Me, Me, Me!!

[Krispy]

Old song of mine which Pat suggested required a bass. Hey presto! Gregg works his magic.
I gave this the full Pop mastering, pushing the bass and lead vox. Too much?? Probably. Comments/advice please, pop pickers.

Me_fullPopmaster.mp3

(4.31 MiB) Downloaded 137 times

[HUD]

Definitely raises this song by scads, having added the bass part. Chugs along very nicely, and although you've placed this in the "in progress" forum, it sounds ready for primetime to me.

[ptalbot]

Cool Krispy. And nicely played Gregg!

I think it's a bit too busy though... more grounded would sound better IMHO.
Personally, I was hearing a more heavy bass, less busy, more gritty...
I would add some saturation/distortion to it, more low-end and I would have stayed more on the lowest notes.

Think Tony Levin on some Peter Gabriel's songs, like Red Rain for example:


Make it grittier!
But of course that's your call Krispy, it's already sounding much better!

[HUD]

damn it Pat...

Reading that and checking out this Peter Gabriel, I think your thoughts have merit... to a point. Some really nice riffage going on right now from Gregg that it'd be a shame to lose, but, listening again, perhaps the bass part becomes too much of a focal point for too long. I definitely hear how the holding of bass notes and holes that "Red Rain" has would work great to showcase some of Kim's vocal trickeration. Also, that cj trick of cloning the bass track, making it all low-end and compressed like a mother might be interesting - for portions, but then some places the less bottommy riff stuff could take over, thus preserving some of the (I'm assuming) originally-intended lightness.

So now, I'm hearing some rising sustainful high wasy keyboards through the bridge.

[Krispy]

Thanks guys.
I do hear what you say about the Red Rain style, but then what Gregg did really makes the song bounce along like it shoulda, so now that there's a 'pump' in place, the backing vox don't have to carry the rhythmic weight.
S'pose I've always wondered what the song would go like with all the backing vox replaced by instrumentation - as an alternative version I mean.
The keys you hear are still my draft 'markers', masked by the banks of vox. Really like to replace those in the bridge to make it less of a WTF jump.
Anyone at a loose end fancies offering a part, I ain't gonna be too picky.

[ptalbot]

Thanks guys.
I do hear what you say about the Red Rain style, but then what Gregg did really makes the song bounce along like it shoulda, so now that there's a 'pump' in place, the backing vox don't have to carry the rhythmic weight.

OK, sure, I would still make it dirtier though, more low-end grit would fit better IMHO, and perhaps compress more or ride the fader on the track, it's too loud at times...

[HUD]

would be curious cj's opinion... a dude with very strong bass-ic beliefs. He likes big bottoms and he cannot lie...

[ptalbot]

Listening again right now... definitely too loud (a little bit overbearing and competing too much with the vocals, being busy as it is) and too clean.
Need less gain, a couple db cut in the low-mids to make it rounder I'd say around 300hz and definitely some (more) saturation.
And while I'm at it, get a little bit more meat into that snare, it's all snap and pop, but missing some body to my ears.

[Krispy]

OMG that sounds complicated. I'd have to go to college.

[ptalbot]

OMG that sounds complicated. I'd have to go to college.

Sorry about that, I'm perhaps too used to reading people discussing the merits of backwards compression or side-chaining a multi channel comp.

But If you've mixed that, then you know what I'm talking about, if not, don't worry about it, whoever did mix it will understand!

[Krispy]

No problem. I'm naturally lazy in some ways.

https://soundcloud.com/kim-christie-1/me-me-me

So I turned the bass down a bit and did a quick master with less OTT synthetic sparkle. Tried to do something about the snare but anything that enhanced it encroached on something nicer. So it is what it is. As far as future drumming's concerned, I'm getting to know Addictive Drums now; my family haven't seen me for two weeks.

[steban]

OK, listening to both, they are both pretty darn great. The song itself is lighthearted and self-centered, very British in the actual lyrics, not trying to be more than funny, no buy me a diamond ring or condo material girl stuff going on, it is better for that.

The bass is excellent, muchos kudos to el Greggo. The second version, lowering the bass volume a tad, elevated the vocals and drums relatively in my ears, and I think that mix is a little better.

It is such a very jazzy song, maybe pop jazz, certainly easy listening material. I like it a lot, even though it may not be my favorite K song, it is in my top half, maybe 25%.

No doubt it went from an a capella masterpiece to a more full fledged pop production.

I think a version with instruments instead of the vocal harmonies would be good as well, but I am always most impressed with your voice as instrument. So creative and musical.

The drums were good. I don't think they shattered the drummer world, but the timing was spot on, felt quite sensitive to the action, too.

All in all, this one handled the upgrade extremely well in my opinion, and now it is hard to imagine it without the bass!

[Krispy]

Thank you for taking the time to listen Stebs. And for the compliments as well of course.

[cjdenecia]

soon come mama ....

[cjdenecia]

soon come mama ....

well, soon is now.

to be a fair comparison, I had to go back and listen to the original. and this is better. in lots of ways. tho I obviously liked the original a bit ... http://www.audiopolis.org/blind_review/ ... rainclouds

not the least of what is better is the presentation of the whole thing - it's lots bigger and wider. the frequencies are low to high now instead of mostly just mids ... and that's all about the bass. well, mostly. the fact is, the whole thing is better now. it's just as clean but now warmer and more accessible and easy to listen to.

but about the bass - which is what this thread is about ....

it works very very well. it funks the tune up. it grounds it. it adds to it's melody and it's harmony. plus it fills gaps that I didn't really know were there on the first version. it actually serves as second star in the song now ... it completely gives the vocal melody something to bounce off of ... and that's especially obvious during the scat vocal section but holds true throughout. like the part was added to completely accentuate the vocal line. which obviously, it was. and it works. the thing is, now that I've heard how much the bass can add to this song, it makes me wonder if it couldn't handle some tasteful clean strat sounds and maybe even a hammond B3 to make it a more conventional pop song.

which wouldn't really detract from the charm of it's initial intent as much as make it so much more .....

sorta like how a song should sound good with just an acoustic and vocal - it should also be able to stand additions to it's cause without losing it's charm. this song could. well, it can, and has ...

good music makers these guys. this kim christie and that other guy - suedepudding. a pretty good pairing.