Update: 'Morning' 2013 Remix, Final Master

Bash This Recording
#1

I’ve been playing around with a few different techniques in an effort to try and get my mixing chops slightly more polished, and decided to pull an old song off the shelf that a buddy a I wrote back in 2013.
In addition to a complete remix from the ground up I rewrote the drums (midi) using IK Modo Drums.
It’s pretty embarrassing to hear the 2 side by side, but that’s where I was in 2013 as far as my abilities, so I guess if nothing else it demonstrates I have made a bit of progress in my productions.
I’d be interested to hear if there are any glaringly obvious problems with this fresh mix, I’m willing to bet there a probably lots, but I think it a positive step in the right direction.
It’s a song about surfing and the excitement of big fresh winter swells. As the saying goes, only a surfer knows the feeling.

‘Morning’ - 2013 [snippet]

‘Morning’ - 2023

‘Morning’ Final Mastered Version

I’ve recently been following Jordan at Hardcore Music Studio over on Youtube, and have had some real breakthrough moments with my production due to his teaching style and techniques.
Anyway he did a vid not too long back where he did a shootout of 5 separate mastering engineers (one being Abbey Road), all varying in prices, and the results were shocking to say the least.
Anyway he did a followup interview with the winner of the shootout, a German dude living in the UK named Marvin who operates Tide Studio London, so I decided to reach out and see if he’s be interested in mastering this particular track, which he subsequently did.
I was seriously blown away with the results, and for $32AU this dude is criminally under priced.

Who woulda thought I was a sinner
When the line became a little thinner
Then you cut me down to size
I stood up high and I could see you
When I layed back down I could be you
Then you took to long to try

The break came in the morning
Out of touch, out of mind
A mere mortal cannot control the love
It seems justified from above

Faces are clean in the line
Can’t give it back
Can’t give it back to me
Air it comes in from the night
Won’t get it back
Won’t get it back from me

Line after line I could see it
Pushed back down and you could bring it
Then I dived to grab the line
Looked inside but it was little
Booked a ride tried to fly in the middle
Then you shut me down the line

The break came in the morning
Out of touch, out of mind
A mere mortal cannot control the love
It seems justified from above

Faces are clean in the line
Can’t give it back
Can’t give it back to me
Air it comes in from the night
Won’t get it back
Won’t get it back from me

Line after line I could see it
Pushed back down and you could bring it
Then I dived to grab the line
Looked inside but it was little
Booked a ride tried to fly in the middle
Then you shut me down the line

2 Likes
#2

Nice work Terry! The new mix has a lot more clarity and presence.

Surf is a great subject for songs too… You captured that sense of freedom and expansiveness.

Winter swells are the best! (not that I’m much of a surfer!). I love winter in Oz.

1 Like
#3

Gosh, Terry, I was a surfer as a kid, but I missed all those surfer references until you alerted us! Now it is pretty obvious. Even the drums are insane as Wipeout.

I was a teenager surfing small Florida waves in Cocoa Beach in high school. I started out in junior high with a Ten Toes 10 ft popout, my mom driving us all to the beach. Then I went to a 9’ 6" Ron Jon, which I later cut down to an 8’ twin skeg swallow tail (can’t remember what it was actually called), which I was too heavy for really. But then to a 5’1" custom board made in a garage by a local shaper on Cocoa Beach, which was 4" thick and OK for my weight and pretty fun. And in college bought a nice 8’ used Plastic Fantastic from a guy living in Cocoa beach for $80, which was my last board. I remember driving 8 miles to the beach as close to dawn as possible before the wind shifted from offshore to onshore and blew out the waves most days. Not much surfing in Houston, and I gave away all my boards to my younger brother and friends.

I’m writing an Interstellar Fur Traders sci-fi musical called Oasis about a planet with a surfer culture, but I don’t have any song/s with this level of rock energy, dude. If you ever want to collab on something like that, please let me know.

If you recall, you mixed Waiting Forever with a cool guitar solo, and I actually have remixed it with your part moved forward and after a bit, added a harmony vocal for parts, and I will post it later today. I hope you like it and allow me to use it.

1 Like
#4

Awesome Steban, always nice to meet a fellow brother in arms from the surfing scene. Looking back growing up as a kid in New Zealand we were pretty lucky with our local beach break on the west coast about 15 minutes drive from the house, or about 3/4 of an hour drive to reef breaks on the East coast (Pacific), so the ocean and surfing is definitely in the blood, and most weekends were spent chasing big swells and offshore winds.
Unfortunately not so much nowadays living here in Australia, I’m a fair way off the coast and it’s pretty sharky. That’s not to say Australia doesn’t have world-class breaks, sadly just not in my vicinity.

I’d really love to getting back into collabs, but it’s a little hard for me to commit at this point in time due to being fairly snowed under with the day-job. If I can get my head back above water (pun intended) I would be keen as hell.
Cheers mate.

#5

Really cool, Terry! I saw that video too, and was very impressed.

Marvin did a really excellent job of your master. The most impressive thing I noticed that he did was get the vocal to sit perfectly in the mix without dominating it. It retains the power and size that the music should have, but the vocals are perfectly clear and intelligible. Everything sounds really nicely “glued” and cohesive. He’s definitely a talented dude who deserves the attention he is getting.

(PS: I just finished mastering my album too - I ended up going with a really big-name, analogue-focused dude who was surprisingly a lot cheaper than I thought he was going to be - not cheap, though, but I’m very happy).

1 Like
#6

Cheers Andrew, yep agreed, he’s managed to carve out some nice space between the elements whilst still as you say retaining power. Definitely not as hot as I was pushing it, with his version coming in at around -8.5 LUFS but that’s probably helping retain a lot of the clarity too.
It still sounds loud without feeling squished.

Sick, can’t wait to hear it man, have you got a release date set?

1 Like
#7

Yeah, it’s still nice and loud, but it retains punch.

I’m just thinking about that at the moment. I still have to upload everything to my aggregator and set the release date, which I’ll try to get done today. It will probably be at least 2 or 3 weeks time.

1 Like
#8

Sweet, sounds like you’re pretty damn close. Any plans on a physical release?

1 Like
#9

Not at this stage.

1 Like
#10

The cool thing is, it’s not hard these days to get a small run made up very competitively if you get enough interest for a physical copy.
Put me down for one, if you ever do.
I know already it’s going to be a banger.

1 Like