God Speaks (the Truth)! Updated 1/3/09

God Speaks

3:08 minutes.

Please listen and crit.


Note(s): Guitar melody/lyrics evolved over some years, but I worked seriously the last year or so ... trying to reconcile conflicting musical elements. The main conflicts I'll let you discover, if you be so inclined.
Extreme thanks for any thoughts on this mix.

Sounds like a party goin' on in the beginning Phil! I can't make out the vox in the beginning section? Intentional? When I listen at lower volumes, the singing sits well, but when I start to crank it up, it becomes too prominent. That whole Fletcher/Munson curve thingy.... it's hard for me to judge the rest of the mix right now as I'm trying to hear how all the vocals sit in this. Nice to see the 'classic' Philip back....

Philip:

I have a great idea...let me re-mix this and piss everybody off!

Wait, didn't we do that already?

Happy New Year.

Rick -- Thanks so much; you're absolutely right ... I'll push back the shrill leads back a bit. Please listen again in a day or so.

... guitar work from 1:02-1:20

The guitars include:
1) Twice-recorded Ibanez DI'd ... panned 100% LT RT delay played acoustic fashion and flangered with NI Guitar Rig
2) NI Prominy (tremelo fx's) ... moused-in ... with NI Guitar-Rig fx's (Sultans pre-set). (NI Prominy emulates Fender fairly well (for challenged guitarist hackers like me). I also wide-panned with 30ms delay (Haas trick) and hall-verb to give depth/thickness.
3) Dimpro less Paul with 30ms delay (Haas trick LT-RT extreme panned) and chamber-reverb
As per you and Robby, I'll see what I must do about the long intro-overture. (The song is extremely short as is)

James -- Happy New Year! I'd be exceedingly honored for you to remix anything of mine. I consider you light years ahead of me in the mixing domain. (If I'm lucky, I'll half-way reach 1970's or 80's quality with my mixes. You're well into 2010 and beyond compared to all us old-schoolers.) Also, I'm adding your renowned vocal hooks (even if I have to emulate them) to Broken Forever; your vocal hooks alone transform (my) mixes into exceeding great beauty for me (as does your Trance style).

Robby -- The song is so short already! That party-intro-overture was for ambient fun ... it doesn't really match the song well ... I kinda just combined them together as an experiment. I'll see what I can edit out ... up to 30 secs or so.

Clifford -- Thanks for listening TWICE! I was originally the main vox (boring!) (panned center and verbed slightly (90-100% LT?). So as a desperate effort I replaced my own vox with the kids, and made Josh (10y/o) the lead (with a bit of Melodyne). Hence, its a bit awkward for mainstream and such ... but likeable in some areas (to my ears). Now to digest your words and read btw the lines ... to spark up ideas for fixing this up a notch.

Larry -- Thanks so much for listening and commenting. The unintellible lyrics are not German. They are "God speaks the truth in words so pure" reversed. I should ditch that ASAP, as it may be profaning ... (it is I think, the more I think about it) ... then I'll replace it ... maybe shorten the overture (as per Robby).
Usually the Flex.-Mun. effect causes bass and shrills to 'accelerate loudness' at higher volumes (to my ears) ... I usually overcome the effects by mixing at LOW volumes. But the shrill vox harmonics must be accelerating loudness at higher volumes. I can understand how that is disturbing ... along with the 3.5 kHz sensitivities of childrens' voices per se.

WOW, That was a very loud clean mix, but the effect are loud. I know everyone says the vox is fine but on my end the vox gets lost from the effect at times. The drums also could stand to come up just a bit. I really enjoyed this tune and once again I'm amazed over your kids performance. GREAT JOB!

LATER

Peter -- Thank you exceedingly for sharing. My SoundClick site is truly 'different', 'underdeveloped', etc. ... right now; things are in serious flux and need updating. Much is sketchy there, including Mr. YoYo's fresh ideas. Bizarre-ness is something I'm working to overcome; a valid comment, IMO. Hopefully I'll learn from your sweet Time to Fly and other pop players here, how to mainstream a bit without getting too crazy.

Kevin -- Thanks for listening and encouraging me on this initial submission. I'll try to ease on the voxes and effects somewhat.

Janet -- Wow! 3 times ?!?! I must have hooked you with something. I agree that the "accompaniment" is a bit off at present ... and will work on that.

Ouch, little Joy is commanding me go to bed.

Later!

Thanks so much James for your listen and excellent crit.

'Tried to make it wacky and wonderful ... vs. dull and dead the way it used to be.

The 'marching' drums seemed off at present, so I'm embarrassed to increase them until I fix their patterns. The bass-line I'll bring up.

I take you mean the NI Prominy Guitar Patch, not the pad-guitar tones (my Ibanez that I subdued/flangered beyond recognition) ... I'll make the cheezy-tremelo less prominent, edit it out, etc. ... and other areas ... to be sure. (Prominy guitar is a harsh patch difficult to tame, reverb, fx, etc.)

'Made changes today ... thanks exceedingly for your help thusfar.:
--adjusted voxes, compression, panning
--lowered 4kHz on vox (shrills),
--lowered bass line an octave, increased bass chorus (MIDI for now)
--reversed 'unintelligible' vox to "God speaks the truth..."
--smeared down prominy guitar patch
--adjusted effects (volume levels, timings, etc)
--Increased drum levels and decreased reverb
--multiple fade adjustments of instruments
--centered 'Philip'

Mark -- Thank you for suffering with me on this and validating my concerns. You're right: there's a mismatch of moods here. It is askew ... and not in a good way.

Maybe I'll cut the song in half and leave off the "direct" opening ... or tack it to another up-beat song I've got stewing, if its not too late, or make it (less) spookier and pretentious or something (tomorrow) ... I just thought that such a short song could use some pre-lude experimentation.

The only experimental-tentative connection(s) the pretentious opening would have with the lyrics is the contrasting vanity and vexation it affords.

Obviously I've got a lot of work to do on this one ... I'll may strip out 1st 30 secs and delete party samples while keeping some of the other effects.

That was cool...I dug the dudadu da du da du thing when the song emerged from the chaos of the intro...this is so diffrent, very creative, very unique...makes me wanna check more of your music.

Mark (mstodge) -- Thank you for your listen and inspiring thoughts. The Choral (triad) here was my 2 rug-rats, Josh (10yo), Joy (5yo), and also myself.
-- So you love the ostentatious intro "as it stands". I'll check on some more "jet" sound samples ("comets") and try to hear what roars with lesser distortion. I had hoped to make this an ELO-like disney ride ... but with much more oriental (pragmatic gospel) lyrics (curiously lacking from ELO's stuff)

Variaxman -- Thanks exceedingly for your kind listen. I had hoped to give the feeling of a 'hope mingled with concern' emerging from the chaos (both cosmic and human chaos).
I'll certainly try to observe your own strong-hook pieces more and more, too ... and see how they continue to evolve (and I might catch some of your style).

In sum: I get a lot of *concern* about my musical-dissonance and bizarreness with soul-searching mature music.

-- i.e., There's the 2-fold legitamate musical problem that MGH (Mark) perceived with this:
(1) "the more sombre, serious lyrics need a different musical calling" (... a more mature pop-jazz offering)
(2) "major-key songs are so joyous and infective that it NEEDS to be happy lyrics" (especially if sung by immature ones)

IOWs IIRC, melancholy-disturbing lyrics oft seem better with moody (minor) chords, adult singers ... non-choral ... etc. Also, little-children are almost innocent angels ... and seem irresponsible ... and also, less guilty of sin (by most legal systems) +/-. OTOH, children begin to learn responsibility for transgressions via parents, tutors, musicians, employers, etc.

Its a difficult song for me to orchestrate in a non-bizarre manner ... one which certainly taxes my own puny creative limits. I appreciate any of your additional suggestions, ideas, thoughts, etc.

Ah, to push the psalm toward a denominational-stereotypical-chapel-hymn mode most holy ... and/or strip off the holy-groanings to enhance the disney ride? I have to seriously extole James Yoyo, a Zarathrustian, who took one of my biblical lamentations (Broken Everyday) and made it radio-ready in 2 flavors (pop and trance). The saying: "When in Rome do as Romans do" or "being all things to all people" might apply.

Rock-Musicians are strong leaders that mold us and oft get paid. In music, a reasonable goal might be to please the body, soul, and spirit ... young and old ... Eschewing denomination, propaganda, vain-glory, bizarre genres, etc.

ELO, Beatles, Yes, etc. well please the bodily lusts and passions (like a 'Disney Ride') but rarely the sin-stricken souls of children and adults.
Methinks, "Jesus loves the li'l childrn" "Away in a Manger" (btw, not a Martin Luther tune), etc. are pandering propaganda ... for smothering silly grannies and hypocrits who *forgot* our sin-prone curse that drives us to a Christ. Cute tunes for toddlers, not the mainstream, IMHO.

On the cartoon medias, the Japenese oft make every effort to be mystical, metaphysical, soul-searching, and redemptive with their epics. IMHO, they make Pixar and Disney appear good for nothing ... just toddlers (if that).

Thanks Peter for your friendship and kind words that you quoted. No offense taken. Like most friends here, I thrive on your crits and your mouth when its open (not closed). Encouraging and flattery is an obstacle ... oft forcing me to read-btw-the-lines of my friends here.

I did request help to identify and fix conflicting "elements" of this piece. You did it most promptly after I critiqued your excellent piece. Elements is, of course, a tricky word, defined differently per artists, schools, genres. There may be many persons you and I seek to please, and not just specific genres. I'm only at an intermediate experimental level, but making music is a significant aspect of my soul ... like nourishing a son.

Peter, you've helped me tremendously; I've seriously reconciled "conflicting elements" on my 3rd update ... based on you and MGH, especially. (... also Jamesyoyo, JamesG, Janet, Mark, Rick, Cliff, Larry, and Kevin) MGH, a Liverpool artist, lays it on the line.
He has a tough audience, too!

The fact is, you are a great composer-singer in my book; it takes a lot of sensitivity to get to your level and be willing to condescend to others.

But my being a hyper-sensitive person, I did note that your disclaimer/signature seems a bit more salty compared to other tender wana-be's
My own disclaimer may apply

ORIGINAL: Taylor_514C

Wow Philip, I've never heard anything like this before, especially that intro - I would keep it, but I would start the master volume out at a lower level and bring it up slowly towards the transition at 0:53. It's fine as is though, just an idea. Also, maybe use something similar to the intro for the end? Create a sort of bookend for the song.

Edit: Lousy grammar.

Doug, your idea is excellent and I will do it ... with slight volume variances of instruments as the master goes up. I did have 'audience clapping' (currently its Q'd mute) ... at the end but thought such a "bookend" may be strange. I'll try that again today.

Thanks so much!

Tom, I thank you for your excellent crit. I've tentatively made changes (today) on what I've perceived were some of your great ideas ... vox changes primarily.

I look forward to your mixes.

Thanks.

Phillip, this mix is noticably improved, excellent job.

Philip,

I'm listening on headphones since it's late, but this mix sounds outstanding - full, warm and balanced, with an appropriate amount of air. Very nice on the fade-in and the fade-out with the clapping

Great job, and it sounds like it's finished to me. Very original and creative work here.