"You Don't Know How It Feels"

You've done a really good job man. The difference here is Sound City. There is a reason that room was used so much, with the Neve, and in the TP recording you can just hear it, it's got that signature decay and massive sound to it, just hard to recreate that.

Check out the movie, it's really cool for sure. Explains a lot about the place and just how special it was.

This thread inspired me to watch the Sound City doc. What a fantastic, signature sound that room had for drums. Sounding good, swurveman!

whaa? why'd you sell your bricasti? i thought you were digging it?

I've enjoyed the exercise here, but I must say, I'm with cowboy, that particular drum part always stuck out like a sore thumb to me. It seemed like they were trying to shoehorn John Bonham into a Tom Petty record.I never thought the drum served the song. Now, the sound itself was extraordinary, and I imagine it could work beautifully in a different context.

This begs the question, what is you fav software reverb?

I'm also interested in how I can 95% of the way there to a Briicasti with software verbs.....the suspense is now killing me

And thanks in advance for the tip....

Tony said, " I would argue the biggest hits of the last 50 years are virtually all drum forward, drums are the 2nd most easily relatable behind vox."

Well, I tend to like drums high in a mix too, right under vocals, but something about that drum track just got under my skin, kind of the same way a Foo Fighters drum track is unrelenting, and not always in a good way. Maybe it's a case of too much of a good thing. Funny, I had a conversation with a friend last week who's done the Nashville songwriter route, solo albums, producer thing for a long time, and he mentioned that he often thought drums were mixed too forward. He used a band like Crosby, Stills & Nash as an example of drums not being mixed loud allowing the songs to breath. I'm from the punk era though, and it's hard for me to really lay back.

Cowboy said "The one have to have is UAD Ocean Way Studios. Just can't mix without it anymore. It takes a flat recording like I do in my basement and makes it sound like it was recorded in a big room. I honestly like it better than the Bricasti rooms. That's saying a lot. It's their most expensive plugin for a reason and it's worth every penny." Well, I heard one of his tracks and honestly thought he'd tracked it in a major studio, and told him so before he told me it was the Ocean Ways plug. I gotta wait til summer passes before I have any spendable income though, but that comment makes me itchy to get it.

I know this isn't what you asked for in your post, but... if this is a real song you are working on for someone or yourself you will destroy it with anything that sounds just like the Wallflowers track. First off because the song is already quite similar in ways, and secondly because the big, bassy kick will rob that unique vocal you have going. The song is pretty cool and you might be better off sticking with a simpler kit sound that lets that vocal stay front and center with a swagger that fits this singer, maybe a pair of overhead U87s ala Muscle Shoals and Odetta. What's the point of putting all that time into copying the Wallflowers production values if you don't even have a proper application for it. Tom's voice has a distinct sound and cut like a Rickenbacker that they have built a supporting cast around sound design-wise. Doesn't strike me as the right sound for this track or this singer in my opinion. 

Yeah there was actually a compliment in there. It's a song with a cool character of it's own. I know why we all try to understand how sounds are engineered but sometimes our own work is better than we think for the song we are working on. I was just trying to send a vote of confidence for following his own aesthetic although I knew that wasn't what he asked for, hence my preface.

Yes Tony, it's a bit of a quandary. It gets harder and harder to get friends to play together. As we've gotten older, responsibilities to family, work, and other things keep pulling us apart. Now that money has gotten much more difficult to find in the music business, there's even less of a possibility we can afford to put a few players in a nice room. Maybe it's a little different out of NYC, but high rents are killing the music business here.

Then, as we try to make our demos sound cohesive, we come across the reality check, many home recordings are just a different thing that's trying to sound like it was done by musicians working together. I haven't quite figured out how to make my home recordings as real and honest as I'd like to yet, but I'm working on it. On my next song, I'm calling in a few small favors and getting some real players to do bass, 2nd guitar, background vocals, maybe it'll be more organic that way. Just because I can do it, doesn't mean I should.

On topic, sort of, digital snares aren't easy to make sound real. Using Superior Drummer, I've begun using cowboy's method of rendering tracks, which helps for some reason, but I've gotta get in deeper and program more dynamics. Maybe I should get a digital drum kit and just play the fu#%er.

This is so true. Makes me want to build my own place even more. Just to struggle against this sad evolution...

Btw, re the drums on 'You don't know..', agree that they are very forward, but I've always loved that. I think it backs up the vocal in a brilliant way and give the track it's attitude. The way it's played, obviously played by a master but no show off at all, and then the sound and how it's mixed. Always thought that this kind of production is such a bold and sonically high end thing that would never happen here in Sweden, only in the U.S.