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(Re)Mixing Challenge - VOTING!


Skol303
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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413635399' post='2580373']
Do me a favour Ian, can you Mellodyne my baseline to correct all those bloody timing errors :D
[/quote]
No!





Hehehehe I hadn't noticed any glaring timing hiccups, and if there are any there, well they're just adding to the flavour of the song. Who wants a 'locked to the click' bassline anyway ;) ?

On a serious note, the tracks are all really well recorded. Noticed some spill from the drums in the BV tracks, but nothing too bad :)

Just need to wait until the neighbours are out and I can really crank the big cabs ;)



Ian

Edited by Bottle
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[quote name='Bottle' timestamp='1413643839' post='2580485']
No!





Hehehehe I hadn't noticed any glaring timing hiccups, and if there are any there, well they're just adding to the flavour of the song. Who wants a 'locked to the click' bassline anyway ;) ?

On a serious note, the tracks are all really well recorded. Noticed some spill from the drums in the BV tracks, but nothing too bad :)

Just need to wait until the neighbours are out and I can really crank the big cabs ;)



Ian
[/quote]

Cheers! Hope you have fun with it, mess it about mate, mash it up!

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And here is my first pass!

[url="https://soundcloud.com/ian-sherlock-1/bottles-hoshe-mamba-bc-mix-rough"]https://soundcloud.c...ba-bc-mix-rough[/url]

It's still a work in progress (as is everything in life!)

[u]Wot I 'ave done:[/u]
Topped and tailed all the tracks and grouped under suitable sub-mixes, i.e drums, vox etc
Played around with the intro a little
Added some reverb to the vocals as they were sounding a little dry - this I have found is easy once grouped as I can assign a common send to the ReaVerb plugin from each of the tracks and keep it tight and balanced.
Outro trimmed a little
Threw a rough mix on the whole caboodle - it's a basic L-C-R mix, no muss, no fuss :) BTW, having to mix this on 'cans at the moment, but will give it a go with proper monitors and cabs when I get a quiet moment ;)

[u]T'ings left to do:[/u]
Yep, tidy up the bass with some automation and compression and play around with sending it out to a selection of different cabs 'n' effects. Don't get me wrong,I love Nigels' bassline - really accomplished and well recorded - but this *is* a re-mix challenge and I'd love to shift some real air with a cab and record the result. Nice thick subby lows that'll choke a donkey! Still learning how to do things in Reaper, but I can output individual tracks through a couple of Aux busses on my interface and out to my reamping box.

Anyway that's my cunning plan (you could almost stick a tail on it and call it a weasel)

Thoughts, comments and critique please!

Ian

Edited by Bottle
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[quote name='Bottle' timestamp='1413649146' post='2580564']
And here is my first pass!

[url="https://soundcloud.com/ian-sherlock-1/bottles-hoshe-mamba-bc-mix-rough"]https://soundcloud.c...ba-bc-mix-rough[/url]

It's still a work in progress (as is everything in life!)

[u]Wot I 'ave done:[/u]
Topped and tailed all the tracks and grouped under suitable sub-mixes, i.e drums, vox etc
Played around with the intro a little
Added some reverb to the vocals as they were sounding a little dry - this I have found is easy once grouped as I can assign a common send to the ReaVerb plugin from each of the tracks and keep it tight and balanced.
Outro trimmed a little
Threw a rough mix on the whole caboodle - it's a basic L-C-R mix, no muss, no fuss :) BTW, having to mix this on 'cans at the moment, but will give it a go with proper monitors and cabs when I get a quiet moment ;)

[u]T'ings left to do:[/u]
Yep, tidy up the bass with some automation and compression and play around with sending it out to a selection of different cabs 'n' effects. Don't get me wrong,I love Nigels' bassline - really accomplished and well recorded - but this *is* a re-mix challenge and I'd love to shift some real air with a cab and record the result. Nice thick subby lows that'll choke a donkey! Still learning how to do things in Reaper, but I can output individual tracks through a couple of Aux busses on my interface and out to my reamping box.

Anyway that's my cunning plan (you could almost stick a tail on it and call it a weasel)

Thoughts, comments and critique please!

Ian
[/quote]

I don't remember having hit the crack pipe before recording that bass, but clearly that's what I did. Absolutely shocking. I did it live with no headphones in my own studio and I'll admit I rushed it when I didn't need to, it sounds ok in the the actual track, although I knew the timing was a bit off. I could have taken my time and got it right. Big f***ing lesson! :o

As far as your mix is concerned, lovely! Great vocal sounds mate, lovely vibe, and I love the prominence of our dearest departed Doreen's BVs, it's like she's still with us :) I really like the simplicity of the mix, it sounds really open!

Really looking forward to hearing all these mixes in sequence when the voting starts, very high standard of (re)mixing on all of them.

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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413657106' post='2580670']
I don't remember having hit the crack pipe before recording that bass, but clearly that's what I did. Absolutely shocking. I did it live with no headphones in my own studio and I'll admit I rushed it when I didn't need to, it sounds ok in the the actual track, although I knew the timing was a bit off. I could have taken my time and got it right. Big f***ing lesson! :o

As far as your mix is concerned, lovely! Great vocal sounds mate, lovely vibe, and I love the prominence of our dearest departed Doreen's BVs, it's like she's still with us :) I really like the simplicity of the mix, it sounds really open!

Really looking forward to hearing all these mixes in sequence when the voting starts, very high standard of (re)mixing on all of them.
[/quote]
Awww you're too kind. Really, it was a pleasure to work on the vocals. Perversely, didn't have to do a great deal as they were all well tracked. As I mentioned before, just added a smidge of reverb and hard-panned the BV's left and right. Simples ;) a lot of care and attention went into the original BV's, that much was clear from the stems. I can tell Doreen was a really special influence, mate.

Had a play around with the intro - wanted to do something different, maybe give it more of a dance-y vibe coming into the meat of the track so C+P'd a chunk from the Outro track to fill in the gap.

Nigel, the bass was fine, it fits the vibe of the track so I wouldn't go beating yourself up over it! Once it's in the mix, it fits really nicely. I'm reluctant to do anything with it, mainly because I want to respect the musicianship behind the track, and me with my fat fingers I'm more than likely to make a pigs ear of any attempt to replace it or do anything other than maybe thicken up the lows a little.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the remix :)

ATB, Ian

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I've nearly finished my own take on the track, which I'll hopefully upload tomorrow (depending on whether I decide to do more to it or not).

This re-mixing business is really difficult, so I didn't really change the arrangement all that much, but I've changed other aspects which hopefully make it feel like a different song. Nigel might want to hit me, though :mellow:

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I'm REALLY pleased by how this challenge is taking shape. Good work comrades! There's still plenty of time left, so don't rush.

PS: Nige - your bassline is absolutely fine mate. I don't remember making any adjustments to the section of it that I used - and it's perfectly normal to make some tweaks to any recorded audio (I've played with 'pro' studio stems that have been riddled with little timing issues). So stop sweating it :D

Edited by Skol303
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[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1413664819' post='2580790']
I'm REALLY pleased by how this challenge is taking shape. Good work comrades! There's still plenty of time left, so don't rush.

PS: Nige - your bassline is absolutely fine mate. I don't remember making any adjustments to the section of it that I used - and it's perfectly normal to make some tweaks to any recorded audio (I've played with 'pro' studio stems that have been riddled with little timing issues). So stop sweating it :D
[/quote]
I'll echo Skols comments :) I'm looking into to borrowing a room to pop a couple of cabs in so I can give it the beans :loud: I don't think I did a bad job considering I mixed "in the box" on my Windows 8 laptop and a pair of inexpensive headphones from Maplin. Whilst watching telly. And making dinner ;)

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1413666588' post='2580816']
There was a bass track..? :huh:
[/quote]
Yep, I was quite amazed to find it skulking at the back :)

Edited by Bottle
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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413635399' post='2580373']
Do me a favour Ian, can you Mellodyne my bass line to correct all those bloody timing errors :D
[/quote]

I wouldn't be so hard on yourself it sounds fine, nothing there to be ashamed of. if you play to a lot of quantized and corrected music or produce yourself you can get paranoid about timing, or at least I do, I tend to be ok with other musicians but I find it very hard to be objective when it comes to things I have played. It is a great bass line, the reason I say this is because of all the remixes done with the exaction of mine, the bass line plays a integral part to the tune, the only reason I didn't use it was for that reason, I just felt that I could not add or do anything to improve the tune so I reworked it.

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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413729823' post='2581287']...simply not what I want to hear. It honestly sounds TERRIBLE to me...[/quote]

...which just goes to prove the old adage: 'There's none so deaf as those who won't hear.'..! There's nowt wrong with it. :rolleyes:[size=4] :)[/size]

[size=4]I didn't touch the bass, either (no need to...), except to add a few strokes of bowing, in a sort of 'question/response' idiom. In fact, the whole set of stems are so well done as to not benefit from much, if any, treatment in themselves. Mashing them up, though, that's another story. All bets are off, then..! B)[/size]

Edited by Dad3353
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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413729823' post='2581287']
Cheers geezers :) Thing is, no-one would be able to convince me to be happy with that timing, the timing is simply not what I want to hear. It honestly sounds TERRIBLE to me :D

But I really do appreciate your reassurances, thank you :wub:
[/quote]

I thought the bass track was cool, and nothing jumped out at me as being "wrong".

Anyway, are we forgetting rule number 1? Never listen to your playing in isolation - the final song is what everyone hears. I know that a lot of RHCP have faults (depending on your definition of fault) in them, but they're more or less inaudible when listening to their albums.

Whatever mistakes you made, I didn't pick up on them, so I guess they aren't that obvious :)

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Well, I've gone and managed to score an Edirol (Roland) PC-50 MIDI controller for free off of a guy at work. Result! Just set up the MIDI interface now so that's working....just need a decent VSTi synth now ;) any thoughts as to a good one for Reaper?

I've still got a little bit of tweaking to do to the track. I should be in a position to finish this remix and submit a 'Final' version by the deadline - is that allowed?

Ian

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Ha..! I'd guess you'd want to be a bit more specific than that..! What do you want the synth to do..? Play as a synth..? Emulate other instruments..? Both..? Neither..? As a guide, I've got nearly 150 purely synth Vst's, and haven't even attempted to try them all to see what they do..! I don't doubt that Skol will have a more focused view, but you'll still need to know what you're going to do with it (or them; one may have several...)
... and: Yes, of course you can mess about until deadline with your piece.

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[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1413913236' post='2583556']
Ha..! I'd guess you'd want to be a bit more specific than that..! What do you want the synth to do..? Play as a synth..? Emulate other instruments..? Both..? Neither..? As a guide, I've got nearly 150 purely synth Vst's, and haven't even attempted to try them all to see what they do..! I don't doubt that Skol will have a more focused view, but you'll still need to know what you're going to do with it (or them; one may have several...)
... and: Yes, of course you can mess about until deadline with your piece.
[/quote]
OK guess I had that coming! Well, as I'm new to doing this mixing malarkey, I thought I'd at least get some (free) VSTi plugs to add into Reaper so I've got options to create additional piano and/or synth-y parts to this track (and for the future).

I'm a complete n00b to composition on anything other than a stringed instrument :/ so I'm guessing I'd want a synth for pads etc and a piano/keyboard emulation for creating more lead-type lines.

HTH,
Ian

PS I've just seen a video on YT and taken the recommendation of downloading Super Wave P8 for starters. Now to configure my VSTi folder.....

Edited by Bottle
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[quote name='Bottle' timestamp='1413913939' post='2583575']
OK guess I had that coming! Well, as I'm new to doing this mixing malarkey, I thought I'd at least get some (free) VSTi plugs to add into Reaper so I've got options to create additional piano and/or synth-y parts to this track (and for the future).

I'm a complete n00b to composition on anything other than a stringed instrument :/ so I'm guessing I'd want a synth for pads etc and a piano/keyboard emulation for creating more lead-type lines.

HTH,
Ian

PS I've just seen a video on YT and taken the recommendation of downloading Super Wave P8 for starters. Now to configure my VSTi folder.....
[/quote]
This looks like good value
http://www.jrrshop.com/ik-multimedia-total-workstation

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[quote name='ironside1966' timestamp='1414064554' post='2585335']
This looks like good value
[url="http://www.jrrshop.com/ik-multimedia-total-workstation"]http://www.jrrshop.c...tal-workstation[/url]
[/quote]
Thanks for the linky.

At the moment $199 is a little steep for me, unless I get seriously into home/project studio stuff. Just don't have the money or the room at the mo' :( I'm literally doing my mixing on my laptop whilst sat on the sofa.The bedroom doubles as a re-amping and iso room. And the keyboard I just got is sat on the ironing board as it's the only flat surface I can adjust for height :D

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[quote name='Bottle' timestamp='1413912631' post='2583545']....just need a decent VSTi synth now ;) any thoughts as to a good one for Reaper?
[/quote]

The only VST synth I use myself is Native Instruments' Massive (which is great but mostly limited to electronic/dance music sounds).

When I used Reaper, I often downloaded free VSTs from the MusicRadar website, which still has tons of free stuff available.

Here are a couple of links to whet your appetite:

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/the-27-best-free-vst-plug-ins-in-the-world-today-277953

http://www.musictech.net/2013/10/freeware-synths-ten-of-the-best/

There's also this thread on Basschat:

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/77603-free-vsts/

My advice: don't download too many as it's easy to get overwhelmed by choice! ;)

Hope that helps and have fun.

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[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1414094271' post='2585876']
The only VST synth I use myself is Native Instruments' Massive (which is great but mostly limited to electronic/dance music sounds).

When I used Reaper, I often downloaded free VSTs from the MusicRadar website, which still has tons of free stuff available.

Here are a couple of links to whet your appetite:

[url="http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/the-27-best-free-vst-plug-ins-in-the-world-today-277953"]http://www.musicrada...ld-today-277953[/url]

[url="http://www.musictech.net/2013/10/freeware-synths-ten-of-the-best/"]http://www.musictech...en-of-the-best/[/url]

There's also this thread on Basschat:

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/77603-free-vsts/"]http://basschat.co.u...7603-free-vsts/[/url]

My advice: don't download too many as it's easy to get overwhelmed by choice! ;)

Hope that helps and have fun.
[/quote]
Indeed! I previously looked at the pinned thread and there were four pages of links so I needed a little time to sort through all of the device modelling ones first

So far I have downloaded the Sound Wave P8 modeller and the 4Front piano emulator. I'll spend a bit more time over the weekend to polish the mix track and try out the VSTi's. Oh and maybe have a quick bash at the Composition challenge as well! Oooh boy, gonna be busy.

Ian

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Aaaaand I'm done!

Linky: [url="https://soundcloud.com/ian-sherlock-1/hoshe-mamba-bc-mix-final"]https://soundcloud.c...ba-bc-mix-final[/url]

[u][u]Wot I 'ave done:[/u][/u]
Topped and tailed all the tracks and grouped under suitable sub-mixes, i.e drums, vox etc
Played around with the intro a little and added a MIDI keyboard VSTi synthy opening number, think of "Are Friends Electric?" (this is all new territory for me - I can't even play a keyboard!)
Added some reverb to the vocals as they were sounding a little dry - this I have found is easy once grouped as I can assign a common send to the ReaVerb plugin from each of the tracks and keep it tight and balanced.
Outro trimmed a little and added more keyboard
Threw a better mix on the whole caboodle - it's a basic L-C-R mix, no muss, no fuss :) mixed properly on monitors now hehe

Tidied up the bass with some automation, compression and gating before sending it out to a selection of different cabs 'n' effects. Still learning how to do things in Reaper, but I managed to output the track through a couple of Aux busses on my interface and out to my reamping box. I then did a single pass through Nigels' old SansAmp ParaDriver (yes, I still have it!) into channel #1 (left) and simultaneously into channel #2 (right) through a JOYO Ultimate Drive feeding a Bass Big Muff Pi :o result: awesomely huge sounding bass.

Other than that, not done much else with the mix as it was so well tracked. Felt a little bit foolish and arrogant to mess with perfection, but it's my take on a class bit of musicianship and I wanted to do something pleasing to honour that.

It's late now and I'm spent :blink:

Later'z y'all

Edited by Bottle
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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1414708087' post='2592632']
How exciting!

Really looking forward to hearing the finished articles!
[/quote]
Indeed! Nearly lost the whole mix at the eleventh hour through a combination of tiredness and stupidity (but Reaper came to the rescue!)

Edited by Bottle
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