Olaf has the flu, so it’s just Joerg and I today. No problem, there are no major revisions.
First up – Line two of Kids Today seems to be hitting the reverb too hard and stands out as obviously processed, or roomy. Turn reverb down there. Done.
Silver Lake – the mix is a little swimmy, maybe slightly psychedelic sounding and I don’t ever want that term applied to my work… so I turn down the processed tremolo guitar and feature the tape strings a little more.
Myrtle and Rose – this track sounds less bright than all the others until the singing comes in. This might make placing on the album in it’s right place difficult, so we look at it. There is nothing but my arpeggio guitar and the hi-hat in the high frequencies. Not really anything to be done unless we make the hi-hat sound unpleasant, ditto my guitar. Good news is it isn’t as dull sounding as my headphones suggested. Just a little mellower than the rest if the songs. That’s OK.
Period Piece – this was the first song we mixed and the vocal is wetter (more reverb) than the subsequent tracks, but it sounds good at the end of the song. So we bring the FX return down 3db for verse 1, 2db for verse 2, etc. This works and actually serves to tighten up the whole feel of the first half of the song… then the tambourine in the mid section seems to quiet, or not bright enough, we try various tricks with bright reverbs and delays and end up with a bright-ish reverb with a long pre-delay. It seems to work and the tambourne is functioning better.
On No Truck there is a keyboard pad at the start which is making an audible change which I had always intended to be inaudible or at least subliminal. But I’ve grown to like it. We experiment with cutting it out, as per the original plan and making an alternate version so I can decide later, but I decide now – it is better with the pad.
While Joerg was getting No Truck ready I listened to Women’s Studies. I don’t think it can be better.
It is 2.26 PM Tuesday February 26th. I believe my work on this project is finished. Mastering will be overseen by Olaf. I will make notes for this.
I will have time to pack my bags this afternoon and then I can watch one last football match at Li Buddha tonight, without worrying about staying completely sober.