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Secret Agent Man
You know those memes entitled “How it started vs How it’s going now?” This post will be analogous, but with a twist.
It starts in the late 70’s with a rehearsal-space recording session. I don’t recall the specifics other than it was a live performance recording. I recall my friends in the band though.
John was the bass player who reminded me of the recording just recently. He’s also the friend who asked me to mix his current band at a nearby clothing optional resort last year. When a friend calls for help, you pickup the damn phone and hope for an adventure.
My friend Ted, the rhythm guitarist, let me live in my teepee one summer, creek-side on his land. That was good until October’s cold arrived. John then offered me a bedroom above his bar for a few months until I went south for the winter to work on a Gulf Coast shrimp boat. John is a good man.
Hippo was the lead guitarist/vocalist and unfortunately, he gone. That brings us to the “How it’s going now” portion of the post.
The Original recording was recently pulled off the Creamy Lobster Records website and presented here untouched in its mono MP3 format.
The 2024 version was reformatted to 48K/24 WAV, had some harmonic saturation added to bring back the liveliness and extended frequency response before undergoing separation, resulting in 4 mono drum, bass, guitars, and vocal stems. They were then remixed in my DAW using NEVE like stereo channel strips (for flavor) where I could introduce different spatial information. For example, image wideners for the drums, an even wider sound stage for the guitars and lastly, a smidge of verb on the vocal.
Click ‘em both to see how it’s going now.
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8 Replies
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Paul!! What an incredible story and performance (and clothing optional details lol). Your post feels straight out of a Hunter S. Thompson book. And, man, sorry to hear Mr. Hippo is no longer with us – what a great voice! I love the original you posted and I dig the 2024 version too. I definitely hear some “digital stem separation” artifacts but it’s still a marvel to me what’s possible these days! And I dig the smooth low end you got on that bass/kick. Thanks so much for sharing (the mixes AND the stories behind the mixes!!). ⚡️🤓
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Muchos grac! It’s easy to get carried away with the EQ now to get a more modern sound. The old one had a certain lo-fi vibe that had its own charm.
PT
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Really cool to hear this Paul! I think I am understanding you used one of those new AI separation tools – sounds amazing, the new version is very punchy and fresh sounding! Sounds like your buddies were real characters! When my brother and sister were about 14 and 10 they had a band and played the Ventures version of this tune. It went over well in the Australian pubs!!
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Thanks Joe. I started the stem separation journey last year and find it fascinating. You can do musical revisionist history and make yourself a better mixer now than you were then. It’s good for the ego. As Dana noted, there are some audible artifacts. I think I should do an experiment. Take a song that Dana recorded and knows well, and compare it to that same song but after having it go through only the stem separation process (without mix or EQ changes) then recombine those separated parts to see if they add back together cleanly by doing a null test between the time and level matched original and the stem separated recombo version. The artifacts would be left over after combining the two version with one out of polarity. (-1.x) + (1) = x. The artifact being the x schmutz.
Better yet, I’ll do your recently posted song if you’re game.
PT
PT
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Joe, et al,
So i did the separation stem experiment today. Rather than use one of @dana ‘s pieces of work I used an old favorite mashup.
The idea is the same…
1) Listen to the original,
2) Listen to the post-separated stems recombined to see if it differs noticeably
3) The null test. Listening to original and the reconstructed stems simultaneously. (With the reconstructed stems version out of polarity added to the original would yield just the difference and should be evidence of any level overall change AND the artifacts of the separation process.
The level change and artifacts appear! Voila. science still works. At least through the end of the year .🇺🇸
4) Bonus track is the post-separated recombined stems with the vocal stem boosted 2 dB to see how far you can push the level.
5) Separated vocal stem to see the damage done
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science still works. At least through the end of the year . 🇺🇸
😂 Wow, I almost spit out my coffee when I read that, Paul, LOL
This is super cool and scientific and enlightening, man – thanks for putting this together and sharing your results!! Very cool, Doctor Detective!
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Wow! this is amaazing! You know what they say — “The @detective don’t play!!!”
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Really amazing technology, Paul!! Thanks for sharing your experiments!
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