So after about 3 months of diddling around with a new track called "8 MINUTES TO ORBIT" it still didn't sound right to me this afternoon when I sat down to listen again to my last mix. Frustrating to say the least.
Every time I work on a track I always do a mix whether I think it's done or not. I don't want to have to crank up the computer and load software and all that stuff later on just to check out where I'm at with a tune. So... I listened off the Alesis Masterlink that I use for recording final mixdowns and even at 96khz sampling rate---things were just not right. This was not a technology problem. It was a musical one.
Finally it dawned on me that I had become so enamoured with the SOUNDS that I used on this track that I had neglected to obey the general rules of making techno-trance-electronica (whatever that is) which is to say that I really wasn't hearing a solid KICK and a definite SNARE in the mix. One would think that someone with my experience in recording (nearly 30 years) would have noticed this earlier and perhaps I did and my mind just didn't care at that point in the process. I was going for something "different" this time out anyway and the lack of the usual supporting players (kick and snare) gave the effort a vibe that I was not used to. I mistakenly thought that was a good thing. It was not. Rules are rules for a reason. The universe does not change just because I might want it to.
Well, I spent the afternoon judiciously, carefully, with great attention to delicacy---adding a kick overdub to the drum tracks that were already there. The hardest part of that process is really, really making sure that the new kick overdub is EXACTLY PRECISELY lined up with what's already there---otherwise you get a weird doubling effect that is undesireable in this kind of music.
Then I added a snare from my arsenal of Roland 808 samples and even though it sounded vaguely "cheap" at first---I quickly decided that it was perfect because the rest of "8 MINUTES TO ORBIT" sounds "expensive" if you get my drift. That cheap little "pppsssht" snare that I used was great up against the gigantic hugeness of the rest of the track. So it seems to be working.
Why I am telling you this? Because you're a fan of mine. Eventually you will hear this track. And I wanted you to know that I'm making it as PERFECT as I possibly can. I'm a big believer in trying to perfect things for my fans--although I haven't always lived up to it. But this time I won't stop until this track is shere awesomeness and it is already very close.
It's funny how, when you really start to get everything right in a mix, you begin to hear the whole work in a new way. Even after thousands of listens---when the mix clicks---magic happens. And magic is what I'm after. Nothing less.
Every time I work on a track I always do a mix whether I think it's done or not. I don't want to have to crank up the computer and load software and all that stuff later on just to check out where I'm at with a tune. So... I listened off the Alesis Masterlink that I use for recording final mixdowns and even at 96khz sampling rate---things were just not right. This was not a technology problem. It was a musical one.
Finally it dawned on me that I had become so enamoured with the SOUNDS that I used on this track that I had neglected to obey the general rules of making techno-trance-electronica (whatever that is) which is to say that I really wasn't hearing a solid KICK and a definite SNARE in the mix. One would think that someone with my experience in recording (nearly 30 years) would have noticed this earlier and perhaps I did and my mind just didn't care at that point in the process. I was going for something "different" this time out anyway and the lack of the usual supporting players (kick and snare) gave the effort a vibe that I was not used to. I mistakenly thought that was a good thing. It was not. Rules are rules for a reason. The universe does not change just because I might want it to.
Well, I spent the afternoon judiciously, carefully, with great attention to delicacy---adding a kick overdub to the drum tracks that were already there. The hardest part of that process is really, really making sure that the new kick overdub is EXACTLY PRECISELY lined up with what's already there---otherwise you get a weird doubling effect that is undesireable in this kind of music.
Then I added a snare from my arsenal of Roland 808 samples and even though it sounded vaguely "cheap" at first---I quickly decided that it was perfect because the rest of "8 MINUTES TO ORBIT" sounds "expensive" if you get my drift. That cheap little "pppsssht" snare that I used was great up against the gigantic hugeness of the rest of the track. So it seems to be working.
Why I am telling you this? Because you're a fan of mine. Eventually you will hear this track. And I wanted you to know that I'm making it as PERFECT as I possibly can. I'm a big believer in trying to perfect things for my fans--although I haven't always lived up to it. But this time I won't stop until this track is shere awesomeness and it is already very close.
It's funny how, when you really start to get everything right in a mix, you begin to hear the whole work in a new way. Even after thousands of listens---when the mix clicks---magic happens. And magic is what I'm after. Nothing less.