UBK Edition FATSO

[lakeshorephatty]

Originally Posted by bcgood

This song reminds me of listening to Phish, Billy Breaths and a little DSOTM for good measure. I decided to have a little fun with the before mp3, enjoy!

Shit man, you lifed the veil off it! what did you do dude? I don't have any good tools to add clarity and what you did is exactly what all of my "dark" mixes need to be more neutral. It seems like you found just the right area of the low mids to cut down a bit and the whole thing just came to life more. I guess i have a buildup down there somewhere.

Incidentally are you a mastering guy?? I have a whole albums worth of similar quality material to finish up, and then get mastered...

Listening to my ubk fatso mix after I think i put a little too much into it during my playing around. When i get a new piece i tend to overuse it the first few times. It did some great things to the song but I think somewhere in between my original and the UBK version is good, but BCGOOD's changes need to also be in the mix!

Honestly dude thats so cool and makes the world of a difference. Can you give me any pointers?

You rock.

Russell

[bcgood]

Originally Posted by lakeshorephatty

Shit man, you lifed the veil off it! what did you do dude? I don't have any good tools to add clarity and what you did is exactly what all of my "dark" mixes need to be more neutral. It seems like you found just the right area of the low mids to cut down a bit and the whole thing just came to life more. I guess i have a buildup down there somewhere.

Incidentally are you a mastering guy?? I have a whole albums worth of similar quality material to finish up, and then get mastered...

Listening to my ubk fatso mix after I think i put a little too much into it during my playing around. When i get a new piece i tend to overuse it the first few times. It did some great things to the song but I think somewhere in between my original and the UBK version is good, but BCGOOD's changes need to also be in the mix!

Honestly dude thats so cool and makes the world of a difference. Can you give me any pointers?

You rock.

Russell

Ah, shucks you're makin me blush.

If there is one piece of advice I can give it's keep on writing and playing music and focus on that. The last four years I've really jumped into the engineering side hardcore but I'm a musician at heart and need to get back into writing music. I think if anything right now the world needs more real musicians writing good music; it's really hard to do everything yourself but it is possible.

I'll be happy to help you out with what I can, my plate's pretty full right now. If you have a finished album mixed then let me know.

Cheers,

bcg

[lakeshorephatty]

Originally Posted by bcgood

Ah, shucks you're makin me blush.

If there is one piece of advice I can give it's keep on writing and playing music and focus on that. The last four years I've really jumped into the engineering side hardcore but I'm a musician at heart and need to get back into writing music. I think if anything right now the world needs more real musicians writing good music; it's really hard to do everything yourself but it is possible.

I'll be happy to help you out with what I can, my plate's pretty full right now. If you have a finished album mixed then let me know.

Cheers,

bcg

Thanks for the support man. I'm firing on all cylinders too. To be honest I really enjoy the "sound shaping" side as much as i do the writing and creative part. My wife on the other hand is pure writing and creative and loves that i want to work on the other part. Thing is I found long ago that nobody cares what the exact sounds are in your head that you want to realize except for yourself, and i think thats key.

When i say firing on all cylinders after working a day job then spending the evening with my wife and daughter i work on these things after baby bedtime

I love the creation aspect but this album isn't complete yet. All the rhythm tracks are done and about 4 of the songs are 90%, another 4 are 50% and another 4 (or maybe more) are less than that, and we've been working on it for 2 years which is a bit crazy

That said it takes so long beause life gets in the way, but also because we can't settle for any less than our personal best on the overdubs. If that means redoing something on 3-4 seperate occasions, then scrapping it completely, then so be it. I think the only way to create something great is not to cling to things you create and use them as a stepping stone, look around from the new perspective, and if you can do it better, do it better.. if its magic, let it be magic and don't think you can improve on that..

Thing is in a couple years your perspective can really change and (subjectively) improve. For instance i'd love to have started with different mics on the backing tracks, but laying down the backing was a whole summer of hashing out one song at a time, getting as close to perfect as 2-3 people playing at once can, then comitting it. Choosing equipment up front and not touching anything including mic positions until all the backing tracks were done. I've never worked like that before. it was a learning experience but i can't go back and fix the tone of the overheads for instance.

Still, i'm always learning a lot and improving and i think given the time and patience you can be pretty good at everything you need to be good at to make something cool you're proud of.

Russell

[bcgood]

I'm the same way, I like to do everything myself. Good for you for going for it with all of your family commitments. Music is life. Keep on rockin in the free world.

Sorry for the hi jack folks. I'm diggin the sound of the UBK fatso by the way.

[u b k]

bc, you achieved the same effect when you touched up the burl mix i did, you opened it up and focused it where it needed to be focused. nice freakin' work. i'd love to hear the same fairy dust sprinkled on the post-ubk-fatso mix.

lakeshorephatty, don't go gettin' all self-conscious about what you did for that song, it sounds amazing and changing anything wouldn't make it better, just different. while i appreciate the clarity and openness of the 'pre' mix, to my ears the *emotion* of this song is magnified several times over on the 'after' mix. that beautiful combination of sound pushing at you but being held back artfully, the tension that creates, the drama... call me crazy, i think this is a big part of the future of music.

hell, it's the *present* of music, and i think it's beautiful, we just haven't quite sorted all the techniques for ensuring space and life while using heavy dynamics control to shape the tone and vibe.

one of the most powerful drives behind my compressor choices on this box was to allow them to be pushed deep into the threshold and just keep holding things fast, make it ooze with feeling. there are records today that are heavily compressed without being fatiguing, in fact they sound vibrant and deeply emotive. beck's sea change, radiohead kid a and rainbows, zero 7's when it falls to name a couple.

keep the faith, man. i urge you to keep exploring this sound fearlessly and see where it gets you in the long term, see what kinds of artists will be drawn to you because of this leading edge sound you're crafting.


gregory scott - 'ubk'
.

[lakeshorephatty]

thanks guys for the words. I can't say for certain because i have no empirical evidence, but i believe if history were the judge the decisions when looking for the most timeless result are typically a compromise between two equally desireable but entirely different results.

For instance i have an effect i want to use on something, rather than decide its too much with it on and just leave it off, i'll put it on at 30% intensity to add something. I often find having mix elements that modulate in some way is key, like a subtle vibrato or something.

Anyway long story short I like some things about my post and pre ubk mix, so the logical choice would be to find a middle ground on the processing, which will probably sound unbelievable. I'm no expert at this stuff so i don't almost choose the most tasteful sound first guess, sometimes i have to take another go. Of course after all that's said and done, I want BCGOOD to impart his clarity on the thing, and he's kind enough to talk to me about doing that at some point. Last night i was playing with the UBK on a guitar track, with just the rhythm tracks. I think it will be great to show that too because i think (well with last nights ears) that it worked some magic on the guitars with "smooth". Honestly smooth is i think what i was looking for a tape sim to do. It makes everything for lack of a better word "smoother", however i dont' think i'd track with it because i love hitting it only a few db I've found, never more than say 7db on an acoustic guitar, and even that is pushing it for me. Theres a critical battle between smoothness and bouncyness happening, but for an effect you could also totally crush it. everything comes to the front and its just levelled completely. Its quite awesome.

Anyways, by saying i wouldn't track i mean because dynamic playing between sections of a song means it has to be set differently in each section.

Give me an hour or two and i'll post up a before after with it, and some more splat on drums with a crushed kick and snare mic again. On this one i decided to leave the bass alone because i'd already compressed it quite a bit. So its just the rhythm tracks at this point and a before after coming soon...

Russell

[lakeshorephatty]

Here are those samples.. I added one more in for fun, which is all elements in the backing mix at the pre-ubk stage. I had to cut them short at start and end to make them fit at an acceptable quality.

Russell

(edit, i've made a much better post ubk version with all tracks, so now there are just 2 files for comparrison)

[Brad McGowan]

I like the drum sound in the UBK mix better. The snare has more snare and crack and sounds les boxey. Did you process those drums in parallel with the UBK or is that on the actual drum track? I'd be curious to hear the drums with Splat in parallel so that the snare transients cuts through a little more when it gets loud. Great job though! The UBK version has more of that "finished" sound. The stock compressor presets would never be able to give you this.

Just curious... you don't use a lot of EQ in your mixes, do you?

Brad

[lakeshorephatty]

Hey Brad. I don't typically want to use any eq if i can avoid it. On these tracks the eq is pretty radical. Its my own project so i started it way long ago in the dark ages of 2006 and its always been on the back burner. I didn't choose the best mics at the time, its something i'm always getting better at. I had to really shape the sound of some of the elements because the backing tracks performance wise were as good as we could perform at the time and they were all done together, so i'd rather not piecemeal the project, but yet the tonal choices were wierd for my current tastes.

That said here's something that doesn't sound so good, its an original session file with NO eq or anything on it and shows how much i really did have to shape it! That said in the future mic choices being right i'll be at the end sound or at least much closer without touching a knob.

The only parallel i did was the crushing of the snare and kick with "splat + spank" or "squish" and bring that in under the original. I haven't done much parallel on anything but here and there if i think something is lacking i will.

I noticed in the UBK version the acoustic is a bit down in volume which makes it seem a bit less present and poppy outy, i'll be fixing that in my own mix because i liked the acoustic volume in the original more.

Russell

[lakeshorephatty]

be thankful i only showed you the ride sections, they don't sound that bad, when the high hat is there its like a knife cutting you in so many ways...

Russell

[bcgood]

Originally Posted by u b k

bc, you achieved the same effect when you touched up the burl mix i did, you opened it up and focused it where it needed to be focused. nice freakin' work. i'd love to hear the same fairy dust sprinkled on the post-ubk-fatso mix.


gregory scott - 'ubk'
.

Thanks!

Here you go.

bcg

P.S. Please take into account that I'm working with an mp3 file which is very difficult to do this sort of stuff with.

[lakeshorephatty]

Originally Posted by bcgood

Thanks!

Here you go.

bcg

P.S. Please take into account that I'm working with an mp3 file which is very difficult to do this sort of stuff with.

Sweet man. WAAAY too much bottom snare though now that the clarity is there. I will be tweaking that it sounds like. : )

Russell

[Brad McGowan]

Definitely sounds like a record now! Awesome.

Brad

[SonOfSteven]

I really want to get mine modded, contacted some dealers here in europe, no luck yet

[GilWave]

We should be ready to go in Europe after the MusikMesse in Frankfurt (where, BTW, the UBK Fatso and the new Empirical Labs Mike-E will be on display), so I would say mid-April.

Mods will be done at a central location in Germany.

-gil

[SonOfSteven]

Originally Posted by GilWave

We should be ready to go in Europe after the MusikMesse in Frankfurt (where, BTW, the UBK Fatso and the new Empirical Labs Mike-E will be on display), so I would say mid-April.

Mods will be done at a central location in Germany.

-gil

Perfect

[androne]

Can one also buy a UBK Fatso in Germany after the Messe ?

[GilWave]

Originally Posted by androne

Can one also buy a UBK Fatso in Germany after the Messe ?

Yes - Sound Service can arrange to sell you one through Studio Channel -

studio-channel.com - gear for your ear

-gil

[thedommer]

are these going to be sold in Canada?

[GilWave]

Originally Posted by thedommer

are these going to be sold in Canada?

Yes - through Steve's Music and Studio Economik.

[Mike Caffrey]

I just saw the demo video. It sounds really cool.

Nice job.

[thedommer]

Originally Posted by GilWave

Yes - through Steve's Music and Studio Economik.

sweet. definitely going to check that out! I presume they don't have stock yet?

[Tone Laborer]

That really kicked it up a notch. Great work bcgood. And thanks for the cool song, mix and clips, phatty.

So how is it working out for vocals, has anyone's ass been whipped yet?

[lakeshorephatty]

hey man,

We've got the full family and full time day jobs thing going full steam. This project will end one day with some great vocals but some serious time passes without getting the right thing down. It may actually be quite a long time before that last bit is on this track or any of the others we're working on, but i will share it with you guys when its done.

I liked things about both mixes so when i have time i've been going through it again and hitting it about half as hard as the first time. Using the good old ears to find the thing i'm looking for and when that's done I might share it again on here, but there won't be any vocals yet i don't think.

Russell

[A LaMere]

crap... just when I thought I was finished buying the studio gear that I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE.

This thing comes out...

I probably need this at my home studio.
I can see it's a piece of gear that I'd probably travel with as well.
Much like my lunchbox.

time to save the pennies I guess...

[otobianki74]

just wanted to let fellow GS peops know I've got one for sale under classifieds. don't mean to take this thread off course, but it seems a few people want these.

love mine, a few projects have been postponed though, so until I have more funds come end of summer this has to go.

pm if interested.

rock on!

oto

[huggie]

Got my UBK a few days ago.

Been using it so far just to run drum samples through. I have been getting nice variations in sound. Lots of experimenting with gain and compression. Loving it!


Greg has been very helpful too. Superb customer support! Thanks mate.

Hugo

[Jamzone]

Any word on Europe? Do you make the mods here yet??

[smashbrand]

Where to purchase here in the US?