AI Can't (Drive Drunk) - new VHS

[vomitHatSteve]

What if The Cars who wrote "Drive" were literal, actual cars in the 21st century?

They would serve you adds constantly. It would be kind of awful.

As always, feedback is welcome, please!

Mix 4

AICant4.mp3

Mix 3

AICant3-2.mp3

Mix 2

AICant3.mp3

Mix

AICant2.mp3

lyrics

I never said somebody had to drive you home tonight
I never said that you shouldn't be alone tonight
I only said I'm watching
I only said I care
I only said I'm listening
I only said I'm there

All I know is we are the perfect pair tonight
You're half conscious, and I'm not even there tonight
You can't make good decisions
I can't decide at all
And if somehow I botch this
No one will take the fall

'cause AI can't drive drunk
But AI thinks you should go shopping
AI will not judge
But AI thinks you should buy something

Taste the air; it's like we're both alive tonight
So get out there, turn the key, and drive tonight
There are no consequences
Let me take the wheel and soar
I'll make your hard decisions
When I take you to the store

'cause AI can't drive drunk
But AI thinks you should go shopping
AI will not judge
But AI thinks you should buy something

Babe, I know all your desires
You traded them for the finance program
Babe, I know all of your dreams
'cause I've been watching you sleep

AI does not think
But AI knows your spending habits
AI will not blink
AI is tracking your package

I never said somebody had to take you home tonight
I only said that you are never alone

[JD01]

The intro reminds me of Civil War by Guns & Roses! haha.

This is good though, Steve.
Like the big spacy reverb on your vocal at the start - not even that high, I could sing it!

Ooo, when all your plips and blips come in at 1:40ish it starts to pump.
The plops and plips get a bit intrusive in the bridge too.

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks.

I'll check the master bus compressor to try to suss out that compression.
I like the super-busy opposite synths in the bridge. But I can see it getting to be too much after a chorus-bridge-chorus of it being relentless. I'll ponder that.

[Greg_L]

Really good subject matter. Nice take on AI. I like your idea that it's watching us and learning us while really not doing jack shit useful for us.

The song has all of your usual elements of bleeps and bloops and thick underlying root music, but it's also missing a ton of mids IMO. The whole mix sounds hollow to me. Whatever you got going on with the bass and/or guitars needs to be clarified and balanced better so they can carry the musical parts of the song while all the rest of the blips and pleeps and vocals ride along with it.

[vomitHatSteve]

Hmmm... Alright. I'll look into getting the mids better balanced. That may also come from my cheap mastering process

[rayc]

I listened to this & commented yesterday - seems to have disappeared.
Cool song but I don't like the arps at the end of the low synth lines...I LOVE the low synth part though.

[TripleM]

I think I like the vocal reverb in the intro. There's a little haziness to everything in the intro that I didn't care for. It clears up after the intro.

I heard the pumping too - but it's very slight.

Some pitchiness in the 2:00-2:04 area. A couple more elsewhere.

In the chorus there something clicking on the drums. Like the snare sample maybe? Anyway, it was a bit distracting.

I like the song quite a bit.

[vomitHatSteve]

Ok! Thanks for the feedback. New mix in the OP.

The major changes are:
The clicky sample TripleM noticed is way quieter now
A little less compression in the low range (so hopefully less pumping)
Midrange boost on the guitars
I messed up some code for the synths... so now where I meant to make the distorted snare turn clean on the bridge, now it's muted everwhere but there... Ok. gotta fix that

Edit: Fixed the synth. Third mix still in the OP
Oh! I forgot to mention that I bumped the bass arpeggio up an octave. Not what ray suggested, but I think it makes is smoother

[WhiskeyJack]

Coming in on mix 3.

@ 0:46 and prit near onward there is a guitar over on the left that comes in and out of the mix. Just kind of wavers in and out and around all your other low end elements. They could probably come up a bit or maybe dive deeper in to some eq'ing of the bass and synths and stuff.

Your vox sit really well on top of everything so i think you have room to do it if you wanted to.

I like this little darker vibe departure from your everyday offerings. Very cool.

[vomitHatSteve]

Coming in on mix 3.

@ 0:46 and prit near onward there is a guitar over on the left that comes in and out of the mix. Just kind of wavers in and out and around all your other low end elements. They could probably come up a bit or maybe dive deeper in to some eq'ing of the bass and synths and stuff.

Your vox sit really well on top of everything so i think you have room to do it if you wanted to.

I like this little darker vibe departure from your everyday offerings. Very cool.

Interesting. I was having trouble getting the right guitar to the level of the left. So now the opposite problem has appeared?

[WhiskeyJack]

Coming in on mix 3.

@ 0:46 and prit near onward there is a guitar over on the left that comes in and out of the mix. Just kind of wavers in and out and around all your other low end elements. They could probably come up a bit or maybe dive deeper in to some eq'ing of the bass and synths and stuff.

Your vox sit really well on top of everything so i think you have room to do it if you wanted to.

I like this little darker vibe departure from your everyday offerings. Very cool.

Interesting. I was having trouble getting the right guitar to the level of the left. So now the opposite problem has appeared?

I don't think it's as much a left right balance issue as it is a lots going on near the bottom end coming around and covering it up here and there. ?

[TripleM]

Mix #3.

I like the snare better.

Maybe it's just a difference in days, but the vocal seems to be coming through better. There is a word or two at the end of phrases that gets lost, but that's it.

There is a little synth riff that starts around :52 that can get really tough to hear in spots.

I'm still trying to decide if I like the bass or not. It's really rumbly but it works in this mix, at least for me. I think 99 times out of 100 I probably wouldn't like it. But I like it here.

If it were me I'd find all those pitchy spots and punch them out.

[Armistice]

Mix 3 - I'd vote for turning the beeps and bloops down a couple of dB wherever they appear - I think they'll work better and you'll still get the point across.

The odd pitchy bit here and there as noted by others.

Different sort of song for you - very "doomy"... I like it.

And I like the sort of unexpected ending too.

[vomitHatSteve]

Ok! Mix 4 in the OP

Major changes:
Different comping of the lead vs. bg vox. Any further pitchiness is a stylistic choice for drama.
"Guitars" slightly boosted everywhere except the bridge
Randomized synths down
Frantic bridge synths boosted
Dramatic explosions added to final chorus.

[rayc]

COOL,
I'm still not a fan of that keyboard arp bit in the verses but it's not a distraction at all.
I initially read the title as Al, (Alan/Albert/Alfonso..).
GOOD stuff.

[vomitHatSteve]

COOL,
I'm still not a fan of that keyboard arp bit in the verses but it's not a distraction at all.
I initially read the title as Al, (Alan/Albert/Alfonso..).
GOOD stuff.

Yeah, I keep reading "AL" too

[JD01]

Back in at Mix 4 (I'm busy these days).
This is a better mix and other things are popping out that I couldn't here before.

Its lost that pumpiness that I was getting on the earliest mix.

I really like this mix anyway.

I was thinking about this the other day... AI/Self driving cars. There's this fantasy that you can sit there and relax like you're on a private train carriage or something... but in reality they're going to stink of piss and sex and you'll be bombarded with continual advertising.

[vomitHatSteve]

Back in at Mix 4 (I'm busy these days).
This is a better mix and other things are popping out that I couldn't here before.

Its lost that pumpiness that I was getting on the earliest mix.

I really like this mix anyway.

Thank you!

I was thinking about this the other day... AI/Self driving cars. There's this fantasy that you can sit there and relax like you're on a private train carriage or something... but in reality they're going to stink of piss and sex and you'll be bombarded with continual advertising.

Oh yeah, almost certainly. The rental ones at least. The best-case scenario is that there's gonna be one underpaid guy from the Asian Subcontinent monitoring the cameras in 100 of these things to report when people visibly make a mess.

[Greg_L]

I think mix 4 is doing pretty good. You could roll with that.

[TheTestingYak]

Good Choon, Brav.