Entourage Paul Tucci
EntourageForum Replies Created
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Jesse, yes. I’ve had this one in the lineup for a good long while. It’s free, and if you use a fractional octave setting you’re comfortable with…useful. The Slope editor function is the Devil.
PT
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Drew,
There’s nothing like a big ol’ bass bomb from Phil or an acoustic bass to grab peoples’ attention. There’s a certain joy to be had with a big PA and subwoofers 🙂 . That acoustic bass can own the low end, especially in your genre.
So the lowest fundamental of an open E on the 4 string bass is 41Hz. Capturing it is a different story. You have to have those freqs recorded on tape/in the computer before you can can process them to fit in the music. EQ alone may not work if the relative level of 40 is way lower than the 100Hz area as your graphs showed. Multi-band compression won’t help much if there’s precious little content down there.
One trick I’ve used in similar circumstances is when the kick drum doesn’t really have deep bass but I want deep bass (without utilizing a sample) is to low pass a duplicate channel of the problematic instrument so that only low freqs are present. Then drop it down an octave via whatever tuning effect you have available. Where you low pass (high cut) the dupe channel is critical. If you want more below 50 Hz, I’d aim that low pass filter at 100ish Hz with a steep filter. Feather the newly created deep bass into the mix against the original. High passing (low cut) the original bass channel may clear some mud from the combination of sounds. It’s a cheat but effective if you can’t capture the low end off the pickup or microphone of the original recording.
PT
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Joe,
So far over the line into awesomeness, both your playing and visually. I can definitely see a collaborative effort between you and Jesse. It would be unquestionably tasty. The only question would be if you play in 7 or 4. That and the inclusion of natural sounds. I kinda dig the calming effect of rushing water. Just gorgeous!!
PT
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Bar,
This a very good piece of work as is. I’ve listened a half dozen times and think I may have a suggestion or two to offer up when i settle back into normal schedule after doing a bunch of shows and being a caregiver after my wife’s surgery today.
PT
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Joe,
That’s another gorgeous guitar piece from you. The believable sound-field created by your Blumlein mic setup is wholesome. It’s not crazy wide, yet dramatically different and far more compelling than mono. I’m a tinkerer so I tried some harmonic distortion as a brightener, and to my own surprise, a pinch of hall verb to give it even more depth. The first 30 seconds of the piece are below to spark imaginations.
As always, thanks for letting me play in the playground.
PT
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Jeremy,
So I downloaded “Birds” into my DAW before listening to your new creation. I thought we were headed back to the zoo with the other “Animals.” Little did I know we were actually going to outer space. That first vocal intro is gorgeous. It’s lush, spacious in its phrasing and a slower tempo from your previous bangers. That’s more my pace at this point in my life so it really captured my interest though the instrumental intro confused me.
I’m guessing your storytelling wanted the intro to transport us into the cosmos and then add the actual words. I had the idea to tell the story differently. I separated the vocals away from the music and remixed so as to let them shine upfront. (+1dB ) There’s enough space in your signature verb to believe we’re somewhere out there in the cosmos.. Now when the music enters, it is a gentle piano chord entrance, unlike the rocket ship ride as currently presented. One man’s opinion…
All that good tension you built into the last 30 seconds or so that peaks at the final word (?) “There” almost feels anti climactic. Metaphorically speaking, I think there’s room for an effective piece of ear candy that mimics the little sparkle-y fireworks that finish the July 4th celebration big bangs and booms each year.
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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This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by Paul Tucci.
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This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by
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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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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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Bar,
Thank you for lettin’ me in your kitchen. I’m glad the external observations offered up rang true to your vision of the song. I would offer to master this for you when you’re done if you have such a need. In fact, I’m gonna tinker with this version right now.
PT
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Bar,
Thank you and Dana for the well wishes. Honey is doing just fine already. I had the same knee replacement surgery a year ago and came home from the hospital a mess. We’ll see what happens on her day three when the pain really kicks in and at which point I was hallucinating giant spiders.
Bar, your song is beautifully haunting. You sing like a raven-haired sorceress, I trust you’re using your power for good. I love the tempo and instrumentation.( I am curious if a sparingly played acoustic bass wouldn’t add some grounding bass.) All strong choices that support the vibe. It’s so moody that it will find a good home. Once again, I can barely decipher a word but the phrasing is your signature evocative.
I agree with I do have a question about the bazoukiMix-Master D when he questioned the vocal placement. I dropped the vocal level 2dB in my DAW (I can do magic too:)) to help put it in the song rather than atop the song. I react to your vocal level more akin to a pop song than the intended (?) conjuring.
I I do have a question about the bazouki in the outro, What was the thinking to have the bazouki play the ending lick by itself instead of the resolve with the guitar? It made me think rather than just feel the completion of whatever-the-event-was-we-just-stumbled-upon.
More verb across everything might just add the right flavor to the soup you’ve got cooking in the cauldron. Wait. What? Is that me talking? I fear one of those painkillers may have slipped into the spaghetti sauce I had with dinner.
PT ish
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I’m curious to see if Joe digs it. I may have made it ever so slightly unnatural sounding if the intent was 100% au natural.
PT
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Dana,
Thanks, I just tried to make it more of what I think it is. Exercising my “taste’ choices on other folks’ art hopefully makes me smarter in this game. It’s analogous to improvisational comedy where the correct reaction is “Yes, and…”
I’m definitely smarter now than when I brought Neil Young’s version of the song “On Broadway” onto the bus and asked my employer, the guy who won a Grammy for his version thought about it. That was awkward and certainly reinforces your idea of music not being binary. There are however, choices that are better than some others. That’s timely advice here on the first Monday of November. 📡 🇺🇲
PT
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Yea man,
I feel like I benefit also. It’s good to exercise the perception of the songs and then gently articulate that into informative, entertaining, supportive suggestions (“what ifs?) and not get stuck in my own biases. I’m looking at you Wallace Clement Sabine.
PT
ps I agree, Nate is gifted with his vocal arrangements.