River Town

Sometimes various musical genres blend together to create something fresh and brilliant - the old with the new, analogue with digital, with styles and sounds intermeshing to create a new fabric. That is what we were after with this song, which has got to be the Ummagma song that leans most towards folk-rock. A little hiatus from dreampop.

I can’t hear you
For the rushing of the river bend
Tells a story
And you know that story has no end

Time she passes by
River steadfast in her place
Living monument to those
Who knew her grace

Human nature
Birth and death and love and war
All we’ve brought her then
Just ashes once we’re gone

Whispers to you
Living monument
Living monument

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posted by Brodyaga (5 comments total)

Love it, especially the drums! The African drum (I'm guessing) is beautiful, the acoustic guitar reminds me of Diablo's Tristram, which is very cool. The singing is good, like to have the lyrics in front of me, got a little bit drowned out, might be because everything is crazy compressed, recommend that it's toned down just a little so the voice can enjoy it's full potential, at least while it is there.

Like it, like it, like it... just needs a little bit of tweak to even that much better!
posted by AnTilgangs at 1:23 PM on April 15, 2013

AnTilgangs - do you think that tweak can happen at the mastering stage? I don't know Diablo's Tristram at all - I should check that out. Is his (their) other material in this same stream?

Thanks for your kind words.
posted by Brodyaga at 4:15 PM on April 15, 2013

Well, I was actually referring to the video-game, Diablo. First one had this great delayed acoustic guitar song that's brilliant. Not very mainstream I think but those who know the game know the song!

The mastering stage is usually reserved for getting a overall sound for a CD or for the final stages for radio. When it comes to the tweak... Well, it's never an easy answer, is it? You'd like to keep the overall sound, I'd guess, without drowning out the voice. So, few things you could try: Lower the compression just so that the voice will get through. If that ruins the overall sound, try EQ the voice so that it sits better in the mix. If that doesn't work, try a little bit of EQ on the rest.

If none of the above works, take a deep breath, leave it for a while, come back with fresh ears. Sometimes when you've been working for long on a detail like this you'll get derailed and forget what you are trying to accomplish. So sometimes it's just better to take a breather and see if it hasn't already reached the goal you had in mind or if you hear something that you didn't before.

Hope that helps!
posted by AnTilgangs at 5:44 PM on April 15, 2013

Thanks AnTilgangs - are you mastering your own work too?
posted by Brodyaga at 11:41 AM on May 7, 2013

Yes we're mastering our own work so far… we tried to send a few tracks out earlier to have it done but we didn't observed a noticeable improvement - just louder volume levels...
posted by Brodyaga at 3:53 AM on November 8, 2013