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Just got the news that our friend and KC musical legend Danny Cox passed away today at 82. Fark.
The sessions we played in his backyard are bright memories.
We'll miss ya Danilito. Love goes out to Mona and the fam.

My most recent listen yielded some concerns about levels and that's sort of mostly it.

Here's what I altered/fixed to get to 2nd final.

• tw fix bass note at end of where am i

• tw test 1 beat up faster for psych surfer - wound up going from 193-196

• Turn the shaker down or look at the brightness characteristics of the new filter on solace

• Turn the liquidator down half a decibel

• Warming filter is too much on crossfire

• Filter is too much on psychedelic surfer THERE WA SNO FILTER YA MUGGINS so i added 1

• Revert to previous Mastering for King is back

• where am i Unusual kick drum In the first bridge like it’s overloading

• Harmonica chords in the second chorus are still not well positioned and do not pan

• Intro between Coggins on the right to centre just ahead of the solo is still out of whack by half a bar

• Second yearning still has a big volume jump on the YEH sound in the final chorus

• Turn castaway down one

• where am i harp chorus 2 fix again

• turn up paul surany in heavens on my shoulder

• coggers solo intro where am i

• speed up crossfire by a small amount

• trim entry points

• increase bpm heavens

• fix front of heavens has been clipped

• turn solace down a smidge

• figure out the nasty hi freqs in pauls guitar heavens on my shoulder, probably the new reverb

• TW - where am i not toppy enough. check filters

Nutshell: up/down volume wise, on/off some filters, increased some songs speed by a small amount to keep the flow of the album, small continued bits of mixing.

This is what is meant by the 'top down' mix - usually, and historically for us, you complete a mix and hand it to a masterer.

As I learned from Anonymous Super Producer in LA, the way the Big Boys are doing it is...

- convert all drums to midi and replace with samples
- nest all projects whilst running through the final mastering filter.

Part 1 i wont do cos Theo. Although I have sampled in kick from time to time.
Part 2 is the top down mixing, so I think this process we have developed for it is pretty much right. I find it similar to visual editing. It's the same process of running your eye (ear) over the piece from start to finish until you forget it's your song/work and it just seems like something that has always been that way.

The fact that you can heal the issues lower down in the chain is awesome and new.

i know for old school people this is WTF and why and surely you have the discipline to do it old school and yeah we've done everything pre 2020 that way, but time moves on and tech changes, formats change and that's part of it.

What we are making now could only be made this way, and it is as it is because of it. Such has been the case with each release. From the wedding venue we converted to a studio in Bawley Point to the wooden hall at the Mangrove Mountain Community Centre, AJ's place in Indiana, Gary's place in Clarksdale, Eddy Avenue at 3am, the Dome at the Skydome Observatory near Parkes.

Tape, 1/2 inch, 2 inch, ipads, ZOOM recorded, laptops, pretty much everything that records sound, excepting an edison wax cylinder.

My Anonymous Super Producer also made comment to the effect that new and emerging software will do more and more of the mixing until he's out of a job. As robots are now also making music, i guess we'll be in the same breadline thereafter. Eventually the robots will just jam with each other while we oil them.

Meanwhile, the work continues. I had an insight that you have to like this sort of thing in order to do this sort of thing and I am coming to agree with that idea. Theo watched as i did some fixing of some...anonymous...guitarists timing and shook his head. For me though it feels like solving a puzzle, until it's what it ought to be. I think you gotta like it to do it and luckily for us, me, and our budget, I am into it and enjoying the buttons.

Next: same again. Reviewing it until i run out of interruptions to my ear. When it locks into place it's a real change. Like the difference between dough and bread. I think I got a little further yesterday and these changes are totally appropriate producer choices based on the 'album' as differentiated from the singles.

It's kind of like dropping a super bouncy ball. Each bounce gets a little smaller until it settles. I'd like to say 2-3 more passes but I can't know until it all clicks. What I can report is that I am running out of things to fix and a lot of this stuff is polishing. I am carefully walking the fine line between the effort to get work complete and the almost-impossible-to-use-rational-thought-to-describe 'sense' of when things are ready.

Will keep you guys posted.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/finals-2-update-123809553?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Received notes from PR/TW/PS/EP/SK.

Burned to CD and listened in car, made notes.

Walked and made notes.

Following adjustments as 2am today lol:

• Vocals in morning flame up and down a bit see if you can try to get them level they’re too high sometimes and too soft on a couple of locations work on that

• Turn the mandolin down in the yearning bring the vocals forward with less reverb on them

• tw - end of heaven on my shoulder - end the HMM noise earlier with the band

• tw - floor tom where am i too loud

• tw - drums too loud in where am i?, ride the faders on the drums with tw

• Solace main up onw decibel

•  morning flame down half a decibel

• liquidator up 1/2 DB

• Turn the front vocals up in the yearning

• pr - turn the verb down on fade out chorus by myself without you

• solace down .25

• paul guitar heavens on my shoulders start position is weird

• end of coggers solace solo needs more oomph in the transition

• by myself up .25

• EP: chick chicka sound in heavens? hi hat? shaker? turn up

• esss at end of solace last chorus

• heavens on my shoulder chorus up

• snare in chorus where am i, a smidge too loud in parts.

• rhythm guitar left right in where am i, just ahead of the solo is out of whack fix

• harp in chorus 2 of where am i blend at end chords too too

• main vocals in 2 week up slightly v1

• pull congas down slightly

• more richness

• snare the yearning a teeny smidge front

• snare just slightly too toppy

• snare too hot at end again

• toms down a smidge

• 2nd mjeb yeee-earning fix

• supporting dude up a little

• EP wants higher longer fade

• the fix is in down .25

• main vox in the duke v1 down .25

• coggins down slightly

• look at the violin merge into the solo it's a little inelegant

• bob down .25

• PS - end arpeggio morning flame 2 beats from the end fade out earlier

• Turn solace up a little

• put the aircraft effect back into the beginning of solace

• Put the sound effects behind solo in solos

• Increase psychedelic surfer BPM by one

• Heavens on my shoulder turn up the dual guitars

• Unmute the guitars in where am I and re-export

• Turn the vocals up at the front of the yearning

• Turn the Duke down to decibel

• turn bob down a db

• EP: add audio vignettes as per basilisk/whiskey talking

After leaving it for the day, tonight I will review again.

Each pass is another pulse until it's all clean and clear.

Without putting a final day on it, it's definitely coming to a conclusion.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/final-review-1-123577590?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

We're doing a short bracket at Blues Jam at the Crows Nest hotel today, sometime between 4-6 ish :)