OK, let me have it.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:58 am

Last weekend, I opened a MySpace account (Hey, if it's good enough for James Brown....). There's a sampling of mixes from four different trios, me being the only constant as producer/engineer and drummer.

http://myspace.com/jamesphilipcurtis

I'd welcome your comments on anything... style, mix, production, haircut, spelling, grammar, current events....

And if I didn't make this clear in an earlier post, I'd especially welcome critiques on areas that could use improvement, such as the EQ on my snare drum or guitars, or the compression on the bass... knit-picky stuff like that. Unfortunately, I cannot re-track or improve on the performances as these were all jams, and I was capturing the moment. So, the areas in which I would mostly welcome your suggestions are in the recording and mixing stages.

Thanks,
Jim

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:29 am

Hey, Jim

As per our previous discussion regarding critiques, I'm unable to comply.
I've given it ½ an hour, and the best I seem to be able to get is a stuttery mish-mash of what I'm sure would have been a damn fine mix.
See? There's that objectivity you so desire.

Aah, the ol' 2k connection. Gotta love it.

Anyway, I tried Jim.
Hopefully some Unicorns really let you have it!
Good luck...
Nicky

Billster · Post by **Billster** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:09 am

I thought the sound was excellent. What are you doing for drum miking and I/O to the computer?

Not that you asked, but musically, I enjoyed it, although I'd like to hear more melody. I realize they are jams, but a little more structure would bring these right into a more broadly accessible format. But that's just my taste anyway, not objective.

Billster · Post by **Billster** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:11 am

p.s. you need some friends.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:10 am

Billster wrote:I thought the sound was excellent. What are you doing for drum miking and I/O to the computer?

Not that you asked, but musically, I enjoyed it, although I'd like to hear more melody. I realize they are jams, but a little more structure would bring these right into a more broadly accessible format. But that's just my taste anyway, not objective.

p.s. you need some friends. Wink

Yes, I know it's pathetic that I have no friends. It took me a week to figure out how to do that, and when I get some time, I'll invite some.

Gear: I use the Presonus Digimax LT for my OH (Earthworks), hats (AT SDC), kick (AKG D112), room (Shure KSM44), and extra snare mic (AKG clip on drum mic), and occasionally I'll put another 57 on the snare bottom.

My five toms (57s, 421 and e602 for the floor tom) are summed to stereo through my Yamaha 01V mixer. And my main snare mic (57) is run thorough the 01v with expander/compressor dynamics. So basically, it's all mid-level gear. I record at 24/44.

Generally, I record 9 to 12 drum tracks, but only use what I need at mixdown.

The guitars are mostly recorded direct with DI's, Pods, or through the player's own preamps or line level feed. I have an Oz (now Mackie) headphone matrix mixer for individual headphone mixes.

This is what I do now, and not necessarily used on all these tracks, as some of them go back a few years. The process evolves as I learn what works and what doesn't.

I'll speak to my jam buddies about melody. If you link to my main web site, there's a bunch more, and some of it actually has melody, and there's some major league weirdness on others.

Thanks for the comments, Billster and MM.

MM... sorry, my clips are all full length, and not excerpts. Man, you have got to get DSL... it'll change your world.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:58 am

Jim wrote:MM... sorry, my clips are all full length, and not excerpts.

I can usually directly download files in bits, but not here.

Jim wrote:Man, you have got to get DSL... it'll change your world.

Tough times, indeed.

Sorry I couldn't do more, Jim.
Hopefully some more of dem 'Corners heed your "guidelines", step up to the plate and let you have it!
Nicky

dogBoy · Post by **dogBoy** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 6:37 am

Turn up the drums.
Some ambience on the guitars , here and there could be nice or reAmp'em.
They sound DI. If you reAmp them they might feel a little more connected to the over all sound/feel of the music.
The Holdsworthian guitar playing on "Dihydrogen Monoxide" ,nice.

db

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:49 am

dogBoy wrote:Turn up the drums.
Some ambience on the guitars , here and there could be nice or reAmp'em.
They sound DI. If you reAmp them they might feel a little more connected to the over all sound/feel of the music.
The Holdsworthian guitar playing on "Dihydrogen Monoxide" ,nice.

db

Good ear, db. The guitars were DI'ed. I'm certain both guitarists would be pleased by the "Holdsworthian" comparison. I'm trying to throttle my ego by mixing the drums conservatively, so perhaps I overshot. Thanks for the critique.

Here's one that sounds "Holdsworthian" to me. This recording was done with amps in the room. D112 on the bass speaker, and a 57 on the guitar speaker: http://jamesphilipcurtis.com/pohlread/The_Schitz.mp3

dogBoy · Post by **dogBoy** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:02 am

Jim
I understand what you mean about tempering your ego. I've done the same type of thing. When mixing , I trying to distant myself from my parts and just do what serves the music [as if I was'nt a player on thepiece]....Put on the Mixer's hat. It's not always so ease for me. I don't like to hear my own voice , so I bury it. I have to remember people do listen to lyrics.

I did'nt say it before but I think the mixes sound good....
You could generate a little more energy with the drums up, if thats what serves the song.

Best
db

mikebeckmotu · Post by **mikebeckmotu** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:35 am

Dihydrogen Monoxide
Dogboy wrote pretty much what I was going to write. The guitars and bass sound a little too dry and don't match the ambience of the drums. Very nice playing on all instruments. I really like the drumming - tasteful and it really drives the song. The bass got lost here and there, but that might be partly my new headphones - I'm still getting used to them, and I'm not sure just how good they are yet. I'm not usually one to pan the bass too far off center, but it worked well here. Oh, and it felt like the guitars were a little ahead of the beat at the very beginning, but maybe not on purpose, like in the usual jazz sense. Not a big deal, but since it occurred to me, I'm including the comment, in the spirit of your "let me have it!" post. I like the ambience of the drums as you have it. Maybe just a little more volume on them. Good work, Jim.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 9:08 am

Thanks all you gentlemen for your input, comments, compliments and critiques.

If anybody's interested, the guitars on Dihydrogen Monoxide are a Warr Guitar, which has 14 strings, and a Chapman Stick, which I believe has 9 strings. Both are played by tapping, not strumming, and both have a discrete bass side and a treble side output, which I tracked separately DI.

So, that ditty has two bass parts and two treble parts. My primary mix challenge was to prevent bass buildup. I did this by choosing to present only one bass line at a time, and switching back and forth between the players. There's only three guitar tracks active at any given time, and I panned them so that there's one hard left, one center, and one hard right. It was a challenge, and therefore a bunch of fun to mix.

A great thing about having DP and a home studio is that I never can say that a mix is "final." That also could be not a great thing. Depends.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:28 am

I took your advice and remixed last night. Here's the new mix, with drums hotter (actually more compression gain), and the same reverb (aux send: WizooVerb) on all instuments (in differing strengths):

http://cookread.jamesphilipcurtis.com/D ... xide_2.mp3

Here's the old mix for comparison:

http://cookread.jamesphilipcurtis.com/D ... noxide.mp3

Better?

mikebeckmotu · Post by **mikebeckmotu** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:09 pm

Sorry, Jim - been meaning to get to having a listen, but business has been interfering. I'll have to listen to the old one again and then the new one so I'm not going on memory alone. Thanks for the update!

twistedtom · Post by **twistedtom** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 5:24 pm

The 2nd mix has more life. I like the music too, nice playing and there is a good mix of changes.

Matcher · Post by **Matcher** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:30 pm

Hi Jim, your jam reminded me of King Crimson and the ProjeKcts. The last improvised track on Liquid Tension Experiment 1 is also quite similar. All of those groups have a stick, so if you haven't heard them I'd give them a listen and compare the mixes with yours.

For my taste the snare was just a tiny bit too boxy and uncompressed. The guitars sounded also a bit boxy with some of the sounds. I'd do some cutting with EQ. The instruments could be better separated from each other by giving each one of them a frequency area of their own, there were moments when things sounded too crowded. The bass sounds could have more bass and less mids. There was a lot of dynamics, maybe even a little too much for my ears. But, overall the mix was nice and with some parts I wouldn't change a thing, unless I had the project to play with and found something that works better.

M