Weathervane Multitracks - Sweet Lights

[bdmctear]

Hi folks,

New Shaking Through. This time it's a band called Sweet Lights, and the extra double secret curator was .... (drum roll) ..... ME! Weathervane and WXPN are committed to featuring 3 Philadelphia artists per year, and since I haven't helped pick since January 2010 (ehem.... Sharon Van Etten), our gracious selection committee asked me to give it another whack! Sweet Lights is the work of one very brilliant songwriter, performer and artist, Mr. Shai Halperin. The song we recorded is called "You Let Me Down".

The feature videos and MP3 don't officially come out til Tuesday August 16, but like June's Dreamers of the Ghetto episode, we are sharing the raw tracks BEFORE we put up OUR final mix and mix-stems. … So here it is again... go for it! Make your mixes uninfluenced by what we do. It worked great last time! (Again, I’ll update this thread with the final mix, mix stems and feature video links when we release them in ten days.) For now, check out this quick video excerpt of some Travelling Willburys-esque acoustic guitars.

Again, thanks to Telefunken, we all had the incredible experience of being able to choose from almost their whole line of microphones, as well as a D.W. Fearn VT2 and VT7. When it came to vocals and acoustic guitars we used U47 through the Fearn pre and compressor. Dear God, what an experience! And as always, thanks to Scott Wilson from Scratch Studio in NY for hosting the files again.... Scott, we expect you to say NO at some point! Your kindness is greatly appreciated!

Shaking Through: Sweet Lights - You Let Me Down

MULTI-TRACKS + MIX-STEMS | TRACK SHEETS | GUITAR TAKE VIDEO | FEATURE VIDEO

http://soundcloud.com/wvmusic/sweet-lights-you-let-me-down

(NOTE: ALL TRACKS SHOULD BE EXACTLY THE SAME LENGTH. If a stray oddball makes it in there, please disregard! And Warning: These are VERY LARGE FILES)


Shai, Sweet Lights by wvmusic, on Flickr

[captainate]

Thanks Brian! I always love checking these out, mixing them and comparing your raw tracks to mine.

It does seem that the video is password-protected though...

[captainate]

Nevermind! Password hacked! The big secret is.....

sweetlights

[manuke]

Good grief Brian, this mix'll take me a month! So......many.....bits.

[bdmctear]

Originally Posted by manuke

Good grief Brian, this mix'll take me a month! So......many.....bits.

Consider it a giant puzzle! Yes, it is ambitious.... One of Jon's and my best recordings ever, for sure, though. I can't wait to show the mix!

Thanks for the heads up, Captainate! Uh oh, you figured out our system! It's like Mel Brookes' luggage lock combination in Space Balls! ... How'd you figure it out?

[greatgreatriver]

Awesome thanks for doing this! I totally loved Port St Willow - Private Studio Concert.

You guys rock and I want to hug you deep and wild!

[bdmctear]

Originally Posted by greatgreatriver

Awesome thanks for doing this! I totally loved Port St Willow - Private Studio Concert.

You guys rock and I want to hug you deep and wild!

The feeling is mutual, Greatgreatriver.

[japancakes]

I'll be the first to throw mine into the wind!

Weather by magus888 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[greatgreatriver]

Originally Posted by japancakes

I'll be the first to throw mine into the wind!

Weather by magus888 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

That's a beautiful song - weird modern/retro vibe going on. Love the backward stuff and the synths. Perfect blend!

I haven't heard the raw tracks yet -

Wow guys! Dig the mix to...

[japancakes]

Originally Posted by greatgreatriver

That's a beautiful song - weird modern/retro vibe going on. Love the backward stuff and the synths. Perfect blend!

I haven't heard the raw tracks yet -

Wow guys! Dig the mix to...

The raw tracks were a little weird at first, but I just let the vocals "do all the talking". The vocals basically dictated for me where the entire mix wanted to go.

[greatgreatriver]

Originally Posted by japancakes

The raw tracks were a little weird at first, but I just let the vocals "do all the talking". The vocals basically dictated for me where the entire mix wanted to go.

Thanks man!

[bdmctear]

Awesome! I'm glad you're digging it. You're right, it's really tough to ascertain what is going on until you let the lead vocal direct you! I can't wait to see what people do with this. Lots of crazy potential here!

[japancakes]

It was definitely some fun mixing this track.

[Wlouch]

THANKS BRYAN!

Here is a mix i am working on at the moment its still early days, but great recording, I can hear it finished in my head, and wow.

Lemme know what you think, lots of automation/levelling still to do to allow the track to breath at the right moments, but the basic idea is coming along. and there is a buildup of low mid-low that i need to address, but without monitors its pretty hard

Also, its an excuse to trial LCR mixing.

[The Bizzle]

Originally Posted by Wlouch

THANKS BRYAN!

Here is a mix i am working on at the moment its still early days, but great recording, I can hear it finished in my head, and wow.

Lemme know what you think, lots of automation/levelling still to do to allow the track to breath at the right moments, but the basic idea is coming along. and there is a buildup of low mid-low that i need to address, but without monitors its pretty hard

Also, its an excuse to trial LCR mixing.

I think you've got something wrong with the tempo of the track? Mine is a lot slower... and im mixing in 48000 sample rate... :-)

Or it could be my setup?? anyone?? :-)

[Wlouch]

I am at 48k too......I noticed yours was slower so double checked mine, one of them is "wrong"

[rhythmtech]

raw tracks are 44/16 lads. you're mixing at wrong tempo

[Wlouch]

I tell a lie, i wasn't at 48k. What I posted sounds good to me, either i am playing it back slower on my system so it sounds right, or its just right. :S

I have been fiddling a little more, does this sound right tempo to you? It sounds good to me, something is going wrong somewhere.

Link to .wav http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GGQ99EWC

[manuke]

Still faster than the original tempo. Japancakes' mix is right. Starts at around 106bpm.

[Wlouch]

Shite, how do I rectify this without having to redo it? Is that possible?

[japancakes]

Originally Posted by Wlouch

Shite, how do I rectify this without having to redo it? Is that possible?

I figured all DAWs matched the sample rate of the audio to the session when importing!

[manuke]

Originally Posted by bdmctear

Consider it a giant puzzle! Yes, it is ambitious.... One of Jon's and my best recordings ever, for sure, though. I can't wait to show the mix!

I shoulda stuck a smiley after my last comment. " so many bits" is actually my idea of heaven. [And only took four days rather than a month.]
imho def your best recording so far, really great quality, push the faders up and this tune could mix itself, well played, recorded and arranged, makes life easy. But I had to go and butcher it of course......

[manuke]

Originally Posted by Wlouch

Shite, how do I rectify this without having to redo it? Is that possible?

Just try detuning and/or stretching your master track to the correct pitch and tempo. Quality might suffer but worth a go.

[The Bizzle]

I must say, that this is the best recording so far from you! Got some lullaby thing over it. SWEET - in every sense of the word!!!

Heres my take. I think i missed some of the tracks, that my computer of some reason diddn't wanna convert... Anywho, here is my mix :-)

Sweet Lights - you let me down by E.Brandt on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

And thanks again!!!

There is a gate miss on the snare, opening without a hit, once in the last part of the song, I will fix that later :-)

/Brandt

[japancakes]

Originally Posted by The Bizzle

I must say, that this is the best recording so far from you! Got some lullaby thing over it. SWEET - in every sense of the word!!!

Heres my take. I think i missed some of the tracks, that my computer of some reason diddn't wanna convert... Anywho, here is my mix :-)

Sweet Lights - you let me down by E.Brandt on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

And thanks again!!!

There is a gate miss on the snare, opening without a hit, once in the last part of the song, I will fix that later :-)

/Brandt

Your whole mix is crazy distorted from limiting. The track doesn't need to be at these levels AT ALL!

[The Bizzle]

Originally Posted by japancakes

Your whole mix is crazy distorted from limiting. The track doesn't need to be at these levels AT ALL!

Did a rerun and backed of the limiter :-)

Sweet Lights - you let me down by E.Brandt on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[csorfab]

Here's my mix: http://csorfab.uw.hu/mix.mp3

I didn't feel necessary to dig in to the very depths of the raw tracks, since they were very well arranged and tracked, took 3-4 hours at most, and very little automation.

Also, it seems like I was the only one, who liked the sound of the drum machine dry (i only did some high shelfing on the snare sample)

[greatgreatriver]

Originally Posted by csorfab

Here's my mix: http://csorfab.uw.hu/mix.mp3

I didn't feel necessary to dig in to the very depths of the raw tracks, since they were very well arranged and tracked, took 3-4 hours at most, and very little automation.

Also, it seems like I was the only one, who liked the sound of the drum machine dry (i only did some high shelfing on the snare sample)

I dig your mix sir! I'm a bit drunk now and damn this song is great -

[manuke]

Originally Posted by csorfab

Also, it seems like I was the only one, who liked the sound of the drum machine dry

um.....

Looks like I'm the only one who thought the track was way too long though ;-)

But, really great mix you've done, nice one. 3-4 hours? How do you do that?

[garanimals]

Brian,

Thanks a lot for letting us in on this. I really like your whole idea of allowing people into the studio process.

Here is my mix

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14176541/ylmd.mp3

I look forward to hearing how you and the artist interepreted the track.


Ken