http://iacmusic.com/songs.aspx?SongID=62332

or

http://tinyurl.com/67t6vp

"Road to Tabriz"

Tabriz, the biblical 'garden of eden' ....


this instrumental is a bit different for me.

It sucked so bad

The good stuff:
Beautiful work, my friend!
Top notch guitar tone on this one!

The bad stuff:
Lack of delays & verbs. The tune is just begging for some atmosphere. I'd say put 2 insert delays, pan one almost all the way right, the other left. Another insert verb or two if PC has enough horsepower. snap an EQ on each one of these inserts & start mixing
The bass sound is so trebley that it gets on the way of guitars in an unpleasant way.
Drum programming needs a lot of work, especially at the end, when the slow part kicks in. Also I felt like bass guitar in that part needed some licks & slides to make it complete.
You need more full kick & snare sound & maybe bring them up some too.

nbarts
hey, thanks for the listen and review!

i used the cream strat with the bill lawrence pickups, for this one.
and of course, it's too much stratty tone.
LOL
oh well.............
sometimes, you just gotta go with the flow.

you know, i just really wanted to do a mix DRY....

.....for a change, cuz i'm always putting real subtle reverbs on stuff, and delays on guitars is my favorite thing in the world.

but you're right, there's just so many spots where some choice effects would really work.

the bass: well, i DID play on the treble pickup..
i was looking for something similar to that old original dixie dregs bass tone that andy west used to use...
he used an alembic, and it still sounded deep, while sounding very distinct and trebly at the same time..

i'll keep tweaking the bass.

drums, well, i did a good bit of tweaking, but i didn't mess with the end section much...
maybe more cymbal work, would make it more interesting, without dicking it up too much...

i might try some different snare choices, tho this one caught my ear over the others...
and i DID add reverb to just the snare-
but that's the only track on the entire mix with any effect other than compression or EQ.

this was my first pass, so good suggestions will fuel me through......

gonzo, EZD? Sounds good man. I like hearing you play dry. I like the way the bass sounds.

Great guitar work, Rob.Love the strat tones. Totally authentic with a quasi-retro thing goin on.

I'm also of the camp that says leave them dry! This is part of what makes them so cool - no need to hide behind the grease

Tones remind me of some old Blues Saraceno (he did a lot of bone dry tones too) and even Vai's first EP. Glad you went for a way different tack on your sound here. It's refreshing.

\m/ \m/

DAZE-
thanks man...glad you dig it..

THE BASS- is my Carvin LB70. i'm still looking for tones i like on it, and on this one, i was thinking old dregs bass tone.
i dig it too.

DRums-
yeah, that's the EZD.
i'm still experimenting with it...
learning it...and sonar midi editing, which i truely am clueless about.

---gotta long way to go, but it's still much quicker to get rolling with it, than the old drum machine, and sounds a thousand times better!

plus, i've kinda figured out, that i can actually drop generic patterns into play, to get rolling..
do some recording to sketch out ideas...
make em solid..
then go back and choose better rhythms and program in trickier fills, to be more in line with what i hear in my head.
if i had a SLAVE DRUMMER.........

LOL


Bazz
thanks so much for listening!
i know you like chasing the occassional guitar tone as well.......!
LOL
i really dig the Lawrence pickups....
of course, this custom cream strat has a beautiful acoustic tone to it... very alive, it's a blast to play unamplified..
but the lawrence pickups seem to capture SOME of that acoustic tonality.


DRY BABY!!

LOL

i love grease..... but there's something so immediate, so in your face, with dry unaffected guitar tones...
nobody can accuse you of hiding any defective playing..... you hear the warts and all!!

heheh

and i've got plenty of warts, but i like em.

ok, maybe they're not warts.... maybe...
they're scars.....
or facial hair....
or assymetrical nose holes.....

quote:

Originally posted by gonzo-x:

Bazz
thanks so much for listening!
DRY BABY!!

LOL

i love grease..... but there's something so immediate, so in your face, with dry unaffected guitar tones...
nobody can accuse you of hiding any defective playing..... you hear the warts and all!!

heheh

and i've got plenty of warts, but i like em.

ok, maybe they're not warts.... maybe...
they're scars.....
or facial hair....
or assymetrical nose holes.....

Love that Strat. Both the look and sound. Thoroughly impressed with those PUPs, too.They stay round but still deliver the attack and sparkle. But most of this is still from you, and how intimately well you know your rig.

Grease - lol..I just love that reference to effects, ever since I first read it from a Lukather interview and we all know how greasy his rig is!

For sure, there's always a place for it and I'm not 'anti-grease' by any stretch, so to be clear, I meant that it wasn't needed in this song, given what you were going for. I think for playing/recording/mixing in general, having to make dry tracks work w/o falling back on your standard type effects is a great exercise.

No warts that I heard Again, great job.

bazz-

you know, the silly 'grease' thing is perfect!



and, i think eddie van H started it....
his first interview, where he talks about putting 'jape' on it.

and he and lukather are buds, so i think luk found his version of 'jape'.
heheh

i like hearing different perspectives..... i learn a lot from reviews, and lord knows most folks here know a lot more about sounds and recording than i do..

but sometimes, folks get lost in 'production values' that are strictly modern, or commercial, or just what they dig...
i can't use a triple rectifier for these guitar tones!!

or a pitch transposer on the solo...
or a reverse-gate drum sound ala P. Collins.....

so, i think whenever you listen to somebody elses' stuff, you have to put it through 'the filter'.
the filter is, knowing and empathizing with what the writer is trying to get across, and then suggesting things that get it closer.

for example:
listen to the mix of 'Get Back', by the Beatles.
what were they thinking?!!!OMG

LOL

wouldn't change a thing.......

now, listen to any Kenny G song.

LOL !!

Keep 'er dry!

like it man, nice stuff. Bass tone is cool too. More snap on the snare would kick some ass though.

blueroom!

dry as a bone!
LOL

but, just last night, i put the finishing touches on a brand new mix... and added a really sweet, spacey long delay, to just ONE of the solo tracks at the end slow section.
the other one stays dry...
so you get the call and response, with a very grounded, pure, unaffected guitar, and a super spacey pink floydish affected guitar.
best of both worlds!!
heheh


i also selected a completely different snare, from the Rogers Wood 4.5 x 14-inch to the GMS Picollo 13-inch with mute...
re-eq'd, more bottom head, different room reverb, and new compression from scratch.
i think it's a lot better now, and thanks for the input!