The Great Wave

[sammydix]

This is me and Peter Bowen again, my Aussie buddy. This is another song he wrote and I "produced"/mixed.

Peter: Acoustic guit, bass, Lead vocs, lead guit., and drum midi.
Me: AD2 to drive the midi, the strings and other sampled instruments, backing harmony vocals.

A little better mixed than the last?

https://app.box.com/s/dvc8hp0qie82jxl68yb92i2umy2jq76p

[RDBOIS]

Good song. I really enjoyed it.

I think the snare could snap a little more ( freq in the mids up a bit to drive the beat of the song?)

1:27 - perhaps one note in the acoustic guitar is a bit off?
3:30 - the solo is perhaps a bit too loud, or/and the lead up to quiet. What if the violins were a bit more present to build up the coming of the solo? It would be: da da da da DA DA DA DA DA DA (and then POW the solo). Solo is awesome, a bit mark knopfler-esk
4:15 really cool sounding keys (I would have that small bit a bit louder; to showcase for a brief moment).

The ending was a bit strange. The song was building up a crescendo and would of been grandiose to find a way to end it at the top! Emotionally speaking, you know, get them up there really high and then cut the rope... Let them fly on their own in the silence and get back on their own time.

I agree that there is a great wave, but it's already here as opposed to "coming". No? I'm currently writing a song called "The Great Divide"; the great wave will push people on either side of the divide...

I love songs about consciousness

[barrymk]

Great song. Effective and thoughtful use of strings/organ. I liked the ending, the song built up well and then cooled off - worked for me.

[sammydix]

Originally Posted by RDBOIS

Good song. I really enjoyed it.

I think the snare could snap a little more ( freq in the mids up a bit to drive the beat of the song?)

1:27 - perhaps one note in the acoustic guitar is a bit off?
3:30 - the solo is perhaps a bit too loud, or/and the lead up to quiet. What if the violins were a bit more present to build up the coming of the solo? It would be: da da da da DA DA DA DA DA DA (and then POW the solo). Solo is awesome, a bit mark knopfler-esk
4:15 really cool sounding keys (I would have that small bit a bit louder; to showcase for a brief moment).

The ending was a bit strange. The song was building up a crescendo and would of been grandiose to find a way to end it at the top! Emotionally speaking, you know, get them up there really high and then cut the rope... Let them fly on their own in the silence and get back on their own time.

I agree that there is a great wave, but it's already here as opposed to "coming". No? I'm currently writing a song called "The Great Divide"; the great wave will push people on either side of the divide...

I love songs about consciousness

We were thinking the exact same about the lead up to the solo break. I have a bit of volume automation there but made two mistakes: 1. the slope is too low to barely be able to tell it's there, and 2. It's a slope. That is, I like you suggestion of the second to last four notes normal, then the final four notes equally louder. Gonna try that. That's exactly how I kept hearing it.
The organ's easy enough to bring up some. Thx.
I followed Peter's stems for the ending, but I kept hearing that dramatic effect you mentioned also. I could try it as an alternate. Thanks a lot for the suggestions!

[sammydix]

Originally Posted by barrymk

Great song. Effective and thoughtful use of strings/organ. I liked the ending, the song built up well and then cooled off - worked for me.

Thanks Barry. I haven't done much string midi, and this is one of my first tries. I'm still not quite happy with them, so I think I'm gonna try changing libraries when I re-edit the vol envelope. Right now they're Sampletank stock strings, which worked fine for the solo cello, I think. But I think I'll switch to a Kontakt library I have lying around somewhere for the full strings.

[msundh]

Great song and performance. Only negative from me is that the drums was to loud in the ending. The HiHat specifically.
Listened trough my monitors.

[mschuster]

1:04 - gorgeous change

2:36 - another nice change. nice string additions / vox

liked the guitar solo..verb choice.

Very pretty midi additions Sam - esp the cello/strings!

I'd be interested in hearing how your exploration of different string packages goes. I've been searching for awhile to find something really good.

[sammydix]

Originally Posted by msundh

Great song and performance. Only negative from me is that the drums was to loud in the ending. The HiHat specifically.
Listened trough my monitors.

Hey man. I didn't automate or anything on the drums, so I'm not sure why they're louder...unless Peter increased the kit piece velocities for effect and I didn't pick up on it. I'll check that. Thanks guy.

[sammydix]

Originally Posted by mschuster

1:04 - gorgeous change

2:36 - another nice change. nice string additions / vox

liked the guitar solo..verb choice.

Very pretty midi additions Sam - esp the cello/strings!

I'd be interested in hearing how your exploration of different string packages goes. I've been searching for awhile to find something really good.

I don't. I mainly use Sampletank3 for everything because it's easy and quick. I own Kontakt, which in general has better samples, but it's too finicky for my patience. I just a little while ago tried switching to Kontakt strings and spent about an hour pulling out my fro. I closed Reaper and will just make any adjustments to what I already have in place. I generally do ok when I use midi, but I hate hate hate hate hate it!

One thing I always do, though, is remove any and every preset fx I can--just like I do with AD2--ESP reverb. I prefer the samples as raw as they can be rather than putting my fx on top of theirs. I'd rather add my own eq, comp, verb, at the source than add them over eq, comp, verb assigned to the patches of a program--unless it's a weird sound and I like it the way it is. So I just pretend I'm getting the raw sounds from the 'musicians' to mix.