Two Sneak Previews

phoo and the far tones

Actually, it’s not so much as sneak previews as it is “I’m satisfied at the moment so screw it – I’m making them public.” Not everyone in The Far Tones knows I was going to post these, but if we can improve them later we will. :)

http://fartones.phootoons.com

Go to the sneak preview link. It’s just a link to the music page.

We’ve been working on two more songs for a while and they’ve both been close to finished for a while. The only things left are retracking a few little tings, and I don’t think they necessarily need retracking anyway.

New stuff?

Never in My Life – an old Mountain song from Climbing as a tribute to Leslie West. Leslie West has always been one of my favorite guitarists, and just so happens Sean’s natural style is almost a dead ringer for Leslie West (yes, the same sean that posts in this forum). We started this song in early 2001 (the same time we started on ELO Kiddies and an EKS project – EKS is another side band/project), doing a scratch rhythm guitar, and final bass and drums. The Far Tones decided to finish it up over Thanksgiving weekend. Everything you hear except bass and drums was done after December 6th,2004. It went quick once we got working on it.

Just For You – This is a Midge Ure (Ultravox) song from one of his solo albums. I love his stuff, so I dropped this on The Far Tones unexpectedly. It’s not a song you’d expect a hard rocking band to do, but I think The Far Tones pulled it off pretty well. It’s nice to break the mold style-wise occasionally to see what happens – lots more keys and prominent female vocal for two things.

phoo, first up, Leslie West the great fatsby, LOL. Awsum performance all around! Really enjoyed this! To critique the mix, needs more high end presence, will help bring out vocals and drums. Otherwise it sounded awsum! Hearing this made me feel young again, LOL, thanks very much!

Give this one a comparison listen. It’s been run through Har-Bal.

http://fartones.phootoons.com/fartones_never_in_my_life_eq.wma

Har-Bal Screen Shot (before is the darker lines)

I’m a hardcore metal kinda dude myself, but I really liked your song phoo. Good classic sound and feel to it. Reminded me of old Black Sabbath.

Phoo:

Great stuff!!! I especially enjoyed your arrangement of “Panic In Detroit.” Your production quality has set a benchmark for me to work toward. I would like to hear about your studio setup if you wouldn’t mind sharing that info.

I’m to hear more of far tones in the future.

Tommy-J

Thanks!

Realize anything that I produce is a glorious example of over-production and you have realized a valuable lesson…I’m still trying to learn that one myself. It’s a real struggle to know when to stop. :)

Just For You, the most recent song, was a Gina24 and Behringer ADA8000 preamp (using the ADAT connector) to record the drums at 24 bits. Recently the mics on the drums have been two Behringer B-1 as overheads, Peavey PVM-45 on snare, and Peavey PVM-520 on the kick. Toms are cheap Radio Shack Instrument mics (clip on the rim) and there was on Marshall MXL57 for ambiance. (I’ll check the model numbers - they might be wrong). The rest of my parts were direct to the Layla20 as 16 bits. The drums on Panic in Detroit was a four mic setup - same mics but no tom mics. The drums for the other two songs were recorded in early 2001 - Radio Shack (cheap) PZM mics taped to the wall, Sennheiser 441 on snare, Sennheiser 421 on kick, and Peavey PVM-45’s on the toms. The older songs were recorded with a Layla20 at 16 bits using an Allen & Heath System 8 as the preamp. The Behringer-Gina24 combo replaced the A&H.

I’ll let the other guys fill in what they did. I don’t know really.

Everything was recorded and mixed in n-Tracks. I use Har-Bal for mastering and Adobe Audition 1.5 for everything else external.

I recently totally redid my monitoring system, keeping only the speakers. Those are old JBL L40, with a set on RS Minimus 7’s and a pair of home made nearfields. Alesis RA100 as power with nothing else in the chain except a speaker selector switch. Because of this I’m remixing Painic in Detroit. ELO Kiddies has already been remixed, and the other were mixed after the switch. It’s amazing how much more I can hear after rediing the monitoring. What’s not good is that I can hear stuff I want to fix in the mix and don’t know haow to do it. Some bad stuff is printed and some I just don’t know how to do it. Mixing is a major ongoing learning experience. I depend heavily on the other guys in the project for feedback and suggestions.

There’s some pictures at http://phootunes.phootoons.com/studio

Phoo:

I’ve been a musician for over 30 years, but have had very little recording and production experience except for my involvement as a studio musician in several recording sessions.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been doing some simple recording work off and on with N-Track. Now that my kids are grown and out of the house, I have a chance to finally dedicate more time to recording and setting up my basement studio that I’ve envisioned for the past 20+ years. It really helps me to hear the work of others like yourself and the tools used to make it happen. I have plenty of stage equipment I accumulated over the years, but I need to pick up the other pieces (studio mikes, monitors, pre-amps, etc.) to complete my studio.

I greatly appreciate and value your input.

I look forward to hearing your future work and hope one day to share some of my own reations.

Peace,

Tomm-J

Awesome guitar sound!

A little overboard on the FX on the VOX, IMHO – kinda hard to understand the lyrics.

Is that a keyboard? Something sounds like a high pitched white noise thing… Hits right in the pain center of my ear. (ouch) I think that may be what’s hiding the vox as well…

Overall a pretty good mix, guitars may be just a little hot, though, they seem to be hiding the bass & drums a bit.

-John

:cool:

Great recordings (as we’ve come to expect from you).

Do you use compression on your drums at all? It doesn’t sound like you do. I’m a fan of that 90’s explosive snare drum sound. I’ve never been able to get it in a recording but I can approximate it using a drum machine (blah).

PS - where’s the cowbel? Isn’t that a “classic” mountain instrument (or was it only in that one song)? BTW - they played in a nearby club not that long ago. I should have gone (but I’m too lazy).

Mr Soul

Quote (phoo @ Jan. 08 2005,02:36)
I'll let the other guys fill in what they did. I don't know really.

Thanks for the kind comments on the tunes.

I don't really know what I did, either. I know enough about n-tracks and recording to get a signal into the computer and recorded along with opening up an existing backing track (or not), and that's about the size of it. You know - the absolute basics. Phoo does the rest.....he's forgotten more about this stuff than I'll ever know. Well, that's not true. I've been playing and recording with phoo for nearly 26 years now and I don't think he's forgotten anything except maybe his splicing ability on real tape, but I wouldn't bet on that. :D

For ELO Kiddies, I took a direct line out of the simulated speaker out of my Marshall 6101 combo, everything else I've done has been a POD 2.0 at various settings, primarily a Marshall Plexi mod, a Budda Twinmaster mod and a Soldano mod. Solos are done with the Soldano mod generally. Guitars used are my previously discussed SG on another thread on ELO Kiddies; I used a Strat HSS for the solo on Panic; a Les Paul Classic on the solo of Just For You and the Strat for the rhythm; and the LP and a Hamer Special FM on NIML. I think the Hamer is the best recording guitar of the bunch - it's sweet....this is the one on the solos on the Mountain tune.

RE: Elo Kiddies

Cheap Trick. F*** Yeah.

I’m listening to this right now through my Sony headphones… G**damm this sounds GOOD! I know the original CT album very welll… you can’t fool me. This sounds great! No BS. Damm.

OK… you guys got a little silly at very the end, but that’s cool.

:;): :;): :;):

Ever think of doing “He’s A Whore” or “Oh, Candy”?
Let me know if you need some 8-string bass tracks. :)

Fun stuff.

-John

:cool:

Thanks to all who took the time to listen and respond :)

More recording specs:
All vocals recorded with a Røde NTK

All rhythm guitars (except slides) on Panic is a Gibson Firebird into Marshall 2104 into Røde NTK.
The slides are played on a $5 mail-order Melody Maker copy from the 70’ies. It’s a complete piece of crap because of severe intonation problems and an extremely flexible neck. Those cheap single coils sound cool, though :)

The cleanish guitars on Just For You is a Gretsch 6120 into the same old Marshall into Røde a NT5.

The Gretsch is also on Never In My Life, this time highly distorted and feeding back gloriously in some spots.
It’s mixed way back and only acts as sonic glue.

All mics are plugged into a little Mackie VLZ mixer and from there to my soundcard. The mixer just route signals where I want them and apply 48V and lo cut to mics that need it.

Oh, and the cowbell is there, disguised as an almond can whacked with a paintbrush.

John, I’m pretty sure we could use a real bass player in the future :)

Quote (John @ Jan. 11 2005,00:45)
RE: Elo Kiddies

Cheap Trick. F*** Yeah.

I'm listening to this right now through my Sony headphones... G**damm this sounds GOOD! I know the original CT album very welll... you can't fool me. This sounds great! No BS. Damm.

OK... you guys got a little silly at very the end, but that's cool.

:;): :;): :;):

Ever think of doing "He's A Whore" or "Oh, Candy"?
Let me know if you need some 8-string bass tracks. :)

Fun stuff.

-John

:cool:

Thanks, John. We (phoo, me, and my daughter on bass) originally did ELO Kiddies for a tribute cd done by members of alt.music.cheap-trick a few years ago. We only recently got vocals on it courtesy of Teryeah and his clan and they did an outstanding job on it.

CT is one of my all-time fave bands and my personal opinion is that Rick Nielsen is criminally underrated as a guitar player. Yeah, okay, he doesn't shred and doesn't generally do a ton of solos, but what he plays absolutely fits the tune and he's got the big three in spades for me - tone, taste and feel.

"Have you seen her face? She's got a face that would stop a clock...." ####, yeah! :D
Quote (Sean @ Jan. 11 2005,07:16)
"Have you seen her face? She's got a face that would stop a clock...." ####, yeah! :D

"...And with that face I surely won't stop, to look her in the eye."

heh.

Last time I saw CT was November 2003 here in Houston, and they rocked! They just gel so well on stage... Have you heard the studio album they released in 2003? I wasn't too crazy about it, but it had it's moments. I tried really hard to like it, but it just wasn't happening...

-John
:cool:
Quote (Sean @ Jan. 11 2005,07:16)
Rick Nielsen is criminally underrated as a guitar player. Yeah, okay, he doesn't shred and doesn't generally do a ton of solos, but what he plays absolutely fits the tune and he's got the big three in spades for me - tone, taste and feel.

As a geetar picker myself......I thoroughly agree! Nielsen is terribly ignored by the guitar "elite". He's only one of many though.....

TG

I must disagree… Have you ever heard Rick’s solo on any of the live versions of “Gonna Raise He11”? Pure maniacal shredding.

The thing about him is that he seems to have a good sense of when to play melodic and tasteful, and has the chops to do so at will. Check out: “World’s Greatest Lover”, “Mandocello”, and “The Flame”

CT makes me happy…

-John
:cool:

A little overboard on the FX on the VOX, IMHO -- kinda hard to understand the lyrics.

Is that a keyboard? Something sounds like a high pitched white noise thing... Hits right in the pain center of my ear. (ouch) I think that may be what's hiding the vox as well...
Which song? If you mean Panic in Detroit take another listen. I've been working on a remix. It's much drier. Maybe too dry. I took the n-tracks song that was the first mix and replaced the drums with the original drum tracks, removed all compression and EQ, and pretty much rethought the whole mix. The new one is pretty different and still needs a bit of work, but I thought it was still better than what was there so I took down the old one..

If you mean Never In My Life, there are no effects except compression on the voices.

I'm not sure about the high end stuff. I can't hear up there at all (seriously). There is a synth on ELO Kiddies, but if you mean that song it's probably the high end distortion coming off of the bass (the guitars aren't dead centered, but there is one of many near there)...maybe in the original Panic In Detroit, too.

Do you use compression on your drums at all? It doesn't sound like you do.
Very hard brickwall limiting on the snare and over-compression on the overheads to the point of pumping when the snare hits. It's a fine line. Panic in Detroit is just four mics - two overheads, kick and snare - no dedicated tom mics. The same setup was used for the basic drumset and toms overdubs. The new (as of today) first attempt as remixing Panic uses the new n-Tracks multiband compressor instead of the old fasoft compressor. It really opens them up a lot. There is no EQ on the toms, just a touch of compression. Listen near the end where most stuff has faded to hear what they sound like by themselves. There's probably another remix on the way pretty soon of that song. Panic was a pain to mix because there were so many parts going on.

PS - where's the cowbell? Isn't that a "classic" mountain instrument (or was it only in that one song)?
Fellas...Cowbell...got to have more cowbell...

Yeah, it's almost a hook for them. This song is sort of odd without it being so prominent.

Originally I didn't plan on having one in there at all. I played the cowbell part on floor tom. It just didn't sound right so I faked it. As Terje (or was it Sean?) mentioned, there is an almond can in there being whacked with a paint brush. Terje wanted more ping, but I didn't like the way it sounded when I added more ping and Terje is pouting. Anyway, we weren't trying to copy Mountain. It's in there enough for the effect if you listen. It's not in there nearly enough if we were trying to duplicate the original.

Ever think of doing "He's A Whore" or "Oh, Candy"?
Let me know if you need some 8-string bass tracks.
You never know...phoo and the far tones is a just a band to play songs we never played in any other band for some reason and always wanted to. I'd be happy as a clam to redo the whole Cheap Trick repertoire. Of course we won't do anything for money so maybe the knocks out He's A Whore....what kind of 8-string do you have, John? I have wanted one of those for a long time. A bass player I use to play with had one and that thing sounded great! Yes, you might be asked to play that thing some day.

I saw Cheap Trick at the Showbox in Seattle, last time they were there. It was the night Bun E ended up in the hospital. They played a slightly shorter set than I was use to and Bun E didn't sound as good as usual. He wasn't playing bad but he was obviously simplifying things. I don't think it was obvious he needed a visit to the hospital until after the show. They played the next night with Dax on drums, then Bun E was back after that. He was just exhausted. Fortunately it wasn't his back again. I'm totally amazed that Robin Zander can keep doing what he does for so long. It's relatively ease for drummers and guitar players to keep going years and years when compared to vocalists.

I'd be good in a Cheap Trick tribute band. I can play Bun E Carlos stuff pretty well for the most part and I'm getting fatter..glasses..all I need is a Hawaiian shirt...except I'm a good foot or more shorter than he is and I don't smoke (he doesn't either any more) and I'm not going bald (and he ain't getting any better in that department).

I was in a band way long ago that was playing out in the mid-west. We were playing a lot of the same clubs Cheap Trick was at that time. It was a year or two before their first album was ever released. We'd go into a club and there would be all the black and white posters with these cartoon characters and pretty boy looking guys plastered all over the place and LOTS of folks telling us how good they were. We had no idea what they sounded like until the first album came out. I think if we had known we would have made some effort to go see them back then. Jon Brant was with them the first time I saw them. It wasn't until much later I got to see them with Tom Petersson. The difference in sound was amazing. Tom in incredibly underrated as a bass player.
If you mean Never In My Life, there are no effects except compression on the voices.

That's the song I was talking about. Dry?!? I'm hearing a pretty heavy delay on the vox. I'm pretty sure it's the keyboard thing that's bugging me. Cool song, BTW!
-John
:cool:
what kind of 8-string do you have, John?

Hamer, baby!


With hair:




And without hair:





First time I sw CT was in about 1980ish when Tom had just split. They were touring for the "All Shook Up" LP and had Pete Comita playing bass. The did "Who D'King" with a second drummer onstage.