Epilogue

I enjoyed this track - some good technique on display - both in the cubase work and the tonality of the guitars. I felt the varied instrumentation was used well. I did find the wide stereo of the early guitar distracting - I feel it might work better placed in the stereo field than panned hard left & right. Or it could just be me and my (rather old) ears.
Well done.

Thanks, Stephco, for making suggestions. It gets somewhat groovy in the middle, but the rest of the piece is meant to be reflective. Maybe I went too subdued? On the guitar, I have gotten more accustomed to a clean sound lately, but I will give this more thought. It’s a good idea to make it crazier (by which I think you mean more distorted). I’ll play around with that. Thanks for listening!

Hi T-bag, appreciate you giving it a listen! Thanks for the comments. I think we all hear things a little differently, so it’s really useful. The early guitars are panned to the left, but not all the way, and I’m using a delay to make a faint (or maybe not so faint) echo over to the right, which in my mind gives the guitar a fuller sound. Did I overdo that? Thanks again!

New version; thanks for all the good suggestions so far. I left the previous version up for purposes of comparison.
https://soundcloud.com/incontinentals/epilogue-2018-04-17

Improved !
Starting around 1:30, approx until 2:30, I felt that the beat on the cymbals is too much repetitive, and only the beat.
If I were in your shoes, I would use from time to time another cymbal and also not hit always on the beat.

This is great! I really enjoyed the wave effect you put it!

Very nice all around. Liked the 9/8 section, and then 15/8. Very cool. I think what you did with the drums was very appropriate and good. You definitely have to keep the pulse going, as you did with the cymbals and percussion. It made me think of someone along the lines of Happy the Man, and that should be taken as a compliment. I liked the composition and the recording. Good stuff!

Hi Stephco, thanks for listening again, and thanks for commenting on the ride. I think I was a bit lazy, and you spotted it! It’ll be more interesting next version.

Thanks for listening, swetch, I don’t know Happy the Man, but right after this, I’m googling it. Thanks!

Sounding really good. Yeah, you could mix the rides up more.

Only two thoughts: how would it sound with main guitar down the middle,
the other/s as they are on the left? And what do you think of sustained final notes to fade?
As the end sits now, it just seems to expire.

Jet, thanks for listening again. As I replied to Stephco, I need to fix the rides.

I do also agree with you comment on the ending, and I can improve that.

Guitar stereo position: was actually thinking about that myself. It’s a constant dilemma. First, by main guitar, I think you mean the one that usually plays melody (although it also plays the swells). That’s generally left. It is usually playing in harmony with piano, which is generally right. And there is a mono delay of main guitar hard right, which I want to be just loud enough so it is not perceived as a second thing. It’s got a humpy eq, so it’s really just the mid-frequencies. So in a way, main guitar starts on the left and finishes (faintly) on the right. It just sounds fuller that way to me. And I do similar techniques on other instruments. I didn’t go to mixing school, so it’s something from the mixing books. One other thing to admit is that main guitar melody is often reinforced with a rhodes playing the same notes way over on the right, just loud enough so that you can’t hear them, but if you mute the rhodes, you hear its absence.

The other guitar, which is sort of an effects guitar, is sometimes counterbalancing piano on the right, and sometimes counterbalancing main guitar on the left. So I thought about putting that guitar in the middle. Except it also has delays, echoes, etc., that want to be on the opposite side of wherever it is. So in the latest mix (which you have not heard yet), I decided to try flipping it from left to right depending on the situation, along with its effects. I am not really sure if that is allowed! But I think I like it better.

Good stereo is complicated! Very different from the classical recordings I’m doing, where the position of each instrument is well defined by timing differences between the main stereo pair of mics. Maybe there are expert mixers who know how to make use of that in rock recordings, but it seems to me that stereo position is usually defined only by relative volume on each side. But then they are using all sorts of delay tricks to create a sense of space, and I don’t know those tricks. At least yet.

Agree that sometimes positioning throws up a few issues.
Sometimes I just think WGAS and let it all sit how I want it to sit.
But this (last) mix made me think that it seemed there was a hole
in the middle.

Anyways, let us hear mix #3 when ya ready.

New version, attempting to make use of the great suggestions here. Ride cymbal completely changed. Fade at the end more drawn out. Balance of instruments messed with. Reverb soup minimized (I think I had gotten carried away on that). Other things too. Still hoping to replace parts with live humans, so at some point, I expect to remix this one again. Thanks for anyone’s thoughts.

and it took me two weeks to figure out what WGAS stood for.

yeah! like it!

Thanks for giving it another listen, and thanks for the good suggestions, Stephco!

Hi Leon ,excellent stuff ,you have a sound and style very recognizable.

That is lovely, what a treat - I haven’t been on here for quite a while and I manage to coincide with Leon’s annual addition!

The production/sound quality is really enjoyable to my ears. The time signatures sound totally natural - what are they? More than one by the sounds of it. Great guitar and beautiful composition. What does your son think about his old dad’s music? Here’s to the next one being earlier, Early.

Steve

Good stuff. My only nit is the tremmy settings.

The mix has a sound stage sound to it, large, but not cavernous. Nice.

Recrea, thanks for listening, glad you liked it!

Polgara, appreciate your input!

Steve, the time signature moves around - mainly from 9/8 to 8/8 (I think), anyway the initial pattern goes over nine beats and I shorten it to 8 later. I wish I could figure out where I get these ideas, then I would go there more often, however, I do get a lot of ideas I don’t like upon further reflection. One day I’ll make an album of those bad ideas. Or maybe I already have! Anyway, glad you enjoyed.

Jet, thanks for listening again. I will think about the tremolo again.