Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Jesse!! Here are my real-time unedited notes while listening:
- How beautiful! I instantly love this.
- Turn up the geese!!! More ambience.
- Guitar sounds kinda thin.
- 1:00 – woah the track just opened way up with more production, what a fun surprise!
- 1:26 L/R strum guitars sound real thin.
- 1:46 I’d try making your vocal louder, and more verb-y! by 2:11 the level sound right, but would be cool w more verb
- 2:30 – deeeeyumn! Chills! Love this progression and the soft low end kick booty is wonderful. Love all the claps and snaps and textures.
- 3:11 ending vocals, again more dreamy verb. Vocals in general also sound a bit thin. Try some Waves R-Bass (maybe set to 100-200hz) on the vocal and the ac guitars to fill them out with more body.
SOOOO beautiful, brother!!!! Seriously, what a treat to listen to. Thank you so much for sharing your magic with us all!
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What an excellent singer and songwriter she is!
Damn that minor-iv-chord pre-chorus setup is amazing. Great bridge and melodies and lyrics all around.
Love learning more about your processing voodoo! Whatever you’ve done sounds excellent, man.
- 0:30-0:32 there are a couple guitar chords here that aren’t as full as the rest and I bet you could fly them from earlier in the verse if you wanted to. You know … since you have the guitar separated from the vocal, you Rip-X madman!
- Only other thing from me is wanting to hear more of that audience at the end. Turn that applause up loud and proud cause a) she deserves it – and so do you!, and b) it’ll really make listeners go “wait .. woah, that was live?! It sounded like a studio recording!” If the audience sound isn’t as robust there in your 2-track as needed, perhaps you could fly in some audience bits from her stage entrance or exit to supplement, with your 20ms widening perhaps!
Awesome stuff as always, @-PT! Thanks for sharing both your audio AND your process!!
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Can’t wait to hear this, Paul! I will re-upload your mp3 as soon as we locate it in our backup files – so sorry about that! Feel free to DM me the mp3 as well if you don’t see it updated here by the time you read this.
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Holmes!
OK, sorry so late to the party with actual feedback. I’ve been traveling tons and working my arse off lately. Currently in headphones in my hotel lobby in NYC catching up on all I’ve missed here on MP!! K … here are my headphone listen notes:
This Cloud
- Kick could hit a bit louder (layer in something on top of what u have going on already? Perhaps something round and punchy without too much top end, something that can punch thru the mix not too sub-y, that will punch you in the chest)
- 1:12 – love those “cloud” bgvs, nice touch!
- 1:28 – maybe something new for this chorus like a tambourine, to up the ante on the previous chorus
- 2:13 – there’s a momentary weird vocal “ooh” note that sounds out of key, right before or during “mouth is shaking”
- 2:30 – there’s the shaker I was looking for on the previous chorus! Maybe use the shaker for ch 2 and add an additional texture for the last choruses (cymbal crashes on downbeats maybe, and/or additional swing/breakbeat/90s-style perc loop texture). U could also add more movement or fills in the bass during the last dbl chorus for even more “final chorus is bigger than all the rest” type thing.
Everything else feels real nice, man!!! Great song, great production, great work!!
And those suggestions are just that … suggestions, ideas, brainstorms … my ears looking for just a little more subtle “structural” ear candy to keep things ever-building.
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Jesse! I agree with @shimmerisland‘s suggestions.
Sometimes that sax gets a bit lost when playing along with you and your melody. And is a bit dry compared to the wetness of everything else in the track.
When you and the sax are playing the melody, you both sound a bit over-compressed. Your burning solos sound nice and loud and less compressed, so maybe try that level and setting for the whole song for the guitar and sax and see what that’s like?
The snare is defs very crispy/bright compared to the rest of the instruments in the mix, so it’s hard to keep perspective with my comments. Part of me is like, “don’t change the snare! Add brightness and volume to everything else in the mix to match the snare!”
It’s really gorgeous and fun to listen to and I love the playing and the programming, man!!!!
Just easy little adjustments to bring it on home!
Great work!!
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Yeah dude! Always pumped to peep a new Shimmer Island jam and this does not disappoint! I gotta listen on my real speakers before offering any mix/level feedback, but for a late-night laptop listen it’s sounding bumpin and beautiful. Love that 90s-esque shuffle beat!
Will circle back soon once I’ve listened in my studio, homey. Great stuff, as always!
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Jesse!!! This is so freaking cool! Amazing work, my man! Gonna circle back with some ideas soon…
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Love this, Paul! And love your description of Geese migration using stereo pan language, lolol. Amazing.
I should note, too, for anyone reading and/or commenting in the Member Spotlight forum, I always leave my notes before reading anyone else’s. Just in case you’re like, “Dana, I already mentioned the geese and the verb!”
Great minds…
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@-PT I see what you mean, and thanks for alerting me to this (you too, @jlew)! And sorry, @shimmerisland for making your mp3 disappear! I’m looking into what caused this and a few other mp3s to have gone missing from the server — most likely cause is that when restoring the site from a backup there may have been a short window of days (and files) that hadn’t been backed up yet … but we’ll get to the bottom of it! Sorry for the inconvenience.
I built a quick “Report an Issue” form, which I’ll add to the website footer soon. Meantime, you can find it here: https://mixprotege.com/report-an-issue. Feel free to test it out if/when any of yall find a lil gremlin lurking in our midst!
Also! … @shimmerisland, I just realized that I have a copy of your “This Cloud” mp3! I’ll edit your original post, above, and re-upload it there so at least this particular gremlin will be fixed.
mixprotege.com
Use this form to report a technical issue with the website such as broken links or missing audio or video.
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Very cool intro idea, Paul! I didn’t mind @shimmerisland‘s abstract intro as it was, but I dig your version mucho as well! Curious what Jeremy thinks of your AI/RX wizardry…
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Thanks, @joerobinson – been a devastating time for so many here in L.A. My home thankfully was not in danger, but so many dear friends here have been really affected and/or lost their entire homes and studios. Just heartbreaking. Thanks for your care and concern, brother. -
in reply to: Zoom Replay: Perfect Compression Settings by Ear
@jlew! Awe, I’m so glad, man – thank you!! Looking fwd to doing another Zoom like this soon…
Hit me with any specific topic ideas!
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Awe man, sorry about my misguided Spidey senses and poor choice of words!
Love that Skip is with us in spirit and (excellent) voice here on MP
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Woo-wooooo!
So glad to help, man! -
Heck yeah, man! Same to you, brother!