Entourage Paul Tucci
EntourageForum Replies Created
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Drew,
I’m guessing here that these are all separate tracks that you or the engineer have discrete level control on to send to the reverb. If that’s accurate, see if keeping the bass reverb-free (TM) allows you to sneak the reverb in more gently without it crossing the line into too much. Another approach to try might be high passing the reverb return. Allowing only low-mids (200Hz ish) and above into the soup’s seasoning to give the illusion of a room’s space but avoid the inarticulate mumbling of a sloppy low end.
I’m gonna learn something here also when Dana shares his thoughts.
PT
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Dear J-Bear,
I’m with Charissa on this one. I wanted to relish the vocal presentation so I did this to your sweet song. I even used a new reverb I bought yesterday. It’s another in the iZotope line of AI helper plugins called Aurora. The smarts in it do some kinda magic of suppressing the amount of verb while the dry signal is happening and then allowing the verb to bloom. It definitely makes my disdain for (in the way) reverb less because it allows the good ambience to show up after the fact. (It’s substantially different than pre-delay.) I also let the vocal be the side-chained input to the guitar level control. While the vocal is happening one can suppress the guitar track by a tasty amount of reduction to your taste. It’s frequency dependent also, depending on what’s common to both the guitar and vocal. I thought it helped me clean up the overlap, and not hurt the guitar tone. I’ll trust your guitar-centricity on that observation.
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Jeremy,
“Does the beat slap?” you ask. Yes, it’s a strong syncopated groove, but it’s also relentless and doesn’t hold up to the rest of your great work in the arrangement. The variations I hear are the drop in level in the pre-chorus and the dropout, the complete absence of the beat.
Dropping the beat is always dynamically effective because of the suspension of the groove and then when it returns, bang, we’re back on the dance floor. That’s tasty, but when the level changes during the pre-chorus, I’m feeling like it’s losing power AND the tonality changes. (Thanks Mr. Munson.)
Your backbeat is obviously a canned loop. I wish your “drummer” had a different and more thoughtful approach to the differing verse, pre-chorus, and chorus sections of your dance tune. To my sensibility, that would make a huge change to the good. You feelin’ me?
PT
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Jesse,
Once again, you present us with an aquatic audio treasure without the need to get our feet wet or fly the skull and crossbones of an actual pirate’s life. I almost always enjoy the calm and inviting space you craft for your listeners. You’re kinda like the outdoor Bob Villa.
You’ve taken us into nature, up in the mountains, deep into a cave, and along a surprisingly crunchy path in the fall woods. Each journey is its own unique delight, except for that one entitled “Whistler.” It’s not my general disdain of whistlers as much as the close-up of the frozen snot on your mustache. I have limits ya know, but I do encourage MP readers to have a stroll though your ATTICUS offerings and find their own fave.
The MIDI adventure has such potential! I can’t help but wonder what the rowboat series might sound like with a layer from either the Octopi’s Garden, Bikini Bottom, or anywhere Under the Sea for that matter.
PT
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Joe,
Way to make an entrance!! This piece of music jumps out of the speakers because of its phenomenal playing and great composition that just oozes joy. You nailed the hard part of writing and playing already. The technical stuff MP can help you with. I’m happy to put on my lab coat and dissect it and offer up my observations.
I encourage you to check out Patrick Harber’s stuff in the Member Spotlight. I can smell an infectious, positive collaboration between his piano and your guitar work. Powerful enough to make Benjamin Yahoo self actualize and understand that hurt people hurt people? Most likely not, but there’s plenty of good to be spread before that.
PT
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Jesse, that’s close but I was thinking something more like this.
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I think it’s really a gain staging question.
You could send all the signal you want as long as you don’t overload the input to the verb. If you clip the verb input, that nasty digital schmutz will be baked into the verb return no matter what level you choose to use at the fader. You will have boxed yourself into a corner of somewhere between quiet distortion or “Oh Fuck!” fader dependent. In the old days, analog gear would be quieter when operating at healthy, but below clipping levels. The newfangled digital stuff seems to have a much better S/N ratio allowing a bit of slop in gain staging. There’s an argument to be made that the resolution of the reverb would be finer if all the digital bucket is filled with signal. No idea how audible that would be.
-@PT
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So I’m not alone in having not thought about that DIY reverb ducker chain before.
I still think the $50 I spent on the verb is well worth it for ease of use, especially now that I’m making friends with daverb.
iZOTOPE Aurora
PT
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Jesse,
Not sure why my bastardized version is not playable now. Maybe Dana thought the hip hop beat I added was inappropriate and wanted to put the kaibosh on it. I dunno. 🤨
I’ll DM PT’s version to you here on MP.
PT
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Jeremy,
I think you got some great advice and executed it beautifully.
This version has all the dynamic movement and textural morphing to keep a listener riveted. I’m saying yes, it’s complete, wholesome, and ready for mastering after you consider its target audience. Your vocal work once again is compelling and perfect as a pop release. If the song gets used in support of a primarily visual presentation, let’s say (and hope) for a movie or a TV spot, the lead vocal might be so compelling as to be distracting. Good problem to have, easy problem to fix.
Bravo!👏
PT
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Joe,
My initial listen was on the laptop speakers, critical listening was on my frequency-response connected headphones where the limited bandwidth and overzealous use of compression becomes audible. Dana nailed it.
To my ear, Patrick has some sort of magic in his choice of music and his playing. Curious if you can see that commonality.
PT
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Nate,
Full disclosure, all of my stories are good, most of them are true.
No need to forgive the delay. I love when the muse hits and I go with it at the expense of for instance, painting the house. Chore-y kinda stuff. I look forward to hearing the final version and going back to the other iterations to hear the growth.
PT
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Bar,
Yes! Walk away, hands in the air. Success. I have no idea what the song is about lyrically but it’s unimportant because the vibe is strong, guitar picking is strong, the arrangement is more clarified, and the vocal delivery is captivating and somewhat mysterious. That might could be your brand.
PT
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No, I did not move any drum hits in time but I did remove the very last side stick/snare to decouple the the soft landing of the last vocal phrases from hard time to suggest a musical retard .
PT