Halfway to Tokyo

So I was cleaning out my laptop case, tossing all the travel detritus that accumulates in there: little salt 'n pepper packets, napkins, stolen airplane earbuds (why do I save those useless things, anyway?), old travel itineraries and boarding passes. 

On the back of one of the boarding passes I'd scribbled the line "it feels like I've spent half my life in this tube but we're only half way to Tokyo!". It was from 2008 (I don't clean my laptop case often enough!). Back then the flight from Seattle to Tokyo was a 12-hour marathon (it only takes 10 hours nowadays, so I guess they've found a shortcut), an excruciating journey for someone cursed with a low boredom threshold. I had watched a movie, eaten a meal and taken a nap, woke up and checked the little seatback GPS display to find that we were still over frickin' Alaska! 

Well, it seemed like that line should be a song lyric, so I went through my many half-finished projects and found one that fit the lyric, composed some more lines and the result was this song called "Halfway to Tokyo". It's not a big production and it's a little raw, but my 8-year-old granddaughter thinks it's pretty good and sings along with it, so there ya go. 

Soundcloud link: http://soundcloud.com/bitflipper/halfway-to-tokyo 
Soundclick link: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=743669

This is the first mix and I reckon it's not done yet, so I'm open to suggestions. 

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For those who care about such things, here are some technical notes. This song was a testbed for a number of techniques that were either new to me or that I'd never really been successful with before.

This marks my first use of FabFilter Saturn, which is used on both the lead vocal and on bass. What a great plugin! It can be as subtle or dramatic as you want. I used Saturn's modulation features as a transient shaper, using an envelope follower to modulate both the output gain control and low-frequency band's Drive parameter. 

I've long complained that Omnisphere is only good for fluffy pads, but I set out to prove myself wrong and built my own lead patch specifically for this song. It's the reed-ish sounding lead voice in the second instrumental verse. I'd originally intended for a saxophone there. I'm gonna get my money's worth out of that expensive synthesizer yet!

This is also a rare instance of me singing the lead vocal from start to finish in one take. I was so proud of myself for making it all the way through on the first try that I kept it as-is, even though I'd flubbed some of the lyrics. I'm going to try to do this more often, as it results in a smoother continuity that's hard to get when you're comping bits and pieces. The sharp-eared listener will probably detect some flat notes - that's my no pitch correction policy. I did V-V some of the highest notes on the high harmony, which had stretched my range to the limit.

Distortion on the drums (Superior Drummer stock kit) is D16's Redoptor, still my favorite for drums, although I'll be trying out Saturn next time. Distortion is on a separate bus, with only snare and toms routed to it, and automated so it's not constant throughout the song. I usually start with the "Honky Tonk" preset and tailor it from there.

The snare is also layered with a Kontakt library I made from a favorite patch on my Yamaha MO8 called "Wood", consisting of wood claps. It's a favorite technique of mine that gives the snare some extra snap, and extra width if I pan the wood hits a little off-center. Other percussion includes the TTS-1's tambourine and a free Kontakt library called Raw Steel.

Vocal effects consist of the Sonitus Delay and ValhallaRoom, preceded by an instance of the Sonitus Compressor, sidechained off the lead vocal so that the delay/reverb is ducked. The result is a big echo that doesn't get in the way, as the ducking makes 90% of the vocal completely dry.

FabFilter Pro-C is on the master bus, not so much for compression as for stereo width. I'm running it in Mid-Side mode with the side component turned all the way down in the sidechain filter. This causes the middle to be slightly compressed (2:1 w/ 2db makeup) while the side component is not. This results in brighter transients at the outer edges and enhances width perception. I've been experimenting with this technique for a long time but this is the first time I'd succeeded in dialing it in to my satisfaction.

I should also note that this is the first song I've mastered in my new studio and I'm not yet in my comfort zone in this space. Even though the room has fewer acoustical problems than the old one, I was familiar enough with the old space to mentally compensate for its dishonesty. In the new room I've been relying on my trusty ATH-M50's as a sanity check but that only gets you so far.  So I'll be interested to hear your impressions of how it sounds over your own monitors and headphones. Bass light/heavy? Screechy? Mid-rangy? Let me know. ("Sucks" is a valid opinion but doesn't help me much.)

It sounds good here, Dave.  I really like the lyrics and melody, and the arrangement is top notch.  I think you largely succeeded in your goals, and I advise you to clean out your laptop case more often.

I like it! 
Reminds me of the song; "It's the End of the World As We Know It".

It sounds great, Dave.  Good work.  

Hey Bit -

    Awesome stuff.  Nice arrangement. performance and production.  If your looking for nitpicking, maybe your low end could have some more "oomf" ...but that's really nit pipcking.  I enjoyed the song and also your synth lead

Excellent!

Well, Dave, you lost me on some of the technical stuff, but definitely not on the tune.  Well written, well arranged, performed and produced.  What else is there?  Excellent job on it.

Sorry for using such a lousy description Bit. I could not identify the specific area that was the problem for me, so I had to resort to a broad description in the hopes it would lead to the right target. It might be compression on the low end, but it might be EQ. The tone is there, but not the energy, and that may be due to cutting too deeply into the bottom end and cutting out harmonics below 85hz that bring bass to life.

bitflipper


Thank you everyone for listening and commenting. 

I've been struggling with Shad's "small" adjective, trying to translate that into some actionable concept. Maybe it needs to be more aggressively compressed?

The mix is really clear and I think the bass is just fine. Maybe the vocals could be more forward and retain fullness. Sounds like they were HPF a little to high. Just my opinion though as this may have been your intention.
 
Cool song!
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Loved the vocals on this and the first line sounds so good to my ears.

Wanted the lead vox to come in quicker though

Production is pretty flawless.

Yo Dave,

This one really pops along! Great momentum and pace. I like the way the instrumental goes on for about the 1st half of the song. At times parts of the melody sounds like a sped up version of TOTO's Africa, which strikes me as a good nick, if true. A lot of cool sonic details. And I really like the vocal sound. I wish I could do that.

Cool tune.

Cheers,

Bert

Cool song and great energy. Mix sounds great to me. I always like it when people put aside commercial considerations and do what they feel is best for the song so I liked the extended intro.

Awesome tune Dave. i enjoyed hearing it. 

Bit: How did I miss this?! Sheesh! Glad I caught it before it faded into the abyss! Agree with Shad's comments, Bit. That's the only thing I sort of found "subjective" on this really. The mix is solid...completely audible, great performances etc.

I don't think the answer is "aggressive compression". My first thoughts are:

1. You're either stripping away too many good mids that are making things smaller...

2. You may need to select different instruments that come out of the gate with a larger sound size.

For example, if you don't mind me ripping things apart? I'd never "rip" you...no worries....I mean, systematically talking about each instrument. :)

Drums: They seem to be the smallest. The drums are just sort of there. No beef/meat/impact in the actual sizes of this particular drum kit. Again, maybe you're playing it too conservative and are stripping away too much mid range? Kick drum is border line acceptable. I hear some thumpage...could allow a little more.

Bass: sounds like it's a midi bass, correct? If you haven't already Bit, try that SI-Bass plug in Sonar. Honest when I tell ya, if you work that thing a little bit, you can make the bass so realistic you won't be able to tell it's not real. That plug alone made X1 (oh, wait, you don't have X1...shoot) worth the purchase for me for times when I don't have access to my bass or just don't feel like playing real bass.

That said, the bass sounds pretty decent low end wise and has enough percussive high energy in it. With a lower thrusted kick drum, it would take things over the top. When the instruments back down though, the kick and bass compliment each other nicely. When the rest of the music comes back though, we seem to lose the low end impact.

Guitars: I'd not touch a thing. The biggest offenders in this mix to me are the lack of size in the vocals, drums and bass. These guitars are definitely thick enough and doing their job.

Vocals: Great performance and use of effects. Again, to me a bit too small like you're removing too much good beef.

Other backing instruments: No problems there.

In my opinion, this is a nice balanced mix that a mastering engineer would have a good time with as you've left enough room for sculpting without over-doing anything. However, a little thickening in the core instrumentation and vocals would be where I would start first before you attempt to fix things via mastering.

Loved the song though and think it has mad potential to be a production monster with the right stuff added. It just lacks fullness. Like Shad said, it's not a separation or effect fullness that it's lacking...it's instrument size. You get that size by selecting the right instrumentation that has a big sound coming out of the gate. I have a few students that are experiencing this same thing. Spending a few bucks on some really good drum modules cures this most of the time and you get less robotic hits with the good ones because they give you more samples per velocity in each sample pool. I know...sometimes we have to make due with what we have...especially in this economy, but the above is where I would at least start.

You probably have some bigger sound sources in your immense library of sounds. I'd try there first and see how you fair then do a comparisson. You still did a fine job on this though brother....sound size is nothing to be concerned about really other than if you are comparing your stuff to national releases. I think you will fair well with either bigger sound sources or putting in some good low mids/mids to thicken things up. Sometimes we get so lost with trying to remove subs and low mid/mid mud we over-remove it. That may be the case here. Hope this helps...nothing but love and respect brother. Nice job!

-Danny

What Danny said..........................didn't even read it all, but I just know he will be right lol !

I liked it overall and just thought that it needs beefing up a little, which I guess is  the quick way of saying what DD said.  can definitely hear your influences re the vocal sound even before you mentioned it - I've always kinda hoped you would do a "Horace Wimp" cover, 'cos I can imagine you doing a great job of that.

@Janet - check out Bitflippers "Soldier" if you've not listened to him before - great song !