Wizwars

But I like lettuce

I'm in love. It's the kind of love I've only felt once before now, with the person I still call my best friend even though we haven't been together romantically for the past year and a half (strange to think yesterday would've been our six year anniversary though). It's also the kind of love that has made me realize that while my previous experiences served as lessons and stepping stones, the feelings I thought I had in those relationships were pretty much bullshit. I spent quite a while just wanting a partner, and not really caring who they were. I figured that I could adapt myself to whatever and whoever came along...which didn't work at all. It doesn't help that in many ways I'm a fucking mess. Most people in their right mind would probably avoid spending time with me because of my various issues.

And then a few months ago I meet someone who I've discovered is essentially perfect for me. She's a tiny bit older than me (29), has more life experience in some areas and less in others, has been through serious rough patches in her life (poverty, homelessness, the death of both of her parents while in High School, having to take care of her disabled grandma and her aunt with down syndrome) but has managed to come out with the best outlook of any human being I've ever met, always a smile on her face, and usually a song coming from her lips. She's a beautiful person inside and out, an adventurous, carefree spirit, and for some unknown reason, she loves me back. She wants to spend as much of her time as possible with me. The amount of things we have in common is ridiculous enough that I can't even begin to put it into words and yet we continue to introduce each other to new things and experiences.

I put no expectations on anything anymore because I'm well aware that one way or another, nothing lasts forever. But in the present, I cannot think of a way that anything could be any more perfect.

Fuck...sorry Mill...I can't even imagine...Sending mega positive thoughts your way.

the way that you are presenting your criticism makes it sound like you havent really listened to it yet. i dunno what to say, other than if you go piecemeal on it the day you got it, are you really giving it a chance? we spent months on recording that. the mixing took weeks. i would argue that you couldnt have made the drums 'beefier' with some red magic karaoke plugins, but then again, why would you want to if your central beef with the album is that the drums are loud? your criticism makes it sound like we had a snaredrum and a hihat hard panned in the left speaker and a ride cymbal hard panned in the right speaker.

I guess I'm not properly explaining myself, so let me try again. The drums, in my opinion, sound like they've had too much of a stereo widening effect applied to them, and thus they pop out further in the mix than anything else yet sound incredibly thin. The kick isn't anywhere near as present as I personally prefer in music. An example of what I'm talking about, a clip of original album audio followed by the same piece with less (or no) stereo widening that I just made in cubase- http://www.sendspace.com/file/6xc4so. I wouldn't mind the drums being loud if they had a bit of oomph to them.

and about them, they were not and have not been recorded in mono since nypwp 5. to me as a drummer and how i like a drum sound to be as a whole, a drumset is not supposed to be in mono. that provides for a dead sound. the drummer moves around the drumset and when i play a drum, i do not stick on one drum for any amount of time, and mono drum sounds are boring, that isnt how a drumset sounds. i do not think in any capacity i could have gotten the same drum sounds with close micing for a lot of different reasons, one of the main ones being that my drum setup is very compact and even in playing live, i am a burden to soundguys because there really isnt anywhere to put a mic. so please, give it a fair chance before you offer criticism or pass judgement. it isnt like we didnt take a
long time in recording and mixing it. its not fair to the music.

listen with headphones. or listen to it loud with speakers straight up. consider the fact that four guys who dont live anywhere near each other or get a chance to regularly practice songs of this difficulty came together and made that album and overcame many different problems to make it happen. we recorded that stuff in almost entirely one take shots, we stuck to an ethic that was there in other nypwp's. if your problem is with the fidelity of the album as a whole or the mixing, keep in mind we didnt and couldnt have went into a studio to make that album happen. everybody will have differing thoughts, i realize that. but critiques like the one you gave about it strikes down the effort we put into simply making something different and doesnt really make me personally feel that good about wanting to continue or follow this album up.

Perhaps not recorded in mono, but it definitely has the vibe of trying to take a recording and making it more stereo than it actually is. It just sounds processed. Personally speaking, I do not dig the drum production. I've actually had this opinion since NYPWP 7 but the NSFs / backings balanced it out a bit more. This is a matter of personal opinion though. My favorite TSS album in terms of production is Powar 6. My favorite in terms of music is Powar 5.

I listened to this new album twice today and I dug it. I will listen to it again and again in the coming days. But the stereo processing on the drums causing them to stand out in the mix yet sound thin, and the instruments being buried somewhere in the middle...I dunno, it's just not what I would prefer in terms of album production. And I mean this all with no beef and no drama, and your response back is certainly respectful so I stay the same with you. The effort put into this album shows and I'm not going to ever say anything stupid like "it's bad". The playing on this record is fucking phenomenal. I guess there might just be a certain degree of preference that differs between us.

Boredom and curiosity. If I hear something and the mix sounds off, I like to dissect it and see exactly what is off about it. I am fascinated by sound.

Seriously. I present a fair criticism regarding the mixing of this album that I otherwise enjoyed, and give further analysis into exactly what the issue is and how I discovered it. It's not like I sit around with my speakers half unplugged so that the center mono audio is removed from everything I listen to.