General Music Chat

All 15 songs are now recorded for my next album. Now comes the tedious mix tweaking. It's good to get away from some of the songs for a period of time, then come back to them with 'fresh ears'.
I started listening to songs I completed back in May, and got reminded of a neat trick I had learned regarding vocals - send the lead vocal to 2 separate tracks (both with volume at about 25% the original), add a 100% wet/0% dry delay to each one, pan one left and one right. Have the delay on one side short - about 1/8 of a beat, and the other about 1/4 of a beat, both with a single repeat, or very low 'feedback' setting. It's an Abbey Road trick.
Also started working on my CD cover art. Unfortunately, all this work means I won't have time for much new recording/writing.

Got all 15 songs to the 'first master' stage today, burned them to a CD (yeah, I still do that) so I can listen in my personal listening environment (my truck). I make notes on anything I hear that doesn't ring true - I know how pro stuff sounds on the system, so it make it easy to A/B compare.
When I;'m satisfied with a mix in the truck, it usually sounds ok on every other system I try, too - of course using my studio monitors for the basic mixing. Last check will be headphones for any low noises I may have missed.

And all this work over the weekend while also painting our 3-season room (2nd coat on trim yesterday, then touch-ups on everything today), then putting up wallpaper border, rehanging curtains. And yesterday went to a funeral, took wife out to dinner and went to an open mic.

Tweaked quite a few mixes so far, on my 3rd round now and the tweaks are getting to be very minor for the most part - 5 of the 15 songs needed nothing more on this round. It's amazing what you can hear, though, with repeated listens. I heard some 'guitar noise' (pick hitting wood, string squeak) on one song that was recorded months and months ago.

String squeak? Man, I'd leave it but that's just me.
Had a guy tell me years ago he loved to hear those squeaks.
Sounded more authentic to him.

How not to squeak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jwTD89Ry28

squeaks?

i think it depends on the music. for solo classical gtr....a little bit i can live w and it can add something real, organic, and earthy. same for acoustic blues w solo gtr or perhaps very minimal instrumentation.

but on full blown rock, pop, jazz, or folk recordings....for my tastes, that's gonna sound amateurish and sloppy.

String squeaks rule. So does the over the top pick noize on this album
(Motley Crue - Too Fast For Love)
http://youtu.be/Vm5auKDPoSY

String squeaks are annoying more than anything else (to me). This was one in the whole song, at a point between chords/notes. ping-ping-ping with the editing pencil, gone.
I use coated acoustic strings, so usually don't have them.

One question, Mark.
How the hell do you make string squeaks on an electric guitar?
I don't know if I've ever heard this before.
I'll make one occasionally when I'm making a quick move 10 frets up on an uncompressed acoustic.

oh man...are you kidding? here's a simple formula:

put on a new set of round wounds on a tele, switch to bridge p/u with some volume and if you're not playing super clean...oh yeah, you'll get PLENTY of string squeak.

i remember yrs ago i was playing vibes in a six pc band called Triplicity. We were in a little restaurant w a very polite, and attentive listening audience. The keyboardist called a tune the gtrst didn't know, so i suggested he go grab a drink and i'll play the tune on his gtr ( a quiet ballad of the keyboardist ). we ended up playing it just the two of us.

the gtr was the later version of the Gibson Howard Roberts model for those familar w it. nice, NICE gtr. so i start playing some octaves and it's SQUEAK CITY! he had just put new round wounds on before the gig. oh man, i immediately abandoned the octave approach and rolled the tone knob almost completely off!

he gave me some friendly grief about my squeaking when he got back up, and i gave it back to him explaining that gtr is "supposed to" have flat wounds on it.

On a different note:
How do you choose song order on an album? This new batch of songs doesn't lend itself to a natural order as much as previous ones. Many people these days would say 'it doesn't matter' because people don't listen to albums anymore, they just stream. I'm one of the exceptions!