Tar - 2011-03-02 mix

Tar is a song that Pia wrote last year. It is about supporting someone with depression.

This mix is based on the first recording we did in November last year. It was pretty rough so we decided to leave it and re-record it later with better equipment and more know-how.

In the mean time Pia sequenced a drum track using Hydrogen. Given that I recorded the tracks at a weird bit-rate and that Pia is traveling at the moment, she asked me if I could remix it, perhaps including the drum track.

I did this but it didn't sound tight. The tracks had too much dynamic range so I compressed most of them using the LV2 mono compressor (that link doesn't work but it takes you to the correct site). Finally there's a compression effect for Linux with intuitive controls that I can actually use - thanks Invada Records!

I EQed Pia's vocals to emphasize the mid-to-high end a bit and bring them out of the mix.

I also shifted a few notes that were out of time and it sounded OK, but still not tight enough. I added a bass track last night and it immediately sounded much more together. That will amaze people who heard my bass playing efforts a year or 2 ago... :-)

Apart from vocals, the guitar on the left is Pia's. I played the rhythm and lead guitars on the left... and the bass. None of the guitars are great but they'll do for now.

Given the way it was put together, I think it sounds pretty good.

This song, as with all our current stuff, was recorded using Ardour. I did my standard quick mastering step, which mostly involves pushing the final mix through Jamin's limiter to compress the sound and add oomph.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

The composition Tar is Copyright 2010 Pia Waugh, all rights reserved.