You Are Words

[Alison]

I started this song in February. Started with guitar and drums. I knew the guitar needed to be re-tracked but was waiting for my new bass to do it. Alas. . .broken arm ensued. I added piano while my arm was still in a cast so the lines are very simple. Finally got to add bass while I had a brace on my arm so, not perfect. I would love some bass suggestions from you all on bass playing (how to play, etc. . . I am a beginner)

Mostly, what I wanted to do with this is keep my hand in recording. Let it go too much and one forgets!

I figure everything needs to be re-tracked, once I can play again. Also, when I rendered this, I noticed a bunch of clipping, but nothing that showed up while I was listening back. How important is that with an un-mastered track?

Anyway, the bass line was the first effort with my new bass. . . brace and all. I am determined to keep going/playing, no matter what!!

We Are Words 37.mp3

More bass! And a few other minor changes. . .

You Are Words 417.mp3

Here is JD's version of the song and I really think he nailed it! It says JD mix but he did a LOT more than mix!

You Are Words JD Mix 1.mp3

[rayc]

1st off - clipping will constrain mastering...no biggy at this point - plenty of time to fond out what n where then address it.
Sounds like a new bassist's mix - way down low & hiding.
A cool song sketch...vocals are strong and good.

[Alison]

1st off - clipping will constrain mastering...no biggy at this point - plenty of time to fond out what n where then address it.
Sounds like a new bassist's mix - way down low & hiding.
A cool song sketch...vocals are strong and good.

Thanks, Ray. I did this mostly to keep working in Reaper so I wouldn't forget everything and waited a LONG time to put the bass in. . . I could hear the bass after I rendered it but, I guess I didn't have it up enough.

As I mentioned before, I will be re-tracking everything once I can play again. Next, I will be working on your other song, just really wanted to see what I could do with this first.

Thanks for listening!

[WhiskeyJack]

When i heard the double kick fire up at the very end i got excited for some sick metal riffing.... I was so bummed out @Alison

Just Kidding. (It would still be cool tho and fit the disdain tone of the lyrics)

I think everything is captured and eq'd REALLY well. Your vocals are immaculate as always. The bass is really buried in the mix. I think it has room to come up and fill out the song. And then you have some backing vocals over on the left in what i feel is the chorus "come take my guns from me".. .etc etc. that have an interesting treatment on them but maybe the effect is possibly a little loud. I think i am interpreting this dream like sound, as comments from the peanut gallery, or whatever but i feel like the effect could be compressed a bit more and smooth out and brought down a little.

Really cool song Alison.

Also wtf is this about a broken arm??/

[Alison]

When i heard the double kick fire up at the very end i got excited for some sick metal riffing.... I was so bummed out @Alison

Just Kidding. (It would still be cool tho and fit the disdain tone of the lyrics)

I think everything is captured and eq'd REALLY well. Your vocals are immaculate as always. The bass is really buried in the mix. I think it has room to come up and fill out the song. And then you have some backing vocals over on the left in what i feel is the chorus "come take my guns from me".. .etc etc. that have an interesting treatment on them but maybe the effect is possibly a little loud. I think i am interpreting this dream like sound, as comments from the peanut gallery, or whatever but i feel like the effect could be compressed a bit more and smooth out and brought down a little.

Really cool song Alison.

Also wtf is this about a broken arm??/

Well, where do I start? I broke my left arm a month ago, it is still healing. It happened the very day my new bass came in. Still really can't play any instruments very well but I did manage to finally eek out a bass line. I seriously need to re-track everything but, that will have to wait.

The vocals in the background were supposed to sound far off and whinny "Don't take my guns from me, my right, my liberty" but I wasn't sure how to get that done so I put a lot of reverb on them. . .too much, I'm thinking. . . using compression is a great idea!

The drums at the end were supposed to sound like gun shots, may have missed the mark on that too. . .sigh.

Mostly, I just wanted to keep my hand in Reaper so I don't forget how to do stuff (PLUS, I'm going CRAZY not being able to play!!)! It's been a rough month and I still have a ways to go in the healing process.

[TripleM]

The vocal is nice and clear.

When you retrack (with two hands available) maybe play the piano in a higher register. The part now gets a little lost in the low end.

The bass is low in the mix. And most of its tone is low end. Maybe boost some treble and get some definition to the notes.

I didn't hear any clipping. I heard little clicks at 1:35, 1:54 and some other spots. But they didn't sound like clips.

[Alison]

The vocal is nice and clear.

When you retrack (with two hands available) maybe play the piano in a higher register. The part now gets a little lost in the low end.

The bass is low in the mix. And most of its tone is low end. Maybe boost some treble and get some definition to the notes.

I didn't hear any clipping. I heard little clicks at 1:35, 1:54 and some other spots. But they didn't sound like clips.

Thank you, yes, I need to remix the bass. It was kind of a crap shoot whether or not I could actually play it but I did and then heard some rattles and other issues. Got it done with my brace on. . . ugh! Can't wait for this stupid arm to heal!

I played the piano part with my cast on and it was easier in the low end. I did want to keep the song really dark but maybe it's too dark?

One thing that was not affected by my broken arm is my voice! If only I could sing all the other parts!
Thank you for listening!

[SweetDan]

...I would love some bass suggestions from you all on bass playing (how to play, etc. . . I am a beginner)...

With bass lines there's something to be said about note selection. Bass parts are often more "basic" - simple - than you'd think. Very often bass parts are the root and 5th's of the chords of the tune, and that's mostly it. Rarely 3rds or other notes of the chords, maybe a bit as passing tones. Also placement of the root vs. the 5th is important, the root is played on the first beat of a bar more often than the 5th.

(As examples, listen to a few Eagles tunes. Or 70's/80's country. Or Polkas...though in Polkas you'll hear the 5th on the first beat of the bar more often than in pop/rock/country/etc.)

[rayc]

Oh, you can get an old, simple & useful country bass line by finding the root on the low string. Moving to its octave (two strings higher and two frets higher too) and then you'll find the 5th is on the same fret but one string lower. So A on the E string...octave a D string and the 5th is E on the A string. You bounce between the high A and the E. This is a much derided way of playing bass as it doesn't seem cool or busy but many great songs have used it. Creedence employed it quite a bit if I recall correctly.

[Alison]

Thank you, @TripleM, @rayc, and @SweetDan for the bass tips. I'm hoping to be able to re-track this song in a couple of weeks (with any luck) and I will be making some changes. Might try the piano up an octave as was suggested but, everything will get a redo!

In the meantime, I have loaded a new mix in the original post mostly so you can hear the bass better. I reduced the fx on the "far away" voices and pulled most everything down so the bass could come out a bit. Let me know what you think when you have a chance! Thank you!

[Tadpui]

Listening to the More Bass version. I really like that chord progression. The piano fits right in, I like the dark tone to it. Vocals sound great to me, nice and clear. Nothing really sticks out to nitpick about. I'll be curious to hear this one develop as it goes along. It sounds fully realized to me, nice work!

[Alison]

Listening to the More Bass version. I really like that chord progression. The piano fits right in, I like the dark tone to it. Vocals sound great to me, nice and clear. Nothing really sticks out to nitpick about. I'll be curious to hear this one develop as it goes along. It sounds fully realized to me, nice work!

Aw, thank you very much! There are a few bumps and blimps that I hear which makes me want to re-track things once my arm heals more. I was most anxious to see what I could do with the new bass after staring at it for over a month! I'm anticipating a couple more weeks before I can play again.

Thank you SO much for listening!

[JD01]

I would love some bass suggestions from you all on bass playing

Its like when you play bass on your cello - play the notes you think sound good and consider where they fall in respect to the kick. You probably do this already without thinking about it.

The drums at the end were supposed to sound like gun shots, may have missed the mark on that too. . .sigh.

I totally got what you were trying to do... but then I also realise that you probably haven't listened to a great deal of thrash metal so had no idea what this beat sounded like.

Song is good, interesting chords that give it a creepy feel. Vocal is good of course, the other instruments probably do need re-tracking when your arm heals a bit more. Strange you chose Bm... I always find that a really awkward chord play on the piano!

[Alison]

I would love some bass suggestions from you all on bass playing

Its like when you play bass on your cello - play the notes you think sound good and consider where they fall in respect to the kick. You probably do this already without thinking about it.

The drums at the end were supposed to sound like gun shots, may have missed the mark on that too. . .sigh.

I totally got what you were trying to do... but then I also realise that you probably haven't listened to a great deal of thrash metal so had no idea what this beat sounded like.

Song is good, interesting chords that give it a creepy feel. Vocal is good of course, the other instruments probably do need re-tracking when your arm heals a bit more. Strange you chose Bm... I always find that a really awkward chord play on the piano!

As far as bass playing goes, I guess I was looking more for technique rather than notes. Playing a real bass is a bit different than playing bass lines on cello. I hear a few twangs and buzzes but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't able to get my fingers in the right spot with a brace on.

Yeah, I'm not a big thrash metal fan (surprise!!). Any suggestions for the end? Guess I could try to find an actual recording of an AR=15 in action. . .

Funny story. . . when I first started writing this, I started it in Am but I had just finished writing a song in Am so, I decided to use Bm instead. I actually like Bm for this, it somehow has a darker feel.

Thanks for listening, JD, I always value your input!

[JD01]

Funny story. . . when I first started writing this, I started it in Am but I had just finished writing a song in Am so, I decided to use Bm instead. I actually like Bm for this, it somehow has a darker feel.

[Alison]

Funny story. . . when I first started writing this, I started it in Am but I had just finished writing a song in Am so, I decided to use Bm instead. I actually like Bm for this, it somehow has a darker feel.

Hmm, Dm. Wish I could play piano as well as he does. . .this sounds too pretty to be dark and very much unexpected from Spinal Tap! I actually love working with minor keys, they can lead to all kinds of possibilities.

[SweetDan]

...I was looking more for technique rather than notes. Playing a real bass is a bit different than playing bass lines on cello. I hear a few twangs and buzzes but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't able to get my fingers in the right spot with a brace on...

Here's some ideas regarding bass playing technique -

Left hand: press the string down just "behind" the fret, not right on top of the fret, and not in the middle of the space between frets. By "behind" I mean that if you played on a fretless instrument your finger would be where the note would be slightly flat. Press hard enough it doesn't buzz, but not much harder.

Right hand, playing w/fingers: learn the "rest stroke". Anchor your thumb on the side of of the pickup or the next lower (in pitch) string. Place your index or middle finger on the opposite side of the string you want to play. Pull the string slightly before releasing it, and release it with a snap. Then your finger should continue down to end up touching either your thumb (if you're playing the E string) or on the next thicker string (i.e., if you played a note on the D string then your finger would end up resting on the A string). That way you'll get a more solid, percussive, "thumpy" (and maybe even "confident") tone.

Around 12:58 through about 16:30 of this video is a great intro to these two topics:

[Alison]

This is great! Thank you, @SweetDan!

[vomitHatSteve]

Ok, really focusing on the bass since that's the brand new element you seem to want to dial in.

Bass likes the mids more than a lot of people anticipate. If you give it a boost around 600 Hz, that can help it be a lot more clear in the mix.

Do you have a reverb or delay or something on it? I would recommend a HPF on that to control low end build up (that you can't specifically hear other than that the low end is loud)

Cool that you've got this going now!

[rayc]

Ooooh, I loath that bass player Utub Channel. He's popular though.
In the 2nd mix your bass is clearer and sounds like a bass with new strings.
Most bass parts are a bit noisy and most of that a) gets lost in the arrangement and b)seems to help the bass poke through a little better.
It's a good bass performance given the circumstances.
A compressor on the way in is a good thing in most cases.
Oh, when tracking bass I try to have the drums and just one other instrument playing, (to give change cues), so I can focus on getting the bass to work with the drums.
I think you've done well and the other advice is spot on too.