In my opinion, almost everything was perfect in this mix except the almost incessant, noisy drum. I thought that it detracted from the rest of the sounds, which were extremely well matched.

Did you purposely have this drum in the piece, knowing that there was noise on the loop, or did you only hear the noise when the piece was saved as a 'take'??

I still downloaded the piece and will listen again, to see if everything fits and it was just my first impression.

Paul.

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I always value your comments and input on my tracks.

Let me give you a bit of history about this piece...

1) I have been collaborating with Mysti for over 6 months now on various projects. We have a tendency to encourage/push each other to do things differently than we both usually do. This is a great thing!
2) My vocals for this piece have been sitting on my hard drive for a couple of years waiting to be used. I rediscovered them just before Xmas and sent them to Mysti. She immediately had some extra vocal ideas for this which she sent back to me very quickly (probably within 24hrs).
3) At the time, I was sharing the joys of Gavin Bryer's "The Sinking of the Titanic" with Mysti. I discovered that the Aphex Twin had done a remix of 'Sinking' (a long, quiet orchestral piece based on reports of what the band on the Titanic were playing as the ship sank). The Aphex Twin turned the whole 'quiet' aspect of the original into something totally different, mainly by adding a jarring, incongruous drum track into the elements - I believe he titled his version 'The Raising of the Titanic'. Anyway, I loved the incongruity and dissonance of what he had done.
4) When we originally swapped files and talked about our impressions of what the sound conjoured up for us, we talked about sirens drawing sailors in to the sea to a watery grave...everything was 'nautical'. However, when Mysti sent me her vocal contribution, she called it a Train Wreck - mainly because of the dissonance in the notes she sings. The overall impression suggested those freight trains that you can hear in the distance sometimes when you are in ear shot. With all of these elements in mind, I thought I would like to try adding a similar, jarring drum track to the piece. It is a loop that I constructed in Ultrabeat in Logic, distorted heavily with bit crusher and then manipulated further in PhatmaticPro.

So...in answer to your question, everything in this mix was deliberately placed. I accept that for some it will sound harsh to their ears (specially after listening to some of my other material) but if you bear with it and play it through a few times, you may be able to see some of the beauty in the dissonance and incongruity that I do in this piece.

Again Paul...Thank you.

Bryn

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Thanks you for your very detailed reply. I appreciate the level of detail and the time you took to type this in. I learn so much from this type of reply; new techniques, theories and leads to other musicians of whom I know nothing.

I did not appreciate enough the dissonance/s when I listened the first time. I appreciate this more on further plays of this mix. The true complexity of the piece eluded me. I'm going to listen a few more times to take in the 'whole' of the piece.

Once again thanks for replying in much appreciated detail regarding the mechanics of the piece and yours/M's develoment of the whole.

Take care.

Paul.

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Remember that joy is contagious, so infect someone.....

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I dig the build up and the drum groove... harmonic vocal wash is very pleasant indeed (how many tracks did that involve I wonder). Bit of
Bowie-esque sax in there too?
Steve

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Vocal tracks - let me see. I would say there are at least 4 of me and there are 6 of Cat. It seems like we have created our own choral society.

I'm glad you picked up on the 'saxual' influences there too

;-)

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the vocals soundz very good so as the sax... this track has a good feel... love the noizy soundz and the beat... Well done...

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chunky tune nice the layers of vox they work really nicely i like the big drum...makes it solid..


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i like the tight beat. i think it may overpower the excellent vocals in parts though, but that's minor.
this is a great, tight song. i love the choral-effect you two bring together vocally. thanks!

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is amazingly powerful, disconcerting and brave. Bravo.
Cheers
Len



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