Incense & Peppermints - Ninbot Remix

I updated the mix now, adding a subtle bit of the obligatory auto-wah to FunkyMuziq's guitar part to hopefully bring it out in the mix just a touch more.

Here's the new link if anyone's interested.

MIX#3 - I now added some automated pan to the samples to hopefully accentuate their rhythmic quality.

Here is the link to the new MP3 mix

Any comments? I thought opinions were like loud guitars on Ninbot.

Panned-Automation-Incense-&-Peppermints-CUT-Ninbot-remix by mutantdrums

That is an awesome track guys! I thought the first version was great, but the 3rd one really kicks it up a notch... radio-ready, for sure. Were the CUT vocal samples part of the original jam or did you add them completely after the fact?

Thanks for responding anonymouse.

I added the samples in after the jam.
Here are the original samples I used, I had to slow it down a little.

here is the link to the mp3

The whole thing is on the wfmu page, apparently they would go on chanting for hours, really wacko stuff.
I only used just the very beginning.

very cool

I now added a bit of the rap done by someone named "Bilbo Bags"?
It was unusual to have a rapper on Ninbot.

I don't speak French, but I think he mentions something about Obama, Osama and the Dalai Lama.

here is the link to the new mp3

Cool song :)

BTW Mutant, how do you make those stuttering effects on the chanting?

/Krillo

Thanks for checking out the jam Krillo.
I used the popular freeware Glitch vst effect -
you can download it here

gr8 track, gr8 sound. like it a lot!!!

The rapping was from a different jam, but one also done over ninbot?

No dude, the rapping was from the same jam.

It was rare to have a rapper on Ninbot, but apparently it was some guy named "Bilbo Bags" who I think was in Portugal, but seemed to be rapping in what sounded like French?
It was his idea even to slow down the tempo to 95 bpm. During the jam I had to actually uncheck his transmit channel because lately my sound card starts to crackle I notice when certain people enter who presumably are geographically far away from me (ping times perhaps?) So I couldn't hear anything he might have been doing, it was only after the jam when I loaded it into Reaper. At first I didn't think it would fit, but I think it ultimately seemed to.

He Mutant
great mix, I remember it was a cool session, marcus was on fire ^^
Yes Bilbo Bags rapping in French.

Mutant ya could try this with the vocals, the wide fx put it on a send, then add it like that, also maybe put a stereo to mono type fx on a send, eq' it around 2k and add it via a send too. This will keep it sounding the same on the RAP, have it wide but keep the vocals centered and clear.
Normally ya would ride the fader using the track automation, might be named different on some daws, and it would be used to increase volume where maybe a lot is happening in parts and the vocals vanish or become hard to hear.
But the quickest way is to just cut the vocals just before and after the bit that's hard to hear then just up it's volume.
If it then sounds like the volume just drops after it's fixed to the quieter part straight after that's not been adjusted then you lengthen the part you cut, then normally is key X, or CTRL + X which cross fades, so it fades back to normal volume.
It all happens in a split second so isn't noticed.

I use manual automation for this with the pen or line tool, but most will ride the fader then manually edit it later.
But the other way is a nice quick way to fix things and is good enough for most cases.

EDIT: oh for the stereo to mono type fx, you might want to pre it, sometimes it will be named post and then you turn if off. It's a little button normally on where the send is setup. What it does is grab the sound pre-fader or sometimes pre-inserts too.

Thanks for the tips Andy. So did you think the overall mix sucked then?

I don't think I EQ'd any tracks actually, I think I might have tried to on the Rap vocal but ultimately decided not to rather than FFFF it up to much.
The rap vocal does come in a little louder than everything else I think.

The FX I used other than the auto filter thing, was a neat old stereo multiFX named Atlantis (I think its called?) which also comes in mono actually.
I used this to distort the tiny bass riff from rbass heard throughout. I also used the classic auto-wah on Funkymuziqs little scratching gtr bit.

I tried to initially use 1 auto-pan effect on a send channel for all the samples which were on different tracks, but instead had to do it all manually, writing the automation points. Each track other than the first resulted in some kind of weird distortion artifact.

Admittedly, I don't really know much about creating sends in Reaper unfortunately yet.

I may have panned out the primary bass part by marcus and the guitar by funkymuziq somewhat to however much hopefully broaden the stereo image.

my room here isn't acoustically treated yet also.

Also, I think its generally quite difficult when working with samples to make them fit in a mix and also sound musical.

For example - Hank Shocklee of the bomb squad, did it to a brilliant extent on all those Public Enemy records though... gobs of samples.

No it sounds ok, if ya eq things, the bass should be downed at bottom of the EQ's hz to about 50hz by about -10db, then up around 80 to 90hz, ya will here where it sits sweet when ya do it, then it normally drops about -6db straight after then levels out again straight after that, some times it is up from about 1k hz by 4db to 6db when it's a slap etc to bring up those high tones.
Also the bass is normally center and mono and fx tend to be only stereo, this sits it prominent and clear in the mix.
Hats tend to be wider, or say slightly panned left then wider but the kick will be more center and snare sits more center too but normally with some width soo. A Stereo Imaging FX will pull things more mono or push them more wider, some allow you so say change the width or bass, mid and hi's, this is handy for say in a 1 single take of drums where you want the bassey kick more mono but the hi hz hts more wide then the mid of the snare slightly wider.
Normally the kick, snare and hats toms etc will be recorded separate on there own channel, but to achieve similar with just 1 record of complete drums some will have orig running then parallel track the snare, hats and kick so they just make 3 more copies of the orig, then use eq to try on one filter the say hats and kick to show more the snare, then on the next filter the snare and kick to show more the hats then on the last filter the snare and hats to bring out the kick. Now you with orig track almost have separate tracks, so then you can say eq the kick like the bass and up it around 80 to 100hz, then it can be made say more mono, then the snare can be listed around 250hz and ya drop on the eq where its not needed, thus cleans up the mix. Then the hats can be listed on the eq around 3k and a high pass on the eq to around 100hz, this just gets rid of unneeded mud.
Then add a further eq to all the drums and drop it down by about -6db at 400mhz, this cleans out the mud, also put a eq at the end of the inserts on all tracks and drop it -6db at 400mhz, most progs let ya copy the one to the other tracks inserts. This will clean up a lot of the mud and make things come out much more, so it sounds less crowded and more clarity.
guitars tend to sit with no bottom or top on the eq, also people will sometimes invert the eq of one guitar and add it to the other, this sits them both much clearer.
Your be surprised how much more room you have to play with in a mix, and things like vocals start to stand out more, it's also recommended putting s similar retail song in a track also, this is used as a reference, so you like have something to guide how to get ya sound.

The track sounds ok, just giving some tips that make things more manageable and make it less hit and miss and save time achieving stuff.
Most EQ FX's have preset's for most things, then you just adjust them to ya liking, nd it's worth saying your own when ya have things just perfect at times.

As for making send fx's on REAPER ya know I don't know either, there must be a proper way to do it but you could just make a track, call it so and so FX send, then just add a send to the track that needs the FX and increase it's amount, but I'm sure I seen to do proper sends in it. I don't use REAPER for mixing I use Cubase and others.
I just looked and can't see it, you have the routing matrix but that can be a bit confusing but also handy but confusing. :)
It's easier jut making a track, putting the fx's u need on it and creating a send in the io of other tracks and send to these fx tracks. On cubase I sorta do the same thing, when I want say one Reverb to use for a few tracks I'll make a FX track, add a reverb in that tracks fx's, then eq it and stuff, sometimes needed, then on the other tracks ill click on send then selects the fx track. Only dif on REAPER is you go in IO then make a send and you will see ya other track. When you add the send in the IO it then gives ya the post fader, pre fader and pre fx options on the send, so like if you want to send the track signal before any fx's on that track to the other FX TRACK then you could send the pure signal, which maybe ya would do with the vocals when sending them to a track that's mono'd, ya wouldn't maybe wanna send the wide FX on the vocals to the track that's setup as a mono fx track.
Sorry if that's sorta confusing, when ya do any of this stuff it will probs make sense.
Seems like a lot to do but aftre a while it's quick to setup such things and most thing ya would have saved a preset for.
Like for instance you can make track templates, then right click add new track from template and just add things like that and not need to re do them all the time, I have templates setup for NINJAM that let me load dif. setup's for dif. situations.

Radar probs knows a lot of this stuff and said about doing some tuts to me for REAPER, maybe some of these things could be covered, and even maybe sharing of people's presets.

Would be nice to have a forum section called Mixing Techniques here on NINBOT, where threads could be started and people put how they achieve them topics of the threads, could be a nice learning area for all of us.

But following these sorta set of rules will get ya mix much more open and easier to mix, ya probs find the more that's added the harder it seems to get it all in with out it becoming noisy, this sorta helps with that prob.
All this though here isn't to say these are probs in your mix m8, it sounds clear, the vocals are a bit wide but then it's French or somit too so hard to understand anyway. Its just more the formula most go by so it's less fiddling to try get it right etc.
REAPER actually does a really good job at mixing and mixing recorded tracks tends to come out nice in REAPER, in cubase I use VST instruments and they can get a right mess sometimes, other DAW's tend to output them better mixed, maybe some automated stuff running in the background. But if I was doing like a proper piece of work I'd mix down the tracks then mix them, effectively making them into long samples.

This is one I did but I recorded Jeje live in NINBOT, somit went wrong and the sample rate changed and it sounds slower than it should but I had a HD crash and not sure if I still got the orig project. I had a lot of hassle with this cos of all the stuff and still I pressed some stuff too much so it didn't end up sounding like it did at first. I hadn't had a chance to fix it since and not sure if I even have the files now. :/

http://soundcloud.com/andymccance/mermaid-on-the-rocks-feat-jeje

BTW Andy - speaking of samples...if it's not to borderline creepy and we are still friends...

I wanted to ask if you might be willing to share with me that great sample you had from a couple of years ago as I recall of your kids shouting something like "yummy yummy yummy, I got funk in my tummy!" ?

I got an elephant memory and just remember it was a really great, unique sample.

Seriously.

Oh now ya asking something, it was possibly on the HD I lost, hopefully I'll fix it one day.

Mutant how you get the Soundcloud showing in the post on here and not just a link?

I posted that Jeje one I did, probs a bit better mixed, I get bored tbh and wanna move on so never finish most stuff so just do the stuff I have too.
But I love a project to get my teeth into then I'll like do it proper and not be lazy :)

If you can remember when about it was it might be on NINBOT still if we searched Mutant and AndyMc on the player, we might get lucky.

Well, like i said I got a elephant memory, I just remember it was a couple years ago, I was jamming with you and you were messin around with that sample for just a minute and it was really original. It was such a long time ago now I guess, but if you ever find it .

Somebody else must have done that soundcloud embed here, I just originally posted a link.
check the page source, maybe somehow it must work on the ninbot forum

heres some info I think

http://soundcloud.com/pages/widgets

Theres probably a "share" embed code on all soundcloud tracks