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Logincarlaz's 100 Most Recent Comments
| Afterburner by carlaz | 8 months ago |
Yeah, the vox are a bit low in the mix, though actually pushed as loud as I could make them on Garageband! I think I have made the usual mistake of pushing the instruments a little high (in the search for that "wall o' guitars" vibe  ) and leaving no room for the vocals. Being lazy, I couldn't bring myself to take the trouble of tweaking all the rest of the mix back down a few notches.The synths from my friend Scott (which are pretty low in the mix) are really just some old samples he sent me, but he's promised to do some purpose-played for the song. When he gets around to that, I'll go back and look at doing up a new version ... if I can get guitar and bass sounds I like! |
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| Twa Corbies (Beach Ambience Mix) by carlaz | 8 months ago |
| Thanks for the positive comments, guys! I really appreciate it. Feenix did a great job on the mix, and not only does it sound great but it was really instructive to hear. The drums are programmed, of course, but I used the excellent ns_kit7 drum samples which do their part to help keep it sounding real. I did the programming in Doggiebox, which is a great little shareware drum machine, and output AIFF files that I dragged into Garageband. Glad to hear they worked out! Cheers, Carl |
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| Twa Corbies by carlaz | 8 months ago |
| Glad to hear things seem headed in the right direction. I think that I'm mixing in headphones and haven't got proper speakers to listen on has made things weird, but this time I decided to aim a little brighter than sounded quite right to me, figuring the headphones might not be showing me some low end and suchlike that's probably there when played through speakers. Also, I think I benefited from leaving this one to one side for a while and working on a few other things in the background. I might pause another week or so, then try that little tweak to the vox in the earlier parts of the song .... |
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| Twa Corbies (Beach Ambience Mix) by carlaz | 10 months ago |
| Hey, I'll take that as a compliment -- I'm a raging Tull fan too. Martin Barre is my god! Or at least very high-ranking in my little pantheon. I'm really surprised and humbled by the approbation for the vocals. I should have started singing years ago! :LOL: |
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| Twa Corbies (Beach Ambience Mix) by carlaz | 10 months ago |
| Oh, I'm definitely pushing the top of my range! Though I've been in various bands of various sorts, I've been a singer in any of 'em. When I come to recording songs on my own, I tend to do the vox last and forget to think about whether I can hit the notes in the chosen key until then. Actually I originally intended to sing this an octave lower, but didn't like how it was coming out --so I closed my eyes, thought of the Scottish Borders, and aimed high .... Oh, you shoulda seen the cat run when I did that!  |
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| Twa Corbies (Beach Ambience Mix) by carlaz | 10 months ago |
| Now that you mention it, the crows do seem to stand out a bit more now -- perhaps there are some now audible that that were buried by guitar onslaught in the original mix(es)? I haven't counted croaks, but I don't _think_ feenixx increased the flock's headcount .... As a shout-out to Others to Whom I Am Indebted, I programmed the drums with Zygoat Doggiebox (www.doggiebox.com) using samples from ns_kit7 collection (www.naturalstudio.co.uk). The crows themselves are from crows.flac by aesqe (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=52655) and "oh, the dreaful wind and rain" are courtesy of Wind_Howling_NIghttime.aif by Dynamicell (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=47052). The attributions for these freely available samples are in the comments tag in the other mixes of this song, but I forgot to re-add them to this version before uploading it -- so here they are! Late is better than never. |
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| The King of The Faeries by feenixx | 10 months ago |
| Fabulous "neo-medieval" vibe! If you hadn't pointed out they were synths, it might have taken me most of the track to notice. I think the minimalist instrumental arrangement works quite well. Looking for _something_ to suggest .... maybe try some of the cymbal hits over on the other side of the stereo? (I've only got headphones to listen on though, so the preponderance of cymbal over on my left might be less noticeable on speakers!). |
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| Twa Corbies (v2) by carlaz | 10 months ago |
| I'll definitely take reference to Tempest as a compliment, being a long-time fan of Lief & Co. Saw them a bunch when I lived in the States in the '90s, and once at Cropredy in the UK. In fact, when I was in the guitar shop picking out the guitar I use now, original Tempest guitarist Rob Wullenjohn happened to be there and gave me a hand in choosing. Good stuff! Anyway, I'm glad to here my efforts at a remix at least made things marginally better! A lot more to learn on that subject ....I've put the zipped GB project file on my web site -- http://www.carlaz.com/music/Twa_Corbies.band.zip -- in all its multitrack glory, thereby showcasing my sloppy playing, ham-fisted cut'n'paste techniques, and amateurish application of compression and EQ ... It is some 255Mb, though, so it probably won't download in a hurry! |
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| Twa Corbies (v1) by carlaz | 11 months ago |
| Thanks everyone for the comments! I'll try bringing up the vox and maybe peeling a little reverb off to make them a bit more prominent. (My singing makes me nervous, so I tend to bury it in reverb and echo on the early passes, bringing it forward only with reluctance ). Cutting some of the low-lows in the bass might help. The strings actually do rattle a bit on the fret-board thanks to my thwacking away at them with a heavy pick :lol: and maybe a little high EQ cut there will tame that a little. |
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| Twa Corbies (v1) by carlaz | 11 months ago |
| Oh yes, a better mix would help a lot. I'm quite the amateur as a musician, and really utterly at sea in mixing and mastering -- as the results show! Any suggestions or assistance gratefully accepted! |
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| Dr Who Theme by lowroller | 11 months ago |
 Fantastic -- I've long imagined hearing a rocked up version of the Dr. Who theme, but this is better than I imagined. The playing and the sound are excellent. Scrounging for some imperfection, possibly the drums and bass could be kicking through a bit more. Maybe the already suggested subsonics things is a way forward there, but I'm not technical enough to know.Great stuff! |
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