"Breathing" another Janet and Rik collaboration remix on soundclick

Hi All, based on a guitar piece by me, Janet played a beautiful piano part et voila ; ) Have a listen if you like :
 
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11193408  this is the remix
 
or
 
http://soundcloud.com/rik-frieling/breathing  this is the original
 
 
Enjoy : )

I love the song.  Production is very good.  I felt some timing hesitations - as if one was waiting for the other to go first.

This is great Rik and Janet! Rik, one thing you may want to consider is...there are times when you have to take the stage brother. The way this is mixed...is to me, confuses the listener due to how it's produced. When Janet is not the focal point, she needs to be thinned out and in the back. She hates when you do that to her lol...but it's something I've been trying to help her with. There are times when the piano needs to be huge and have a presence, other times it needs to be a supporting instrument and to me...this was one of those times.

You should have been centered with a bit of stereo imaging on your guitar and everything else should have been supporting you since to me, this seemed more like a guitar tune. I think it's awesome that you "share" the stage with Janet, but sometimes we have to do what is best for the mix on the whole. For example, we have this huge piano on the left that is sort of hitting the center pan as well as a bit of the right pan at times. It's so big, it makes your guitar sound small and sometimes non-existent. I would have done it the other way around. You are the biggest instrument in the mix and everything gets built around you. Anything sounding bigger than you, gets thinned out. That's really how things are supposed to work. When something takes a back seat in a song...it really needs to go to the back of the stage and support. It shouldn't remain the same size and just get lower...know what I mean?

Granted...there are no rules other than the ones you make yourself when you mix and produce a tune. But the standard starting points are the things I've covered. That said, the song and the playing were quite awesome as usual! You guys never disappoint and make a great team. :)

-Danny

This is a really nice piece of music Rik/Janet. Great advice from Danni. I do think the guitar part plays a very nice supportive role in the piece for most of the duration. That could be testament to some great unselfish writing on Rik's behalf. The volume of the piano is bit overpowering at times. A bit of tweaking and this piece will sound super fantastic. The piano tone is perfect for this tho and the low notes sound great. I love the way it starts and the tone of both guitar parts sounds great. My favorite parts are the gel with piano and guitar at around 1:33 and 2:21 and the piano at around 2:42 is awesome. Rik may already know this because he's a guitarist but Al DiMeola and Chic Corea did some fantastic stuff with just piano and guitar like "Short Tales of the Black Forest" you might reference for mixing solo piano and guitar. I would imagine it's a huge challenge to mix with both instruments so exposed.  Very enjoyable listen.

You should have been centered with a bit of stereo imaging on your guitar and everything else should have been supporting you since to me, this seemed more like a guitar tune.

Now I understand Wookie's comment and I did notice what you are saying... I think it is a good tune and deserves a re-mix with Wookie's and Danny's thoughts in mind. I'd ike to hear it.
 
It is certainly a good tune worthy of more work. I enjoyed it.
 
Julien

Just to re-iterate some of things mentioned above; this is potentially a beautiful piece, there's some stunning playing going on, but you need to work on the arrangement, as it's not serving either instrument well right now. On occasion it sounded like two different pieces played at once, but when you do gel together it's quite lovely.

Hi All, have been mixing,fixing and remixing this piece the last couple days. Janet even went so far as to provide a different Piano part. I actually just sent Janet the final mix and then I listened to the original one more time. Surprise,surprise, after all that work I still like my original , warts and all. I'm sure all of you who had serious doubts about this piece have valid arguments but I like this piece how it is now, especially Janet's playing. So thanks again for listening.

Hi John ,  at least it's still pleasant.

Hi Mark, glad you still like it, timing and all.

Hi Herb, glad you noticed my articulation, i like to start a note to low and then slide up since you can't really bend nylon strings.

Hi Danny, thanks for the advice, will try to use it in the future, like the way this is now though.

Hi Janet, your part is perfect, thanks for playing along.

Hi Bobby, at least I've still got at least one fan : ). Thanks very much.

Hi Rhyno, Al di Meola and Chick Corea not much pressure there then, will have to try even harder,

Hi Scott, since I'm the one that didn't like what you did to "Softly I go" I'm not quite sure what to learn from that, but thanks anyway.

Hi, Julien, glad you still liked the tune.

Hi James , well it still has potential that's something.

Hi Paulo , thanks for listening, just listen to this a couple hundred times, it will grow on you.



Rik

morenoise


 




Hi Scott, since I'm the one that didn't like what you did to "Softly I go" I'm not quite sure what to learn from that, but thanks anyway.




Rik

There is much you could learn from that if you choose open your ears and mind and allow yourself to mature musically. If you'd heed the advice given in this thread rather than shun it, there will be no need for you to mix and remix and remix in the future.  You are very good at mixing a single guitar track. Maybe you should just stick to that.

Janet/Rik,

This is beautiful.  I kind of agree with some of the other listener's suggestions but, if you're happy with it that's good enough for me.

It's always a pleasure to hear the two of you together.

Thanks Gary.  :)

Thanks, GP.  :)  If he puts some of my new parts in some time, you may be even more impressed.  :) 

  The first thing I thought of when I heard this was that it would make a great backing track to an old Clint Eastwood western flick. That's not a bad thing either:)

 The piano was too much IMO if the idea is that this is a guitar piece.  Since the piano was less busy it seemed to me to be the dominant instrument with the guitar doing a busy background thing. JMO.Still this is a nice piece of music with really great musicianship. If I heard it in a busy restaraunt and had not been asked to specifically listen to it I would probably thought to myself, "this is nice relaxing music".........

 

Hi All, I like the Clint Eastwood reference so go ahead make my day and listen to the new mix on Soundclick. This is my best interpretation of the advice given by y'all. Do you feel lucky, punk ?

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11193408

Do you feel lucky, punk ?

 
As a Wookiee luck rarely come into it.
 
I think that it is first an foremost for the originator of a piece to be the final arbiter as to how the end product should sound.  Through the advice found here I have learnt to achieve that with my own efforts.
 
As I said originally a pleasant tune.  The incarnation I have just listen to from beginning to end sounds to my subjective ears more cohesive, winning a from me.  
 
But in the end it is Rik's and Janet's ears that have the final say for me.
 
Thank you for sharing Rik and Janet.
 
 

Rik,

I missed the original version posted so can't comment on that, but, what you have posted now sounds really good to me in all regards.  

I didn't hear the first version, but I do like this one.
I think you have struck a nice balance, and above all, the artistry comes through.
I like that.