KVR Audio

Jazzyspoon · Post by **Jazzyspoon** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:03 am

I swear I take forever to even get close to finishing a collab with someone these days. Sorry to those involved.
Well, today I'm done with this one. My ears are burnt of it.
I originally sent Kevin from Skin Contact and then Meloday (Jared) a very simple untweaked track for a sort of remix/collab called SAP. or Shared Audio Project.
here's a clip from the original minimal track...seriously nothing fancy. Broken rhythms and pads to get things rolling.
S.A.P. - Jazzyspoon

They both sent remix responses back pretty quickly. Both mixes were cool.
Here's Meloday's Solo Mix:

MELO S.A.P. - Meloday
256kbps 7.7mb

I don't have a copy of the Skin Contact mix (send a link if you got one, Kev)

So, I wrote the fellas and asked if they wanted this to go a step further and I could add weird vocals or something to this....
They agreed it would be cool and sent me their audio files to add to mine...
So, too many months later, the beast has mutated into something I have both lost control of and also lost interest in mixing any further.
It's a loud, and in my opinion, unfinished industrial (SP clichéd) glitch mess.

FINDING A WAY COLLAB - Meloday, Skin Contact, and Jazzy
256kbps 9.7mb 5:19

Jared on keys and beats and fx
Kevin on keys, beats, fx, and bass.
Me on guitar, bad vocals, some keys/beats/fx, and the overall mixdown.

Great work from the contributers and a big thanks to them for having an open mind to the style this eventually took on.
Thought I would share the process and the semi-hideous result.
Perhaps Kevin and Jared will give this one more remix of this final piece?

warning, don't listen to this in the morning light.
it could sour your coffee's milk.

thanks for listening/toleration
peace
J

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:12 pm

So all in all, each version has a unique character. I'm going to have to say that my favorites were the original and the Meloday mix the Meloday mix coming in slightly ahead just because of that awesome mellotron flute sound. The final mix is cool but there were parts that didn't sit right.

There is a fast kick drum part that starts with the vocal that sounds very thin and mushy. The guitar sounds okay once the lead synth comes in but in other parts it feels tacked on. I really liked the vocal and would liked it to have stood out more. The over all arrangement is great and there are components that are absolutely tasty but then there are parts that sound like too much is going on.

This must have been really tough to mix considering the fact that there are so many cool sounds to fit in a single track. I don't know how I would have approached this one but it is definitely the kind of thing that would have been easier on a big console. For whatever reason when dealing with a song thats got like 72 tracks of coolness, a big analog console has always been the easiest way to go for me. I guess that's why my track counts rarely go above twenty on my "in-the-box" mixes.

I did enjoy each track in their own right. Good job guys.

3am

Jazzyspoon · Post by **Jazzyspoon** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:29 pm

man, do i ever agree with every word you said. yea, this was not only tough to mix for the polyphony's sake, but also for the fact that the overall spectrum of this track killed my ears everytime i went to mix it. So, I would wait 2 weeks, rehit it, and go tone deaf again after a few hours of hammering away at it. I like the original mix only for the simplicity factor.
Meloday's and Kevs mix were what encouraged me to keep hammering away at it. They were cool and i probably shoudl have just stopped there.
So yeah, this is a noisy mess. Perhaps I can tighten that kick up in the future and take the whole thing into a more simplistic realm, but i didn't want to ignore the contributions from any of the three of us. So, it just got too busy.

Me wants a big console, but i know its not coming.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:01 pm

I have made an agreement with myself. I'm not buying any new software for the next six months, I'm saving up for an Otari MX-5050 1/4" ($200!!!) and an Allen & Heath GL3300 (between $6000 and $8000). I want to have the option of mixing to tape or sending individual tracks to tape but most of all I want to be able to mix on a mixer. It's going to be tough but I think that after 6 months of saving I can afford at least to take out a loan for it.

Meloday · Post by **Meloday** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:22 am

yo man. me likes the track. i had a great time doing my take!

after reading justin's comments about the mix, and listening to it again, you could probably give it another round of mixing....that said, you're probably burnt out and don't want to touch it ever again

when i originally listened to it, i was listening to it from a more arrangement standpoint, more than a mixing one....i do like the arrangement....its very dense in spots...maybe the mix would benefit if you made the arrangement more sparse? dunno. just a thought. i know you worked your ass off on this. i say, take a long break from it...come back in a year and revisit...i think the ideas are worth it...

synthgeek · Post by **synthgeek** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 2:19 am

Stopping in to say you did a great job on this, Jazzy- I for one think it's great. Hideous? Maybe, but in a good way I think. Very different from what I pictured at the offset of this whole thing, that's for sure. The mix itself may not be perfect, but it would indeed be a hard one to pull off.

In any case, I'm glad I could be a part of it. This is the mix I sent Jazzy btw:

http://www.skincontact.com/stuff/js-collab1.mp3

May be a little while before I get time, but I would indeed like to take a whack at another version of it, just for the fun of a remix.

Meloday, Skin Contact, and Jazzyspoon collab ...