Fragile Gods - "Decoded Dreams" (final mix)

[Frantz]

kinda twilight zoney.

Yes, in fact, I imagined I was writing the theme song for a sci-fi TV series with my voice providing some kind of narration. I was watching all of the original Outer Limits episodes at the time.

good mix but am i the only one that feels the vocals could use some deessing? it kinda distracted the overall groove for me.

Yes, I just listened to the MP3 on earbuds on the way to work and noticed harsh sibilance that I didn't hear on my speakers. I will try to rework the vocals this week.

Thanks. Your comments were right on the money.

[Frantz]

and mr me ...that bass drum sounds tympanic now....much madder, itchy and scratchy sounds.

interesting stuff

Thanks for listening FATC. Yes, Mr. Me went wild on his remix. My cats freaked when I played it at high volume.

[seismic1]

I just listened to that mr.me remix again. Your vox definitely sound better on here. I think they contrast well with the sonic mayhem being perpetrated by your partner in crime.

Good work

[Frantz]

I just listened to that mr.me remix again. Your vox definitely sound better on here. I think they contrast well with the sonic mayhem being perpetrated by your partner in crime.

I agree mr. me improved the vox. I was also dismayed to hear how bad the sibilance (harsh esses) is in my mix while listening on earbuds. It was dumb not check this before posting it here.

I will redo my mix sometime this week and make the vox closer to mr. me's version. I'll also try to get some more bass in there while I'm at it.

Thanks for all the feedback.

[Jace-BeOS]

I liked this

My only critique at the moment is the echo on the spoken word near the end. Bit too much for me.

Otherwise, this was fun. Thanks for sharing

[Frantz]

I liked this

My only critique at the moment is the echo on the spoken word near the end. Bit too much for me.

Otherwise, this was fun. Thanks for sharing

Glad you liked it. It's getting a little confusing because there is such a wide variety of opinions on the vox effects: 'too much echo', 'should be more glitchy', 'fine as is', etc. Nevertheless, I will do one more mix attempting to improve the vox making them more like mr. me's version.

Thanks for posting.

[Frantz]

One last bump since I remixed the vocals to remove the sibilance* and make them lightly distorted like mr. me's version:

http://soundcloud.com/fragilegods/decodeddreams
The new MP3 is available in the first post.

I did experiment with adding more bass to the mix but it became murky so I left the amount of bass the same. I was going to upload the original version for comparison purposes but SoundCloud is giving me errors now.

Now that that's done, I am looking forward to making progress on new tracks!



* The vocals were badly recorded and the sibilance was too strong to remove with a simple de-esser plugin. So I used Samplitude 10's Spectral Cleaner to edit out the offending frequencies. It would not have been too bad if the Spectral Cleaner did not cause Samplitude to crash about 50 times during the process.

[Emerald Tablet]

Marvelous stuff. Im starting my day with strong cofee and this!
clear mix also

[kryptonaut]

Fantastic! Very much enjoyed this, as well as Mr.Me's somewhat wilder version. Actually it reminded me of Ultravox's Mr X, but yours has a more sinister feel to it which works very well.

[Frantz]

Thanks Remmie!

Fantastic! Very much enjoyed this, as well as Mr.Me's somewhat wilder version. Actually it reminded me of Ultravox's Mr X, but yours has a more sinister feel to it which works very well.

I hadn't thought of it before but you're right, Ultravox's Mr. X has a similar mood and spoken vocals. I'm a big John Foxx fan so all of that stuff has seeped into my subconscious. Thanks for the feedback.

[2NDMOUSE]

The voiceover is good. It reminds me of the dialogue at the very start of knight rider " michael knight.....on a lone crusade......etc...."

Production is good. If there is any limiting / comp going on , its very subtle and transparent , which gives it more of a clean 80s vibe , which I grew up with and feel very at home with.
Very reminiscent of a track by depeche mode called " tora! Tora! Tora! " at the end , which was my favourite part of all.
Good job ! And thanks for helping with the feedback on my track.

[Frantz]

The voiceover is good. It reminds me of the dialogue at the very start of knight rider " michael knight.....on a lone crusade......etc...."

I checked out a clip of the opening of Knight Rider on YouTube and I can hear the similarity. Tell the Hoff I am available for voiceover work if he needs it.

Very reminiscent of a track by depeche mode called " tora! Tora! Tora! " at the end , which was my favourite part of all.

I hadn't heard "Tora! Tora! Tora!" before but sure enough the sound of my middle eight, which is from a Z3TA+ 2 patch I made, is pretty close to the start of that song. It's not surprising though because I really like basic analog stuff from the 70s and early 80s. Those were the kind of sounds I was shooting for.

Production is good. If there is any limiting / comp going on , its very subtle and transparent , which gives it more of a clean 80s vibe , which I grew up with and feel very at home with.

There's some compression on the vox, kick, and mix bus but it is subtle compared to most current electronic music. I am new to ITB production so I am still getting a handle on this. Hopefully the production on my next track will be a bit better.

Thanks for the feedback and interesting comparisons 2M!