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Fake Authority | Somewhat Incognito
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Mix Logs

Fake Authority

Current Status: Released

Mix 2 notes aren’t made yet, deal with it (for now) I will put them in later this week.

Mix 1 Notes

I made some fairly large mix related changes from the WIP going into mix one. Feedback review left me with a short list of key items to focus on:

1- Vocals / lyrics in the first verse & verses in general
2- Width of the mix, Too much in the mid range
3- 2:00 breakdown is a favorite – what else can i do with this
4- Compression / levels of the master and mix
5- Intro guitar too bland

I did a pass focusing on these 5 items. I re-recorded the vocals in the verses , I removed the harsher distorted layer from the entire track.

Stereo imagers and panning were used on many layers, some maxed out fully:

The Percussion:

5 Drum machines, each played on my new AKAI MPD218 – its so much fun!


I got one of these this week, I am loving this thing. I always had played in my drums on the piano, this just feels more natural to do, and allows for easier rolls and fills.

The Guitars (its not me):

This is a dr rex patch that I layed out the chord progressions on. I cant play it cleanly enough with either my technique, or the guitar itself. My only electric guitar hums like crazy and I cant yet figure it out. This is the same way I started Put it Online, and it was the first thing I made when starting in on the track.

The Electric Bass (it is me):

These I record in DI and use guitar rig 5 on, im double stacking GR5 on many of the layers for a big ass sound (suggested by LOHM).
This is that Muse like heavy heavy bass distortion, guitar rigs in the chain.


The Sub Bass:

Sitting underneath the electric bass, is the sub bass, that super low ATARI game sounding bendy bass. It fills up the ultra low part of the sound and offers a good amount of character that I think enhances the groove.
This is a preset square bass, Im adding some extra grit with softube saturation knob, and bringing out the wavetable like sound more with HIKI. The eq is removing some of the 1-4k ish range to open up that area a bit, the low end is being boosted hard here, it does have a HPF cut on it on the channel at 35hz, i may bring this up more.

Higher EQ Things:

This group represents things that sit higher in the eq, synths, theres a little left panned bass line in the 2:00 bridge (green) other parts are synths and strings.

Intro

I made this track on the weekend of 07/18/2020. The track is currently out for feedback on both reddit and discord IMF communities. I usually stage feedback, but will do one round for this track. I have some new ideas developing around how soundcloud treats a posts age. Early activity seems to give more overall plays over time. Im seeing if I concentrate ALL my feedback plays into a short timeframe, does it change how the SC algorithm behaves? – This probably wont answer that question, but it might give us a peek.

I had been struggling to find a new concept or groove that I wanted to make a track out of for almost 2 weeks. I went through probably, 5 partial track ideas before landing on this one, I threw all those out. I may revisit some but it just was not feeling it.

Saturday morning I went to try again and decided to start with the same process that I used on Put It Online using the Dr. Rex and guitar samples in Reason. The groove started to come togeather.. and I was into it – FINALLY!!! haha!

I didnt know what to do for the lyrics, i am not a political person , and this has some clear political undertones. I asked my 4 year old what the song should be about and he said ‘a monster with big hands and a big face’. The original take literally said just that, but it started to conceptually make sense. The idea of ‘Fake Authority’ or kind of dominant leadership that has probably skipped in line through education and life to get where they are. I think it could work from either side in a political persons viewpoint, and decided to just go with it despite having reservations.

Production wise, there were a few things I wanted to try on this track. One was double stacking Guitar Rig 5 on a bass wit ha DI bass preset being the first of the stack. LOHM suggested i try this to get ‘really phat’ bass. I LOVE the way it sounds its super full and robust.

I also listened to the new Oliver Tree album this week, the way they processed his vocals got my attention. I wanted to try heavy handed saturation layers to see if it sounded like tracks of his (for the produced sound).

I also picked up Trackspacer – which is not yet in use – I plan on using this in my mixing phase to bring out the vocals more, and maybe a few other things.

More detailed screens and information about the production coming soon.

My reddit post for feedback is here:

Somewhat Incognito – Fake Authority | I made this over the weekend , any and all feedback appreciated!!
byu/clayman902 inIndieMusicFeedback

One reply on “Fake Authority”

Thank you so much for taking the time to detail your experience and feedback.

I didn’t know about Playlist Push at all before your article but now feel like I know it better than SubmitHub.
Will read it again, it’s a goldmine of information for any indie artist.

About your next song to promote, I personally really like Fake Authority, it sounds quite personal, and the title really resonates with this peculiar year, without being “another lockdown song”. And production wise I think it’s my favorite of yours (and I love your productions).

Best of luck with your next campaign!

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