Terracota

As per request, this is the track that immediately follows Au Courant. The speaking is samples from a beat poem by Burroughs and the rhymes are mine. This is one of those songs that you toy with for months before you're happy with it. I am also struggling with the levels so any assistance would be much appreciated! (work-in-progress)

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by ageispolis (8 comments total)

Yay!

The Dairy Queen near my house growing up was more of kiosk/drivethru model than a sit-in, so the idea of throwing up in the bathroom. Never threw up in the bathroom, accordingly.
posted by cortex at 1:33 PM on February 12, 2007

Imagine about 68% as much sentence there and it makes sense.
posted by cortex at 1:34 PM on February 12, 2007

I can hear that you put a lot of work into this. I'm impressed. Levels? They work for me. This is good stuff.
posted by snsranch at 3:41 PM on February 12, 2007

This is quality.
posted by isopraxis at 6:00 PM on February 12, 2007

Whoa. This is excellent.
posted by threetoed at 9:05 PM on February 12, 2007

This is good. As far as levels go, individual track compression helps a lot--a multi-band compressor is the tool of the gods. The levels sound pretty good to me, though--I'm guessing you want to bring some of the vocals forward a bit, for which I'd recommend an EQ boost in the neighborhood of 1200K, because that's where your intelligibility sits. Telephone handsets use this trick.
posted by Nahum Tate at 2:24 AM on February 14, 2007

Oops, that's 1200 Hz, or 1.2 kHz.
posted by Nahum Tate at 2:29 AM on February 14, 2007

First off, this is very good. You are almost single-handedly making me appreciate an entire genre I've previously avoided.

The panning you use at the end is very effective, I think you should introduce it from the beginning. That would also give the impression in certain sections of addressing the overall level.

The entire thing sounds like it needs "brightening"... unless there are noise issues, I'd ramp up the entire upper 4th of the band.

The thin section at 1:57 doesn't fit with the rest of the piece.

I think the synth line beginning at 2:36 needs to be pulled back some due to the addition of the piano.

I think it would be neat to just hear piano and percussion at 2:52 with the "throwing up instead". That would lead nicely to your new phrasing at 2:55.

All the above is just my opinion, and does not diminish what I think is really very good work.
posted by Ynoxas at 8:34 PM on February 14, 2007