made some areas shine without having the dozen tracks in front of you.
I am not really happy with the mix. It is ok I guess, but each time I go in I hear something wretched and cringe. Missed notes. Notes buzzing while my finger hit two strings etc. I’ll get it better first, but yes, that would be wonderful.
I go to the doc Tuesday and hopefully he can help me with this awful throat and voice thangy.

#16

It was multiband compression. It isnt magic lol. I will take a crack at it later tonight or tomorrow. Will experiment a bit :slight_smile: thanks!

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#17

The setting of the fader shouldn’t be a deal-breaker as long as you get the sound you want and are not boosting the noise floor. If you’re not able to get the volume you want on a track, you can always “Duplicate” that track in your DAW and use it for extra volume (basically two tracks of the same performance). That’s not ideal mix theory, but a practical ‘fix it in the mix’ workaround. :wink:

Trying to fully understand all the ins and outs of compression can take a good bit of time and diligence, but you can use presets and tweak those if you feel brave. If the tutorials make it seem harder, just ignore them and play around with what you have and see what works.

Compression is just ‘squeezing’ the sound, essentially. It can make the loud parts not as loud (but yet make them 'pop), and the soft parts louder, at the same time. Though your “Makeup Gain” control can certainly boost the overall volume of the track. You could do that on your bass and kick without changing the track levels per se (just the plugin boost). Compression ratio, to simplify somewhat, just means how big the hammer is. Use a small hammer for a little picture hanging nail, a big hammer for a 3" house frame nail, something like that. A good rule of thumb is to use a low ratio (2:1, 3:1) with a fairly low/deep threshold, getting deep into the sound profile but only impacting it a bit; or to just ‘cap’ (or limit) the sound use a high ratio (5:1, 6:1, 10:1, 20:1) and a high threshold (not much) setting. The Attack and Release settings can be simplified by saying for “punch” (punchy sound) use a long attack setting and a short release setting, and for “crunch” (thudding blurred distortion) use a short attack and long release setting. These are rules of thumb I go by. You can learn how this all works by playing around with the settings on a sound you know and understand pretty well. It’s mechanics, and I know you’re good at that, just think of compression as sound mechanics. Compression ratio is like what happens inside an internal combustion cylinder. Attack/Release is like your timing belt making either fast acceleration or high end speed work best. The Threshold setting is maybe kind of like the accelerator pedal and/or the gear you’re in. I hope that helps a little bit.

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#18

Stan you should have been a teacher. I just copied this and put in my word docs that I will pin up by my studio monitor. I do use compressors on most of the individual tracks, but never actually looked at the specifics. The choices are like make vox 1, 2, 3, etc. Same with EQ, but I tend to mess with that one more especially on the vox to cut deeper into the 200 ish range.
You are a thouough dude for sure. good morning btw

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#19

Very nice Paul :+1: your production has definitely improved over the years.
I wouldnt overthink this. It is simple, effective and a groovy melody.

#20

Here is a quick and rough master. I am rusty. Though I did use some newly learned industry techniques with noise ratio automation. I noticed the interest in the popular demand of bass guitar, so this is a bit guitar forward master.

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