Latest Production - "Not With Me"

[bigbluebarry]

Some of you may have already heard this track if you were in the thread about drum software but I thought I'd go ahead and post it here as well. I also apologize in advance for the length of this introduction, but the story has some significance to me. Feel free to skip to the end of the post if you just want to check out the song.Here's the story on the song. I originally wrote the music for it back in Oct 2007. It was about a month after I switched to Pro Tools and this was the first song I ever tracked from start to finish in PT. Back then, the song was called "Why." I had a vocalist that I was working with that was going to sing the song but it didn't work out. About a month after that, my buddy Joel begged and pleaded with me to let him write around the track. Although we had written some songs together before, this would become the catalyst that would eventually lead to us becoming Big Blue Shoes. In a bit of irony, the typical BBS stuff sounds nothing like this song Fast forward to June 2008. I had a chance to send some songs to an A&R rep. I wanted to send this one but Joel and I didn't feel that his voice was the best voice for the song. So we hired a session vocalist and had someone mix/master the song for us. We were both happy with how it sounded. Well, until last month that is.After hearing Logan (Audiorayne) on the song that he and I did together - "Won't Go Back Again" - http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?b ... read=11213 - Joel asked me if I thought Logan would sing on our song. After a phone call, he was hired and I began the process of re-tracking the song from the ground up. We wanted to speed the song up just a tad (4bpm) and I had some ideas on how I wanted to change up the instrumentation of the song. I also had some new gear since the time I had originally recorded the track. My goal was to see if I could take the lessons I learned from working on the "Won't Go Back Again" song and incorporate them into this new track. If you want to hear the old version goto http://www.myspace.com/bigblueshoes - it's the last track on the player.Here's the link to the new version:"Not With Me" - http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... m=trueRock on!- Big Blue

[rld]

Hey Barry,I already told you I thought this song was great.I was going to say I thought the chorus had a hole in it as far as the kick was concerned, but it appears that this is a new version and you have addressed it. Its better, but I still think it would drive the chorus a bit more with a slightly different kick pattern...just personal preference.This really sounds good.

[digidog]

Lots of elements of this song are good, especially for that breaking benjamin, evans blue mix and feel.The production on the vocals are fine and most of the drums are fine, though I'd really like to hear that snare pop more. It's a bit dead.I'd pump those acoustics up with some class A love.When the chorus hits, I think the elements are all there, just needs to go to a good mix and master house and send the right EQ and compression to print. Maybe there are some issues in the mastering process as well.The main vocals could stand some thick, meaning a ambient vocals an octave below or something.Over all regarding production, the high hats and vocals are fine in the 4khz - 10 khz space, but the rest is not. I would q out the guitars and other drums with a wider octave and pump the compression up a bit.Arrangement wise, on the second verse, I hear this gated sliced/chopping guitar trying to break through with pronounced 8th notes. It's a good idea if that's what you are doing, but it isn't pronounced enough. That should be a mid range filter that is fairly apparent, almost synth like.And lastly, if you want to thicken that chorus up, read this about recording distorted guitars. It's a long read and even a longer audio blog, but if understood correctly, it will go a long ways in the future.http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/ ... html#EQThe heavy guitars are way too soft.I really like the song though, it just needs some mix and master love.

[tedsingingfox]

Hey, Triple-B.As you know, I know ZILCH about production. Really liked the song, though.You and Logan need to keep working together. His voice and your music seem like a very natural fit with each other. I can all but guarantee that sooner or later, the two of you will hit some SERIOUS pay dirt.Got my fingers crossed for you, anyway...Ted

[heinsite]

hi barry!!i've been trying to listen to this man, but sometimes (only for some posts) davie's from england is one, and you as well, i get this big red X thing, and can't open it as posted, but i can usually open other people's--my computer says try later--and i have been,if you want to pm me or something with you taxi site page, i can always listen that way...all the best, have NOT been avoiding you my big blue friend!!warren

[teleblaster]

This is a really nice track BB! I'm hearing that lack of snare presence mentioned earlier too, but I'm listening on crap computer speakers. I liked the long story too -- no need to apologize .Erich

[bigbluebarry]

Jan 30, 2009, 11:45am, rld wrote:Hey Barry,I already told you I thought this song was great.I was going to say I thought the chorus had a hole in it as far as the kick was concerned, but it appears that this is a new version and you have addressed it. Its better, but I still think it would drive the chorus a bit more with a slightly different kick pattern...just personal preference.This really sounds good.Thanks RLD... yeah, the first version didn't have enough "kick" in it, so I went back and added some more.Jan 31, 2009, 12:00am, digidog wrote:I'd pump those acoustics up with some class A love.Digidog... Thanks for all of your comments and welcome to the forums. Forgive my ignorance, but I'm not exactly sure what you meant by the quote above, "class A love." I'm guessing you're referring to either a specific piece of gear, but I'm not exactly sure what. Also, thanks for the link to the article, VERY interesting read. Jan 31, 2009, 4:25pm, tedsingingfox wrote:Hey, Triple-B.As you know, I know ZILCH about production. Really liked the song, though.You and Logan need to keep working together. His voice and your music seem like a very natural fit with each other. I can all but guarantee that sooner or later, the two of you will hit some SERIOUS pay dirt.Got my fingers crossed for you, anyway...TedTed... thanks man... We are in the midst of 3 other co-writes at the moment, in addition to tweaking another song or two Feb 2, 2009, 11:20am, heinsite wrote:hi barry!!i've been trying to listen to this man, but sometimes (only for some posts) davie's from england is one, and you as well, i get this big red X thing, and can't open it as posted, but i can usually open other people's--my computer says try later--and i have been,if you want to pm me or something with you taxi site page, i can always listen that way...all the best, have NOT been avoiding you my big blue friend!!warrenWarren... thanks for trying to check out the song. My profile page is http://www.taxi.com/barryfrench - the link should be in my signature as well. Let me know what you think when you get a chance. Feb 2, 2009, 11:31am, teleblaster wrote:This is a really nice track BB! I'm hearing that lack of snare presence mentioned earlier too, but I'm listening on crap computer speakers. I liked the long story too -- no need to apologize .ErichErich... thanks man I'm gonna be seeing if I can get the snare to pop just a little bit more. I've got a different snare on my SD 2.0 kit that I think will work better.Thanks everyone for the feedback!- Big Blue

[diogenes]

I think this sounds great. I'd be super pleased with that production level. Sounds pretty on to me.

[jonathanm]

Hey, Barry, what'd you do on the bass to get the nice thick sound? Is it track eq, mix eq, all of the above? It sound like it's also getting a bit of help from the bottom end of the guitar track.

[billg]

Barry, this sounds great now! IMO it would be perfect if you just gave a slight bump to the vocal volume in the bridge. you two are a great team!