Jump Into the Fire GN Collab

[boxboy]

Fun with a classic from Harry Nilsson.
I started with some found MIDI elements of the song and added live bass and guitars stabs.
I then forwarded it to my friend, GNer dogbite, who took it the rest of the way:
looped it, enhanced it and then proceeded to freak out on it, both vox and guitars wise.
Thanks Randy!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... D=12098932

Any and all feedback welcome.

[rparker]

Dogbite, I think the original did not quite catch the feeling that you were able to get to come through. I thought the original to be too bound or rigid for what it was. If he did that style to a typical love song of some sort, then it would have been over-board. Doing it to a song like this was not enough. Kind of hard to explain. Regardless, I thought it, meaning what you did, caught the aingst quite nicely.

Don, the bass line drove it nicely.

Don, I remember you were having issues with the organ VI. I'm not sure what they were, but I dug the approach of harmonizing in some spots and biting through in others.

OK, so this is in the studio section which means we get to hear some tips and tricks or strategies that helped polish the song off, right? I would put you guys on the spot. Was there a maximiser or some other general effect on the master used that gave it a bit of extra snap or anything? I'm really digging the way it sounds.

Randy, on a guitar note, I love that lead tone that's ramping up in places, like at about the 2:00 mark or so. Care to share the secrets?

[boxboy]

Thanks for the feedback Roy.
After I handed off the basic track (MIDI organ, drums and congas (maybe?), real bass and guitar stabs) to Randy, he handled everything from thereon, mixwise. He's the one who 'knows all' about the mix.

For my basic track, I used a light maximizer globally. I apply it to most anything i record.

Re the organ patch, I was having some issues with it. It sounded great most of the time, but the odd note of two would sound really shrill. You'd swear the volume had changed dramatically even though the MIDI events were all the same velocity. I did manage to tame it somewhat. I'll have to go back into the project file and see what I did.
It was still quite distracting in the bare track though, but it sort of became an asset in this mix. Those 'shrill' bits really cut through.

[Nuno]

Sounds good to me!

Congrats Don. And thanks for sharing.

[dogbite]

thanks for the feedback. here is what I did:
first I duplicate the short backing track that was sent. I made dups to last over five minutes. don't know why.
then I created a vocal track. short pieces that I duplicated and spread out over the backing track. I tried singing the verse but it sucked. so I kept the essence of the lyrics; the title and the whoas.
I wanted to retain the speed and intensity of the original so I kept that in mind when adding the guitar.
using my strat, I plugged into my tubescreamer and hit the record button. I did a few takes then kept one of them.
on that track I added an amp sym...classic crunch tube then added some reverb. that is all.
I did add another track. using the strat I plugged into my Vox wah and tubecreamer and played the D string while slowly modulation the wah pedal. I duplicated that track and panned each one wide (L and R ) and set them back in the mix.
the final thing I did was send the whole mix to my mastering program, ozone4. I believe I used the Exciter and Widening setting with Vintage Plate reverb.
the end result is a wall of sound pressure. each track seems to fight for attention.

[rparker]

I'm growing a fondness for those plugs like the various Maxmizers and such. My first efforts were all heavy-handed, but I've been getting better. I like what you did very much.

I've never thought of sending a signal in without an amp sim already aside from an ability my system has to send a dry signal along with the finished signal in to my DAW. that means of coure that I never thought of sending a signal in to my DAW using just a pedal through the interface, either. I like my Ibanez TSD9X Turbo Tube Screamer, but never recorded with it.

All the things you did sound great. I'll be referring back to this especially for that lead tone you had that I pointed out earlier. Good stuff.

[dogbite]

thanks Roy. Outside of recording, I like the sound of my live rig; many hours went finding the Tone. I know my pedal so to use it with recording made sense. I find it doesn't sound the same, so I am never satisfied. the is a big difference between my amp and the speakers used for mP3 playback on my desk, in my truck, or on the stereo..
I hear different things every time I listen to our collaboration. I know that many times the frequencies of the tracks compete for attention. at times when i watch the parameter graph there frequencies that match. I think they cancel out one another as the human ear struggles to identify a single source; like guitar or organ playing the same note. sometimes the organ stands out, sometimes the guitar.
this is an unnatural recording in some ways. naivete, inexperience, and gravitas all contribute on my side. it is a wall or assault of sound with a beat and great bass line.