The Prodigal Rebel Returneth

[jonny deep]

Hey Gang. Long time no speak, hope you're all doing well. Things look pretty normal round here, I don't think I've been round since I heard about Miner. I listened to a bunch of stuff in here the last couple of days, it all sounds great. I'll get to commenting and contributing again, although I'm not sure I have anything useful to add.

Anyhoo, I fired up the recording setup over Christmas. Ended up working up a single voal line I came up with 13 years ago into an annoying chirpy pop song. Also ended up being my best work to date, so I'd love to share it for your criticism if you'd allow me a little grace!

I think it's more than 5 years since my last recording, which had become sporadic at best. I was diagnosed with ADHD a couple of years ago, so my life is starting to make some sense. I've signed up for some free songwriting & production courses at one of the local universities and I'm hoping I can keep this going as a hobby again now my kids are a bit older.

Song is attached (I think!) - I've hammered it with this free rip off of the Oxford Inflator to bring everything up in the mix, can't really tell if it's just loud and overdone or actually sounds good.

https://github.com/Kiriki-liszt/JS_Inflator

Lots of love to you and yours from me and mine. These are turbulent times, I hope everyone is managing to stay safe.

[vomitHatSteve]

I'm always here for more ska-tinged music!

For mix tweaks, I'd take the guitars up pretty substantially and the horns down a little.

Welcome back!

[JD01]

Yeah - I agree with Steve, horns too loud, guitars to quiet.
If I was mixing this, I'd mix it without the horns, then bring them in afterwards.

The drums sound very un-dynamic if you know what I mean. Just like they need a bit more velocity and timing variation.

I like that you were diagnosed with ADHD and then immediately went back to a forum where you can waste even more time reading and chatting and not bothering to record! Skillz!

Nice to see you again though, mate. This song sounds very early 90s British - you know what I mean. Before Britpop became all serious.

[Armistice]

Hey jonny!

Pretty much echoing what everyone else says... and the other JD's tip about mixing without the horns could be worth a try. I sense there are things in the mix that I can't actually hear because the horns are burying stuff... how are you doing the horns, BTW?

Nice guitar solo too!

Nice pop tune.

[jonny deep]

Hi - thanks so much for your comments. I am coming back to address them and see if I can improve my mix. Been a bit overwhelmed this week with work and my family all having a stomach bug at the same time. I haven’t just disappeared again!

[jonny deep]

I'm always here for more ska-tinged music!

For mix tweaks, I'd take the guitars up pretty substantially and the horns down a little.

Welcome back!

Hey VHS - thanks so much for the listen. You're the second North American to liken it to ska - not sure I hear that, but I probably don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know much about it. I figured it was just pop with brass.

The inflator plugin thingy really brought the brass section up, making it all sound on a level plane, maybe the volume is too much though. I was kind of into the guitar licks filling the centre between the horns, but not being so easy to discern, but I'll try your suggestions and tweak it a bit. The rhythm guitar is just the scratch track I bashed out on my electro-acoustic into guitar rig. I tried recording doubled/stereo crunchy rhythm guitars, but it just sounded bad. Maybe if I get a better guitar part down I can bring it up more without it sounding terrible.

[jonny deep]

Yeah - I agree with Steve, horns too loud, guitars to quiet.
If I was mixing this, I'd mix it without the horns, then bring them in afterwards.

The drums sound very un-dynamic if you know what I mean. Just like they need a bit more velocity and timing variation.

I like that you were diagnosed with ADHD and then immediately went back to a forum where you can waste even more time reading and chatting and not bothering to record! Skillz!

Nice to see you again though, mate. This song sounds very early 90s British - you know what I mean. Before Britpop became all serious.

Hi JD - thanks so much for listening! The drums are pre-built midi grooves/loops going into a Maschine/Novation-like plugin (Groove Agent) on a drumkit preset I picked out. I didn't bother with them much beyond some editing to create the distinctive parts and picking out different pre-made fills here and there. Unlike Addictive Drums et al, I don't think it plays various samples. I tried dropping in Studio Drummer, but didn't spend much time and it didn't sound great - I guess I composed and mixed around the current drums and I'm somewhat tied to them now - I could maybe spend time making manual adjustments on timing/velocities/variations, but I'm not far from calling this one done to keep some momentum.

On the ADHD, yep, another time sink is just what I need! although I'm medicated now which is a life changer.

And thanks! I had the Boo Radleys in mind at times.

[jonny deep]

Hey jonny!

Pretty much echoing what everyone else says... and the other JD's tip about mixing without the horns could be worth a try. I sense there are things in the mix that I can't actually hear because the horns are burying stuff... how are you doing the horns, BTW?

Nice guitar solo too!

Nice pop tune.

Hey Armistice - thank you for the listen, much appreciated! I buried some synth after watching a Rick Beato video on the Killers - pretty much straight up copied what he revealed there. It does pop out a little in the chorus here and there, but adds some largely unheard density. The horns are all Session Horns Pro from the NI Komplete bundle I bought years ago.

Thanks for the nice comments! It's the most ambitious guitar I've tried to record. I comped a few takes, punched in over some flubs and used some studio magic to tighten timing and tuning in the harmonised trills & tapping parts.

[JD01]

I had the Boo Radleys in mind at times.

Ah, I'd forgotten about them. I couldn't put my finger on what it was reminding me of.

[Lt. Bob]

I'm always here for more ska-tinged music!

For mix tweaks, I'd take the guitars up pretty substantially and the horns down a little.

Welcome back!

Hey VHS - thanks so much for the listen. You're the second North American to liken it to ska - not sure I hear that, but I probably don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know much about it. I figured it was just pop with brass.

The inflator plugin thingy really brought the brass section up, making it all sound on a level plane, maybe the volume is too much though. I was kind of into the guitar licks filling the centre between the horns, but not being so easy to discern, but I'll try your suggestions and tweak it a bit. The rhythm guitar is just the scratch track I bashed out on my electro-acoustic into guitar rig. I tried recording doubled/stereo crunchy rhythm guitars, but it just sounded bad. Maybe if I get a better guitar part down I can bring it up more without it sounding terrible.

The horns aren't too loud IMO.
people who don't use horns ( everybody ) always say horns are too loud unless they're down so low they're more like a patch...... they're wrong.
listen to some Tower of Power, BS&T or Chicago before saying horns are too loud.

[jonny deep]

Hey VHS - thanks so much for the listen. You're the second North American to liken it to ska - not sure I hear that, but I probably don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know much about it. I figured it was just pop with brass.

The inflator plugin thingy really brought the brass section up, making it all sound on a level plane, maybe the volume is too much though. I was kind of into the guitar licks filling the centre between the horns, but not being so easy to discern, but I'll try your suggestions and tweak it a bit. The rhythm guitar is just the scratch track I bashed out on my electro-acoustic into guitar rig. I tried recording doubled/stereo crunchy rhythm guitars, but it just sounded bad. Maybe if I get a better guitar part down I can bring it up more without it sounding terrible.

The horns aren't too loud IMO.
people who don't use horns ( everybody ) always say horns are too loud unless they're down so low they're more like a patch...... they're wrong.
listen to some Tower of Power, BS&T or Chicago before saying horns are too loud.

Hey Lt! Hope you're well! Thanks so much for the listen. I tend to agree with you, I was liking the level of the brass, but I'll have a little try at toning them down a bit when I next have time to look at this one, see if I like it.