 Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you are welcome to episode 21 of Fixed My Mix. We are here to listen to some mixes from the community, to give our opinion on how they're going so far and point people in the right direction hopefully for finishing off those mixes and releasing them to the world and if they do release them to the world then I do hope they follow this link which is I'm pointing to here, sponsored for the show DistroKid. If you do follow that link which is also in the description you're going to get a 7% discount off of what is already a very cheap I'm going to say price with DistroKid. I think it's 1990, 1999 per year and you get to release any amount of original music you like to all your favorite sort of platforms, places like Spotify and iTunes etc. So thank you to DistroKid there. Also a huge thank you to the people who are already here in the live chat. I see some regulars in there, we have of course, nice to see Thomas Christ in here, good day Thomas, always nice to see you in here. Had a great interview with Pete Johns over on his show three or four weeks ago which I really really enjoyed and we do have the man himself. Pete Johns in here, he just been doing a I just was watching a little bit of Pete's show over there. I'm so terribly ashamed to say I've forgotten the gentleman's name who he's talking to, is it Glenn Clark who is a garage band producer and just some great little insights I was watching there. So check out the replay of that after this show. Head over to Pete Johns studio live today that was just a fascinating and inspiring interview going on there. We have Mimo Japan, one of our moderators here, behave yourself or else Mimo Japan will sort you out and lovely to see Jade Starr in here as well and Jade also has a wonderful channel How To App and she does some great interviews over there, really really good stuff. She's unlike me quite a skilled interviewer I would say. Lovely to see Rock in here, regular to the show and nice to see a couple new faces and maybe not new but new to me, Christopher here from, where are you from? Hamburg, is that from Hamburg, New York just outside of Buffalo so I'm sorry my geographical knowledge isn't always that great but nice to see you here Christopher and I'm just going to say a quick hi to my mum Patricia Taplin and she's only a couple of rooms away in the house in actual fact. Hi mum, she's here. Now I'm just going to quickly say, I did make a little bit of an indication about this in the community during the week and I'm just going to quickly address this because I've decided that I don't want to just be this sort of bland face on YouTube before you who only talked about these. A couple of a few people know but I am going through a bit of a family issue at the moment, one member of the family is not very well in hospital so we're going through some stresses and strains in life at the moment so I'm only going to be doing the live show for the time being, I probably won't be making any videos for the channel in the foreseeable future. I don't expect to be too long but I just want to say that it just reminds me of this is what music is really all about, that our human experience, sometimes it's troubled times, sometimes it's expression of happiness and this is why we make music in my opinion and I don't want to forget that in the in the midst of talking about levels and EQs and compressors and and what have you. Let's not forget why we're here as we listen to some of this music today. Now finally this brings me to my guests on the show today, I usually have some guests on the show and this is the first time they've been on the show, I say the first time don't I because I'm hoping it may happen again but I did in fact interview these guys and that interview got broadcast this week. They are from a group called Sons of Serendip, they had some insights about a plugin they've been involved in called Micah's Choir or say a plug-in a library that they've been involved with. If you haven't seen that on the channel just went out a couple of days ago do check that out. Now they are going to be here giving advice as I will be today for the three mixes we'll be listening to on the show but before we introduce them I kind of want to help their credibility a little bit, that sounds awful doesn't it? I'm going to make them more credible just by playing just a little bit of their music okay not play a whole song but let's give you a taste of where these guys come from musically as we listen to this cover I believe High Hopes from Sons of Serendip. gonna make a legacy manifest destiny back in the days we wanted everything wanted everything mama said burn your biographies rewrite your history light up your wildest dreams museum victories every day we wanted everything wanted everything mama said don't give up it's a little complicated all tied up no more love and I'd hate to see so here they are Micah and Cordero's I suddenly they're on the screen welcome guys oh my god that gives you credibility right there what a wonderfully produced track and now we all want to know how you did it Cordero Mike thank you thank you for having us on it's really good to see you again yeah my play we were saying beforehand weren't we we did that interview and then we had like a three hour chat after the interview somehow yeah and it was it was it was a lot of fun and you guys have some tremendous insights into into music life and everything actually but Micah I'm sorry Cordero like even listening to that mix now do you still get that oh that bass is a little high or do you do you or do you feel that's perfect actually I was surprised by that I was expecting less oh wait oh that's a little better than I remembered I think time time kind of helps absolutely doesn't it time really does help in in the process of like music production and listening and and and then sort of space or distance step being able to step back also like really helps and um I often use uh my poor mum as an example but I'm talking about mothers in general or girlfriends or friends um they're not always our best listeners they tend to want to say kind things about mind you I've got a couple of family members who don't always say kind of things but but but um you know there's a tendency not to get a true perspective right from from uh so can I ask either one of you you can argue amongst it but what is there any kind of process you kind of have for going right who do we test this mix out on from me it's my wife yeah yeah she she's very blunt oh you see oh yeah very very blunt and she'll just say exactly what she feels and sometimes it stings but yeah but I think I love it though any particular examples you can think of this pretty much everything that I create I go to her first just to get a sense of all right is it how is it feeling you know do you like it and uh where do you hear you know the problem parts or whatever and and then after that it's Cordero and Cordero is also very honest too and I I sort of imagine he would be because yeah I don't think he's gonna allow anything you know not so great to go out there to the world right and so I've learned a lot from Cordero um just yeah just for for him just speaking frankly about you know where things are at and and where they could be good stuff we are going to dive straight in and listen to uh the first song on the show um and I just want to remind the folks in the live chat while we listen to this your opinions on what you're hearing is also tremendously important um this is an exercise not only of uh giving a critique on this piece of music but it's also an exercise for all of us to exercise our ears listening to things and trying to figure out you know how things could be improved so I love doing this every week because I feel that helps me to evaluate what I'm hearing and and to exercise the ear muscles if we have ear muscles I guess we do have ear muscles I don't know obviously I'm not a physiologist so um but the first song we've got here in fact I'll have Cordero read out the artist's uh name and the name of the piece that's just like coming up on the screen there now Cordero all right this is Andy Gallagher you gave me a dream you gave me a dream Andy uh sent in this song and he said there are a couple of things he'd like to point out initially there's no EQ compression or any other effects on any of the tracks except reverb on the vocals because he doesn't like singing into a dry mic uh the mix is just done with volume faders at this point there's no gain stage or anything like that just going to quickly give you Andy's thoughts on the mix and I think it's interesting that we have Micah here as a vocalist as well to talk about this because Andy says vocals what he would do is get someone better to sing it seriously I'm a guitarist not a singer I I sing because I have to he says I've doubled the vocals I think the voice is weak and a single track voice some of the words are not clear a mixing things lacks a bit of punch and sparkle this is Andy's own opinion we'll see Andy if we agree with that or not um and then he also said the main guitar solo I'm not sure if this is a bit too clean maybe we could do with a bit of uh affecting somehow so we've got those things in mind let's have a listen to this song uh from Andy Gallagher thanks Andy look it's it's it's 8 20 8 20 in the morning here I feel like a good vibe to be honest with you after listening to that I'm I feel like I can face the day with a bit of a my shoulders relaxed I'm feeling pretty good but um there was a lot that Andy had to say about his own vocals so why don't we go over to Micah and say what Micah has to say about Andy's vocals and actually but well I thought that the vocal that he did it he did what he needed to do for the for this particular track um and and I didn't think that actually the vocals needed to change there was like just one little section where there was there was a little clashing in the harmonies just a little bit um I think it was I came over the exact words that um but it was it was about three quarters of the way through um and there's just some slight clashing but um you say clashing you you mean like um one of the harmonies either was just slightly out of tune or yeah um and then I would pull back on the reverb a little bit on the background vocals I I think um and just experiment with that a little bit more because I felt like sometimes the harmonies felt um that they were um kind of washed washed out just a little bit but I but I thought in terms of like um his vocals on on the track I thought they they did the job and they were appropriate for this track right so yeah and that's so important isn't it yeah I feel like maybe this style of music you know vocal gymnastics and things is not what you want right you want to kind of I mean I don't want to preempt anything that Cordero might say so I'm not going to say too much about it but but do you feel that um sometimes Micah that vocals almost feels like such a personal thing I mean I I play a couple of instruments and I sing and it always feels like when I'm singing it's like it's revealing the inside of myself revealing my heart right so you feel so vulnerable when you're singing right yeah and is there a tendency to be over critical of ourself in our own voice perhaps absolutely for me I actually put music to the side to the margins of my life for years because um I had spent so many years comparing myself to other people and saying oh I can't sing like that person I can't I don't have the agility of that person um and really didn't find um the value in my own voice um the way that I should have and um and I think that yeah each of us is given you know a particular gift you know a particular voice and my voice will connect with certain people but it won't connect with others and and so but it's just about sharing the gift so yeah and and Andy definitely like nailed it for it like for what that track needed that was perfect so cool cool cool I hope that gives you some encouragement there and because I as I say I know it's a steeply personal thing and then you feel exposed and you put it out there and of course he's a home studio producer so he kind of feels like he kind of is needing to do everything himself maybe not access easily to another vocalist or something so he feels a little forced into the role of singing I think from from his email there um but I personally think no worries man just do do what you do and of course the more you do it the better you'll get at it anyway um you know the Cordero let's let's leave all that singing rubbish aside and talk about this from a real musician's point of view well you know whatever Mike whatever I actually I mean I think that the singing can you know make or break it and this I think the singing in this did not break it I think it was I just agree with Micah that it was appropriate for this song um and yeah I couldn't imagine I actually it's hard for me to imagine any other kind of vocal um like vocal style that would go with this with this the song um but yeah overall like I like he had a he gave me like a kind of a nostalgia vibe definitely like a feel good kind of uh yeah it felt felt great um I I really appreciate the live instruments um that's that's uh that's huge and I think actually um this kind of track seems like something that could be singable for like a um sort of like a character track where like or um yeah like it said it sets a certain vibe that it would be perfect as like um like the music like in the on the background or even as like a kind of a montage kind of um vibe for what decade would you place that Micah yeah I would or any or Mic I think somebody had mentioned um 70s but but yeah but I'd have to I'd have to listen again and yeah I thought it was 70s 80s kind of yeah and then going on there for sure yeah I mean um I just because I used the term there quidero so for people who are not familiar with it um you know syncing it so quidero is really talking about um yeah using it the soundtrack kind of music I guess is the best the easiest way to describe describe that and it's really interesting actually I hadn't thought of that quidero until you said that was there anything about the mix though the the sort of stuck out to you in particular or I would go with everything that he um kind of gave us a warning about um there's like there's um there's things that can be worked on there and also I know that I have to be aware that even listening to it through like the compression that's coming through um this this platform that we're listening also can affect how I how it was perceived um but I but I did appreciate the arrangement of it and the chords and the chord progression like it wasn't just like a boring four chord repetitive progression um it had uh yeah there was like several parts abc like it was yeah there's a lot of uh different parts to it and it didn't it felt like it was well thought out like how he wanted to to scope the whole the whole story of the of the song yeah um I really really did like the I really like the piano motif towards the uh yeah I thought you might pick up on that it was nice it was sitting in there nicely I mean nice songwriting by the way as well Andy you know for that sort of genre of music it it just had what you need in there there was a definite sort of chorusy hook kind of thing in there and um and you could sense uh although I didn't pay strong attention to the lyrics you could sense a story being told in there I'm sure on a second or third listen that would be something I'd more hone into a bit more um I'm just and I would actually push the vocals up just a little bit yeah it's one of the things I was just gonna say actually I felt that um the vocals were a little low they just need to be pushed up a bit people in the chat were mentioning about reverb and the use of reverb and Micah said there um that perhaps there was a little too much reverb on the backing vocals I think you said Micah and and I'd agree with that there's a temptation there's two things that stand out for me there coming back to the subject of um feeling a little insecure about your vocal and especially if you're mixing it yourself so you'll have two tendencies there's one is to put it too low in the mix because you're not feeling secure about it and also slap a bunch of reverb on it because everything sounds nice with reverb right it makes you sound more professional or what have you and every karaoke bar you go to in the world has people with slam or the machines have slammed so much reverb on there it's crazy um I would yeah I would push back just a little bit on um on the uh on the use of reverb I think that was what kind of helped create the vibe um like I've I've heard some songs that have this kind of um spacey reverb um like what's that um is it like pumped up kicks or what's that song there's like they have this kind of really spacey verb sound um and maybe maybe it's just a question of the type of reverb that's used or something um but um I actually kind of like that sort of how it kind of it kind of yeah just kind of gave it some like a interesting space but there's some of the things that can be done there and I'm glad you mentioned it though because um Andy was mentioning that he's just done a fader mix really but of course the other thing with reverb is his e-curing reverb you know often for me personally but it would be taking out the low end of the reverb or only sending the reverb sending um the higher end of your vocal to the reverb so that because the reverb can become very muddy very muddy very very quickly especially when you've got main vocal and then backing vocals and all that low and low mids are also having that reverb applied it can all sound a bit sort of soft and mushy whereas if you just um yeah use the high end it can sound nice and sparkly without you know getting too muddled up and because you do lose definition from the vocal when you get that muddiness in there with with the reverb so now just quickly um I am going to I've said you know what I like to I will say that the drums on there were particularly enjoyable for me um there was some nice loose fills going on and things there which just had that that nice shuffle that you get with that kind of music which everything fills one and nice it was really really nice the drums on there um and I liked the guitar tone he mentioned that maybe he felt it might be a little bit too clean but wasn't my impression although you know you could try something just a little bit more overdrive but I I thought the guitar playing was really really nice and in some parts I I very much enjoyed it the one thing I will say is that right at the beginning of the track there was a synth sound which I this sounds a bit of a weird thing to say but I felt that this synth sounded very dated that would be the best way I could describe it now certain sounds are going to be associated with certain eras um and now if you wanted that if that was your goal Andy and you were like I want to place this right in the 80s and and get that thing then that that um that would be okay but for me the rest of the track sounded like it also could be quite contemporary and I'm just going to play those first few seconds of the song again you'll hear that synth sound if my video will play I'll try again I'll try again we'll bring it to the beginning there we go technical hitches here folks it's live let's have a listen to that synth I think it might be a sort of a synth string sound you know from back in the day and and I just whether you'd like it I will mention that that did make it sound dated in a way that for me wasn't all that pleasant I might have a look in your libraries and see if you could replace that with something else that would be my only more that's my opinion I would agree I would agree with that um yeah another another kind of library would work well um and maybe even a smaller um or if you can get live players I don't know what the budget is but um if you can get live players that could that could be really good we don't all have your access to live players but I know you can just Tony is the live player he sits there with his friend Michael who can jump in and he sits there he goes you know what I'd love a harp on the track I'd love to have a harp who do I know who could add up the rest of us are going through harp libraries well I'm curious if um was it it seems like that might have been a sound that came straight from a keyboard like was any of this like MIDI or was that um did that come like did you just uh plug that into like an audio input and record yeah good question I'm suspecting that's come from a synthesizer it doesn't sound good but who knows let's let Andy let us know in um in in I don't think he's here live today so Andy let us know in the comments um down below the video as everyone can if you'd like to leave some comments I'm going to do a quick word from our sponsor Andy when you do get this together and release your music I really think and I and I'm not saying this because it's a sponsor I use DistroKid for everything I release tremendous service um and let me tell you about it quickly now just like this if you do follow the link in the description down below it's going to take you to a special page on DistroKid with this yellow banner at the top that banner is letting you know that you're going to get a further seven percent discount of your first year if you sign up here and let's face it it's already very cheap if we scroll down we can see that year's membership is $19.99 per year for an unlimited number of albums and songs and so long as it's your own music there are no extra charges and you get to keep all of the royalties from the various platforms platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Pandora, Amazon, Instagram, Tidal, iHut Radio, Deezer and more. So really talking about getting music out there and um and releasing music and that type of thing I want to tell you about uh an event which is happening I'm gonna sort of inspire the guys to tell you about an event that's happening and some live music going out there on YouTube and we'll go to Micah to just shamelessly produce your live stream promote your live stream Micah which is happening next week is yeah um it's on the 28th and it's at 7 p... Cordero I oh my gosh I am blanking I believe it's at 7 30 p.m of Eastern Time in the US and uh yeah we're gonna be doing a virtual concert and um yeah and and we would love to to see you know as many of you who are interested um to to come out and and and join us for that night it'll be probably um it'll be a mixture of songs that we um like that are cover songs as well as originals and improv and we're gonna be doing some storytelling as well and uh and what's special about that concert too is that it's actually our cellist uh Kendall Ramseur's last concert with uh the group and um he'll be moving on and so we're gonna be celebrating him as well so it's gonna be a special night I love I love the way you put that celebrating I was almost about to jump in and say Micah's doing such a rubbish job of promoting himself I'm gonna have to jump in uh there is a link in the description folks of this video pointing to the Sons of Serendip uh YouTube page I don't think I did put a link to their Facebook page look them up on Facebook they've made some announcements there over last week or so about this event um and you can pick up your local time for when this is going I don't think you've sort of logged in the YouTube event yet as such last time I looked no not yet yesterday um but that will go up there so folks follow the link um for Sons of Serendip which is down in the description down below um subscribe to their channel and then um I've watched uh some of the replays of your live shows they it's amazing what you guys do with that you I mean I think that looks like a technical nightmare for people that kind of doing it themselves I'm sure when I say people we mean Cordero but Cordero yeah but um but yeah it's it's really great just you know it's a great experience just to see uh four musicians doing it live yeah not pre-recording nothing to hide behind and um a lot of fun so do check that out folks um as you should there the Sons of Serendip other music as well um Kyonra thank you so much for putting that also in the live chat down there so I'm definitely going to be checking that out good luck with that guys and thank you and also and kind of just wanted to ask is your new cellist going to be involved with that or is this Kendall's all all about Kendall all about Kendall okay yeah because we're still in a process of finding the the long-term cellist so okay cool yeah got you there so um well I'm certainly I certainly wish him well um I know he's obviously it's an instrument and which has been a major part of your music for the last eight years and you know influence your sound and everything so he's he's obviously had a massive impact on on your group and um wishing well for the future um and I'm really glad that you guys are continuing um with Sons of Serendip and um you know evolving into uh something this is going to take a little bit of a different direction no doubt once you get a different influence in the group which is so exciting isn't it um sometimes we don't choose these things but when they come along um you know we can embrace it and have a great time with it now um our second song I say song because uh it's I say I'm going to say our second piece because it's actually an instrumental now there's some things which challenge us on this show I think and I'm always up front about this pieces of music which are long I think that becomes a thing in itself an element of the music like can you hold people's interest if it's long if it's say five minutes long or something in a culture where we tend to listen to music which is three to three and a half minutes long so and then instrumentals we uh we are so accustomed to hearing vocals all the time people like Micah with their huge egos coming along so it's all about me it's all about me and um and and so to listen to when someone creates an instrumental I think there's a new challenge within this culture where people will normally you know listening to some lyrics and things can we hold their attention etc etc um can we can it be stimulating enough so I think there's a challenge right off um now the song I'll let Micah have the honor of reading out the the artist's name and song title so it is Simon Chandler and the song is My Family here we go so Simon I just he quickly says uh hi Micah I hope you're well I am thank you Simon um I'm Simon from Brom in the UK from Brom in the UK I'm hoping you would review my track My Family it's an instrumental track all performed by myself and recorded in cakewalk what I was this is interesting what I was trying to achieve um was to capture just how much fun it can be to play the guitar with the freedom to take it wherever you want I know now this is scary at this moment you think oh my goodness it's going to be one of those self-indulgent take it wherever I want but we'll see maybe it is maybe isn't um I don't believe we have anything quite you've had anything quite like that um on fix my mix are you brave enough to take it on there was a bit of a reverse psychology going on with this you know I have to say right that was brilliant it was wasn't it it was like he he he almost played the coward card on me all right oh well this Simon now he's going to have to he's going to have to live up to this I guess anyway but no we'll listen to this and I guess the question here because he he does state a purpose for the piece of music was to capture just how much fun it could be to play the guitar with the freedom to take it wherever you want and let's I guess that's going to be how we can evaluate this piece of music ultimately is do we get a sense of that fun so I sound like one of those shows that you guys have been on let's judge this person but anyway we'll see how we go with the mix of the music I saw Cordero's bobbing around a little bit there so I think we'll go to him first in actual fact and um yeah I mean thoughts I mean that was that was definitely fun like I think it was a mission accomplished how much yeah how on the guitar it definitely was that um I uh what I write down here I um there's one poor point where it had sort of a James Bond feel it's a it was a story it was a full complete story I guess with all the um sections it took us through um and I guess because it is an instrumental um it's very easy to start to zone out and just if you just when you feel that temptation to kind of zone out he switches it up and then you're brought back into it again and so um yeah those those are my initial impressions of the of the song any about the mix itself that struck you at any point or yeah um so it didn't it didn't feel like um as polished as it could be like there's probably some I guess with most things that you hear like um released commercially like there things will be kind of lined up a little bit cleaner um that this you know it retained a sort of you know a live kind of vibe and like a live musician vibe but um I'm curious if there were some things that could have probably been lined up just a little bit more in terms of like um rhythms but um right rhythmically lined up yeah rhythmically yeah yeah um it's a fine line isn't it always between um we often talk about in the show this this conflict between perfection and imperfection and and what have you so the I believe there's there's a point where you reach with um some sort of natural variation where you know when it's right okay and then you know when it's too perfect as well when things are lined up too much and it's a bit of a judgment call um but I don't think anything should ever really noticeably out of time do you know I mean just from a musical point of view where you go all all those two instruments hit it and there was too much of a stab or what have you um but a little bit of looseness can work really really well can actually add add to the track enormously you know um you you guys um with with your kind of lineup it do you like play to a grid or do you line things up I mean I know you you're recording you know live instruments but they can still be quantized right to a degree yeah yeah we do we do um lineup a lot um a good portion of things I think mainly um like the thing that's the hardest to line up would be the harp um because um it's probably similar to a guitar because like the um like certain notes will sustain like so the transient will happen and then you'll have other notes that are already sustaining through the transient and so if you were to try to line that transient up that initial pluck to the grid you're kind of kind of warp the rest of the other sounds so it's a little bit of um work to kind of get that to to sound right but um but if you don't do it like for particularly things that have like a nice pulse to it it can just it can really sound you know sloppy especially because if it's just even the harp being exposed on some I imagine if we had like several harps playing it once that even if they're all off sort of just a little bit it all blends to create this sort of master transient that sounds like it's on the beat but yeah um which I would say with with what he has here like there's you know a number of guitars that can that kind of helped um create the feel that for most of the for the most most of the time that it was landing on like the beat and stuff but um yeah I just I guess there's probably a little bit more lining up I would say could help interesting interesting Micah yes so you're bobbing your head a little bit during that yeah yeah it's going on there for you so I enjoyed the track um and and I would agree with Cordero there were certain things that could have been lined up a little bit more a little bit better um and also I would say that the guitar the guitar parts were probably the the best more most polished parts of the track I think that the drums the percussion probably could either there could be some layers added into that or um or some uh let me see I would say that they could pop a little bit more the snare could could come up a little bit more and just have a little bit yeah more like pop to it yeah um and yeah and I would even play with some of the the um just some of the like so it's not just the same rhythm coming in every time that that that um that part that comes yeah that main motif yeah it comes in I would I would switch it up just a little bit and maybe explore with different sounds or even layers of percussion to help build it even more although I was so pleased when I was listening to there because I literally when I got the email I maybe listened to the first five seconds of the song so it for this is the first time for me and I was really pleased when we heard that main theme I thought okay this is fun you know and just at the moment when I think Keonra left a message in the chat there where she said oh this is fun it totally sunk down and became really dark and that was that was so much fun in itself wasn't it right because it was so yeah yeah and and I I feel like Simon tricked me a little bit twice in this email first of all with the reverse psychology and also I think he's trying to tell us oh this was just a fun thing that I chucked together a bit of a jam but this wasn't a jam at all this was structured um and and elaborate elaborate yeah good yeah yeah like um and and as Kudaira rightly pointed out is that they're just at that moment when you could have switched off mentally it surprised you which is I just think that here this is one of those cases where yes the production could do with some improvement but fortunately the composition is really quite good yes so it's actually masking some of the poor production a little you know I want to say poor production but production that could be worked on um I personally the only thing I really noticed was the drums were they weren't enough for me I mean Mike would probably put it better than me he said the snare could pop I disagree I think it should crack but whether it pops with the bass um you know we've got a difference of opinion here Simon you'll have to figure that out whether you pop or crack the snare but but there could be more presence in there maybe a little bit if I'd use another commonly used word by producers punch as well a little bit of punch in in the drums whatever that really means but yeah that what do you still got your guitars and things as your main instrument obviously there they've got the spotlight on them but we can take our main instruments and support them with well produced um supporting instruments underneath them to the point where um how can I put this where if you did improve the drums still nobody's going to be sitting here saying great drums but they'll feel like the guitars actually got better right right so that would be the sort of uh the trick there but look really really good fun thank you so much Simon for sending that in people if you have instrumentals or if you have um unusual pieces of music that you think we don't normally hear on the show please do send them in I don't have any rules about what kind of music we have here um any genres any languages um lengths of time as well I have some longer tracks on here some shorter tracks um you know it's it's all very very welcome I feel personally that um I don't even like this term mainstream media but let's use it the mainstream media outlets obviously push mainstream music an awful lot but I think there's so much room to have all kinds of different music um in the world to stimulate our ears with so it's really nice that you do send this music into the show and give us all a chance uh to listen and have some fun listening to it and I commend you on your bravery as well uh people that produce tracks like this of of doing it regardless of what the trend is um regardless of the fact that perhaps instrumental pieces of music in the never going to be released onto mainstream radio or have you you're doing it anyway because you love it and that's why you should make music number one reason why you should make music so commend people like Simon on that we do have a really unusual third track coming up but before we have the unusual third track a quick word about our sponsor this is just um one of my guests called this my crash commercialism a few weeks ago so let's go over a little bit of crash commercial crash commercialism these guys would never say that folks they're very polite Michael you want to release your music via distro kid there's just a couple of things you need first of all the music itself here's mine in my door cakewalk and I'm exporting it to an uncompressed wave file for best results now the other thing you'll need is some artwork I just grabbed an old photo which I'd taken on the beach chucked on some text here and that's what I call art then I went over to distro kid and I just have to fill in this extra easy form it's a no-brainer form you get helped all the way through little hints and things you can't really do anything wrong you just go ahead and confirm a few things about your music and then you just have to actually upload the artwork and the song itself and distro kid takes care of the rest it's going to send it out to all of the best platforms so that people can hear and buy your music now before we do listen to this third piece of music I just want to clear something up quickly it was on my mind earlier and I didn't get to it because we did have an interview between the three of us which went out on the channel a couple of days ago do check that out folks if I recommend while you're doing something maybe you're doing your morning walk like I have been doing recently I'm on day 20 I think of my morning walks of something close to that thank you for Chris Salem from mixdown online who encouraged me to start taking care of my body and so it's just a little like a morning walk every morning anyway I digress because during this interview with you guys Micah mentioned that he uses olive oil I know Doug in the comments was inspired by that and unfortunately he found an old bottle of rancid olive oil during the week it didn't inspire him enough to actually go out and buy a new bottle of olive oil well done Doug on that but we do have to clear something up here Micah because I forgot to ask you during the interview is this like a pint of olive oil or a teaspoon you gargle it I mean it's like a shot of isle oil yeah it was extra virgin isle oil extra virgin olive oil folks you hear it here it's going to be a shot now how long before you actually sing do you uh do this probably 30 minutes before yeah and like between 30 30 would probably be the earliest I would do it like um but I might even do it right before going on but I'll have a you know a swig of water afterwards too yes okay yeah dark olive oil Christopher Christopher says in the chat here um olive oil and red pepper flakes that's delicious yes he's Chris you're right okay I don't know if that's good for singing it will just taste great but no it just tastes great okay yeah I was gonna say Chilean singing I'm not so sure but yeah anything anything that you've found Micah which is not good before you sing not good before I sing um so green tea actually drives me out so I yeah so I actually tried that one time um just to have a couple green tea and throughout the concert I was struggling and then I think I might have tried it twice in both times it dried me out so yes I avoid that um before just before the show yeah music live crypto says what does the olive oil do well music live crypto nice to see you here we had some of your music a few weeks ago on the show sounds great um what it does if there's some hidden things on the internet here in there of Micah singing without olive oil and he is he's really bad like he's out of tune like he has to use melodyne if he doesn't use olive oil it was basic so think of it as as as melodyne I guess um uh that that would be my short answer for that um makes you sound like Micah Christian uh what olive oil does maybe Cordero could use that to get rid of his kermity frog voice when he sings never know perhaps perhaps miracles can happen miracles can happen now I did mention earlier that we have any kind of music on the show and uh and also mentioned in any language and we've got something really new which I haven't had on the show before um this is a song I will read it out my read this out no I'm not going to read this out let's go back to Micah for this to for the pronunciation it's the artist and song title Micah yeah all right so Sunday Bose or Bosey um Neil Swapno Lal Gopo congratulations you've just spoken in Bengali for the first time I assume in your life no it's not the first time yeah tell me tell me tell me no I spent a a month in Calcutta India and and I learned some Bengali while I was out there yeah can you say anything else in Bengali I'm not now you said it yeah it's just so a greeting is I came on a show and then they'll say oh polochi so nice yeah I'm super impressed super impressed so um I'm not quite sure of how we do pronounce the artist's name um but I'm going for I'm going to go for send it Bosey okay because that just sounds like I'm going to go for that who knows if that's correct but he says dear Mike please find a touch of composition of my own it's in my mother tongue my mother tongue Bengali recorded in cakewalk I'm a self-taught musician been around for 40 years toured all over India and UK with various bands I'm a full-time teacher working in music school called the strum music school in Bangalore India that's where my son is getting married in September by the way wow in Bangalore India please see whether the mix is worthy of your show I think that's very complimentary of the show thank you so much send it we're gonna have a listen to this piece of music and and I think just before we do folks um you know to do try to stretch yourself once in a while and listen to music which is in different from different cultures and in different languages um you won't understand the lyrics so you you'll listen in a different way but it's I think it's really good for you to stretch yourself and exercise that kind of listening once in a while listen Micah is the only Bengali speaker here so first and perhaps you could give some of the feedback in Bengali Mike no I can't I didn't stay long enough um yeah that actually I think one thing about that was that it actually I connected with that I really resonated on a deeper level with with that and especially the harmonies um and um yeah like that that was really beautiful how how it it so it went from uh being very ethereal in terms of the harmonies and then it got closer and closer and closer until you know at the very end it felt like the harmonies were right there um like right next to right next to you and um and so yeah I actually I really appreciated that thought it was a really creative track I do think I will say that there were some timing issues there was a little drum fill that that felt a little random at the beginning um where everything cut out and then there was it like came out of nowhere a little bit um and I would say too that uh some of the panning it seemed like it was panned to the right a like a little bit too much like there were certain things that I would um or say some of the vocals you could hear more on the right side than you could on the left and so I would balance that out a little bit more but it seemed like there was a lot of thought um put into it in terms of of creating separation um and which I appreciated um however I would just you know boost a little bit on the left or or just like figure out a way to balance that out just a little bit more um and yeah but overall I enjoyed that I thought it was very creative and um yeah and I actually felt a little bit emotional by the end of it so yeah I mean that's the purpose of music in the end so yeah and I think that that's another thing about it too is that the even though I didn't understand the lyrics there was still something that was transcended about it that yeah I was able to reach me cool lovely nice feedback I like that um now I think this is going to be the tougher judge here for Derek um so I mean I made a list of things but I saw you writing I saw you writing he's got a list he's got a list oh my god yeah go ahead but I do want to start by saying the same thing like with Micah that I um I was moved by particularly like the the harmonies and like the kind of ghostly feel that it had um in certain certain places it was yeah it was like a beautiful haunting um sound um um I would say that there was like a lot of like volume inconsistencies um with um like the the main vocal um it was it was well that but I wasn't sure how it was placed in the broader mix the the broader mix it felt um I don't know just it didn't it didn't feel like it was a part of the song um um and I don't know I'm not sure if that could have been fixed with more reverb or maybe maybe some bottom end or something I'm not exactly sure um I wasn't a big fan of like the string or synth sound in the beginning um but I'm also picky picky with that um there was I feel like the um there was a little too much reverb on the snare um yeah yeah I think a lot of people picked up on that yeah yeah it just stuck out um I did appreciate the the little good the little guitar riff um it kind of had the little um embellishments that you would hear sometimes in that kind of music usually you hear it with the voice but it was kind of done on the guitar so I really appreciate I really I actually really like that um I think um even though with the guitars though there was like some rhythm issues I mean with the drums and the guitar all together like there was like it was it was really hard to figure out who was off who was on or if they're both off like it was just yeah I feel like that that should be some more lining up there um and even like the panning of some of the things they sometimes it felt a little like some of the instruments or percussion it felt a little too exaggerated the panning I feel like it almost what would have helped is if if that kind of those elements had some kind of reverb that appeared a little bit in the on the opposite side so that it felt like it was placed in a space rather than just kind of like I feel like there's like several different spaces in the song right yeah um I'm glad you raised that um a regular on the show uh uh Pete John's studio after that he's often talking about um using reverb um to place things in the same space so I'm I'm a little torn on this I think there are times where we use reverb as a stylistic creative thing and then there are times where we use it to mimic real life and say how do we put all these instruments so when you have something like a snare which has this huge reverb on it and then everything else apparently is in a much smaller room it it can feel a little when it's obviously trying I think this track would be trying to be authentic as it were rather than experimental sounding then it maybe sounds a little off so I probably think reverb you because you were talking about a weird sense of things not quite always feeling like they're belonging together and reverb may be the answer to that little in in this mix I would say yeah carry on yeah yeah um so so then like yeah I mean I guess there is um also I would say I really love the bridge like when it just got this yeah it took me into a really meditative space um really really was feeling that um seed I really love the ending um I think that's the the main thing it's just like the biggest the biggest criticism I think was just the inconsistency of spaces like it's cool to have like like you were saying like not everything has to be exactly the same space if you're trying to do some experimental stuff like that ghostly reverb on the voices like I think that was a cool experiment and I think that that should stay um but then like the just the main for most of the time with the vocals um it just felt like it wasn't placed with the rest of the instruments and then that snare that just had reverb for days um yeah so that's awesome I I think you guys have covered a lot of what I was going to say I just want to have a quick chat about my theory about timing and the acoustic guitar firstly I think the the the sound the tonal quality of the acoustic guitar and this was really really nice um captured really well and so when the piece of music started out I'll just play again um just the very beginning um we'll go back to the beginning one moment I love that progression so when I first heard this I thought right away with the little I felt oh the timing's a little off on there but I like it it was my initial impression was oh because it just sounds kind of cool like very natural like you're just this guy's sitting next to you with this guitar and then I wondered has this been recorded and looped because there's a consistency to the inconsistency right and then I came to the conclusion and um if the artist is in the comments on the replay they can let me know if I'm correct or incorrect on this but I felt maybe they did loop this now the problem when you loop something which is charmingly off time is when you put all the other instruments with it it's okay in the intro but then when you start to put all the other instruments they're going to expose that uh lack of consistency in the timing and that's where I thought maybe the problem lies there so I guess you've got two choices record that loop again and correct the timing issue or kind of use that loop at the beginning but then use a different version of that performance with a little better timing if you are going to use loops throughout the song I don't know if it's looped all the way through the song or or what have you but that was my impression of what happened there so you know I guess that would be something with this piece of music because I'm so glad to hear that both of you guys felt you were removed by this emotionally that it affected you in some way so you know that is like the main goal unfortunately sometimes if we have issues with the mix or um some technical aspect of the performance like timing or pitch it can then just distract us a little bit from that emotional reaction we're having but what that tells you is it's worth working on it tells you that this piece of music is worth perhaps going back and addressing some of those issues and it is a lot of effort to address these questions but it's worth it because your listeners are ultimately going to be affected by your piece of art which is what we all want to do and what for most of us we probably feel like we rarely achieve sometimes so when you've got a piece of music which is achieving it despite the technical issues then you really know you're on to a bit of a winner there so well done for Sandit for sending this in it's always tremendously brave for all of our artists to expose unfinished work to the world and and and allow critique from people from all walks of life it's it's incredibly brave I don't know if I would be brave enough to do it but I think some people want me to grab my cakewalk unfinished mixes and expose what they're like before and I'm like I don't know if I want to discredit myself in that way but that may be coming so just a little so yeah um again I did enjoy the piece of music though and it's wonderful to hear something from another part of the world talking about other parts of the world it's been lovely to have people in the live chat with us today from different parts of the world and it's also been especially wonderful to have someone from Boston and someone from LA here with us those people being Micah and Cordero from Sons of Serendip guys can I just put you on the spot can you come on the show again at some point we love that yeah definitely yeah it's kind of fun isn't it it's yeah it's a bit of a buzz just to listen to some cool music and and see how we go with I can't thank you enough for being here putting a bit of a smile on my face this morning um yeah with you guys um really been enjoyable I will leave the Micah had the final word in the interview so let's leave the final word to um the exquisite the amazing the talent Cordero um I would say um there's yeah there's no way for it except to just keep pushing through whenever you feel discouraged um with what you're what you're creating um I I think just consistency is the best way to be able to come get through all those hurdles and to just be militant and putting stuff out there and and um allow that part of you that critiques allow it to have its space but not when you're in the process of creating basically I would say split yourself up like the way it's done here where you just do the creating and then you come back and you you listen with that with that critical part and then correct it and I think that you can have some pretty reasonable gains in your uh abilities with production great words of advice I love that like what a lovely way to think about thank you so much to everyone who's been here I will try my hardest to be back I'm pretty sure I will be back next um well depending on what part of the world you're in Thursday or Friday at this usual time slot if you have some music you would like to send in for the show follow the instructions in the description down below it's essentially send me an email with the title fix my mix and if we know a little bit about your music and yourself um I like to have a little bit of background information please remember even if you're beginning your journey and maybe your mix isn't sounding that great that's absolutely fine that's why we want you to send the music in so that we can help you and help ourselves in the process as I say by exercising our ears and our minds in this way that's the end of the show for today and I will