James and the Canadian go Blue

[offthewall]

For those who are still interested in this, here is the 'final' version of the bass line.
 

 
James

[Oren]

This is PRO TOP QUALITY !!! Absolutely fantastic, rocking amazing !!!
You guys are making me pride ! 

Moon,
This is an opportunity to see what can be done with a relatively low-tech approach to internet collaboration: Kara mixing and mastering in Audacity and Reaper on a laptop, the files posted on our forum in Ogg Vorbis format, and with performances by two "low-tech" old players.
Thanks for listening

[Oren]

The way this has developed is incredible

We're going for the whole enchilada, Senor... (thanks for listening)

[offthewall]

 
Yup ....

and with performances by two "low-tech" old players.

ya don't get much lower or older than me   

 
James

[folderol]

Oi! James. You just pack in that running yourself down. D'yer hear? Stop it! right now!

{mutter}what does the fool think he pays us for{mutter}

[Oren]

Here is a bit of electric guitar to distribute through the production.

 I performed it with my old Digitech processor engaged, because recording "dry" electric guitar is, for me, much like stuffing your shirt in the sound-hole of an acoustic guitar - it makes for a "cleaner" recording, but the tonal nuances of the instrument are lost...

[kara]

I have day off today and will put some work in this today
Result later on.....

k

[kara]

That 'some' work became a couple of hours 

First challenge was to get the 2 vocals in the same room...
I put the 2 vocal tracks in a separate project, and put them one after the other to compare them without the music.
First thing I noticed was the fundamental difference in recording.
James tracks was (I think) a raw recording directly from the mic, as on Oren track there was compression.
I tried some different compression settings on James vox to get the same compression amount.
After that I noticed that there was some sort of nasal tunnel effect on the recording of James, nothing extreme but it made the clear difference between both recordings. Best way to get rid of that was EQ (hint : listen around 125 Hz )
I finally put some EQ on Orens voice to really get it in the same room.

Now, that extra guitar track was a new challenge. It was clear that due to the fx Oren used it didn't fit with the guitar track of James. I've added a small plate reverb directly on the track of the guitar of James, and some EQ on the guitar track of Oren to fix them together.

I think this will be my final mix... adding more instruments to the mix won't add anything to the song, after all it is supposed to be a band that is playing and not a grand symphonical orchestra 

k
 

[impablomations]

Nice one guys!   

Been great to watch this one slowly develop as it comes together.  To me, this is what KM is all about, COLLABORATION

 

[offthewall]

 
I'm afraid I just had to throw something else in ..... 

The other week I was lucky enough to pick up a bargain price beat-up old 'dobro' style guitar. I spent the past week renovating it ..... so in the interests of 'authentic' blues sound I had to throw it in to this project.

This is my (probably) final mix.

[folderol]

Just had a listen to these last two versions. I didn't think they'd be any better but you both managed to squeeze a few more drops of blues out of the song

[Oren]

And for variety's sake, here is a mix that reflects my questionable taste in audio production.
(...apologies in advance to James for taking massive liberties while editing his tracks...)

[kara]

It's interesting to hear how different people put together a puzzle in a different way
Somehow I missed part of the lyrics of James in the different posts.

Still, I think our production techniques lay close together 

All in all, this was a mighty interesting topic

k

And for variety's sake, here is a mix that reflects my questionable taste in audio production.
(...apologies in advance to James for taking massive liberties while editing his tracks...)

[Oren]

It's interesting to hear how different people put together a puzzle in a different way

Still, I think our production techniques lay close together

All in all, this was a mighty interesting topic...

A puzzle, yes! Audio engineering and production can be just as creative as singing, songwriting, or playing an instrument. With computers and and digital audio, even more so.

My approach to this project was to sample and "loop" the best parts of each track (where possible). Here is what Ardour looks like when it was complete:

[offthewall]

 
Hey, you're right.  It is so interesting to see how different approaches work.

I got to say that I like Oren's mix the best.  

Super job from the Canadian.  

 
James