Remake: Where is my mind by the Pixies

My band mates from my high school and college days came for a visit (fishing and recording trip). Was great to play music with those guys again! We recorded a couple tunes, including this one. We made it a little faster and heavier than the original. We took a few liberties while staying fairly true to the original. I’m struggling a bit with the mix. I don’t want to sway you, so I won’t say what I’m thinking just yet. Hope you like it, and thanks for the feedback!

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Cool interpretation! I like it at the faster tempo - it works really well and has a great energy.

However, I think the “down” choruses miss the target just a tad due to the “kick - snare” beat instead of the “kick-kick - snare” beat in the original. I’m wasn’t familiar at all with the original, but as I was listening to your version, I was thinking “the drums need to go ‘kick-kick - snare’ there”… and then I went and took a listen to the original, and that is what they do!

Apart from that fairly minor detail, I think it’s great! Mixwise, the drums could use a little more snap in the transients, and maybe a little bit of de-mudding in the low mids (not too much, though).

Nice work!

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I agree with the drums. I think we originally had the drums that way, but on this take he went into cut time for that part. It was a good take though so we went with it, especially since we only had an afternoon to knock this one out. But I’m pretty content with the arrangement regardless. Thanks!

Enjoying this take, and great to hear a great reunion!
The speed is perfect in my opinion, and the vocals can actually come up in the mix.
Excellent vocals and harmony!!!
Love the guitar solo!

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Thanks Rene. I’ve been away from the forum for a while as I’ve been so busy with work. I get a chance to work on music an average of one afternoon per month so I try to knock something out really fast. I’m always blown away by how much everyone else has made in that timeframe. I have some listening to do. This is a great forum.

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Great rendition man, love it. Funny, I was literally just listening to Surfer Rosa the other day while I was working and then see you guys had done a cover.
I think the mix is pretty good tbh, and fits this style.
If I was going to be critical there’s a bit of a muddy build up around 350Hz, and the snare is getting quite buried through the heavier sections.
A bit of subtractive eq on the guitars and bass might help the snare pop through a little more. I’d be looking at 200Hz and 8K for starters. Some parallel processing on the snare could possibly help too.

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Nice, another Pixies fan!

Great advice, thanks. That was my main concern. Seemed a little bass heavy/muddy. I’ll pull some of that out. When you say parallel processing, are you referring to compression specifically?

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Yep 100% There’s tons of tutorials out there.

Also If you haven’t got it already, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of IVGI by Klanghelm. It’s a free dynamic saturator and i use it on literally everything but it’s great on drums to give a real nice lift, and help things pop out of the mix.

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