Hey Lindsay, good to see you around here again. I really enjoyed working on your IMP7 track.
One thing I noticed on that one, was that your tracks were cut really hot to disk-- I actually ended up gaining a lot of stuff down in the box on my mix.
Now, you may run screaming for the hills upon hearing what I did... but there's a great thread about keeping your peaks down when tracking to digital. If you search for Paul Frindle you'll find numerous references to the big thread on that subject.
Anyway, might be something to consider if you haven't already.
Let me also say, that I think you're doing good work, I've personally learned SO MUCH from some of the heavy dudes around here I just wanted to share the wealth... cuz you know, I'm a bay area hot tub commie.
Anyway...
Luzern:
I hear a little Jason Molina influence in there-- very nice.
The double tracked drums are interesting, but I do feel like this song could use some more "drive" from the beat and that a center channel snare track might help push things a long.
You could play with panning one or both snares to the center-- or maybe keep them wide and use a sample in the middle?
(This from a guy who doesn't own a sound replacer type plug... I'm gonna pickup apptriga soon.)
So, I'm not saying ditch the width, I just think that the song might miss the push you get from a nice snare up the middle.
I imagine that's an experiment that one would have to try-- it might fall flat, who knows? Maybe once you balance out the dynamics a little more it will gel-- but for me, I want to hear a more driving feel on a song like this and the width is throwing that road mojo off.
I might brighten that guitar up a bit. I'd probably tuck a little verb (plate usually works for me) behind that vocal too for some more depth.
Maybe some plate on the e. piano too.
In general, I feel like you could tie these tracks together a bit more with a little plate here and there. Maybe a little more buss compression would add some cohesion? I'd try those things but sometimes they wind up bypassed when I decide to print my mix-- so who knows?
CAVEAT... I'm on cheap headphones, so the width might be exaggerated.
Our Love:
This one ties together real nice, I like the Phil Spector vibe.
Harmonica... look, I love Bob Dylan-- can't get enough of his stuff. But damn, his harmonica is an absolute ice pick to the ear drums in my truck-- I actually wince sometimes. If it were me, I'd experiment with a little overdrive, and I'd prolly try my Ibanez analog delay-- which might compliment the production in general-- or might suck.
I don't know man; this one strikes me as pretty finished sounding. I'd probably trim some girth form that banjo with subtractive EQ, let it stick out a little more without raising the level.
As always, you do nice work. I think your tracks are solid-- things could maybe be brighter in general, the bottom octave is lost on these cans so I'll leave that to someone else.
Thanks for posting these tunes-- very cool.
Liam
