Headin' for the weeds

http://iacmusic.com/songs.aspx?SongID=52565&ArtistID=30211

or

http://tinyurl.com/yrdbjm


happy new year.
all comments are welcome.

Mix and tonewise, I really like it. The harmonies sound great, especially the "oohs" at around 2:15. The bass and all the guitars sound really good. The toms seem kinda 'too wide' or 'too stereo' to me - some toms are WAY left and some are WAY right... I guess it's kinda cool, but not very natural sounding.

My main suggestion is this: get rid of all the lead guitar during the early vocal sections. I like the dotted eighth hits between the phrases, but the guitar lines DURING the phrases are distracting. I think it'd be much more effective/powerful to leave some space and let the vocals stand alone.

Other than that, I dig it. What does 'headin' for the weeds' mean?

Is this done with your palmer? I shouldn't be judging this with the shitty speakers I have but the guitars to me have a scratchyness to them much less during the solo, maybe due the gain on the input, possibly around 8-10K? This is a song I'd like to hear A/B'd with a real amp. Not sure if you want any advice on the song, but to me the phrasing is a little sloppy on the Vox, but maybe you're just beginning work on that. Also the guitar solo around 3:10 might be just a little high in the mix. The song has a bit of little feat in there, really a good job as always Rob

Sounds cool, gonz! I'm with Walker on the drums. I'd like to hear them not quite as wide - and they're too low in the mix. Turn them suckers up!

love the riff gonz.

cool beans as usual

T

Nice track Gonzo
I added to my "EVT Currents" radio station on IAC.
Very cool!
-ev

hey, great comments folks!
thanks..

walker
those drums are programmed in ACID. i took some stock loops, and then just cut them up to arrange the song....
i didn't really tweak the panning, as the stock loops were already set.
you're right, they are a bit extreme, but after a few listens, i ended up preferring it...
kind of a 'wake up' call to the brain and ears.

i tried automating the 'leads' (actually, it's just the rhythm track doing hanging double stops and drones with moving single notes beneath) out during the verses, like you suggested.
it ended up sounding too tidy, to me. not enough rock, not enough attitude, not enough slop.
i like the loosy-goosy feel of it more, during the verses, as if the vox and the guitar are basically saying the same thing.

the lyrics:
well, i'll post them below this response.....
i'm kinda not wanting to say what it literally means to me, because the idea was to write the lyric so it has more than one meaning...
that way, everybody can have it mean what they want it to...


Steppingon mars
yes, this was all done with the palmer.
and yes, the crunchy aspect of the guitar sound, is intentional.
the shitty speakers you mention, don't help.
LOL

i have low pass on the rhythm guitar tracks starting at 8khz..... so i doubt there's a lot of issues at 10k.
a/b'ing against a real amp, is really a waste of time.
all that matters, is whatever sound gets committed, really.
it's going to sound completely different with ANY other amp, whether it's palmer'd, or mic'd.

ok, the sloppy vox...
great, you get it!!

it's supposed to be full of attitude, it's supposed to rock!
the last thing i wanted there, was some picture perfect vocal take, that would emasculate the message and the vibe....
if you get what i'm saying.
it's kinda like, what would the stones say to someone saying their rhythm tracks are a bit sloppy, and their background vocals are out of time with the lead?!
hehehe

you know, i worked real hard on getting vocals super tight on my 'Trouble' album....
but for this song, it just wanted to be a bit more raunchy.

i think you're right about the lead.... i think i'll notch it down a bit, and see how that sits...
thanks for the review!


Dot
good ears, as always, the drums ended up being lower than i wanted, after i automated the guitars, vox and bass, and THEN eq'd everything!
LOL
seems i'm doing more cuts than boosts anymore, but, certain compression schemes seem to drive peaks harder, i haven't quite figured that out yet, but i have about 2db of safe headroom left to play with pushing the drums a bit harder, that should be enough...


Tubedriver
that riff, was actually for a completely different song, that is very slow, like a slightly faster version of 'back in black', with the heavy plodding drums......
but, for some reason, this song literally came to me in a flash, and i used the riff for this one.
i spent 2 hours writing this song, and another afternoon recording the tracks.
the speed of this version, is about triple time of the original riff!!
LOL
thanks for listening

EVT
thanks so much, for adding me to your IAC station.
i change these songs out so often on my iac, that people hardly have a chance to hear them...
but i hate leaving old material up for too long anyway.....

Headin' for the Weeds

and if you think about it
the guy that leads, is headin' for the weeds
and he's got zero vision...
it's just the stuff, they're putting in his feed.

another year has gone by
it just became a faded memory
like the ones before it
til they're home, we simply will not see.

i can't remove myself, from the controversy.

how long does the aggravation
take to fade, and the men go free
from their sworn duty,
put in harm's way, for the east to see?

and if you think about it
the guy that leads, is headin' for the weeds
he's got zero vision...
it's just the stuff, they're putting in the feed.

tell me when it's going to end
tell me.... will you be my friend
tell me when it's going to end.

ok, remixed it last night..
with some mix tweaks as per suggestions...

went back and listened, and the final mastered track is too weak.

even my peaks, with limiting, still had about 4db between them and the bulk of the waveforms....
i guess i was too conservative.

i've been so 'aware' of the loudness issues with over-recorded and over-mastered songs of late, that i've really backed off of a lot of my settings, and using much lower settings for peaks on my tracks than ever before..

but, even compared to my own recent mixes, this one was too low.
i'll fix it tonight, and repost........

you know, i've set myself up with a secondary monitoring system just because of the idea that, a lot of folks listen on 'lesser than best' systems!
LOL
i use a pair of 1983 panasonic seperate jam box speakers, driven by a yamaha natural sound amplifier, and a/b mixes against my Hafler/KRK setup....
this was the 1st mix i've done with this secondary monitoring setup.
makes me think of getting a pair of 'horrortones'.

mandatory 14 day bump.

Really cool song. Love your guitar tone on this as well as most of your other stuff. Your recordings sound really good to me.

thanks dave, i appreciate that!

last knock