It's A Cryin' Shame (That I Appear To Be Drunk In Charge Of A Mix, Officer)

April 26, 2013 1:41 PM

Laydeez an' genlemin if I may pray your indulgence one more time (with or without feeling). This track has proved a bugger to mix, the problem being trying to ensure that the bass is in the driving seat but in an unobtrusive, self-effacing way rather than sounding like a Fender Total Bastard. I think this one is mix #8. Whatever it is, it's the fucking last one...

posted by Hoops McCann (11 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

I just listened to all three versions several times and...

You're gonna hate me because...

I like the first one best.

They're all good, actually, but the first one stands out. First thought, best thought maybe.

It's got way more punch than the other two, which are definitely easier on the ears but they don't come charging into your brain like that one does.

I like the bass sound on the other two better than the bass on this, which sounds a bit plunky and farty, where it's sort of smooth and powerful on the others.

I'm not in love with the organ sound or part, feels a bit perfunctory, but it is less featured on the first one so doesn't bother me as much and besides, the song is so strong, it doesn't matter at all.

The little stops and starts all seem to hit harder on the first one. I guess it just feels more 'you' overall.

I'm very tempted to try to master it, though... I think it might just push it over the top.
posted by unSane at 2:34 PM on April 26, 2013


I cheekily had a go a mastering your original mix, Hoops. I'm sure you'll hate it, which is fine! I put a little bit of compression on it which seemed to take down the spikes on the guitars a notch -- see what you think.
posted by unSane at 3:28 PM on April 26, 2013


Oh, and is it my imagination is the vocal doubled here and there? I hear a kind of chorusy effect on 'half a chance' and a few other places.
posted by unSane at 3:31 PM on April 26, 2013


I love that you can hear the off-mic, room-sound of the guitar pick in the strummy part at the beginning. I always have that leaky room-stuff when I record things.
posted by chococat at 7:57 PM on April 26, 2013


Ha, that's exactly the kind of thing that bugs the shit out of me.

And therein lies the difference, and therein.
posted by unSane at 9:15 PM on April 26, 2013


ha! Just hold still a sec while I give you a punch up the froat. I prefer the bass on this - it's got a "nose" on it that the other mixes didn't have and you can clearly hear what's being played. It's that bass part that made some listeners put a "blue-eyed soul" tag on this one I think. I also feel that this mix has a slightly more "live" feel to it - the organ part helps there but it is indeed perfunctory because it was done in one take and wasn't originally intended to provide anything more than textual colour. And I can't be arsed to write a "proper" part and then take forever to play it due to my inept keyboard "skills"

I guess the best thing is to leave the whole thing alone for a few months and then listen to all the mixes and the best one should leap out. If I'm true to form I'll forget all about it by then anyway.

That's actually one of the slightly regrettable things about making music in the way I do, I find. Because these recordings never get released or incorporated into a live set, they're little more than extended improvisations - ephemeral noodlings - and when they're done (or my interest wanes) they just get put in a metaphorical drawer and are forgotten. Except perhaps for the few stand-out ones that do tend to stick in the mind for some reason - although what I think are my best efforts is not often confirmed by the reaction of listeners. And if you start "chasing ratings" as it were - that's a catastrophic mistake. Stay on the fucking bus indeed. All very existential innit.... Wonder if anyone else feels the same?

No problem with you having a go at mastering unSane - I'll have a listen to that shortly. I was going to offer to send you an "unmastered" mixdown of that first pass but I'm not certain I can recover that mix now, I might have overwritten it. If you're interested I can check that out.

No doubled vocal on this - there was a harmony vocal on the last chorus which I forgot to include on the first mix, and then decided it was a bit of an obvious move (as would be shifting things up a tone for the last chorus - I hate tin pan alley contrivances like that).
posted by Hoops McCann at 11:49 AM on April 27, 2013


I just listened to that remaster unS. It sounds great.......but it's just a bit too loud and is distorting/clipping. This is obvious from the get-go during the strummed tele intro. You know as well as I do that whereas tape saturation is nice, digital clipping is nasty. Maybe if you drop it down a couple of dBs? Or run it through your Revox to warm it up a bit? Really heats it up though - thanks for having a go!
posted by Hoops McCann at 12:53 PM on April 27, 2013


Yeah, I thought I heard some clipping on it too but didn't have time to figure out where it was coming from. I will have another go at it. If you do dig out the unmaster, that would be great, but the current mix is fine since you didn't do much to it that I can hear and it's not squashed at all.
posted by unSane at 4:58 PM on April 27, 2013


Unsane has nutted it - that remaster sounds awesome.
posted by greenish at 9:17 AM on April 30, 2013


Because these recordings never get released or incorporated into a live set, they're little more than extended improvisations - ephemeral noodlings - and when they're done (or my interest wanes) they just get put in a metaphorical drawer and are forgotten. Except perhaps for the few stand-out ones that do tend to stick in the mind for some reason - although what I think are my best efforts is not often confirmed by the reaction of listeners. And if you start "chasing ratings" as it were - that's a catastrophic mistake. Stay on the fucking bus indeed. All very existential innit.... Wonder if anyone else feels the same?

Yep, i've got the drawer-full, only mine are half-done ideas rather than completed bits...
posted by dubold at 11:39 AM on April 30, 2013


This might seem a bit churlish/unappreciative but I'd have liked to have been asked/consulted before this track was podcasted. The mix doesn't totally suck but it's certainly not the best or optimum one - that's a kind of ongoing search and, yup, unSane has got the closest to nailing it so far.
posted by Hoops McCann at 4:58 AM on May 1, 2013


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