Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

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Armistice
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Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by Armistice »

FILES REMOVED. Thanks for playing... :lollers:



So, somewhere along the way I got interested in the rapid decline of cryptocurrency - and I found myself more or less accidentally on subreddit r/Buttcoin - where the inhabitants take great joy in meme-ing and generally laughing at all the crypto bros who are bleeding all over the place, throwing themselves off buildings, or generally being in denial since the big plummet. It's a cruel place.

I've never posted there but it's interesting reading, but I wrote this song sort of as a love song from that subreddit to the crypto bros they soooo despise. I've put the lyrics down below as they probably won't make sense to people no au fait with crypto bro culture. :lollers: It's also yet another song where I had a line and melody in my head all along and had to make up a story to fit said line. Seems to be what I do these days.

This was also the tune where I used the third hand capo to generate new chord inversions, and the one I chucked the first set of vocals for out, and redid completely.

Plus, as if that's not enough - for this song only, the first 100 callers who pay absolutely no money down, can choose which of the two guitar solos I did for it that they prefer. :biggrin: I know which I prefer, but we'll see what you guys think. The two versions are otherwise the same...


With solo A:






Or solo B:





As always, any mix comments appreciated. :like:

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Version 2 - a host of pretty minor tweaks most probably won't notice - in particular to sibilants, adjusting of volumes on some individual words/syllables in the main vocal track, some adjusting of guitar levels, snare & ride levels, reverb... nothing to get too excited about. :wink:



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There's a version 3 because there were a couple of things bugging me when I listened. Because of the way I've put the various harmonies on tracks to minimise track numbers, the volumes got a bit complicated so things were leaning left or right - gone and fixed that up now. Also I unmuted some verse harmony lines on the 3rd line of each verse and decided they could stay.

Then I thought it's just slowly loping along, so I kicked the drummer's arse here and there, and added some new call / response "funny hows" right at the end to make it a little more interesting.

Plus I endlessly fiddled with snare levels, and reverb - I'm not going to use this impulse again - the line between not enough and too much is very fine.





Also pretty much decided to stay with solo A as it works with the song better and god forbid I ever have to actual play B live at some stage... :lollers:

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And apparently I can't stop tinkering. :frown: Implemented @TripleM's suggestions, also tidied up the crashes, which were perhaps a little loud and not panned well, and de-cluttered the rides (because it's so easy to make faux-rides sound like a robot, I set up 3 different ride cymbals and feed in bits of ride/bell and ride/edge from rides 2 and 3 randomly onto most ride 1 (main) hits, but had perhaps got a bit heavy handed with it), and changed the panning an EQ on the added "funny hows" at the end, as well as poking in a syllable here and there on the lead vocal and attending to the odd weird click noise on that track. Teach me to forget the damn pop filter... :mad3:


So here, the final, I hope, version 4. I've gone with solo A for a few reasons - 1. it's more my style of playing 2. it works better against the dynamics already created with the drums/bass and 3. it allows you to hear what's underneath - and what's underneath is more interesting, musically, than the rest of the song.

The other thing I wanted to mention in reference to @JD01's original comment about the unexpected bass note: I think that bass note is a huge part of what makes the chorus work, but I wouldn't call it unexpected - it's the root note of a D#m7b5, which is a chord shape (X6767X) I've used quite a lot over the years - it's everywhere in Jongleurs and Armistice instrumental stuff - it's perhaps that I'm sliding up the E string on the bass from an F# to the D# on the 11th fret that makes it stand out, I reckon.

Also, if you form that shape anywhere on the fretboard, and then move it up 3 frets and then up 3 frets and then up 3 frets you get a pretty cool sounding progression... :wink:




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Positively the last. Killed the bleating goat "the" in "the moon" and found a better take and various other extremely minor tinkering that probably isn't noticeable - mainly to do with mastering and some further work on making the snare a bit more realistic in places.





Must. Get. Onto. The. Next. Song. :frown:

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Last edited by Armistice on Tue Dec 20, 2022 12:18 am, edited 8 times in total.
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JD01
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by JD01 »

Good tune, Armi.
Think the guitars are a tiny bit loud, that's it. Also, instead of doubling them exactly all the time, one of them could be an arpeggio or something.
Love the chorus bassline with the unexpected note after "Funny How".

There appears to be a little blues lick on the left before the first "hey you" but its almost inaudible. Its also right at the end of the song.

Re: Guitar solos - the Larry Carlton impression is the best by far. I actually didn't like the last few licks of the first solo, where you sort of play the "not so smart as you were at the start" melody. The 2nd solo might be a tiny bit loud though.
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Armistice
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by Armistice »

JD01 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 22, 2022 4:46 am Good tune, Armi.
Think the guitars are a tiny bit loud, that's it. Also, instead of doubling them exactly all the time, one of them could be an arpeggio or something.
Love the chorus bassline with the unexpected note after "Funny How".

There appears to be a little blues lick on the left before the first "hey you" but its almost inaudible. Its also right at the end of the song.

Re: Guitar solos - the Larry Carlton impression is the best by far. I actually didn't like the last few licks of the first solo, where you sort of play the "not so smart as you were at the start" melody. The 2nd solo might be a tiny bit loud though.
Thanks JD... but which one is the Larry Carlton impression? I haven't heard that much of him, outside of the occasional Steely Dan tune. I'm not loving the tone on solo B, so if I keep it I may need to retrack it, but jeez, it was a bit of a struggle. I can do fast, but only in short runs... :lollers2: Personally I think solo A works with the song much better than B. And I did it after the original, which was B. You should hear it when I accidentally forget to mute one of them. :crazy:

The blues lick thing is an additional guitar that's playing a counter melody in the second half of each of the verses (it's there after the first verse as well) but it's mixed pretty far down. I'm might hoik it up a little and see what that does. Will listen to the guitar levels. Cheers
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rayc
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by rayc »

COOL one.
I like most of solo A and the end of solo B (but that's a little mushy) ...sorry, the move from angular to rolling works in my head.
Cheers
rayc
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JD01
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by JD01 »

Solo B!!! If you're not happy with the tone (which I thought was fine) retrack it. Sounds like it would be good practice getting a clean take.
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by Armistice »

New version up the top (solo A only)... :like:




JD01 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 4:07 am Solo B!!! If you're not happy with the tone (which I thought was fine) retrack it. Sounds like it would be good practice getting a clean take.
Yeah, I thought that's what you meant. It's growing on me - I did it first and didn't like the tone that much (it's way better now I've done some EQing) and wasn't sure how it fitted with the song, so I did the slower, more geared to the song dynamics solo A.

As for practicing it, it's never going to get played live, so if I go with it and no-one says "Gee that guitar tone sucks..." I'd be better moving onto the next song. I literally have half a dozen, maybe a few more even, songs fully recorded, ready to go, but without a single lyric for any of them. :crazy: I know what I'll be doing next week. Not practicing that solo at this stage... :biggrin:
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by JD01 »

Yeah, I'm busy getting in the same boat at the moment. A bunch of songs with half baked lyrics.

So, stick with solo B. It fits with the lyrics better, sounds a bit frantic and chaotic, like someone convinced they're right but can't work out why things are going wrong and there's some very interesting note choices in there.
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by rayc »

Cool lyrics...
Bible Black is a porn hentai thing.
Climate apocalypse meets the bank account.
"the picture apes" ouch.
Cool, I listened closer this time because it wasn't about the solo per se.
SOLO works a treat...
The growl of the bass is a tiny bit loud in a few passages.
The phrasing of the last word in "everything is falling apart" struck me as odd. No reason for it to have done given you do the elongated and mildly ululated thing in the chorus but it did so thought I'd mention it.
Cheers
rayc
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Armistice
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by Armistice »

"porn hentai"? this is news - I guess someone had to invent it... :lollers:

I was borrowing the term, not from King Crimson, but from Dylan Thomas and Under Milk Wood. Always liked it. :wink:
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by rayc »

Armistice wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 5:28 am "porn hentai"? this is news - I guess someone had to invent it... :lollers:

I was borrowing the term, not from King Crimson, but from Dylan Thomas and Under Milk Wood. Always liked it. :wink:
It's a cool phrase...DT used it very well as did John Wetton in his borrowing of it. Weird story behind the song title and song using the lyric with a different title.
Cheers
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by vomitHatSteve »

rayc wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 4:58 am Bible Black is a porn hentai thing.
I woulda pointed it out if you hadn't. I know it's been used for a lot of things, but I suspect the best known usage is the anime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Black

I like this song. Solo B seems a major departure from you usual style. Much more "shreddy". For that alone, I kind of lean towards solo A, but that might just be a matter of needing to get familiar.
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by CeeBee »

Solo B (simply cos I couldn't do it) :lollers:
Cool song too.
Cheers
Chris
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Armistice
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by Armistice »

Good lord... πŸ˜„

Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas.

"To begin at the beginning:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched courters' -and- rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crow black, fishingboatbobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though the moles see fine tonight in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now."
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by JD01 »

I'm reassured that I only know that phrase from Dylan Thomas.
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by Armistice »

JD01 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 24, 2022 3:46 am I'm reassured that I only know that phrase from Dylan Thomas.
I knew it from Dylan Thomas and King Crimson. Never heard of the porn hentai version before now, and in googling apparently lots of other people have used it before as well, for various purposes.


New version up in the original post (as soon as I load it in...)
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by TripleM »

Overall, a great sounding mix.

Great sounding clean-ish rhythm guitars. Snare sound is perfect for the mix.

I might back off the reverb level of the lead vocal. Also I might notch out the lead vocal in the mid 2K's. There's a little bite to it on a syllable or two here and there. I like the harmony parts.

Bass level is nice. Definitely not muddy or boomy. I'd still bring down the low end just a bit. A little lighter sound would suit the mix a little better I think.
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by TripleM »

Oh forgot... I'd vote for solo A. A less busy solo, to me, suits the song better. I think solo B is "more interesting" or at least it's more active. But A fits the song better IMO.
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by Armistice »

TripleM wrote: ↑Sun Jul 24, 2022 2:21 pm Oh forgot... I'd vote for solo A. A less busy solo, to me, suits the song better. I think solo B is "more interesting" or at least it's more active. But A fits the song better IMO.
Cheers. Thanks as always, for the ears. Comments re. your suggestions in the OP above. :like:

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Version 4 now available in the OP
TripleM
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Re: Moar New Honey Hunters - Funny How (plus - choose which guitar solo I should use)

Post by TripleM »

I'm really liking the last mix. I still think the lead vocal has a little too much midrange bite. But that's it. It sounds really good.
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