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Description:
Performance Credits:
Huy Dao – Lyrics, Vocals, Arrangement, Crystal
Mason A. Wolak – Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Percussion
08/20/07: Why We Travel started out as Mason fiddling around with a slide on an acoustic guitar. For most of its life so far, the song was simply "the slide acoustic song." A demo of the guitar part was originally posted on Mason’s page as The Ruse. I won't assume the reader has heard our other stuff, but let's just say that this song is a real departure for us.
First, the song, when conceived, was one instrument with plans for vocals. No big noise, riffs, or percussion to hide behind for me. It was my first stab, also, at writing anything with a melody. Most of our other music was rhythmically challenging, even tonally challenging, but my vocals have never been accused of being melodic. Second, we had no plans to make it anything other than guitar and vocals, so the mood of the vocals was purposefully dreary, 4AM on a Tuesday kind of stuff. If I knew the rest of the instruments would follow, I'm sure I would have tried to make the song more aggro.
The back story is that I didn't have much to record on and, following a motherboard crash, I was left with a cheap mixer, the sound card's line in, winamp, an outdated version of SoundForge, and a wireless karaoke mic. Despite the absolute sh*ttiness of the sound, we were able to get a feel for the song and Mason was off and running with new ideas for adding a bass line and some "simple" percussion (see picture below). A few back and forth drafts using Audacity and Tracktion, and we were ready to sit down and record.
We wound up recording vocals over completed guitar and bass with Mason's setup (described below). Percussion was recorded after we experimented with tuning champagne flutes and smoothing out some wood. Mason also decided to establish a new octave range for his voice in the chorus. And that's how it all came together.
One final note: be careful what you threaten. This song came about after I threatened to write a love song if Mason kept writing songs with complicated time signatures (cf. most of his other published material). Not exactly love, but the equally universal love lost.
Huy
Production Notes: The image below illustrates the items used to construct the percussion set; I’ll leave it to the listener to draw the connections. The bass was recorded D.I. into an Onyx 400F firewire interface. The guitar parts were recorded using either a Sennheiser e609 or JoeMeek JM37 mic fed into a JoeMeek SixQ channel strip, the output of which was fed into the Onyx via S/PDIF. The same signal chain was used for vocals, except that the Sennheiser mic was not used in this capacity. The percussion samples were recorded in a variety of manners, using both mics, sometimes with and sometimes without use of EQ and compression from the SixQ.
Hardware:
PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8 GHz/2 GB RAM – Mackie Onyx 400F Audio Interface – JoeMeek SixQ Channel Strip - JoeMeek JM37 Mic – Sennheiser e609 mic - Ibanez AE30 Acoustic Guitar - Yamaha Acoustic Guitar - Glass Slide - Dean Edge Bass - Metal Hammer - Dye and Punch Set - Cardboard Box - Champagne Flutes - Sandpaper - Wood Panel.
Software:
Tracking/Mixing: Tracktion 3.0.2.6, Mackie Channel Strip, Waves Renaissance EQ, Waves Renaissance Compressor, Antares Tube, Amplitube 2, Waves Trueverb, Waves Multi-Tap Delay, George Yohng’s W1 Limiter. Mastering: Acuma Final Mix and SpectraPhy LE
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bangin &mdash 08/22/07 - 11:56:31 AM
track.......simplicity with all the nrg of a full blown production.....love the percussion....melded perfectly.....vocal/bass melody is way kool......ipod worthy...highest complimet i can give.....all thumbs OP.....!!!!!!!!!! [ Reply to This ]
Thanks! &mdash 08/22/07 - 08:41:23 PM
Coming from you McBoy, that is high praise indeed. Glad you enjoyed it.
Mason
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<a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/25785">The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - <b>Rubicon</b></a> [ Reply to This ]
! &mdash 08/22/07 - 12:23:05 PM
F'ing word.
Well done...
Chill and heavy at the same time!!!
Y'all rock.
-ronnie [ Reply to This ]
sounds great &mdash 08/22/07 - 04:23:09 PM
i like your voice, the way the slide sounds, and the whole song. it kind of reminds me of Beck back in the old days. very cool. [ Reply to This ]
Yea &mdash 08/22/07 - 04:24:04 PM
This is different from the TMI I know, and different is GOOD! Nice track, guys! I love how clean that slide guitar is. Really nice mix, too! [ Reply to This ]
Hot Damn! &mdash 08/22/07 - 05:27:49 PM
Haha... made me stop chewing my gum... lol...
Smoken, goodness...
It'd be hard not to be inspired by this - But one could be overwhelmed w/ what to do w/ that amount of inspiration...
Beautiful!
Dion
Thanks for the copy! [ Reply to This ]
Excellent slide playing &mdash 08/22/07 - 06:02:25 PM
Thought the recording was well done,.
Vocal line is excellent.... cool phrasing
Pretty solid track.... have yet to hear what else you do but this in of itself is really good
Glad one of you stopped by my page ... opened up my ears to a talented group [ Reply to This ]
sweet &mdash 08/22/07 - 08:43:03 PM
Glad you enjoyed it Norman. I dig your fretwork too!
Mason
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<a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/25785">The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - <b>Rubicon</b></a> [ Reply to This ]
tops &mdash 08/22/07 - 08:47:46 PM
I love the clarity something Im finding harder and harder to achive. Thanks for the description makes one realize the complexity of this yet clear and simple song( when I say simple I mean the straight forward approach) well I hope you know what I mean great song enjoyed thanks! [ Reply to This ]
MASON!!! you get it &mdash 08/22/07 - 09:00:02 PM
killer on every level... hi scores get tossed around... these are the works that we should reserve them for... the mix is splendid... and please
Metal Hammer - Dye and Punch Set - Cardboard Box - Champagne Flutes - Sandpaper - Wood Panel.
perfect...
I see you're flyin' with tracktion... listening to this may make me jump ship...
a complete stellar track...
one nit pick... post lyrics
[ Reply to This ]
percussion set &mdash 08/22/07 - 09:05:42 PM
Thanks for the kind words Scott! I don't know if you saw it when you first listened, but I posted a collage of the percussion set that I used. Thought you might want to check it out just for the sake of interest.
Mason
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<a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/25785">The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - <b>Rubicon</b></a> [ Reply to This ]
Some comments from people at the KVR forum &mdash 08/23/07 - 07:35:13 AM
I just wanted to post these here so that all the comments were in one place:
from johnny2johnny (KVR Raw Materials Software Forum)
"thanks and now I feel like I need a glass full of whiskey, and a red head babe, a fire, and a phone call about how my pick up truck wont be fixed till next week, so I cant make it too work tomorow, and the boss is gonna kill me...."
from Njxt2 (KVR Raw Materials Software Forum)
"I really liked the song.
Soundwise speaking (IMHO), the voice is great but the slide guitar sounds a little roomy to me and the crosstick (is that the right word in english for hitting the metallic border of the snare ?) is too high pitching. Perhaps it's intentionnal, as the kick drum is very dry and punchy (but I liked that Wink )." [ Reply to This ]
Simple .. &mdash 08/23/07 - 07:46:41 AM
.. is often best! This is a really good sound with wide references and a gentle yet persuasive production. Love the rhythms and the lack of hi-tech. Some shades of John Butler in the slide/vox/bass melody - some lovely little changes. Excellent all round post. I agree with Scott. Many 9s and 10s being given, but this actually deserves them.
Neil [ Reply to This ]
starts out &mdash 08/23/07 - 07:48:34 AM
like in my time of dying by zep, then goes into some kind of beck/bloodhound gang hybrid... man, i hate categorizing tunes.... but, that's what hit me initially... the mix is superb, as always, and it lends itself to a deep resonator guitar tone. almost live mic night sounding.... i wish it were longer, with a slide solo, and perhaps kicking it in at some point, giving way to a full blown band production...
great tune, peoples.... [ Reply to This ]
thanks RAD &mdash 08/25/07 - 09:59:44 AM
Well, I've actually heard the zep meets beck analogy before for this song... I didn't really put together the zep connection until I overhead my younger brother (who stayed with me for the summer) listening to Page's slidework. I haven't actively listened to Zep in a long, long time; weird how things can pop out of your subconscious. With regards to Beck, well - I love his stuff and really like the way that he "fills" the sound space with creative samples. The percussion in this piece certainly draws from his sense of rhythmic execution.
Mason
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<a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/34706">The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - <b>Why We Travel</b></a> [ Reply to This ]
Why We Travel &mdash 08/23/07 - 07:48:53 AM
Love this Rockin ..man you got a real imagenary
of what you want to produced and what your song
should sound with .. this is creative my friend !
this Rock !! [ Reply to This ]
Great ! &mdash 08/23/07 - 08:04:20 AM
Loved all about this piece, the guitar sounds really great in this slide, much folky intro, the vocal line is excellent ! Keep up the good work [ Reply to This ]
Excellent track &mdash 08/23/07 - 09:13:45 AM
Really ace track, and I also love how you guys give the nth amount of detail on how you recorded this.
All the 10s from me
Steve [ Reply to This ]
Thanks Steve &mdash 08/25/07 - 10:08:25 AM
Regarding your comments on our exposition of details: I happen to be a chemist by profession, so I approach these recordings from a very analytical standpoint. As a scientist, there is a lot of emphasis on being able to convey your experimental techniques when you write a manuscript detailing your research. I sort of take that same approach to describing our recordings.
I feel as though I've learned so much from reading the forums here and talking to the many talented musicians and producers - I think I've come a long ways in developing my production skills and that wouldn't have happened without this site. Therefore, I tend to also think of this as "giving back" to the community. Maybe some details that I share will help others to make their music in a way that more accurately represents how they want it to sound. Also, by giving out as many details as possible, we open ourselves up to comments from others on what we can do to continue to improve.
Thanks, as always, for listening.
Mason --- The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - Why We Travel[ Reply to This ]
absolute, &mdash 08/23/07 - 07:22:50 PM
Really gets interesting &mdash 08/24/07 - 08:36:05 AM
when you start commin in and sngin,. Like the funky home made type beats. Like the bassy slide right after you start singing. It just keeps getting interesting with lots of funky fun. [ Reply to This ]
great song! &mdash 08/25/07 - 12:54:59 PM
I thought I had commented on this but I guess I didn't! This is a great song. You have tons of talent! Great vocals along with all of your Hardware magic! Really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to listening to more of yours. Thanks for sharing this! [ Reply to This ]
thanks for listening &mdash 08/25/07 - 01:02:56 PM
Glad you liked it, but I hope you're not disappointed by our other stuff. This song is more the exception than the rule. Our other music is much, much heavier and much less melodic (although we are always interested in continuing to branch out).
Mason
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<a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/34706">The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - <b>Why We Travel</b></a> [ Reply to This ]
simple sweetness &mdash 08/25/07 - 01:17:28 PM
Although, I dunno how simple it was to do all that nice sliding around, it sounds very accomplished though! Simple song structure, but great bluesy feel. And Huy's singing is perfect... you mention "dreary", I agree, but in a positive way... fits well. Good use of "percussion"! The recording does sound slightly damped on the low end, but crisp, and otherwise, a very solid piece. Cool stuff!
ttfn,
Drakonis [ Reply to This ]
dig it &mdash 08/25/07 - 01:42:24 PM
A little departure from the regular, and I love it. Fantastic recording. The guitar work is extra fine, and I second the vote that the vocal is perfectly melded. You are showing your unplugged side! and it rocks [ Reply to This ]
thanks ktb! &mdash 08/27/07 - 07:42:17 AM
I know you've had some nice things to say about our heavier stuff and I was wondering whether this track would work for you as well. We were definitely taking a step out of our normal comfort zone in doing this. It was both terrifying and exilarating at the same time. Glad you liked it.
Mason --- The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - Why We Travel[ Reply to This ]
From our former bass player &mdash 08/27/07 - 07:40:02 AM
I received a note from Dan Moon, the bassist that Huy and I used to work with back in the day... I wanted to post his comments here as I think they resonate with the tone and feel that we were going for with this song.
Mason/Huy:
Just flew in from Korea to DC today. When I was on the
plane, was listening to the radio, thinking about how
traveling brings back memories, hearing Clapton's
unplugged "Running on Faith" - blown away by the slide
guitar, hearing the strings bouncing off the slide,
ringing, loose, and organic...
Arrived in DC and drove down to Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina for a friend's wedding...listening to blues
and southern music...Clapton, Buddy Guy, Joplin...and
after getting to my hotel having a few beers...this
all fits together just right...
Love the tune, man. Love the guitar - didn't know you
had that thick blues vibe in you...and Huy's
vocals/lyrics are on point...percussion is minimal and
just right...right on guys...and the song title is
perfect for me right now...travelling
Keep on,
Dan [ Reply to This ]
HAPPY &mdash 08/27/07 - 08:22:33 AM
To hear This !!!!!!!!! ITS AWESOME :):):) SOOOOOOOO COOL ! ! ! So much FUN WOW LOVE IT I'm gettin my hammer out You inspire Me THANKYOU [ Reply to This ]
holy shit batman &mdash 08/27/07 - 02:22:15 PM
this is frakkin awesome!!!! I love the roominess of the whole sound....and that slide work is awesome bro!!!! one of the best tracks you have ever posted as far as my 2 cents is worth.....nice and swampy.....meet me down in the bayou for some froggin kid.....excellent work bro
peace [ Reply to This ]
awesome [CBH 10 years later?] &mdash 08/27/07 - 11:52:19 PM
awesome track, awesome recording...I didn't know you guys were still producing together. Keep postin'
"fat finger" sergio
[ Reply to This ]
Texas, please &mdash 08/28/07 - 09:09:06 AM
Thanks serge. Glad to see a familiar...avatar. I hope to be seeing Texas, or some version of it, posted here some day soon... [ Reply to This ]
sweet &mdash 08/28/07 - 09:50:08 AM
Woh-Ho? Nice to hear from you!
Huy and I just started writing and recording again a little over a year ago... kinda post-Cement Babyhead stuff, maybe a little more experimental and going in directions that we otherwise wouldn't have back in the day.
Glad you stopped by for a listen. You should check out the site and post some of your own stuff as well - it's a really great community they've got here.
Mason --- The latest offering by Tiny Man Inside - Why We Travel[ Reply to This ]
cool &mdash 08/28/07 - 09:46:20 AM
Great blues slide guitar and the percussion works great too. Just shows you don't need loads of electronica to make a brilliant tune. Very cool indeed. [ Reply to This ]
Coool with an extra o &mdash 08/28/07 - 10:29:04 AM
very cool vibe on this track. love the vocals on this. Very hooky guitar lick in between vocal lines in verse. Great chorus. Minimal elements with maximum effect, dynamics and propulsion. [ Reply to This ]
Sounds &mdash 08/29/07 - 04:08:31 AM
like the original blues/folk songs and your voice fits in beautifully with that feel. Great track and great original 'modern' sound, very rich if raw sounding, cheers M [ Reply to This ]
Ouch &mdash 09/04/07 - 07:15:00 AM
I just put it together..... &mdash 09/07/07 - 09:50:33 AM
Duh! Mason Atoms = Mason A. Wolak of Tiny_Man_Inside! This is a cool tune, I dig the slide and it is amazing the sounds you achieved out of your assemblage, considering the only bona-fide instrument was the guitar! Nice work guys and a tight production. Hey and thanks for the tips on mic'ing my guitar, I appreciate it. Keep on keepin on for you sound great!
Alvin [ Reply to This ]
I &mdash 10/25/07 - 12:01:54 PM
love this. Very cool slide. It reminds of something Led Zep would do.
I half expected the vox to come screaming in ala Plant at some point.
Well done.
Frank. [ Reply to This ]
yep &mdash 11/01/07 - 05:13:13 PM
this one rocks. had my ears from the first. very cool, .....very cool! [ Reply to This ]
Cool... &mdash 11/13/07 - 10:09:20 AM
...plus 1 on what everyone else says...cool basics on a kickass production scale. Like to see the lyrics printed out...they're really fine, too... [ Reply to This ]
Guitar &mdash 11/21/07 - 01:27:10 PM
yeah &mdash 12/03/07 - 07:52:07 PM
late to the party... &mdash 12/27/07 - 10:13:22 AM
cool slide, and a bit minimalistic in keeping with a slick clean sound. Nice tune guys.
. - Harold [ Reply to This ]
Yes! &mdash 12/28/07 - 11:31:28 AM
Wow! This was great! Very inventive style. . .The percussion is brilliant! [ Reply to This ]
Aye. &mdash 12/28/07 - 07:36:26 PM
MISSED IT &mdash 01/16/08 - 06:52:28 PM
LIKE It a Lot.
Great Capture.
Heads Up Production Notes, what a courtesy.
Tracktion, eh?
Cool.
best regards,
Cooper [ Reply to This ]
Why We Travel &mdash 04/28/08 - 10:57:39 PM
Mason - this is great! Love the guitar, vocals, the whole darned song is excellent! [ Reply to This ]
Thanks for the treat &mdash 04/28/08 - 11:06:17 PM
I really like this track, Mason. It all works so well together. But I especially like the slide playing. Great job, great song. So real... [ Reply to This ]
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