New Honey Hunters - Clear Air Turbulence

[Armistice]

Clear air turbulence is what happens when you're in a plane, cruising along smoothly in the bright blue sky and then you drop a couple of thousand feed unexpectedly for no obvious cause - "clear air" because it can't be seen or predicted, even by the pilot. Scary as hell. Also, nice metaphor, I thought...

My girlfriend likes this song, which is sort of ominous... Possibly because I'm singing in a softer voice. Actually found it quite difficult to sing in pitch with a breathier voice, which I wasn't expecting.

Slower tempo, this one. And the last of the batch of 6 I'd recorded the instruments for and was awaiting the opportunity to write and sing lyrics to. So no, @Bubba , I can't re-record the guitars...


A song about persevering in the face of obstacles.

Seeing it was a bit quiet over the weekend, I got to Mix 2 without you so I've removed Mix 1
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Mix 2


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Took a bit of top end off the guitars and the master generally, and various other vocal tweaks I was playing with yesterday - really just poking bits in and out, which is a sort of endless process I seem to go through.

Mix 3


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[Bubba]

Slower tempo, this one. And the last of the batch of 6 I'd recorded the instruments for and was awaiting the opportunity to write and sing lyrics to. So no, @Bubba , I can't re-record the guitars...

I've given up listening to and commenting on music, It causes far too much trouble and upset.

[Armistice]

Slower tempo, this one. And the last of the batch of 6 I'd recorded the instruments for and was awaiting the opportunity to write and sing lyrics to. So no, @Bubba , I can't re-record the guitars...

I've given up listening to and commenting on music, It causes far too much trouble and upset.

There's really nothing for you to get upset about...

[JD01]

First, great song as usual.
I've got a stinking cold which might mean I'm more sensitive than normal... but fuck me those guitars are bright! Could do with taming that brightness a bit.

Vocals sound great on this. Particularly transition from the bridge back into the verse.

I've actually experienced that sort of thing in a plane - its one of the main reasons that I'm fucking terrified of flying!

[vomitHatSteve]

Did you tune the lead vocal? It almost feels too clean for my liking.

I like the kind of banjo-like tone you have in some of the guitars. I hear what JD says about the guits maybe being a little bright, but I don't think it's bad.

[Lt. Bob]

really nice song ......... guitars get too bright if I turn it up loud .... at modest volumes they are fine and clear so it's a trade off.

I don't really make many mix comments but I will say the first thing I thought was "I'd like some ADT or similar processing on the vocal".
The vocals are quite nice ..... that's just what I'd try because I like stuff like that and it might fit this song.

Cool tunaget

[Armistice]

First, great song as usual.
I've got a stinking cold which might mean I'm more sensitive than normal... but fuck me those guitars are bright! Could do with taming that brightness a bit.

Vocals sound great on this. Particularly transition from the bridge back into the verse.

I've actually experienced that sort of thing in a plane - its one of the main reasons that I'm fucking terrified of flying!

I never have had that experience - not more than "normal" turbulence anyway, which can be bad enough. Yeah, I checked the general EQ of the guitars against Boomtown and found they were a bit spiky up around 2-3k in comparison, so I've evened them out a little - good pickup. I get so focused on other things sometimes I forget about guitars - I'd done some 2k-ish bumps to some of the tracks try to get them to sound distinct in the initial, pre-vocal mix, but they all just sort of meld into one once the vocals are there so I removed them - smoother now. Thanks.

Did you tune the lead vocal? It almost feels too clean for my liking.

I like the kind of banjo-like tone you have in some of the guitars. I hear what JD says about the guits maybe being a little bright, but I don't think it's bad.

A bit here and there - I was playing not just with a breathier vocal style, which did present its own challenges but a new mic position, which I saw someone use to try to reduce plosives and sibilance - basically upside down, off centre, tilted down, pointing at your mouth. Not sure it gave any better result but the combination of the two gave me some interesting* new challenges to solve. I threw away the first set of takes and then decided that the only way I was going to get this done in any reasonable time was to discard my multiple take method and just work on a single take, line or two at a time, going back and ensuring that I was happy with what I had before proceeding. Then I basically ran ReaTune on the entire lead vocal, manually, but then removed almost all of it as I worked through, damping down the sibiliance etc...

So there's a bit here and there where the note change is perhaps cleaner than I really sang it, but when I take it off it's a little "not so good", even though I thought it was at the time, but to move the little ReaTune lines to try to do less makes it obviously glitchy. There's some stuff there that has me thinking, "How did I make that noise?" I'm putting it down to the new technique, which I probably won't revisit - but it's not ReaTune glitching.

Mainly it comes down to not being able to sing the tunes millions of times before hand to really bed it in, and being able to take advantages of the singing opportunities I have, which are a bit sparse, and just go with whatever is ready.

Cheers

[Armistice]

really nice song ......... guitars get too bright if I turn it up loud .... at modest volumes they are fine and clear so it's a trade off.

I don't really make many mix comments but I will say the first thing I thought was "I'd like some ADT or similar processing on the vocal".
The vocals are quite nice ..... that's just what I'd try because I like stuff like that and it might fit this song.

Cool tunaget

Thanks Lt... I have reduced that brightness I little in Mix 3. It was a bit harsh, once I had it pointed out to me.

The only plug I have that does an approximation of ADT - CMX Schwa - I ran on it originally, but didn't like that much. It was something to do with the "breath" frequencies up way high that wasn't just working the way I'd hoped, so I ditched it. So I did have that same idea, but it didn't work out so well. Thanks for the comments.

[rayc]

Mix three sounds pretty tidy. the intro guitar with that stutter note took a repeat of two to make my head sure it wasn't a playback glitch.
Other than that nothing stuck out.

[Armistice]

Mix three sounds pretty tidy. the intro guitar with that stutter note took a repeat of two to make my head sure it wasn't a playback glitch.
Other than that nothing stuck out.

Thanks ray. Stutter notes are one of my "things" - I do them all the time, especially in solos. No glitching there...

[JD01]

Listening to Mix 3 now. Much better, the guitars are still bright and clear but not distractingly so.

[Armistice]

Listening to Mix 3 now. Much better, the guitars are still bright and clear but not distractingly so.

Goodo - I'll add "Check guitar brightness" to the list of benchmarking against other songs.

[WhiskeyJack]

God Dammit i replied to this yesterday!!! I think it signed me out in between work calls and replying.

I think this is a pretty standard HH tune all save for the noticeably different vocal delivery in those places where you get a little whispery. Good mixing those though. Seems smooth and very well balanced.

My brain caught the same thing @rayc s brain caught. But after the 2nd time i realized it was odd ball Armi guitar witchcraft.

RE: Guitars around 2:20 2:24 i can't tell if i am hearing intonation issues or maybe fretting those higher notes a bit too hard or if it is just the notes themselves contrasting with the others around them? It's minor but but my dumb ears are hearing it. I don't think it is worth chasing at it is quite minor but i hear it is there.

I'm not picking up the brightness on Mix 3. Just super clean guitars full of nice attack. Dominant and prominent as i have become used to with HH tracks. Good one Armi.

[Armistice]

God Dammit i replied to this yesterday!!! I think it signed me out in between work calls and replying.

I think this is a pretty standard HH tune all save for the noticeably different vocal delivery in those places where you get a little whispery. Good mixing those though. Seems smooth and very well balanced.

My brain caught the same thing @rayc s brain caught. But after the 2nd time i realized it was odd ball Armi guitar witchcraft.

RE: Guitars around 2:20 2:24 i can't tell if i am hearing intonation issues or maybe fretting those higher notes a bit too hard or if it is just the notes themselves contrasting with the others around them? It's minor but but my dumb ears are hearing it. I don't think it is worth chasing at it is quite minor but i hear it is there.

I'm not picking up the brightness on Mix 3. Just super clean guitars full of nice attack. Dominant and prominent as i have become used to with HH tracks. Good one Armi.

Cheers WJ. I'm out in the country for a few days so will have a listen to that spot when I get back to the medium smoke tomoz arvo.

I never thought that double note would have that effect, but I guess it is sort of unusual. I heard someone else do it somewhere along the way so I've added it to the (cough) Armi-ry of guitar tricks.

[JD01]

I had the chorus of this stuck in my head this morning. Guess that's a good thing.

[Armistice]

I had the chorus of this stuck in my head this morning. Guess that's a good thing.

Ha ha, an earworm. Excellent...

I took all my current tunes on a USB stick out to my mate's place in the country and played them through his stereo so he could hear what I was up to, and they all sounded universally shit, so I'll have to explore that. I suspect the "stereo" was in fact set up for TV reproduction - way bassy - and perhaps it's not as bad as I think but it seemed all bass and no middle. Time to burn some a CD and start listening on my stereo and in the car, perhaps.

[TheTestingYak]

good choon brav