slowburn

Back in San Francisco, and spent the weekend in Golden Gate Park at the Outside Lands Festival.

Beck playing at the smaller Sutro Stage. He should have been at the main stage, it was way too crowded and the sound system was weak. His new album is excellent.

Radiohead on the main stage closing out the first night. Completely fantastic performance in the fog of SF.

Wilco on the Twin Peaks stage, almost exactly the same spot where I saw Jeff Tweedy play last fall at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. They should have been on the main stage too, and should have been scheduled more time. They sounded great, they were just getting into a nice groove for the last few songs and then had to stop.

Also saw Tom Petty, Primus, Broken Social Scene and some others. A fun way to spend the weekend, and the last day in particular was sunny and perfect. Pictures are courtesy of Joleen’s fancy schmancy new iPhone, which unfortunately has no zoom.

Edit: Nice photos with zoom at Pitchfork.

I managed to write a number of new songs on the Tenori-On while we were in Glacier, I’m thinking I will do a quick little album of Tenori-On songs after I’m done with slowburn. For now, it’s back to finishing it up. Burning Man is happening this week, so maybe this would be an appropriate time to end the project, three years after we performed it there.

I’m headed out of town to Glacier National Park in Montana for a week of hiking, relaxing and unplugging from the internet. I’m bringing my Tenori-On to hopefully write some new music, or at least have some fun playing around with it.

Here’s the preview mix of slowburn. This is the whole album and it is really almost done now! Once I get back, I just need to tweak a few little last bits and then figure out what we are going to do as far as releasing it. I also need to convert a couple of the songs into a format that people can use to remix them, and maybe make a youtube video for one of them. Anyway, if you get a chance to listen to it, let me know what you think. At this point I’ve lost most of my perspective on whether or not it’s actually any good… which is a sure sign that it is in fact nearly finished.

See you in a week!

I am still alive and (soon to be again) mixing. Last weekend I was out of town on a trip, and by the time I got back I had caught some sort of cold/flu bug. Needless to say, a head full of congestion and feeling cruddy in general is no way to finish up a mix, so I’ve spent this week sitting on the couch scarfing down Dayquil, drinking fluids, and feeling sorry for myself rather than being inside the studio working on the songs. The congestion has now mostly moved from my head down to my chest, so I’m hoping to get back in the studio tomorrow, and cough my way to the finish line.

While starting to mix “tea&t” I was listening to Aphex Twin “Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2″, Brian Eno “Ambient 1: Music For Airports”, and Biosphere “Substrata”. I’ve tentatively decided to take the drums out of this one, so that the first and last songs are both beatless. So far it is sounding okay but it just hasn’t quite gelled yet, although it is starting to get there. Before I left last weekend, I also put together a new full album mix which is currently clocking in at fifty nine minutes exactly. I have a feeling this is probably where it’s going to end up length-wise.

After I get the “tea&t” mix done, I need to go back and do some touch-up bits to all the other mixes based on how they sound in the context of the whole album, and work on getting the interludes between the songs right. I will be leaving town again in a week for another trip, and the goal is to have a nearly-final mix to put up here before I leave.

“tea&t” to-do list:
-SIMPLIFY
-timing seems a bit off at certain points, nudge pads a little
-parts need to be more subtle, less upfront
-more of the lead part at the end?
-more bass parts
-acidy part sticks out too much, send it to the back
-some delays need to be longer, too much activity
-need automation on delays
-volume automate noises and blips
-fade parts in and out slowly
-need to do builds without drums
-more effects on the big pad
-more careful use of reverb
-figure out how how wide the song should feel
-use gain plugin to swap l/r for liquid stereo-izing

Mixing the first song on the album, “hummin”, and listening to Bola “Soup”, Air “Moon Safari”, and Cocteau Twins “Heaven or Las Vegas”. This is the only track without any drums, which has made mixing it a bit of a challenge for me. I may also take the drums off the last track, “tea&t”, so there is some symmetry to the flow of the album. Or maybe not.

“hummin” to-do list:
-SIMPLIFY
-fix delay on bass
-bass is too hazy and distant, take off some effects
-little verb on bass
-eq big pad
-new reverb on pad chorus bus?
-effects/eq/volume on noises
-long verb on noise wash
-make clicky intro noises more interesting
-slowly fade percussion sounds in and out
-crash for big builds?
-automate volume
-automate width
-quiet/loud dynamics

Whoops, forgot to post this while I was still mixing “upbeat”, and listening to Boards of Canada “Music Has the Right to Children”, Aphex Twin “Selected Ambient Works 85-92″, and Sly Stone “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”. I’ve actually moved on to mixing the last two songs now, they are going to take a little bit more work but we’re almost there.

The “upbeat” to-do list:
-SIMPLIFY
-tweak acid lead track
-fix delay volume automation
-automate chorus amount
-effects/eq/volume on noises
-add reverb to pads/etc
-tweak drums, add effects
-fix percussion sequence chunk fades
-sidechain bass/kick
-do something special in a couple places

Finishing up the “puppy” mix and listening to Autechre “Incunabula”, Metamatics “Mind Mushing Git”, and Mouse on Mars “Iaora Tahiti”. The mixes are going faster now, and I’m started to get excited about finishing everything up.

The “puppy” to-do list:
-SIMPLIFY
-adjust basspad volume
-add some phase/flange to the pads
-tweak delay trails on bass
-fix volume automation on delay tracks
-work on reverb presets
-effects/EQ on noises
-trim down noises
-mix needs more depth
-use automated pans instead of tremolo
-adjust volume on bubble sounds
-add special effects to percussion
-add some toms to builds?
-drums need work, listen on headphones
-add delay on drums during builds
-tweak transitions
-emphasize loud/soft dynamics

Mixing “rollover” while listening to Orbital “Snivilization”, The Orb “Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld”, and Fila Brazillia “Jump Leads”. Mixing this and “laguna” is taking a little but longer than expected, but I want to make sure they are good, and I want to spend more time making my favorite songs great rather than just polishing up all things that are only okay. I’ve also started listening to all the mixes on headphones and will be tweaking some things based on that. Hopefully these two will be done in a couple more days.

The “rollover” to-do list:
-SIMPLIFY
-make spacy parts spacier
-even out basspad levels
-bounce delay tracks
-automate delays w/feedback on dropoffs
-drums need work
-need a couple more drum crashes
-maybe put in short tom bursts
-work on hats, maybe use replicant?
-compress/distort parallel snare, mix in
-percussion needs something
-tweak those builds
-automate choruses to be deeper at key points
-tweak release times on all compressors
-tweak panning, mix on headphones
-focus on important parts
-emphasize loud/soft dynamics

Mixing “laguna” and shooting for lush and dreamy, while listening to ambient-electronic classics Global Communication “76:14″, Higher Intelligence Agency “Colourform” and Ulrich Schnauss “Faraway Trains Passing By”.

The “laguna” to do list:
-SIMPLIFY
-needs to flow more, slower fade ins/outs at transitions
-volume/pan/fx on noises
-level out bass pad
-pad needs something more
-”solo” parts in some sections
-blips need something, maybe edit down
-automate 04counter track delay
-sidechain bass/kick
-more crash/ride?
-pep up the drums
-add some KaossPad-like effects to drums
-percussion reverb
-precision buss compressor on drum bus
-tweak builds
-emphasize loud/soft dynamics
-automate chorus to be deeper at certain parts
-pick a couple places to do special things with effects

I’ve been tinkering a little with sidechain compression, which is where you use one audio track to trigger the compression on a second track. I’ve been using the Sonalksis compressor since it has this sidechain feature. Alternately, you can use a gate instead of a compressor, so I plan on trying that with the Sonalksis gate plugin.

In electronic music, the most common use for sidechain compression is to compress the bass track whenever the kick drum track comes in. So whenever your kick drum kicks, the volume of the bass ducks down a little, making it easier to hear the kick. This allows you to crank up the volume of both audio tracks without turning the overall song into a big muddy bassy mess.

As a nice side effect it helps subtly lock the groove of the two track together, since they now have something in common. This is mostly what I’m using it for, to get some subtle groove out of these rigid, computer programmed sequences. By playing with the attack and release values on the compressor, you can control how fast the compressor clamps down and lets go, which creates that groove. I am still experimenting with it and trying to find some good settings for each song by ear. Since I’m new to doing this and my brain doesn’t yet know what I “should” be setting things to, I’m just semi-randomly setting things to what sounds good.

The overall effect is fairly subtle, and when done in moderation is one of those things you don’t notice until it goes away. You can see it visually in the picture above by looking at the audio waveforms: the top track is the kick, the bottom track is the bass, the middle track is the bass after being compressed whenever the kick occurs.

The heavy, not so subtle use of this effect is Daft Punk’s signature production technique. Often times they will compress more than just the bass, so you will hear the whole rest of the track compress down whenever the kick hits, which makes everything pump and groove.

I am done with “lemonzen” and “lurp” for now, and put the latest version of lemon up on our myspace page. These songs are sounding pretty good but they will need a few more little tweaks, especially since I started experimenting with sidechain compression at the very end of the mixing process.

I’m trying not to get too distracted by the little things though, so for now I’m going to move on to mixing “laguna” and “bubblepop”. These two songs are the heart of the album, and are where it peaks, so I’m putting a fair amount of pressure on myself to get them right. This has me a little stressed out, but I’m optimistic it will all come together. More on them in a bit.

Mixing “lurp” and listening to Future Sound of London “Lifeforms” and “ISDN”, David Morley “Ghosts”, and Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon”. This is one of the darker and weirder tracks on the album, before things resolve with “flicker”, so I’m trying to emphasize that in the mix. In general, things are still going slower than I’d like, but steady progress is being made and this and “lemon” are starting to sound pretty good.

The “lurp” to do list:
-SIMPLIFY
-fx/volume automation on noises
-verb on bleeps
-lead needs something
-fine tune bass volume automation
-chords need work
-lusher pads
-edit blip arrangement at end to transition into “flicker”
-use soundtoys phaser, echoboy
-neve compressor on drum bus?
-snare needs something
-fx/verb on percussion parts
-sidechain bass/kick
-loud/soft dynamics