Pixies cover "Gigantic" - first full mix.

[Bubba]

Open for critiques.

[JD01]

Bubba, you happen to have caught me at the right time. It a weeknight and I happen to be mixing.

I'm not as familiar as the original as you and you may be copying it.
First thing - when the heavy guitars first come in they're a bit loud and the drums go into the background a bit.
I love the crazy out of tune playing at 2:00.

Sounds fucking great though - I think I said this to you before, the guitars sound so fucking loud - not loud in the mix, just loud like the amp was about to die. There's a bit at 3:40ish where the drums get louder, just 'cos they're getting hit harder and it sounds great.

[Bubba]

Nice one, JD - thanks! I'll look into the volume of the big crunch guitars, it can't be more than a single down click to get them under control. With this song, the drums just HAVE to be mega present at all times otherwise everything else just seems quieter. I think the bigness of the guitars is simply due to the JVM. It's just a terrific amp. The guitars were recorded in a variety of ways and to me they all sound ace. The twin telecasters, one of which was slightly more crunchy than the other, were recorded with the emulated out. I think they sound tops. The HB crunch guitar (Joey's) is half-cranked on orange crunch mode and miked with an SM57 - ditto. The meltdown track is the JVM on OD1 green, almost full gain (which is still only heavy crunch in tone) and cranked louder than I've had a 100-watter cranked in the house before. 80% channel volume, 80% master vol.

I greatly feared that the neighbour would smash the door down and lay about me with an axe before I got the recording finished.

There's another fault that needs sorting - the meltdown guitar and Frank's chacka-chacka guitar are both in the same speaker ATM. I'll sort that tomorrow.

[Greg_L]

Link don't work for me.

[Bubba]

Link don't work for me.

Shit, sorry. Seems to be ok, now. Soundcloud have had some downtime tonight and something must have gone awry.

[Bubba]

Listening back now, Soundcloud has compressed this too much. There should be much more of a contrast in volume between the quiet and loud bits, especially on the intro.

[rayc]

Manda sounds great; particularly when she's pushing it in the chorus.
Is Very Good Bob.
The amp makes good noise.

[Bubba]

Manda sounds great; particularly when she's pushing it in the chorus.
Is Very Good Bob.
The amp makes good noise.

Thanks, Ray. It's not right yet, though. :/

[Greg_L]

That was pretty cool. Really good accurate cover. Great guitar stuff. You nailed all the nuances of their guitar work.

I think it's really good. If I had to nitpick something, it's too fat. The drums are too fat, the bass and guitars are too fat. Normally that's all a good thing, but all I've ever heard is the original and it's a little lighter, more balanced.

[paulman]

Yeah, I like this. I'm still not on monitors, but my laptop speakers sound way better than the headphones I was using earlier. I don't know if the lead vocal is the same as the one you sent me, but I definitely like the ambience of the vocals now. I'm not comparing them side by side, but it seems to sound like the ambience on Surfer Rosa.

I greatly feared that the neighbour would smash the door down and lay about me with an axe before I got the recording finished.

That's the tradeoff with sims. I don't get beautiful feedback, but I don't get axe-murdered.

[Bubba]

That was pretty cool. Really good accurate cover. Great guitar stuff. You nailed all the nuances of their guitar work.

I think it's really good. If I had to nitpick something, it's too fat. The drums are too fat, the bass and guitars are too fat. Normally that's all a good thing, but all I've ever heard is the original and it's a little lighter, more balanced.

LOL, and I thought you'd like the fat mix, Greg!.

Thanks for the good comments, I will probably thin stuff slightly at your suggestion.

[ido1957]

Link is gone - I'll be back

[Bubba]

Link is gone - I'll be back

Bugger! It's there for me!

[Bubba]

I've really been struggling with the limiting on this. I've been unable to get the relative volumes of the intro and the main part of the song to sit right. Last night I changed the limiting preset, did a couple of tweaks and almost instantly it was far, far, better. The link in the OP is the new mix.

[rayc]

I can't work limiters and master buss compression.
It's voodoo to my ears.
Great guitar tones.
The new mix is another improvement on something I thought was pretty flash already.

[JD01]

I can't work limiters and master buss compression.
It's voodoo to my ears.
Great guitar tones.
The new mix is another improvement on something I thought was pretty flash already.

I can't really either, Ray. You're a reaper user right? I just mix everything to get a good sounding mix with all my stuff (except kick and snare) peaking at about -18. Then apply Event Horizon limited to the master buss and adjust it. Seems to work well - it it doesn't I just turn it off and go back and remix.

[JD01]

Bubba, just got around to listening to this again (people keep phoning the office this morning and expecting to actually talk to me!)

Sounds fucking great - I can't critique this at all.

[rayc]

JD01 - I'll try that.

[miroslav]

Great cover job!

I agree with Greg, that you version sounds more "meatier" than the original...but unless you were trying to nail the original from every aspect...this one sounds just as good on its own.

Not meaning to go off topic...but I always wondered what Kim Deal was thinking about when she wrote that?
Gigantic...a big, big love...was she singing about some guy's large schlong?

[ido1957]

The OOT guitar is incredible. It makes you cringe and smile at the same time. I've never heard the original so no comparitive comments.
The kick is a little thick, just maybe trim a tiny bit off the low low end. Other than that it sounds like you picked the right limiter (I only heard the most recent post). Love that JVM (Mike has one and I've played it a lot)