Fuego

 This is something I've been working on over the last week or so. I tried to capture the essence of a Latino based dance band. I once played trumpet and I  dig  pop horns. I combined the horns with electric guitar in some places. Most of the horn lines are played from my Roland keyboard or Motif. I added a few horn loops here and there and combined the parts to sound like they all came from the same source.
 
 I played the bass and guitar parts. The bass was played with my real LTD bass. It took some doing to try and get something close to what I had envisioned with respect to the bass. I played around a lot with my gain staging and I think I got it pretty close. The horns seem to be notched similar to the guitar in my EQ settings. I might need to try and make more of a separation between them where they play together. The original was almost twice as long and I shortened it up significantly. It went to around 5 minutes in the original. This mix has been a  challenge compared to some others I have done in the past.Mainly in trying to make a combination of elements that fit together and work well in this context.
 
 Any ideas or suggestions welcome. I'm pretty sure there are likely other songs called Fuego. I liked the title so hopefully this won't get confused with anything else.
 
https://soundcloud.com/starise/fuego
 
 
 

This is difficult to listen to without moving a little. Some of the horn samples weren't doing it for me, but in other places they sounded pretty good.
 
I may pull the verb a bit, not sure if it's applied uniformly or if some parts are treated more heavily.
It's cool that you played the bass, this place needs more bass players :-)
 
The guitar does need to sit better, since there are no vocals, I would bring it down the pipe and spread the horns. And since you played that bass? I would like to hear it a little clearer? Maybe HPF the horns and guitars a bit more?

Not sure what tools you have to enhance the bass, there are a lot of good ones out there.
Good job overall, looking forward to the remix.

Hey, Tim,
 
This song is both different and very cool at the same time!
 
It sounds like a wild, modern blend of Latin dance music and Jazz/Rock fusion with a lot of really interesting elements jumping in and out throughout the mix!
 
Good stuff and lots of fun, really nice work!
Bob
 

COOL this sound like something they played in the Jim Carrie movie called THE MASK . Different but it shares the same energy , very nice I enjoyed the whole tune !
 
James

This has some very cool moments.  The horns sound a little thin and the distortion guitar thing could be toned down maybe.  But, a hot number for sure.
 
Daryl

Loved the hard hitting horns.
I got overwhelmed at the addition of the guitars (and I'm a guitarist). 
Some of the synthy sample bits didn't fit the other more natural sounds for me.
Great stuff tho

very impressive recording - tons of work in it thats for sure!! nice 1. since I live in south Florida it very much could be blasting from any one of my favorite cafe con leche joints or of course all of Miami - I like the brazenness of horns - im wondering the mix seems a tad too bright/ could use a little more warmth in mids ?? pull down a hair those highs like above 10k / you won't lose the presence if compression params are applied with limiter etc --

but my ears may also be shot from mixing all week too ;0 it just seemed a little bright/thin and since it's such a great song/recording if u do plan to remix it's just one of a lot of opinions to help you get perfect mix u want :)

Great stuff. Impressed by your musicianship as well ! - Daren :)

Very punchy - great energy in this piece.  I love the brass stabs and rhythms.  Great arrangement. Really nice stuff.  I like when electric guitar is weaved into other genres like this.  You did a great job.  Some things seems almost too compressed at times - like there is signal overload causing distortion, but that aggressive sound is maybe what you are going for.  Nice job!

Wow!! Way too much reverb on this track! But what a great tune! Really like this. The use of the horns is cool and the guitar sounds O2-huge! Really cool!

 Sorry I haven't been around these parts for some time. I have had a few unexpected house guests and this has pretty much blown my recording for a little while. I really appreciate all of the listens here and the time spent in commenting on this.
Notnat- Thanks. I agree...needs a little tweaking.
 
TheBand19- As always, thanks for listening. I think your ear picked out the loops from the synth horns. Can't hide anything from you :) I played the bass and even used Bass rider. My bass mix seems to be my biggest challenge. I think it has come a little way but not all the way. I will work on it some more.
 
CLEAN- Thanks for listening man!
 
Bob- As always I appreciate your listening and comments. I think you let me off the hook lightly here on my mix. You have some wonderful material bro keep it coming!
 
Daren- Thanks for listening from sunny Fla. I have been digging your music lately! One of the things I struggled with on this mix was trying to shine up and pan 16 bit horn samples and blend them with the synth horns. I think I still have a little ways to go yet and I'll certainly take your suggestions into this mix.
 
Rimshot- Thanks for the honesty here. Opinions are appreciated.
 
Guitartrek- Thanks for listening. I wanted aggressive but not overload. I played with the levels on this. You know how some mixes are just overbearing? That's how this was even after lowering levels at early stages. I had a tough time getting things to gel properly. I knew it peaked a few times minimally. Are you getting extended peaks at your end?
 
 Wookie- Thanks for giving this a listen!
 
 Project M- I'll give the reverb another look. Thanks for the listen!
 
Steve-  Thanks for listening. Please don't stop cranking out those  guitar songs. Great work there man.

Star, this is very impressive.  The arrangement is superb and caliente!  The mix could go several different ways, but this is an excellent starting point.  I look forward to hearing this again.

:) My day begins happy now. Great job, Great tune!