“The Strip” – an updated version (posted june 22 2010)

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/42116-6-21-10_THESTRIP.mp3

i got great feedback on this tune, from many places, and i appreciate that.
spent the weekend updating this mix, with new tracks and lots of edits.

ok, a few mix tweak notes for us geeks:

vox: dialed back the vox delay (it’s just a slapback, but no verb was there.)
i added a NEW 2nd verse with 2-part harmony, and added lyrics to the funky bridge breakdown…. 2 part harmony there as well. i used a ADK Hamburg condenser to capture vocals, ran it into a ART DPS mic pre, out of that into a DBX MC-6 compressor, and into the soundcard VIA the digital out of the ART.

percussion: mixed out the conga at the beginning of the opening of the tune, it was cluttering the beginning.
i left the hand claps, and let the conga come back in when the vox starts, that cleaned up the clutter quite a bit.
total EQ tweaks on the shaker, also added LIMITING.

bass: rolled off the bass guitar starting at 55hz, gentle Q, and thatcleaned up some of the low end issues.

Drums: changed the snare- went to a 14″ rogers, from a slingerland.
sounds much more meaty. tweaked the main ride cymbal as well.

i edited the entire drum track, for subtle changes all over.

tweaked ALL the drum eq’s, and took out the reverb on the snare, and left on the room mic for drum effects. added a compressor on the top snare head. usually, all the drums are dry, and go to a drum bus, that i put a special channel effect on, that uses 2 compressors in series, along with 2 eq’s in series. it’s a great channel plugin.

MIX:
remixed the whole thing, made the guitars LOUDER, put a limiter across the drum buss which allowed me to make the entire send to the master buss hotter without changing the peaks (no higher than -6db EVER).