“In Heaven For A Conference” – 040811

Sponsored by the letter O.

Got an unexpected “window” this afternoon and had a go at remixing/remastering …HEAVEN in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

I had to radically rethink my approach to the mix and as a result, the emphasis between the various instruments has changed quite significantly. But it’s most satisfactory now compared to previous versions of the track.

Ripped a complete new version of the album onto CD-R and went for a spin up the M7 in the Prius with the (surprisingly good) hi-fi up full blast. I think the essence of a good mix, IMO, is that nothing inappropriate catches your ear, and I think I can safely say that at this stage, I have ironed-out all the audio kinks out of the album.

That being the case, I think I can now sign-off on the album and concentrate on doing a spot of artwork. And about time too…;-).

Regards,

djp

“In Heaven For A Conference” – 240711

Sponsored by the letters D and E.

Did several remix/remasters of …HEAVEN in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

After a number of attempts, I realised that the problem with the guitar parts wasn’t with the parts themselves, but with the pre-fader delay. Dropped that down a few notches. This seems to have solved the problem, but I’ll let things lie for a day or two before signing off on the album.

Regards,

djp

“In Heaven For A Conference”/”Vichy Circles” – 220711

Sponsored by the letters B and C.

Remixed/remastered both tracks in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

VICHY… has been re-edited to lop some of the beats off the start (I was becoming conscious that a lot of the tracks on the album start with beats, so I decided to vary things a little) and I tidied up the last Rickenbacker 360 part which allows me to have a more “natural” fadeout .

Dropped the guitar part in …HEAVEN just a tad.

Now I need to do up yet another version of the tracklisting for evaluation purposes. Who’d be me, eh…?;-).

Regards,

djp

“No Position To Argue”/”A Truth You Can Happily Accept” – 210711

Sponsored by no letter at all.

Remixed/remastered both tracks in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

…ARGUE should’ve been easier to remix than it turned out to be. After all, I was just replacing the bass parts, the rest of the mix was fine. Turned out that it took me most of the morning to get the bass to “sit” properly, EQ-wise, in the mix. Think it’s OK now – not too bassy, not too trebly, not too loud.

With …TRUTH, I’d realised that the “kick” element of  the beat parts was too gimmicky and prominent, so I adjusted the “voice” in MIDI and it sounds much better now. Took the opportunity to tweak the mix a bit, and I think the track is improved overall.

Having lived with the original mixes for a while and having made the adjustments which appeared to me to be necessary, I think I’m now in a position to do up a new version of the album with the revised mixes and listen to it for a bit. At this stage, any problems that might still be there will probably be down to me being a crap musician, and I can either live with the “problems” (on the basis that I’m being hypercritical and no-one else will notice the issues) or I’ll just drop the relevant track altogether and move on.

Cruel world, innit…?;-)

Regards,

djp

“People Who Look Like Other People”/”King Fidget” – 200711

Sponsored by the letter R.

Remixed/remastered both tracks in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

Did two mixes of …FIDGET – an “album” mix” and a “single” mix. Did I say already that I’m going to release …FIDGET on an EP? Couple of weeks and we’ll see whether I’m lying or not…;-).

More work tomorrow.

Regards,

djp

“Whatever Happened To The Citizens Of My Abandoned Evony City?”/”Vichy Circles” – 080711

Sponsored by the letters F, H, I and J.

Spent yesterday evening remixing and mastering …EVONY in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3. For a track that isn’t hugely complicated, the mixing took me an age – sorting out the various competing EQs was a bit of a challenge, but I got there eventually.  An improvement on the previous mix. One valuable lesson I learnt (accidentally) while mixing was that a lot of the pops I hear in tracks on playback are caused by the Phonic Firefly. If I don’t route my audio via it, but via my PC’s default soundcard, the pops go away. Don’t know why, but it’s one to remember for the future…

Spent this morning remixing and mastering VICHY… I still haven’t fully removed the bass rumble at the start of the track, but it’s sounds fine over earphones, so I’m not too worried (when you hear how badly a lot of modern music is mastered, VICHY…sounds perfectly fine to me). The remix is significantly different from (and better than…) the original mix. Another lesson I learnt during part of this process was that there are limits to the compressor/limiter I use in Cubase VST/24. It adds a certain strange audio effect to bass parts (something I’d noticed before, but which I thought was caused by unsympathetic MP3 encoding). At a loss for something to use as an alternative, I experimented with the processing presets included in AA3 and found a nice multi-band compressor which I will use in future (it’s not as if I actually know what I’m dong when I’m mastering, but this compressor sounds “nice” to me, so…).

Right – that’s it. I ‘m going to spend a bit of time putting together the album running order. I have a fairly clear idea of what I want to do, but I need to hear the finished tracks to be absolutely sure.

Nearly there now…

Regards,

djp

Future Plans For Yesterday – 140611

Sponsored by the letter A.

Mixed and mastered the track in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

Took me rather a long time to do this, as apart from one or two unavoidable interruptions, I decided to do a “spot” of re-editing of the track, which ended up being “a lot” of editing. Ended up with a bizarre mix which sounds like Jean-Michel Jarre in a dub stylee. Experimented a lot with effects automation and even got to use a ring modulator plugin for (I think) the very first time. Interesting results!

So, this, effectively was the last day or mixing and mastering. I have a potential tracklisting in my mind, but I won’t announce it until I am absolutely sure that I’m happy with the final tracks. I also want to take a bit of a break before going down that road, so I will not listen to any of the masters until the start of July, just to clear my head. Instead, I will concentrate on doing a bit of design/artwork.

You might think that I’d go and have a quiet celebratory pint tonight to mark the effective completion of the album. Unfortunately, tomorrow is a work day, and there are a tough few days ahead of me au bureau, so I’ll need to keep my head clear…

…for now…;-).

Regards (and thanks for sticking with me so far…),

djp

Flood Plain – 130611

Sponsored by no letter at all.

Mixed/mastered the track successfully in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3. Had to use the old “generic mud removal” preset in AA3 to sort out some popping, but otherwise everything went smoothly. Three stereo tracks to mix together shouldn’t take too long should it…?

Tomorrow is hopefully the last day of mixing/mastering for the album (barring any last minute panic that might arise as I review the “finished” masters – it almost invariably happens…), so my plan for tomorrow is Future Plans For Yesterday.

Wish me luck, eh…?;-)

Regards,

djp

The Cop Car Hand Heel Wheel Turn/People Who Look Like Other People – 100611

Sponsored by the letters F and J.

Mixed/mastered both tracks in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

Both tracks came together very quickly on the basis of the rough mixes I did a few weeks back, and I’m delighted with the results. Loud, punchy and quirky!

Just two tracks left to do now. Definitely finished by Tuesday, but might even manage Monday. We’ll see what hand life deals me over the next few days, eh?

Regards,

djp

Vichy Circles/No Position To Argue – 090611

Sponsored by the letter E.

Managed to mix/master both tracks successfully in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

Each track had a particular challenge. VICHY… had a “mess” of instruments fighting for the same frequencies, so a lot of EQ-ing was required, especially for the Godman 12-string parts, while the problem with …ARGUE was the Fender Jazz Bass parts. Again, EQ-ing came to the rescue - the bass sounds rather different from what I had in mind, but it needed to cut through a rather dense mix, so needs must…

I should say at this point that it’s only taken me four years to finish VICHY… I’m very pleased with the results, which I think justify all the time and effort taken to complete the track.

Just checking, and I find I have four tracks left to mix/master and then the album is done. There’s a pretty good chance that the audio will all be put to bed by next Tuesday. Don’t want to jinx meself, but it would be nice to be finished…;-).

Regards,

djp