New iTom Song, and A New Album

[filkertom]

This week's song was inspired by my darling ladysprite. (Let me know if there's too much bass on the track -- I don't think so, but I might be too close to the mix right now.)

And, that's thirteen -- a new album! Damn, this is fun.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Haven't listened yet, just read the lyrics, but that's such a perfect song for her!

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's a wonderful song for her.

[kshandra]

I think I just fell a little bit in love with you, Tom. I can't actually listen to it here at work, but the lyrics make me want to laugh and cry - and dance - all at once.

[djonn]

The "listen" link is giving me a Weingart riff ("404 not found"). OTOH, downloading seems to be working....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Fixed.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, Tom!

(And you put "March Of The PenguiCon" as a bonus song? Sold!)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

...Erm, but is the "Add To Cart" link redirecting to paypal.com for anyone else?

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

me too. So I log in and my cart is empty...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oy jayzus. Let me check....

... Okay, give it a whirl now. (You're talking about buying the album, right?)

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

I have no bloody idea why it isn't obvious to me. The first time I logged in and THOUGHT my cart would have been propagated. Apparently I needed to click Add to Cart again after logging again.

*slaps forehead* Sorry, Tom.

To clarify, I have it now. :) (Or rather, my husband's inbox has it)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

There it is. Thanks.

(Yes.)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

"Father Raymond, his cathedral is bazaar"--heh! Must have gone over pretty well, that one.

You asked about the bass...

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

I should probably note that this is the first iTom track I've listened to, so I don't know how you usually work.

I just listened to the track, and the bass seemed a bit accentuated. I don't think it's because there too much level - I think that's about right - but that you've got the bass panned all the way into one channel and I was listening in headphones.

What I usually do is put the bass instrument (synth or guitar) dead center. Since you're probably wondering how I would have filled the space opposite your acoustic guitar, I would have added a second acoustic guitar track to complement the first.

But here, I'm beginning to produce your stuff, so I'll shut up now... ;)

Raven

Re: You asked about the bass...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

No, no, that's fine. Actually, I usually put the bass at 50-60% left, the main accompanying instrument at about 45-55% right, and then position the rest from there, keeping the tone in mind and leaving a space for vocals, which is the point of the exercise. :)

What I meant here was that, after I put decent compression on the track, it sounded... not tinny, but the bass sounded a little thin. EQ wasn't working the way I wanted it to -- it boosted the bass some, but did make the rest of the track sound tinny -- so I used a bass booster, which happened to warm up the rest of the track nicely to my ear. But I wasn't sure if I'd put on too much of a good thing....

Re: You asked about the bass...

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

EQ can really be a two-edged sword, when it comes right down to it. But one nifty EQ trick when something sounds wrong is to cut the opposite set of frequencies, rather than boost. How are you doing your EQ, by the way? Plug-ins or hardware?

Raven

Re: You asked about the bass...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

All plugins. Besides the track EQs built into Vegas, I use the Modern EQ by Antress, the Classic one by Kjaerhus, and especially the iZotope mastering EQ that comes with the most recent version of Sound Forge.

Re: You asked about the bass...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And the bass booster I used was new8 by Crysonic.

Re: You asked about the bass...

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

Plug-ins - cool...

I've been stripping down the hardware here to almost nothing - just a few synths, a preamp, and a compressor (both for when I do audio ins, of course). Everything else is a plug-in in Pro Tools, and most of it is Waves. Even the Pods I use to emulate guitar and bass amps are about to go to Line 6 software. I don't master, so that's not a concern. I occasionally use the Waves Renaissance Bass on single instruments (bass or bass drums), but a little goes a long way.

Raven

Re: You asked about the bass...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Waves and Pro Tools are way too rich for my budget. But, on this scale, you can get some surprisingly great sound out of cheap and free stuff, and Sound Forge makes up for a lot.

Re: You asked about the bass...

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, I think they're way too rich for my budget, too... (sigh)

Let's just say it took about twenty years of build-up and one big jump start to get the system I've got. And it's a 002 Rack, certainly not an HD...

Just out of curiosity, can you export your raw tracks to .wav files? If you're ever into hearing what it would sound like to have your stuff mixed down on my system, just for fun, that's all I'd need. Just a thought.

Raven

Re: You asked about the bass...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I work in .wav. :) Right now, though, I'm honestly a touch busy. Ask me about it after Duckon, though.

One of the perqs of getting Sound Forge 9 is that Sony Mastering Service will master one track for you for free. I'm definitely gonna try that, to see what they do to me.

Re: You asked about the bass...

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

Wasn't thinking instantly :) I'll be at Duckon, so I'll breeze by, say hi, drop a card off, probably whoop and holler a bit at yer filks, and we can talk about it later.

One of the perqs of getting Sound Forge 9 is that Sony Mastering Service will master one track for you for free. I'm definitely gonna try that, to see what they do to me.

I'd be interested to hear about that - interesting turn of phrase, though - "what they do to me..."

Raven

Re: You asked about the bass...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well... it's Sony. I could end up with a rootkit in my butt or somethin'.

[nightmarewriter.livejournal.com]

The bass did sound a bit much when it started out, but it when the rest of the instruments joined in it blended in pretty well.

And did you meant for the tune to sound a tad like "Copa Cobana"?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nope, although it's funny you say that, because Les mentioned it sounded like Barry Manilow, and I didn't pick up on that. :) The original melody I had in mind for the verses was the bass line, but I've overhauled the song a few times, and that went by the wayside.

And, that's why I boosted the bass -- until then, it sounded okay when it started out, and then just vanished when the rest of the instruments joined in.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]