Microbes On Mars

[JD01]

I need to give this one a bit of context or you'll think I've gone insane.

My mrs friends came over the other weekend and we got a bit pissed - one of the boyfriends is doing a PhD in astrobiology... so this happened.

There's a gap after the first chorus 'cos my mrs hasn't recorded her flute solo yet.

Microbes on Mars Mix 1.mp3

Mix 2 is about 5 posts further down.

[Greg_L]

Lol. WTF did I just listen to.

Not too bad of a mix. I think you went too far the other way with whatever you've done to the guitars. They're kind of thin. Is this the new cab? Seems like the tone could be good, but they just seem thin. Vocals are are still super thick and kind of muddy. Drums and bass seem okay. What a weird song. You scientists really must be a blast at parties.

[JD01]

Haha, cheers. It was a simple song and I figured it would be a bit of fun and I could try out a few new ideas with mixing vocals. That's me singing into the AKG C1000s.

Drums, guitars and vocals are all going into separate impulses on this one.

The guitars at the end sound better than for the rest of the song, for the distorted guitars on the choruses I turned the tone up on my SD1.. probably too much. It's not trouble to retrack it, it's easy and a good way to work on new tones,

[rayc]

James, thin guitars indeed but that's a fun song. What was the astro's input?

[JD01]

James, thin guitars indeed but that's a fun song. What was the astro's input?

He was just there and we were talking about the possibility of microbial life.

I can't actually remember that much about it but one of the girls started singing it over breakfast the next day so she obviously found it a bit of an earworm

[rayc]

He was just there and we were talking about the possibility of microbial life.

Inspiration! I thought he may have co-written lyrics etc.
As I said - I like it. It's fun.

[JD01]

He was just there and we were talking about the possibility of microbial life.

Inspiration! I thought he may have co-written lyrics etc.
As I said - I like it. It's fun.

Ah, I just wrote more above. It's early here and I've not had a coffee yet,
The solo at the end was totally adlibbed, that was a lot of fun!

[JD01]

And here's Microbes on Mars - Mix 2, including the flute solo (I've never mixed a flute before)

Despite is being a bit of a piss take I've actually tried loads of new mixing techniques on this using a different approach to reverb and compression I've also tried adding EQ to the vocals and I've ditched using the Line6 Gearbox sim for vocals and gone straight into my Focusrite. I've also sung into a C1000S which I've never done before.

Microbes on Mars Mix 2.mp3

[Lt. Bob]

man ..... are you a scientist?
You know we're not supposed to trust ya' ...... what kind 'o' scientist is ya'?
And there are almost surely microbes on Mars ...... and Titan ..... and Enceladus ...... and ...........

[7String]

2nd mix sounds much better but I agree with guitars sounding too thin. Vocals sound better but still seem a bit forward. That might be fixed if you thicken up the guitars.

Fun song!

[JD01]

man ..... are you a scientist?
You know we're not supposed to trust ya' ...... what kind 'o' scientist is ya'?
And there are almost surely microbes on Mars ...... and Titan ..... and Enceladus ...... and ...........

I'm actually a geologist. But they guy I was chatting to about the possibility of microbial life on Mars did know a lot about it... although we were very very pissed when we came up with the chorus.

Titan and Enceladus are probably better candidates than Mars actually, mars is pretty barren and there's virtually no atmosphere

[rayc]

Titan and Enceladus are probably better candidates than Mars actually, mars is pretty barren and there's virtually no atmosphere

But lots of rock.
Your vocals are better straight into the Focusrite.
The guitars do need some meat mate.
The flute fits in well.
Still fun.

[JD01]

Cheers Ray - I might re-track the chorus/ending guitars again at some point - its only 3 chords so not exactly challenging and its a handy way of dialling in some tones.

[vomitHatSteve]

Did you retrack the vox for the 2nd one? It sounds less pitchy.

Those clean guitars at the beginning sound pretty unbalanced. The left is much more bassy than the right.

Can you edit out the inhale right before the flute solo at 1:20? With the stop, it's the only noise happening!

Pretty cool song tho. Get a scientist drunk and have her describe her job to rhyme. Nice!

[JD01]

Did you retrack the vox for the 2nd one? It sounds less pitchy.

Those clean guitars at the beginning sound pretty unbalanced. The left is much more bassy than the right.

Can you edit out the inhale right before the flute solo at 1:20? With the stop, it's the only noise happening!

Pretty cool song tho. Get a scientist drunk and have her describe her job to rhyme. Nice!

The left guitar is acoustic and the right electric I think.

Don't think I retracked it, might have done the odd line. I did change the way I compressed it though which may stop certain fuck ups jumping out.

The next Science Geek song will be about the Higgs Bosun or something

[TripleM]

I liked the song.

During the verses the guitar on the right seemed louder than the guitar on the left. I might have dialed in the slightest bit of distortion on the right side guitar. It was a bit on the bright side. I really liked the distorted guitars in the chorus. Lead/riff guitar was excellent.

The drums and bass were very good. Great kick/snare sound if you ask me.

[JD01]

Cheers. I will remix this again soon. My antares compressors keep crashing though and ruining my mix so I am going to switch to focus rite ones for the final mix

[Bubba]

LOL. I pissed myself at this. It pushes all the right humour buttons for me. I doubt tardigrades will be found there as they are a terran organism, but I reckon they could definitely survive in tun form. Perhaps an alien organism with similar toughness exists there. As Greg points out, the guitars are thin and slashy in the first mix. A little louder and more weighty and they'd be in the right place. The vocal phrasing is pretty stilted and awkward, but that's part of its charm, I suppose. Good chorus hook, by the way. You do write very good chorus hooks.

[Bubba]

Yep, second mix better, but guitars are horribly thin, still.

I like the flute solo - it's suitably simplistic and lacking in flair, which is exactly how it should be.

Sort the guitars out!

[JD01]

LOL. I pissed myself at this. It pushes all the right humour buttons for me. I doubt tardigrades will be found there as they are a terran organism, but I reckon they could definitely survive in tun form. Perhaps an alien organism with similar toughness exists there. As Greg points out, the guitars are thin and slashy in the first mix. A little louder and more weighty and they'd be in the right place. The vocal phrasing is pretty stilted and awkward, but that's part of its charm, I suppose. Good chorus hook, by the way. You do write very good chorus hooks.

haha, cheers Bob - I've started my last couple of tunes purely with chorus hooks and fleshed them out from there... I haven't posted a few yet though 'cos they're still just instrumental prog-punk with a chorus hook!

Yeah - the phrasing is awkward, I was writing the lyrics just before singing them so its not like I spend a few months playing the song in band rehearsals beforehand. As you said, it kind of works though and I don't really mind with this song anyway. I just wanted to use it to practice singing and have a bit of a laugh. Worked out pretty well

You mean the chorus guitars are thin? I've cracked that recently and sorted it on a couple of newer tunes - Its down to me using the OCD as a boost - it hi-passes a bit too aggressively when used as a boost - sounds great for lead though.