Entourage Paul Tucci
EntourageForum Replies Created
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Hi Kevin, I was agreeing with the Mix Master D in the first few bars regarding the guitars being a touch forward, especially with the drummer mixing it. I coaxed a bit more drum out of your interesting and strong guitar piece to demonstrate what Dana was possibly hearing. -PT
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Jesse, I, for one, am digging the “Down by the river series’ you seemed to be riding recently. This next step of additional layers grafted onto your acoustic performance is logical and encouraged from my point of view. I bought completely into the invisibility of the added acoustic guitar until the other layers (non guitar sounding) came in. I would suggest patience before those new layers come into play and I would suggest gentleness when they do. I’m feeling the au natural guitar getting buried by the bass texture and it takes my attention away from your performance space. At the end of the music I really wanted the flowing water and wind sounds to ground me back to your original location but it just wasn’t happening. As I’m writing this I realize that’s exactly what I did when I reworked your flugelhorn piece with bird calls and a bigger stream with a bigger stereo spread. I got stuck on how to place the original guitar so that is just sitting on my drive unfinished. As far as the nature of lo-fi sounds goes, that question is long since settled. Lo-fi and/or distortion has worked quite well for Beck, Link Wray, and Hendrix. There’s a whole lotta songs in the US Govt archives that are bandwidth limited. Chase your instincts and make your art. PT
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I’m doing everything on in the box and on headphones. What are your studio big speakers?
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David, Thanks. You recognize my early musical influences precisely. Intelligibility and clarity that I fought to achieve for so long in hostile acoustic environments (live audio) carried over into my approach in the recording world where we have complete control, including firing any player that doesn’t play for the team and insists on overplaying. Appreciate the word.
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Christopher, I implemented one of Dana’s ideas and dropped the vocal level en mass about 1.6 dB, high passed the vocals to 110Hz or so, high shelved the vocals .3 dB from 1200Hz, and the high shelved the entire mix .2 dB from 1200 Hz or so and gave it all a little squish to boost the overall level 1dB. I’m hoping it’s helpful to the readers/listeners to compare two versions. -PT
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Jeremy, That’s greasy good mon! I think it sounds consistent and crystal clear throughout other than that chorus vocal. If you stripped away all the music and listened to only vocals I’ll bet that the chorus vocal has a definite different tonality compared to all the Rastas. Because it is tonally darker and not wide open in the mid-range like the Rastas are, you might think it to be woofy. I’m hearing that chorus vocal (you?) as midrange deficient. Like Dana said, that could be a choice. If it is a tonal choice I have to think a dB or two level boost will make it sit closer to the other vocal parts. The best $79 I’ve spent in audio was the Sonarworks headphone correction software. Highly recommended. Are you hip to it? https://www.sonarworks.com/soundid-reference?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gad_source=1
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Your new version is much stronger and focused on the vocal delivery. YEA!!
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Alex, I have an arrangement idea that I was enjoying in my head today. During the breakdown / orchestral stab section (1:30 +) you drop the electronic claps ever so briefly. They’re playing a syncopated pattern on the uno AND two FOUR. I wonder if that section would have a stronger differentiated feel from the other sections if the backbeat of TWO and FOUR were used. I’m gonna upload a middle section of rap (not me, that’s for sure) that sits inside a piece I’m working on. I specifically invite you have a listen when you can as our apparent hop head. In a day or so. -PT
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Alex, I took the opportunity to work on your track addressing a few of the mix family comments. My hope is that your listeners here can now compare the before and after, at least within the parameters I can get at. Thank you for allowing me onto your work. I’m learning some new tricks in mastering because of this. Firstly, my Ozone 11 Mastering software allows me to discretely raise the level of a Vocal, Bass, or Drum stem right off the two track. It’s crazy. I think this is the most audible change. Secondly, I managed another .5dB of overall and avoided any clipped samples while adding a touch of saturation using the low level of soft clip afforded by the Ozone. Thirdly, I took the “Low End Focus” tool and made the 20 – 150 Hz range more punchy than smooth. You get that option. Dana loved the thumpin’ kick so I gave it a little love. And finally, I took advantage of the software’s intelligence and ran the track through the frequency analysis. It splits things into up to 4 bands across the audio spectrum and then allows you to enhance the L-R spread of any or all bands. I gave the low mid and high mid bands a little breathing room so the Vocals and Keyboards have a little wider feel. Although I’m a sucker for the old Beatles vocals thissa way and instruments thatta way technique, I kept you modern. I trust you will be the best judge of my experiment and especially hope other listeners find it educational. -PT
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Alex, If my memory is correct, during the M-P meetup Dana had a couple months ago you mentioned you were in Hawaii. That fact stuck with me because I’ve been over yonder a couple times and loved the islands. I even hopped the Do Not Cross signs on a Big Island southern lava flow and had a magical sunrise hike. All I could see in any direction was lava or the Pacific. Now for the offered opinion and I was really trying to be succinct but you got to set up the punchline. “This white boy spits fire like Pele spits Aa.” Absolutely love the middle section where you break it down to orchestral stabs!! -PT
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👏👏👏 Zelda is in good hands. -PT
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Thanks. It was always about the drums and what to surround them with vocally and never got to a bass part. It’s a repeating thing in my creations. Next round of attention I give this song will be a bassish add. That feedback is good because I can get remotivated. Thx Very grateful the cop killer line went unnoticed.
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Michael, I spent my day learning some new mastering software and let’s see if this result addresses any of the mentioned suggestions. Ozone 11 is a mastering suite in the digital domain. There are many modules that range from analog simulations, digital EQs, compressors of different flavors, limiters with or without parallel processed grit, AI powered shapers that try to aim the frequency response to a reference. There’s even a variable band-with EQ low frequency that can identify transient or sustained sounds and accentuate on or the other. I used that one to bump the Bass Guitar up a couple dB to be more audible against the kick. Another module can identify the Vocals and treat them separately from the rest of the two track. (Unlike the RIP-x mentioned the other day which does stem separation.) I gave the Vocals +.8 boost. I think it makes your work take a step into a poppier place. See if anything moves you. -PT
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Michael, Hello or welcome, not sure if I’ve heard anything or yours yet. This is a pretty damn good pop song to my ear. I am in agreement with some of the comments already made. Save the vocal distortion treatment for the final spoken. Between the telephone eq and some grit the angst will be huge. Your arrangement has movement. The guitar bass interplay varies verse to verse and thats good. I can hear deeper into the music when the bass and guitar play more sparsely. The musical stabs they play have impact and leave open space. I understand your words of “more pop than punk.” If its a pop song, and I do truly believe it is, let the lady’s vocal shine through without having to compete with your overly energetic guitarist, especially in the first verse where the tone is trying to be set. Eighth notes from the bass and the guitarist feels too heavy to me. That might feel gentler if they combined to one sound. Bass notes but with the fuzz of the guitar slightly on top. I love the couple stops in arrangement. At that quick tempo even a measure of silence is so refreshing. Once again, I favor the space. The chorus is dense. Love the BGVs and its spread and level behind the lead vocal. I get confused where my attention is being drawn to. The lead vocal? The counter melody slightly underneath? That “energetic” guitarist again? Then again, I am old, closer to dead than my prime. I also come bearing gifts. I took your tune and ran it through some AI software I’ve been playing with. It can take a two track and separate out 5 stereo stems of BASS, DRUMS, GUITAR, PIANO, VOCAL, and a catchall, OTHER. I might just be able to easily experiment with some of these ideas and quickly implement a VOCAL up GUITAR down, etc version. Here’s three snippets of your catchy composition. I wanted to see if recombining the separated stems had audible artifacts compared to your original. I think the RIP-X stem version fared very well. (No processing done other than mixing the stems back together at unity.) Then I went nutty and said “I wonder if we can tell the difference if one version presented here had a channel (L) from the original and the other channel (R) from the post RIP-X recombined. Michael, I had a great day going down this rabbit hole. Thank you. Far more productive than the Taylor Swift conspiracy from last week. -PT
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David, thank you Boomer! I do love sharing my silly songs after a career in the live sound world. -PT