Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays fellow Cakewalkers.  Hope you are doing well.
 
DT is wrapping up 2014 with a new song called Back in your Cage. 
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13004796
 
We welcome all critiques and comments be they good, bad or indifferent.  Thanks for listening and we hope you find this one to be interesting, we sure had a blast making this one!
 
The crew:
Tom McCaffrey:  Vocals, lyrics, bass, synths, hand claps, audio clips, mixing
Preston Richardson:  Drums, percussion and drum track engineering
Tony Wood:  Guitars

Loved it right from the start!  Tom, your vocals are better than ever!  This is a great song and the production, as always, is outstanding.  The guitars in that break brought something flashing across my mind but I don't know what it was.  That's a good thing, though.  Guitars, drums, vocals and all else are tops.  Merry Christmas, here's some DISTANT TOWERS!!!!!

I hope that I had as much fun listening to this as you did making it.  A nice Christmas present from you guys.  All the best to you in the new year!

Yeah, pretty darn bueno! Good songwriting chops, and the drums are mixed really well. I might suggest you take the bass down just a tad in the mix - iI think it's a Geddy Lee jazz style bass, punchy, lots of upper end, but I think it could fit in better just a hair lower in the mix. YMMV!
 
I also found myself wondering, at the start of the tune - is this an instumental? OR is someone going to start singing? And if so, when? You might consider having the vocals start four bars earlier, or even better, keep the existing arrangement but throw in a vocal "yeah" or "c'mon" or something less cliche than these - drop it into the second bar somewhere, it would help the listener clue in to the fact that the vocals are a comin' . . . 
 
Or, just make 'em wait and see if they hang in there!
 
just a few crazy thoughts for ya - nice tune, guys!
 
-Tom
 
 

Thanks for the listen and comments thus far....all very much welcomed!
 
  Tom....if I may ask what 'set up" are you listening on? (ie cans, monitors w or w/o sub, what brand, etc) The reason I ask is that over time I've noticed a huge difference between my cans and my desktop set-up ( KRK's 8's w/sub) of course this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but here's the nugget as of late...the biggest difference is in the in panning of tracks (cans display greater accuracy) and bass response (cans show much less) again no surprise. Then add personal preference and individual hearing and things can really come across very different from system to system (I'm really referring to the members of DT and not your feedback) but it did make me wonder what you listened on as I tended to agree the bass could have set back in the mix a bit more...
 
again thanks for the great feedback and good ears!
 
Merry Christmas!!

Sorry, I should have said I was listening on cans, Sennheiser - these headphones are reputed to be more accurate an mo' louder in the bass, at the expense of a little smearing of the treble. I like them because they are closed, and they have extra-large ear cuffs which fit completely over my fat, old ears.  !
 
To be fair, I will later give a listen to your mix on my monitor speakers (Mackie 824's - which I have noticed seem to represent the bass as a little more present than is actually there) and see what I get out of it.
 
In your mix, did you do the "volume automation" thing, did you drop the bass down a skosh when the vocals were singing? Just curious.
 
great song, you guys have a good thing going there!
 
-Tom
 
 
 
 
 
 

I'm one new monitors and to me, the drum kit seems low. The other percussion seem fine.
 
Nice song!

Tom...thanks for the quick reply....yea I have a few different styles of cans and between them and my speakers its always some type of trade off...the key (as you kinda pointed out) is knowing what each play back system inherently does and take that all into account when mixing down.
 
This is a new mix based on some guidance from Preston (on the kit) who suggested I take the HH down a tad and bring the kick up a wee bit...these are super slight changes mind you so generally speaking it fairly the same mix...I also tweaked the compression a bit in the hopes she'd sit in the pocket a bit better.
 
G'prima - Thanks for the listen mate and input mate....yea like Tom and I were jabbering about its hard as hell to get the some sound in everyone's listening environment...but again thank you for your good ears!
 
Merry Christmas all!

Very cool guys. As is the case with many of your songs, they start out sounding straightforward, and then gradually twist themselves into something else entirely. Always enjoy the cool guitar tones, Preston's drumming and Tom's bass nailing it all down.

I like it! held my interest all the way through :)