crows to burnaby

Post details: Catch & Release

Mon September 25, 2006

04:33:44 pm, Categories: Music production, Concerts & albums, Bass, 264 words

Catch & Release

(or, "Okay, you can listen now.")

I finally have enough songs done that I think are listenable enough to release out into the general realm. They've been a sort of learning experiment to see what I can do on my own, and to figure out what I sound like. They're all written, produced and recorded by me, with the exception of "Here First" - Marcus Martin did some of the production early on and basically enabled me to get started on all of this.

There's still more ways I could improve everything; it's sort of a perpetual process and at some point you have to say "stop". I'm considering The Pace Changes to be a sort of demo-in-progress, where I refine & replace songs as I learn more and improve my playing and writing. Music online is a lot more malleable - you have the option to change releases in a way that you didn't when everything was CD-only. So occasionally I might replace a mix, change the track order, or add another song. Or it might just stay like it is forever; we'll see!

I'm still working out a glitch in "Shiny New Toys" where the bassline develops a bit of a buzz when it's played in any of the Flash players. The mp3 sounds fine, so if you want to hear the version the way I want it to sound, download the mp3 directly from Project Opus.

You can hear the songs in two places:

Project Opus (preferred). Five songs are here.
Myspace (obligatory). Only lets you upload four songs.

Hope you like 'em.

3 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Derek K. Miller [Visitor] · http://www.penmachine.com

I hope you don't mind the comparison, but the songs make me think of Sarah Harmer. Three bits of (hopefully constructive) purely technical criticism:

1. The bass and lead vocals seem to be mixed a bit too high (i.e. they overwhelm the other instruments and background vox).

2. Overall, the sound seems too dry: some judicious and subtle use of effects on the instruments and vocals could give the tunes less of a "demo-ey" feel.

3. They should be mastered with a bit of EQ and compression. "Blinding," in particular, is too dynamic, in that an appropriate volume for the quiet parts makes the louder choruses too loud -- I had to reach for my volume control.

Are the Project Opus files in mono (it sounds like it)? If so, cool, but if not, the stereo mix could use a tad more separation.

09/26/06 @ 14:20

Comment from: crows [Member] · http://www.crowstoburnaby.com

SHOULD I mind the comparison? ;) If you like Sarah Harmer, then it's a compliment; if you don't, then it's not! *grin*

There is more than a bit of EQ and compression on all of the tracks, especially in the cases where there are multiple bass tracks and they need to be distinguished from each other. I actually had "Blinding" compressed a lot more in an earlier mix, to the point where the lack of dynamic range made the choruses completely uninteresting; I had to back it off a bit. I'll keep your comment in mind for the next time I make changes to the song, though, and tweak it a bit more.

I spent a fair bit of time mixing on about six different sets of speakers. But eventually I will need to have somebody else's ears on the mix for a bit. If & when these become a CD release I would get someone else to mix them first, and I would get them mastered. Mixing is not my favourite part, and I don't have the long-term patience and attention span for it that some people do. I got them to the point where I am ready for people to hear them as a demo - and sure, they probably do sound a bit "demo-ey" for that reason.

The Project Opus files are indeed in mono, but you can download a stereo version. That may help with some of the other issues as well. Out of curiousity, try downloading the mp3s from Project Opus and see if that seems like it's any better to you.

09/26/06 @ 14:46

Comment from: crows [Member] · http://www.crowstoburnaby.com

Wow, I JUST learned about this little quirk in Pro Tools.

THAT could explain why you're hearing the mixes as dry. Damn, I'll have to re-export everything again...

09/27/06 @ 07:45

Kirsten Starcher lives in Vancouver, BC, spending half her time as a musician, playing bass in ARCTIC as well as solo, and the other half as a web designer/developer.
You can contact her at "kirsten at crowstoburnaby dot com" (turn it into a proper email address, of course!).