pre-production noodling

**nostatic** · #1 12-02-2011, 11:50 PM

Starting pre-production on a nostatic trio + album. It'll be mostly jazz though we'll have mostly twisted versions of things (like My Favorite Things as a 4/4 funk). I want to channel some of my old guitar days so I worked up a arrangement of Elenor Rigby. I hear it with bass, keys, and sax actually trading off taking the melody line, but in order to get a rough down to work with it was just me and the bass and a loop in Logic. I'm no bass orchestra guy and I'm way too lazy to program drums - we'll track this with my drummer. But gives me something to work with and am happy with the half hour or so of tracking.

L-anor by nostatic-trio-plus on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

RocketMusic · #2 12-03-2011, 08:04 AM

Shoot, man, you're gonna catch the Bass Orchestra bug now! Wasn't that fun to do?

It certainly sounds great, very nice playing and bass tone. I'm guessing that is your Fodera? Sounds great!

You've got a great starting point to work on your production techniques. I think with a little EQ and panning, you could easily achieve even better separation between the three bass tracks.

Everything sounds like its more or less coming up the middle of the stereo spectrum. I'd send the bass line slightly off center (5-15% right) and then the melody slightly more off center in the other direction (10-25% left). Those are the two tracks that need to be fattest, so keep them on opposite sides.

I'd probably pan the drums in the same direction as the melody (20-35% left) and then the chords in the same direction as the bassline (but further out, 30-50% right).

EQ-wise, you could also add some "complimentary" EQs to help with the separation. I'd boost around 250-300Hz (Q=.7? Gain = 1.5-2.5db?) on the bassline, and then cut the same way on all the other tracks (chords, melody AND drums). You'd be amazed how that can make the bassline pop out of the mix. Same for the melody track (boost somewhere around 800-1000 Hz on the melody track, then cut the same on every other track). For the chords, just thin them out a bit: maybe a low shelf that starts cutting around 1000 Hz plus a high pass around 200-300 Hz).

Then there's multiband compression on the entire mix. That helps everything play together even better...

Do a few of those things, and you might find yourself having as much fun mixing as playing! If you're not up for that, I'd love to take a stab at mixing it. Any chance you could send me the individual tracks as WAV files, all referenced to 0:00 so I can just import them and have them all line up temporally?

**nostatic** · #3 12-03-2011, 11:22 AM

Thanks for the suggestions, and yeah, that is the Fodera going straight into the laptop with bridge pup favored. I've mixed some regular album tracks (Simpleflower :: SoCalSoul Sounds) but going "all bass" is a little different. Truth be told there is zero post production on L-anor. I literally dumped a drum loop into Logic, then laid down three bass tracks. The only thing I did was throw a limiter on the master. Normally I'd use multiband comp on each track tweaked for what spectrum I want it to sit in and would pan to taste. Since it is a stereo drum loop I'd typically leave it center but a counter argument is that since it is percussion it could/should be off dead center. The eq tricks are helpful as I've never really dialed that in. I generally cut bass below 100hz and give that to the kick, try to cut the lows in keyboard or guitar (bastards!) and punch bass up like you say around 200-500hz.

This was strictly a pre-production track to give the feel to the other guys in the band, though maybe I'll work it up as a solo bass thing for the album.

Speaking of stereo separation, here is last Sunday's gig. It is a Zoom H4n and I set it up fairly close to stage dead center and was pleasantly surprised at the stereo field:

http://nostatic.com/mp3/27nov11/caravan.mp3

**nostatic** · #4 12-03-2011, 11:30 AM

If you're a glutton for punishment:

http://nostatic.com/mp3/L-anor.zip

Three bass tracks and drums. There is an extra verse/chorus in those that I cut from the mp3 bounce.

RocketMusic · #5 12-03-2011, 12:13 PM

On it! How fun!

RocketMusic · #6 12-03-2011, 01:29 PM

Bah, I can't open the zip file for whatever reason. Or I should say, I can extract the drums WAV file, but not any of the bass WAV files...

Could you PM me some links straight to the WAV files?

RocketMusic · #7 12-03-2011, 03:33 PM

Cool - thanks for the WAVs, Todd!

Here's a quick mix effort. I should have played with the reverb settings more, but I ran outta time...

"Eleanor Rigby" (ala nostatic)

JBFLA · #8 12-03-2011, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

... but I ran outta time...

Time I've got, looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Nice work Todd and Greg!

**Bipslapper** · #9 12-03-2011, 04:59 PM

Sounds great, I am subscribed.

**nostatic** · #10 12-03-2011, 05:25 PM

Very cool - of course proper eq and mixing just highlights the playing gaffes. But it seems like you've done this before.

That bass takes eq well. I need to get my sax player to lay down some parts. And i need to re-record my parts now that I know the structure. I hate tracking and having to look at the laptop screen for markers to remind me of chord changes.

buglen · #11 12-05-2011, 09:10 AM

Very nice work. If this is just the rough mix to flesh-out your idea, then I can't wait to hear the final cut!

VroomVroom · #12 12-05-2011, 09:14 AM

Sounds great, Todd! All the best with the album.

**nostatic** · #13 12-05-2011, 04:43 PM

Thanks for the words of encouragement. The problem with that rough is that I pretty much shot my wad of bass tricks/techniques in one tune

I picked up most of the hardware I need to track today. I have a gig tonight and then will likely go through my boxes of cables and see what I'm missing. I'm willing to bet that I've got multiples of everything except what I need.

The trick will be time/energy. This year has been nuts - the day job has been crazy busy and won't let up until maybe this Wed (then pick back up after the 1st). I'm maxed out on my vacation day accumulation at 48 days - evidently I never take vacations :/

A sane person wouldn't put this on the docket, but I'm not getting any younger and right now the band is tight enough to track quickly and not yet bored with each other so the playing is fresh. The one variable is my house is having odd electrical issues with lights flickering and outlets momentarily shutting off. Not good for tracking.

At any rate, my music room is already stocked with a Yamaha drum kit and K cymbals (so the drummer is happy), Roland R700NX but I suspect the keyboard player will want to bring his Nord Piano. I'll run direct, and we'll record sax, trumpet, and vocals maybe in the bathroom (kicking it old school). The rig will be:

Macbook pro running Logic 8
Focusrite Saffire 40 interface
Presonus HD4 headphone amp
Neuman TLM-103, Rode NT4 stereo, Oktava MC012, THE KR-25A, Shure SM57, Audix OM-2, Sennheiser e835 mics plus I have an EV PL DK4 Plus Drum Mic Pack enroute.

The plan is to track the trio live with bass direct (through the FEA and Paradriver into the interface), keys stereo, and that leaves 5 tracks for drums. If need be I've got a Mackie mixer that I can do a 4->2 mixdown to give me more mics. I thought about getting two interfaces and doing lightpipe but I'm on a budget.

This is our current preproduction list. L-anor will likely just be a bass/perc duo bonus track. Maybe we should get Rocketeers to contribute a bass track/section to that tune

Afro Blue - 3/4 time
Red Clay - straight
Little Waltz - 3/4 time
Cold Duck Time - Funk, anticipated hits
Odd Couple - swing
All Blues - 4/4 funk
Blue Monk - slow swing
My Favorite Things - 3 over 4 funk

vocal:
Mr. Magic - funk
Caravan - funk w/swing B section
Softly - latin
It's Over Now - jungle beat
God Bless The Child - slow funk
Use Me - funk
Night in Tunisia -spacey latin
Song for My Father - latin

We may swap Autumn Leaves for Song For My Father. Our vocalist does a rubato intro in French, followed by uptempo swing in French, then we slide back and forth between swing and latin, then final verse is in English over either feel.

RocketMusic · #14 12-05-2011, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nostatic

Maybe we should get Rocketeers to contribute a bass track/section to that tune

Count me in! I'm good for a solo, or a verse/chorus or hamony part(s). Whatever you need/want, it sounds like fun to me!

JOME77 · #15 12-06-2011, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

Cool - thanks for the WAVs, Todd!

Here's a quick mix effort. I should have played with the reverb settings more, but I ran outta time...

"Eleanor Rigby" (ala nostatic)

I guess that I'm late to the party. I've become a professional grand kids baby sitter and haven't had much time to surf lately.

Sounds great! The original was good too. IMO this mix added more clarity to each track though. Good arrangement Todd. I love what you've done with the chordal parts. It counters the melody nicely.

**nostatic** · #16 12-06-2011, 10:38 AM

thx, it still isn't quite what I hear in my head but that may be a good thing

Ok, once I get a bit more organized I propose that we do a "mash up" version of the tune. I'll do the final arrangement that has lots of space, and has various spots for solo sections. Then I'll put that track up for people to solo over (or add bass track bits as well). Then it'll all get mashed up into a final version. If anyone contributes a track, parts of it will get into the final.

I'm slammed at work but hope to have the time/energy to crank out the next iteration maybe this weekend.