Don't Rely on the Radio

Here's a garagy tune i've been producing for my cousin, Vonesvonic.

We've done it over the period of a few months, primarily recording in an attic in the North of England - then recording new elements down in London, also working via Skype and such to keep working remotely. Its a real mixture, and has been a bit of an upward struggle to compose (lots of revisions to keep is as simple and focused as possible). It's all done in Ableton Live, with lots of Guitar Rig 3.

My cousin Will does vocals, beatbox, guitar, bass and we share credit on claps. I put it together.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by 6am (13 comments total)

Oh, theres some lovely Juno 60 and M-Tron in there too...
posted by 6am at 8:29 AM on April 29

I dig this a lot. Lots of neat textures in there, and the repeating vocal line really works; great rhythm. I think the mix gets really crowded as the rhythm track builds, though (so much stuff is dead-center).
posted by uncleozzy at 8:36 AM on April 29

Yeah true, I've tried to use panning to alleviate that to a degree, but I'll probably have work on this further. I could do with some fresh ears though. Gonna take a break from it...!
posted by 6am at 8:40 AM on April 29

I like this so much it inspired me to finally start a play-list, just so I could add it. I think I might agree with uncleozzy a bit about the stereo field in places (mainly some of the guitars about midway through could stand to be panned more), but it's kind of hard to tell given the flattening effect of crappy desktop speakers, and even so it's an incredibly minor point. On the whole, the mix works just fine for me.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:48 AM on April 29

Yeah, don't be afraid to hard-pan stuff! Plenty of people mix without pan pots, just L-C-R switches. With appropriate spatial treatments, it often works out better. (And don't be afraid to use really severe subtractive EQ, either!)
posted by uncleozzy at 8:49 AM on April 29

Thanks guys - yeah I've got a bee in my bonnet about full-on hard panning (been listening to a lot of old records lately with headphones, theres some barking panning in those), but the pan has the power to clarify busy stuff like this. I've got so much to learn about mixing. Got quite a good book on this, and I'll be going over it soon enough.
posted by 6am at 9:00 AM on April 29

I've been away from MeFiMu for a while and this is a great song to get me started off again. The panning thing mentioned above didn't distract me at all. This is great.
posted by snsranch at 4:17 PM on April 29

I love the singing on this one. Really great.
posted by ORthey at 11:23 AM on April 30

Nice.
posted by chococat at 11:11 PM on May 2

Great song.
posted by flod logic at 1:20 PM on May 13

This should play on the radio.
posted by jchgf at 7:26 AM on May 14

THis was really cool.
posted by !Jim at 10:53 PM on May 14

I really enjoy this, keep it up man. Passed this on to my gf and she loves your voice. Huzzah!
posted by Fizz at 6:34 PM on May 20