I did a bad thing......

andy_k

Lockdown is making me struggle for ideas and inspiration, so I take any idea and run with it.
I recently caught up on some Buckethead, and actually sat down to listen to the SIGIL soundtrack, most of which is older tracks put into a compilation. Something about the track 'The Patrolman' really hooked me-I think it was the drum groove, but it frustrated me that the youtube version seemed such bad quality-cymbals sound a bit too lo fi, 
I looked up the original version, which is sold via 'Bandcamp' and is about 8 years old, so for £2 I downloaded the original 'Hi res' download, which is 320 MP3, and to my ears-is not much of an improvement, cymbals still sound too crunchy.
This is where things get messy--

I put the track into a 48k 24bit Reaper session, which involves file conversion on the fly.
I also found a 'backing' track version-without guitars, which was pretty good, and both files lined up well for tempo.
I used the backing version to trigger some drums-via 'trigger', to try and isolate the kick and snare at least, it worked ok but I think I have a lot of mis triggers, which would take a lot of editing.
I rendered these tracks as 48k files-the project sample rate.

I also imported some midi from a Tool song, 'the noose', which seemed to be the same groove, so I put these in with SSD5, and also rendered out kicks, snares and brass, it is a similar groove-but is a bit busy so again will need some editing.
I worked out a bass part, with Eurobass, and recorded a clean and a dirty, so another 2 tracks.
Then I added a version of the original track, with hi and Lo eq cuts to enhance the guitar lead.
This was all mixed and mastered in Reaper, using the Slate plugins, to get a final mastered version, rendered to 44k 16bit MP3 and re-imported to compare with the original.

So now I have both the original, and my mash up in the project, both are 44k 16 bit MP3, re-sampled to 48k in the project.
They are obviously both very different sounding, and for giggles I tried a blend of the 2, again running through Slate FGX for loudness and compression, and again rendered out as 44k 16bit 320 MP3.
I was expecting a drastic loss of quality with all the conversions of the original MP3 file especially, but to my old ears it actually sounds ok, in fact it has had the effect of bringing down the cybals that bothered me so much-they are still there, but less overpowering.
All this effort took me a couple of days, and certainly passed the time, but I am left feeling a bit confused about my ability to hear the right things now.

I am going to have a good listen today-with slightly fresher ears, and will do a follow up post with the tracks for you to listen to, I would like some pointers as to what to listen for -to hear the degradation, which I am pretty sure must be quite drastic.
It will help to decide how to present tracks to the usual sources, YT, soundcloud etc. as there is a lot of fiddling going on with streaming etc.
I know its a long post, but it is another way of passing time these days.
cheers
andy k

andy_k

Useless post without links, so,
Original track, YT version-as good as official DL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhTuscGHtos

My version, with multiple file conversions, and additional bass and drums, mixed in with original.



Listening today with fresh ears, the cymbals still bug me- but not as much, I think the tonal balance has shifted to allow the higher mids to be heard more which brings the balance lower, the pumping bass also helps to shift the mix.
The last couple of bars over the outro reveal the parts I added.
Feel free to add a note to the soundcloud link to tell me where my meddling has made the track sound bad, I am listening on ILouds, and I'd like to hear how it sounds on better monitors.
cheers
andy k

andy_k

Moving on, I thought i'd have a go at tabbing this one out.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZyjG0fhmgU

think I can manage the rhythm part, this is truly zen guitar master stuff.
Hard to listen to for 25 mins, how hard must it have been to play?? how many takes??, I think theres an edit half way through.
This is a guitar forum after all.
cheers guys.

PolarityMan

the noose is a great song but its APC not tool

andy_k

absolutely, my mistake, I think 13th step is in my top 10-easily, for production values. Andy Wallace did a great job.

PolarityMan

Love that song in particular. I am a really shitty singer but when i took lessons for 6 months that was one of the ones I was working on. I liked what you add to the bass on the bucket head song btw although I wasnt familiar with the original. Sounds much more contemporary to me.