Please Bash: It's a Hurt

Bash This Recording
#1

Hey there! I’m sorry that I haven’t been around too much lately, just trying to avoid the internet for a while - for my own sanity and finding time to make some actual music! :slight_smile:

It’s great to see though that things are alive and kicking here! :smile:

Here’s my latest, I tried to make it lean and mean, with some surprises along the way.
Hope you’ll like it, it’s again pretty different from previous ones I’ve done (I hate repeating myself!).
A big shootout to Andrew @ColdRoomStudio who helped with some arrangement ideas along the way. This guy is the best and we all know it.

Anyway, here it is, let me know how it sounds to you. Thanks!

I ended up with a few tweaks on the kick, making it less busy, and a pass on vocal compression/automation. I think the rest is mostly taste oriented and I quite like the arrangement as it stands now, so here’s the result:
https://soundcloud.com/patrick-talbot/its-a-hurt

10 Likes
Prechorus vs bridge vs middle 8
#2

Groovin’ tune man! Great to see you’ve been hard at work :slight_smile:

I’m really liking this one! There are a few moments here and there where the drums aren’t quite meshing up though. Like some miss hits etc? Extra kicks and snares where they wouldn’t belong for example.

I’m really liking the direction you’re going though! This is going to be killer one

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#3

Just upped my first mix and thought I’d check some others out. Listening as I write - love it! Killer vibe on this tune. I see what @holster means about the drums, i.e. a fill seems off around 1 minute. (?) Otherwise, the instrumentation and musicality sounds fantastic. Very creative production with the unusual drums. Listening as I right - really nice solo and another nice production move with the guitar sound. Sweet! I’m going to have to find your other stuff!

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#4

It sound very good, I like it, like @holster I have problems with drums.
Guitar solo is incredible and the voice is very addictive.

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#5

Glad you like it Bryan!
I suppose the miss hits you hear are in the chorus mainly?
It’s a fairly complex part and I’ve tweaked it a lot there, but I’ll check it again.
Thanks for the listen and bash!

#6

Thanks Mike, glad you liked this!
I’ll check the drums again, although there’s no fill around 1 minutes, apart from the tom fills @1:07 which sounds fine to me, unusual but not off.
If you check it, you’ll probably be surprised by the other stuff I did, there’s all sorts. :wink:

#7

Merci Tinkle! Content que ça te plaise! :slight_smile:
I’ll check the drums again, but I believe the only places where they might be off a bit are during the choruses.
Thanks for checking it out!

#8

Yes, that’s the spot. 3:52 is another and 4:13. Sorry, I was typing as I listened.

If I can offer up my very humble opinion: first off, this song is great, I love it. The creative production, the musicianship, your vocals, the clapping after the solo, the vibe - everything. …except the drums. The odd fill here and there sticks out and pulls me out of really enjoying this quirky piece. OK - I’ve just listened 3 more times, and maybe it’s only those tom fills that are sticking out. The kick is super active too, although, honestly, I’m not sure that bothers me. (?) Dunno, maybe it’s just me. I do love the song though! Really great effort and writing.

Out of curiosity, what drum program do you use? It’s got some great sounds.

Have I said how much I like this song yet? :wink:

#9

OK, thanks for listening again and clarifying Mike, it’s really appreciated!

I’m really glad that you like the song overall.
I will most likely revisit the drums (especially the kick/snare during the chorus, I’ll try to make the kick less busy), but honestly I hear nothing wrong with that tom fill…
It’s different, but it’s not off, and to me it works and I quite like it, so I think it will stay (sorry!).

For drums my go-to is Superior Drummer, and I’ve used it here (the Custom & Vintage SDX), but there’s also some complementary drums (the snare in particular) from the Claustrophobic EZX and a few extra things from Stylus RMX… Plus claps/stomps from various Kontakt libraries.

#10

Patrick getting his funk on!

2 Likes
#11

No worries, great tune. As they say, “Opinions are like a**holes…”

1 Like
#12

Hey, I love this song, groovy and chill. There’s a lot of ideas in the production as well as the mix that I really enjoy, like the reverse effect on the vocals that introduces the choruses and some sound selections.

But because I love it, I have a lot to bash about. :stuck_out_tongue:

As mentioned above the drums are sucking a lot of the groove out of the song. Main issue is the kick drum, it’s all over the place during the choruses, there’s too much of it and it sounds like it’s played by a beginner, which contrasts with the rest of the drums that are nicely played. The sound of this kick doesn’t help too, it’s sticking out of the mix prominently. In general I think there are too many drum and percussions sounds changes, it lacks some unity. For instance, the congas that come in at 2:00 sound a little “out of the blue”, maybe they are just too loud, I don’t know. I don’t like the toms sound too, and I think there’s too much rim shots during the first verse.

The vocals are pleasing, but somewhat a little shy, I’d like them to go a little wild at times, to add some excitement to the song. The high vocal line in the choruses has a very nice tone, maybe you could take more advantage of them, although I don’t have any accurate idea how to do this.

For me the alternate chorus at 4:25 doesn’t work, the sound change doesn’t sound great, I would maybe like the drums to stop there, or to become really inconspicuous.

The glass breaking sound that ends the song is cute and 80’s-ish but doesn’t leave me with a great impression, I’d probably prefer a mainstream ending, especially given that the same sound has already been heard at the end of the chorus in the middle of the song before the guitar solo so it’s not a real surprise.

Here’s my thoughts for now. Again, I love the song. I’ve only mentioned what I didn’t like in it but there are also plenty that I do like about it.

1 Like
#13

Hey man. Loving the intro with the vinyl. Such a cool groove going man and your vocals are sounding supreme. I will not repeat the drums stuff. I think that your solo guitar could use a little more edge personally. (using distortion, eq, saturation, combination there of) I look forward to hearing this one progress because it is awesome already.

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#14

Hey hey Patrick! Well, if you had to be gone for a while to work this one up, it was worth the wait. :waxing_crescent_moon:

Had to listen twice in a row just to try to catch all of the ear candy. You clearly put in a lot of time and effort to keep things changing, always adding some new element or re-using one in a new way, always something to listen in for. Very cool! And another excellent composition. I enjoy the vinyl-record thing at the start too.

I do agree that the kick in the chorus is too busy. I think it’s accentuated by the staccato attack you’re using on your bass line, the kick and plucking/slappy articulation are competing with one another IMO. I’d say less is more in those sections when it comes to the kick drum. I also see what @Lophophora means about the conga/bongos when they appear, although I get used to them right away. Maybe a touch more verb on those to push them back in the sound field a little more might work.

Very fine work on the guitar solo, you’re getting your Skunk Baxter going there! And I really like all the embellishments on the vocals, with the reversing and so on-- very engaging.

Nice work!!

1 Like
#15

:laughing: I suppose you can say that!

#16

Thanks for the listen and thoughts Lophophora!

I hear you about the kick during the chorus, will revisit that for sure.
The congas I might fade in a little bit more, and possibly push a little bit further in the mix, but I think they add a lot to the groove. Will check the side-stick during the first verse too.

As to the vocals being shy, I’m afraid I did my best here and will probably not be able to do better. My voice is really not that good and I thought these takes were pretty good, considering :wink:

I tried many things for that last chorus after the solo (this is version 56 of the arrangement, believe it or not!) and what worked best IMHO. Dropping the drums was not working, too much of a drop after the solo. Note that the drums at that moment are actually just kick (dropped a lot in volume) and hi-hat (because without them the groove wasn’t grooving at all :laughing: ). The rest is foot stomps and claps, which I wanted to have a natural feel as much as possible because I hate electronic claps. After the solo, I wanted to get back to the chorus and create some contrast, especially after the ramping up of the pre-chorus, but dropping the groove was just too much of a let down, honestly I just didn’t work.

As to the glass breaking at the end, what can I say? I don’t mind the 80’s and to me it mean something: it does hurt.

#17

Thanks Eric! “vocals sounding Supreme”? Wow :laughing: I would definitely not go that far! :wink:

Don’t know about the guitar though. More edge? There’s tons of saturation already on that part, and I’m pretty sure adding more would tame it actually, by compressing the transients. I find that distortion is a double-edged sword and I tend to try not to overdo it, because it’s killing the dynamics too much.
A taste thing, no doubt!

#18

Thanks Dave! Glad you like that one, was not sure you would as it’s quite different again, more “funk” as LazyE said, and full of those weird chords you sometimes have trouble with. :wink:

Took me a while indeed!
I don’t know why but the more I go, the more time I spend on each tune and the more thoughts and experiments I do, with a lot of things tossed around until something sticks and get me horny (as @cptfiasco would say)
I guess the whole idea is to keep myself excited, and not to repeat myself too much.
Otherwise I get to a “what’s the point?” stage, which is such a hard place to be.

I think I’d like to do a very simple tune next though, maybe one acoustic guitar and vocal, an upright bass and a tambourine would be nice! :laughing:
This one has more than 80 tracks and most of them have automation, if you can believe it.

Thanks for the Skunk Baxter reference, actually it was not far from my mind when I played this! :beerbang:

1 Like
#19

I don’t have any probs with those weird chords mate, I just enjoy teasing you about them! :grin:

I am embarrassed to admit that I only recently realized that Becker didn’t start doing major guitar parts on the Dan records until later albums, and that Skunk was the main man on the first few. I knew his work from other acts he worked with of course, but he’s such a great studio guy that he can slip into just about anything. I thought your phrasing and tone on the solo was very reminiscent of that era of their stuff.

Interesting about how you find yourself getting more and more experimental. Reminds me of my beer brewing years. Being an experimentalist in my science, it was also my natural inclination to explore as many aspects as possible, always changing things up. But then I got to a point where I was more interested in consistency. Of course, for a batch of beer, you have to wait many weeks before you know how your experiments turn out, not like music!

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#20

I know you don’t. I’m just teasing you back! :wink:

Exactly like music actually! It takes me between one and two month to flesh out a song arrangement. So it takes some time to ferment as well.

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