12 years in the making, the original 4-track cassette wah guitar
and synth parts still here. Have dragged this sucker out of the dust bin
on and off, posted an initial rendering several years ago. Was never
really happy with it.
Now with new vocal, new bass and lap steel. Original drum loop
heavily edited in this version, plus added my own toms and cymbals throughout.
I sometimes want to blow new life into old recordings, but always end up dissapointed. Somehow when a song is done I just can’t improve it anymore, even when I got better and have better equipment over time.
Curious how the old version sounds…
The song is beautifull, I like the very subtle vocal harmonies in the end.
Some good arrangments with the organ, cymbal and toms, very natural.
Well all your mixes are balanced and open. I would repeat myself commenting on that 
.
Greetz Dylan.
Hiya Jet. Mix sounds fine as always 
Over 6 minutes and I didn’t even notice til I looked 
Have a great Xmas over there in da Kong or are you guys nipping over to Oz?
Cheers
Phil
I don’t recall hearing the earlier version, if I was around back then, but this one sounds finished to me. The lap steel sounds gorgeous. The whole thing is lush and creamy. Really enjoyed it.
Hi Dylan,
I know what you mean about old recordings, and I’m the first to agree and say that mostly
I have wasted my time trying to improve them. But with this project, I always felt my
skills and intuition were yet to mature, and I think it is the only project I have ever
gone back to seriously and felt it was rescued form the dumpster. Anyway, now, it’s “done”.
Thanks for your kind words about the song and mix, very much appreciated.
Yo Sir Phil,
thanks for having a listen-in.
Yes, a self-indulgently long song, indeed. 
Xmas will be very special this year: my eldest brother Mike (+ wife Sue) and my eldest sister Maree
(+ husband Ken, my best friend since we were 12 years old) and my son Taylor will be
here. 
They’ll stay around ten days, fabuloso.
I see serious liver damage on the horizon. 
Early,
thanks for the review, appreciated. Yes, this one is finished. Around mix #342. 
Glad you liked the lap steel. 
It was the last addition.
1st have to say that pic is almost an exact match out the back of my cottage on lake huron, one of the most beautiful sunsets in this country. nice open with the slide down. always enjoy reading along with your lyrics. well done on the vocal, don’t believe I’ve heard you get up to that register before. the trem organ was good but seemed a bit surprising, maybe the watery string behind it makes it fit better. creamy atmospheric mix and great song.
coolness.
I have to agree with that!
Was definitely worth having another stab at this one Jet, the additional effort sure paid off! Well done on the 6:30 minutes - you kept it interesting. You know I reckon you’d be really good at ambient/instrumental/Floyd-esque progressive stuff - you’ve got such a taseful palate of sounds at your disposal it’d be interesting to get lost in an hour of a Pearldivers-flavoured instrumental journey - there’s snippets of the sort of thing I’m talking about in this one.
Anyway, I digress. Nicely crafted as always. I wonder if the inclusion of early cassette-based parts had an influence of the sonic character of this one? Sounds good!
Now there’s something to sing about!
Hi Jet,
A new Pearldivers song, always a treat!
Is that the new lap steel? It sounds wonderful!
Great song, as always!
Sounds like you’re going to have a great christmas!
Happy holidays!
Cheers,
Wim
Hey Bob, thanks for the feedback. As to the pic, I can only imagine a cabin with such a view.
The only view here is of concrete.
Yes, the vocal in the chorus is the absolute upper limit of my range, and takes some
effort to get there. At first I thought my choirboy days were over, but a half-hour of
warming up allowed me to hit the notes–eventually. Wouldn’t want to try it again in a hurry, tho.
I had thought of chopping out the organ, but had grown attached to it over the years.
I did a manual Leslie rotor ramp-up to tape at the end of each line, dumped it back later.
Happier with it now.
Cheers for the kind comments!
Hi Ian,
thanks for your comments on the track. I might get around to doing some instrumental stuff one day.
F-u-k-u-shima from earlier this year turned out OK, so I’ll think about some more maybe.
I’m happy I persevered with one, hadn’t looked at it for a long time. Glad you think the effort was worth it.
I don’t think the cassette parts influenced the overall sound that much. No doubt any bits of reasonable
quality analogue won’t go unmissed, but here I think the UBK Fatso had a lot to do with it, along with the
fact that is the most EQ-intense project I’ve ever done, where the Liquid Mix emulations of API and Neve
consoles really paid off too.
Cheers!
Hi Wim,
yeah, new steel. Glad you liked it and the song.
Thanks for the review!
Really looking forward to Christmas.
Best wishes to you as well.
Very nice Jet!
I enjoyed it.
Sincerely,
J.L.
Ok, very Pink Floyd-ish. Love the overall ambiance.
I’m not a fan of the drums. The cymbals die too quickly. When the rest of the song has that “float in a pool” feel to it (think Don’t Leave Me Now from the movie The Wall) the drums are conflicting with their dry feel.
Are you using a de-esser on them? If so I’d either take that off or add a “slower decay than usual” reverb on them. I’m not sure if some subtle delay would help them to float more as well.
Great song though!
Hi J,
thanks for the listen.
Hi Larry,
thanks for taking the time to listen. Appreciate the comments.
Funny thing, I’ve never listened to PF. Apart from The Wall, I don’t think
I could name more than two of their songs. Not even heard Dark Side.
There is slight top-end roll-off on all the cymbals, but nothing to
write home about. I’m happy with the drums overall. I think any greater depth of 'verb could turn
the mix into mush. There is a lot going on (musically), so I think intelligibility is an issue.
I was looking for a controlled sound stage. But I left a degree of 'verb on the toms, in particular.
As to the cymbals, the straight crashes are “Fairchilded”, super crushed max time, and I think they
are fine. The splashes (of which there are quite a few) and the China should not
have a lot of decay, I think. Al Freisen used to say that I always had a fetish for cymbals,
which is true, so I’ve also had to ensure they didn’t splatter the mix too much.
Then again, it’s all personal.
Cheers!
Nice one Jet, sounds great to me
Jet,
what to say? Damn, you just have the ‘Magic’. Tastie, tastie tastie.
Hello to Popo.
John
! 