BaoBou

Thank you so much Angie, your words always stimulate me to go on and go further! :)

Paul Simon!! Yes that's absolutely it and that's also an amazing compliment because that's probably one of the most amazing poets of the previous century.

Setup: well, I moved from a cramped apartment with no real space (via some (mis)adventures) to a place where I can have a study - which is also my man cave and has the space to really set up all my instruments in a more or less permanent setting, so I can start drumming, playing guitar or keys, or singing at just about any time (barring company time of course) ;)

It's amazing and liberating and just about perfect!

Haha it made me really happy that the story hit home with you until I realised it's your ex-wife :D

I always try to write lyrics in such a way that many people will recognise something... I guess that worked here :)

Thanks for listening and commenting!!

Thank you!

Thanks man! Yeah some tracks take weeks to gel and others just flow naturally and write themselves.

This one when I started with the drum beat, I could already hear the chords and when I played the chords I already started singing.

If only creating was always this easy... :D

Thank you Paul! (hug)

Thanks man :)

Thank you so much! Here's the full album btw:
https://baobousmusic.hearnow.com/step-by-step

Thanks a lot!

I like having lyrics that are not fully specific where pretty much evryone probably recognises a bit of the feeling, even if you haven't been in the exact situation. I hope that applies here too, my new track is a bit more specific... but I think it's still a feeling people can recognise :)

Thanks a lot Paul! Yeah totally looking forward to hear what Mark can do with it :)

Great, thank you CCC!

That's lovely, thank you very much, especially coming from someone who I know is much better at that kind of stuff than I am :)

No, thank YOU :)

I usually don't concentrate very much on the mixing mastering as you know; I try to come to some balance where the vocals can be heard well and no individual instrument pops out unless they have the lead.

Then what I did was (all this in Ableton Live):
- the drums right now are midi (I used to have a practice room with actual real live drums but unfortunately I moved away so I don't have that right now). I use a drum buss for that; I played around a bit with teh settings to give it a bit of punch, but not too much, plus a bit of reverb on the kick and delay on the hats.
- a high pass filter on the bass and guitar (obviously more low on the bass)
- I also tried to shape the mids a bit to give space for the vocals, but as Manuela indicated, not enough
- then the keys again I think a low pass filter
- I added a "sustain" return for the keys
- for the vocals I went lazy and used Ozone Nectar
- finally for the master I used iZotope 10, both this and Nectar with the automatic functions. I find it's generally not worse than what I would do and I find mastering extremely tedious and frustrating :D
Yeah, I'll send you the stems, no worries! I'm in the middle of a house move, so hopefully somewhere next week, is that ok?

Thanks a lot!! That's great to hear :)
You can find the final mastered one btw on Spotify and iTunes etc, if you want:
https://baobousmusic.hearnow.com/step-by-step

Thank you so much for listening and your generous comment! :)

That's a lovely comment, thank you so much :)

Thank you so much Alexandr!

Thank you so much buddy, that comment made my day (and it only just started). Thank you!!

Thanks a lot Dennel, that's an awesome comment!

That's awesome Mark! Here's a page with some links to streaming platforms (it's actually available on 25 but these are some of the more common): https://baobousmusic.hearnow.com/step-by-step

Thanks a lot for the listen and the gentle feedback. The next one will be more funky again ;)

Thanks a lot buddy!I love you mention a clean mix, that's taken me 5 years to get close to that :D

Thanks Wayne! To clarify, the vocals are mine, as is the rest - it's just not based on something that happened to me.
The guitar tone is nice, yes - this is a temp setup but I actually like how it turned out.

Dank je wel Rita!
Detail, alleen voor jou ;) deze is ook voor mijn dochter.

Thanks so much buddy, I guess that's sort of the best way, if you don't know what you're listening to and suddenly you sit up and think "hey, I like this!"
Thanks buddy!!

Thank you so much Angelus, that means a lot to me! The words are straight from the heart, and I hope that comes across - I get emotional listening to the song myself :D