It may not actually be my first remix. :-)
 
Here's a song that a band, Pilgrims, that I sang in performed circa 1985. It was recorded by a dear friend and local legend, Dave Murphy, on his well used 1/2" 8 track Tascam in an old wooden house next to the highway.
 
We billed ourselves as punk rock band and we told people this was our slow dance song.
 
The tape was in storage for 20+ years and one day there was a flood that made everything wet. The tapes were rescued and baked in ovens and then Dave digitized them and gave all the old timers digital copies of their master tapes.
 
That gave me an opportunity to do a "remix".
 
The drummer, Neil got the short end of the stick because he only had two tracks to start with and one of them was pretty bad off because it was at the edge of the tape.
 
I was pretty surprised how every thing held up. We were all pretty poor back then. We were sharing a couple SM58s and had some no name mics as the extras. The mixer/pre amp was one of those affordable jobs that was thrown away when Greg Mackie revolutionized affordable sound.
 
I finally dragged a .mp3 over to my laptop and so it seemed like I should upload it just for kicks.
 
I'm just a self taught, go for it *singer* so fire away. :-) Chances are I already know.
 
At the time the only instruments I played were a snare drum and a gut bucket bass... although I did have a Squire Bullet hanging around my neck that I strummed. I've learned a few instruments since then, but I still sing this badly.
 
When we broke this one out in the middle of a mosh pit punk show the girls would smile... and that makes the memories special for me. :-)
 
Anyways, with out any further ado:
 
Pilgrims:    Drive Inn
 

 
best regards,
mike
 
 

I love it... cheesy drum fills every bar, and all... Your very pleasant singing voice is just perfect for this song... The song style is reminiscent of  so many of the popular love songs of the early 60s...
Drive-in, bed in the back of the van, runnin' outa' gas... I can relate... Outstanding Mike... 

Niece, neice berry niece, McQ.

Thanks for the memories Mike.
 
I wonder how many know about those "edge tracks" anymore. 
 
I got a lot of mileage out of my Tascam 80-8.
Finally ebay-ed it last year for like $100. Shipping was $250......... 
 
Nice job on the tune. Sounds pretty clean.

Mike,
 
Nice job.   I was expecting bad singing the way you billed it in your into, it sounds really good.   Lucky you were able to digitize this from your original tapes.   I miss this kind of music.
 
Regards

That's you singin' Mike?!?! I LOOOVED the singing!! How can I put this? It was genuine!! Had a lovely Spandau Ballet quality!! Great job bro!!

Very nicely done Mike. A great remix on this and your singing did it great justice. Nice remix with a very nice sound all around. Glad the tape survived the flood. Nice one!!
 
Peace and Blessings,John

 
Hi Frank, Ed, Tim, Mark, Tony, and John.
 
 Thank you so much for taking time and listening and saying such kind things. It made my day. I'm usually an anonymous technician so receiving compliments is a special event. :-)  Thanks.
 
 I'm sure many of you are familiar with the self consciousness or feeling of doubt that occurs when you listen to yourself and only hear the stuff that could be better. I feel lucky that this particular song seemed to work ok from the moment we wrote it. I still enjoy singing along when I hear it. :-)
 
 
 all the best,
mike

I enjoyed listening too. There were two things that caught my attention. The guitar lead was very much on the melodic line which was really nice. No rainfall of arpeggiations. Very whistle-able.
 
I liked that you did not go back to vocals again after the guitar break. Was it you on guitar?
 
I thought you did a really good job. The mix was really clear and the bass sounded great even in cheap headphones.
 
Could you describe how you EQ'd the bass for this?

Hi Geoff,
 
 Thanks for listening. The guitarist was a school friend named John Lopilotto, the younger brother of one of my life long best friends. I was strumming the backing rhythm... but I'm not kidding... I didn't play or have lessons as a kid... if it wasn't for the punk rock anyone can do it idea that was already sort of done by the early 80's I wouldn't have been in a band.
 The bass player, Russel was a fine player. John met him in a class and we got together on that basis. At some point I cajoled him into buying a fretless 1967 Jazz Bass from one of the guys who I was doing live sound for and the bass tone is pretty much pure Fender straight down the line. I have no idea what Dave did on the mixing board at the inputs... and I don't have any strong thoughts about what I did on the remix. Just the routine stuff. The project is archived but I could go look at it early next week if the explanation above doesn't seem helpful enough.
 I remember that the bass had some drum bleed in it so there wasn't a lot of fixing that could be done to the few issues I still hear.
 
 Dave worked for a guy named Butch Trucks and he tracked guys like Shawn Lane and a bunch of Memphis guys that came down to town... so we always knew he was doing us a great favor when he worked at home for his buddies.
  
 John, the guitarist had a flair for bringing in hooky melodies and we usually wrote our songs in a few minutes.
 
 This lyrics for this one were literally written on a brown paper bag as the band worked out the form.
 
 The other songs we played were aggressive punk style but I wrote stories about pastoralism and sunny idealism. That was our idea of being punker than the other punks. We were all from beach towns so it wasn't as much about tear down society punk rock  as much as it was just about being *rad*. Skateboards, surfboards, old fast cars... stuff like that.
 
 I still like to dance. :-)
 
 all the best,
mike