JPF Home Page Forums Lyric and MP3 Feedback MP3 Feedback Forum Red Fire Truck -- -- 2012 version

That is a pretty little jewel song, don't go changing anything! I loved it much!

Hey Max,

Thanks so much for the listen

Kevin

Last bumperoo for the holidays!

[b][size:14pt]Red Fire Truck[/size][/b] is back for Christmas 2012. I did a little remixing -- I wasn't using any high pass filters or compression anywhere. The vocals need to be re-done, there is some crackling here and there that is not digital clipping, but more vocal technique or me crinkling the lyric sheet (ha, ha). The vocals might be a little to "close in" also. I need one more pass to tighten up the lyrics a little, too. Maybe for next year.

I also have been reading up on master bus limiters and I always use the one that comes with Sonar: Boost11. Well, it seems everyone thinks Boost11 is pretty bad. Well I do have a bunch of Waves plugins and I downloaded a free one everyone is raving about, the limiter6. So I did a test on a song with Boost11, Wave L3 UltraMaximizer, Waves L3 MultiMaximizer and the limiter6. In trying to do a blind test, I think I liked the sound of the Boost11 about the best! How can that be, you ask? I guess I have been using it for a long time and I know not to drive it too hard. The others can get much louder, though. Red Fire Truck is using the L3 MultiMaximizer. I am going to have to test out the Wave L2 limiter also.

Some changes in instrumentation:
Kevin: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar (panned right 80%)
and for you BIAB aficionados:
drums (NashEv8^7)
bass (midi 34?)
#854 12-string acoustic guitar (panned left 80%) on Intro, Verse1, chorus1, verse2 and bridge.
#406 acoustic guitar (panned 100% right) on chorus 2 only
harmonica (#685) -- lift 2 onward
piano (#1264) -- chorus1, lift2, chorus2, bridge, chorus3
mandolin (#1609) -- chorus2 and chorus3
mandolin (#436) -- beginning of chorus3 to make the mando entry more interesting. I tried to use it at the beginning of chorus2 also, but that didn't work out.

Kevin

this sounds great Kevin!I like how you et us B.I.A.B. junkies what you're using there.Really nice sound!Mike

Kevin,

I must have been missing when you posted this one...

Shure like it...don't understand all the techno-stuff but sounds good to me.

tom

Very cool to hear this again. I like the lyric much better now than the first time I heard it.

Has a real nice sound to it too!

I thought that was you blowing harp all this time. I might just have to get BIAB - that harp sounds fantastic.

Scott

Hey Kevin,

I missed this the first time around. I commented on it at Songramp but thought I'd do it here too. I like the imagery. Very picturesque and it's one of my favorite tunes of yours to boot. Nice work.

Stevie

Michael: Thanks for stopping by and giving it a spin. I appreciate it. I know there are a few BIAB users around here, so I thought that info might be useful to some.

Tom: Long time no see! Thanks for coming back around. I see you have a new song posted, I'll have to check it out.

Scott: I play harp on some of my tunes, but the BIAB guy (TJ Klay) is so much better. Well the BIAB lead guitarists are so much better than me, too -- but I have to draw the line somewhere. Of course, it is an re-drawable line (ha, ha). I think the last lyrical change will be "30 years later" to "many years later". 30 might be too many years.

Stevie: Thanks for the listen and kind words. I saw your comment over at songramp -- thanks for that, too. I'll have to give your new song a spin later today.

Kevin

Hi Kevin. This is a nice story and the song has a nice catchy melody that stays with you. A few tweaks and I think it will be fine.

Here are a couple of ideas for tweaking lyrics that you may consider or trash: On the end of the chorus where your fixing and painting the truck to make sleek--that line seems a bit awkward for me. I think you should mention the truck, since you are talking about fixing it up. Without going into as much detail, you could say it like this:

"We spent the week try'n to make that truck look sleek."

Also if you add the word "As" before Mama cried, it will make what Dad said relate better to "Mama cried." A tiny change, but better flow in my opinion.

I like the tone of your voice, we all want to re-do lines, but a little gravel or crackling is sometimes a more interesting voice, and you may want to even use it with certain songs.

The mix sounds pretty balanced to me, I prefer the drums (at least kick & snare) up 1 dec and your lead vocal down 1 dec as I heard it through my headphones. Once I get the vocals where I'm satisfied, I'll go back and automate any areas where I may be vocally too weak or strong--that could be the case here.

Good luck with it, nice job thus far!

steady-eddie.