Call of the 80's (EP)

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Rainmak3r
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Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Rainmak3r »

Hi all,

since I'm currently working on a quite long track to finish a more "serious" album, I wanted to dip my toes in streaming services (in particular Bandcamp and Distrokid) to see how I should approach mastering and uploading an album. So I decided to pick some tracks I shared previously, together with a new unreleased one, refine them a bit, figure out how I could work on them together for some basic mastering, and release a short EP as a first attempt. The common thread for all tracks is a blatant 80's vibe, which is why I called the EP like the track I shared at the time: it's not meant to be taken too seriously, as there's not much genre consistency across the album anyway :D

You can listen to it here:

https://lminiero.bandcamp.com/album/call-of-the-80s
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/loren ... of-the-80s

The second link is currently just a placeholder, as apparently it takes a while for Distrokid to send an album to Spotify, iTunes, etc., but the tracks are all there if you check the Bandcamp link instead.

As anticipated, most of the tracks you may know already if you've listened to what I shared in the past, but there's also a new one I worked on these past couple of days. I had a short theme in mind, which reminded me of the soundtrack for that popular old movie with fighter pilots, so I wrote an arrangement that shamelessly mimicked that and called it "Such a good pilot" :mrgreen: It's short and not very memorable, but it felt like an apt way to end the EP!

I'm really looking forward to the moment I'll be able to share what I'm working on right now (which is taking longer than I hoped), but until then I hope you'll enjoy this too!
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Tenaba »

Nice to hear an EP from you. I love the leads from the new "Such a Good Pilot" track. And the tones on that one, and "Frozen Ground" are really full-sounding.

And it sounds fun to hear you distributing your stuff to other services with Distrokid! Seems like a good deal but I wouldn't even break even at 20USD/year with the amount of listens my songs get lol.

The EP sounds pretty consistent across songs. Do you have any tips on mastering an EP or album?

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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Rainmak3r »

Tenaba wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:32 pm Nice to hear an EP from you. I love the leads from the new "Such a Good Pilot" track. And the tones on that one, and "Frozen Ground" are really full-sounding.
Thanks, glad you liked it! For tones, I think I found some reliable presets on my Pod X3 Live, and with a bit of delay and eq (especially on the solos) they do sound quite nice. Frozen Ground was a bit different, as in that track I used 4 tracks for rhythm guitars rather than the 2 I usually do, so it came out quite tight.
Tenaba wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:32 pm And it sounds fun to hear you distributing your stuff to other services with Distrokid! Seems like a good deal but I wouldn't even break even at 20USD/year with the amount of listens my songs get lol.
Oh, I know it's money I'll never see again, but 20 bucks a year is small enough a price that I'm ok with that, honestly, especially considering they take care of all the heavy lifting. I payed much more for Soundcloud last year, for instance: I got premium to see what else they had, and it was pretty much wasted money. One of the reasons why I've started to look into Bandcamp and Distrokid is that I'm close to the 180 minutes you can upload for free on Soundcloud, which is quite a silly limitation.
Tenaba wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:32 pm The EP sounds pretty consistent across songs. Do you have any tips on mastering an EP or album?
I'm pretty clueless about mastering actually: just a few days ago I asked some dumb questions in another post, for instance :mrgreen: Thanks to the feedback I got from the responses, I started watching a free mastering course on YouTube by Ian Shepherd (I'm 3 episodes in so far) and that did help grasping some concepts already.

For this EP, I didn't do that much to be honest. I started from trying to get a balanced mix on the individual tracks in the first place. For all of them, in Ardour I used the Loudness Assistant (the same one basically that analyses audio when you export audio) to analyse the tracks, and have a birds view of the level of the whole track. That does help a lot to figure out if there are parts of the track that are too loud, or too low, which allows you to then try and balance it more: you find the parts, listen to them live, check the meters and try to understand how to fix them (which in my case was mostly smoothing some parts that occasionally got too loud), e.g., via automation or compression. For all tracks, I used the "Spotify" target, which basically aims at a -14 LUFS for loudness: once I got something that felt balanced enough at that level, I exported the track. Then I created a new project in Ardour to queue all tracks: this means a new session where I imported each song as a separate stereo track, and then moved the audio to the point where it's supposed to start in the album. This way, I could put the songs in sequence, and do some transitions on fadeout for instance.

Having all songs in a row in the same session allowed me to use the same Loudness Assistant again to check the levels of the EP in its entirety: this way, I could see if there were anomalies across the different songs. In my case, I only had to work on "One Last Ride" to make it fit better, as there was still a part that peaked too much, which I fixed with a compressor.

On exporting, I chose to export the whole EP as a single FLAC file: in fact, while in Ardour you can set region markers to have individual exports, this also results in different normalizations for the different regions, if normalization is enabled (and I had it enabled to still aim at the "Spotify" target). Exporting to a single FLAC file ensures the same normalization applies to the whole duration, thus in theory keeping everything more consistent. Since I added CD markers to set when tracks started, I told Ardour to also generate a CUE file with that info: I found about some tools that can automatically split the full FLAC file in different parts using the CUE file, and I used one of those, Flacon, to do the job. This got me the files I then uploaded on Bandcamp and Distrokid.

Not sure if what I did made sense, but it seemed to work for me as a first effort. I'm pretty sure there's much more I could do on mastering itself that doesn't require fixing the individual mixes themselves, but I'm not at that point yet. I hope this was helpful nevertheless!
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by jeanette_c »

Hey, this is a fun album. What a good pilot is a perfect closure to the album. I can hear it underneath the closing titles of a film. It has this slightly reminiscing grandeur with a lovin' spoonful of pathos. :)
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Rainmak3r »

jeanette_c wrote: Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:15 pm Hey, this is a fun album. What a good pilot is a perfect closure to the album. I can hear it underneath the closing titles of a film. It has this slightly reminiscing grandeur with a lovin' spoonful of pathos. :)
Thanks! Considering the inspiration was the actual soundtrack for a movie, I'd say mission accomplished :mrgreen:
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Tenaba »

Rainmak3r wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 9:21 pm Thanks, glad you liked it! For tones, I think I found some reliable presets on my Pod X3 Live, and with a bit of delay and eq (especially on the solos) they do sound quite nice. Frozen Ground was a bit different, as in that track I used 4 tracks for rhythm guitars rather than the 2 I usually do, so it came out quite tight.

Oh, I know it's money I'll never see again, but 20 bucks a year is small enough a price that I'm ok with that, honestly, especially considering they take care of all the heavy lifting. I payed much more for Soundcloud last year, for instance: I got premium to see what else they had, and it was pretty much wasted money. One of the reasons why I've started to look into Bandcamp and Distrokid is that I'm close to the 180 minutes you can upload for free on Soundcloud, which is quite a silly limitation.

I'm pretty clueless about mastering actually: just a few days ago I asked some dumb questions in another post, for instance :mrgreen: Thanks to the feedback I got from the responses, I started watching a free mastering course on YouTube by Ian Shepherd (I'm 3 episodes in so far) and that did help grasping some concepts already.

For this EP, I didn't do that much to be honest. I started from trying to get a balanced mix on the individual tracks in the first place. For all of them, in Ardour I used the Loudness Assistant (the same one basically that analyses audio when you export audio) to analyse the tracks, and have a birds view of the level of the whole track. That does help a lot to figure out if there are parts of the track that are too loud, or too low, which allows you to then try and balance it more: you find the parts, listen to them live, check the meters and try to understand how to fix them (which in my case was mostly smoothing some parts that occasionally got too loud), e.g., via automation or compression. For all tracks, I used the "Spotify" target, which basically aims at a -14 LUFS for loudness: once I got something that felt balanced enough at that level, I exported the track. Then I created a new project in Ardour to queue all tracks: this means a new session where I imported each song as a separate stereo track, and then moved the audio to the point where it's supposed to start in the album. This way, I could put the songs in sequence, and do some transitions on fadeout for instance.

Having all songs in a row in the same session allowed me to use the same Loudness Assistant again to check the levels of the EP in its entirety: this way, I could see if there were anomalies across the different songs. In my case, I only had to work on "One Last Ride" to make it fit better, as there was still a part that peaked too much, which I fixed with a compressor.

On exporting, I chose to export the whole EP as a single FLAC file: in fact, while in Ardour you can set region markers to have individual exports, this also results in different normalizations for the different regions, if normalization is enabled (and I had it enabled to still aim at the "Spotify" target). Exporting to a single FLAC file ensures the same normalization applies to the whole duration, thus in theory keeping everything more consistent. Since I added CD markers to set when tracks started, I told Ardour to also generate a CUE file with that info: I found about some tools that can automatically split the full FLAC file in different parts using the CUE file, and I used one of those, Flacon, to do the job. This got me the files I then uploaded on Bandcamp and Distrokid.

Not sure if what I did made sense, but it seemed to work for me as a first effort. I'm pretty sure there's much more I could do on mastering itself that doesn't require fixing the individual mixes themselves, but I'm not at that point yet. I hope this was helpful nevertheless!
I agree on Soundcloud's 180 minute limit being weird. Thankfully bandcamp doesn't have that restriction (IMO, it's easier to use anyway).

And your explanation made a lot of sense, thank you! I'm not sure how I missed out on the Loudness Assistant feature all this time. Seems really useful for normalizing in general, and also just for looking at the loudness analysis. I feel like an idiot, as before I'd always export the entire track just to get a visual on it.

I make music as Tenaba! Bandcamp

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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Rainmak3r »

Tenaba wrote: Sun Oct 03, 2021 5:53 pm I agree on Soundcloud's 180 minute limit being weird. Thankfully bandcamp doesn't have that restriction (IMO, it's easier to use anyway).

And your explanation made a lot of sense, thank you! I'm not sure how I missed out on the Loudness Assistant feature all this time. Seems really useful for normalizing in general, and also just for looking at the loudness analysis. I feel like an idiot, as before I'd always export the entire track just to get a visual on it.
i think it's a pretty recent addition, maybe added after 6.5.0 or something like that? It definitely wasn't there before, which is why you may have missed it :mrgreen:
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by folderol »

Listening now... and liking what I'm hearing :D

Oh, and thanks for using bandcamp. These days I avoid anything on youtube like the plague - unless it's something very special!
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Rainmak3r »

folderol wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:55 am Listening now... and liking what I'm hearing :D

Oh, and thanks for using bandcamp. These days I avoid anything on youtube like the plague - unless it's something very special!
Thanks, hope you'll like the rest too :mrgreen:
Bandcamp is quite interesting so far, so I'm happy I gave that a try too.
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by GMaq »

I just about missed this! :(

Haha! You had me at the Album Art...it's PERFECT!! :lol: I can close my eyes and see it in the rack at the local Gas station!

Thanks for collecting some great works together, A lot of really interesting stuff gets posted here by you and others and as single works they get briefly enjoyed and then slip down the forum... Yes we don't live in an 'album' world really any more but albums are a great way to collect works for posterity for kids/family whatever and it gives us as your listeners a second hearing in context which can sometimes make you really enjoy one of the tunes you may have either missed before or not enjoyed as much... sometimes when you get several works together it helps you 'get' what someone's influences and motivations are in a much clearer way.

Now next, you have to change your blurb on Bandcamp! "I'm getting older but, unlike whisky, I'm not getting any better" is completely invalidated by this album! Your playing, arranging and production skills have ALL improved significantly since you started posting here and this is a great collection!

I've said here before I came of age in the 80's and felt like a complete stranger there so I'm not going to blow smoke and say this is a genre close to my heart and that it has any of the fond nostalgia that it does for you but your enthusiasm and conviction as a 'true believer' is quite infectious and I'm genuinely enjoying listening to this, the love and craft shines through and your guitar playing is absolute FIRE! Take a minute and give yourself some credit for investing the hours and discipline to manifest this!

You'll make me an 80's guy yet!
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Rainmak3r »

GMaq wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:01 pm I just about missed this! :(

Haha! You had me at the Album Art...it's PERFECT!! :lol: I can close my eyes and see it in the rack at the local Gas station!
Ha, I wish my music were available at gas stations, it'd mean I made it! :lol:
GMaq wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:01 pm Thanks for collecting some great works together, A lot of really interesting stuff gets posted here by you and others and as single works they get briefly enjoyed and then slip down the forum... Yes we don't live in an 'album' world really any more but albums are a great way to collect works for posterity for kids/family whatever and it gives us as your listeners a second hearing in context which can sometimes make you really enjoy one of the tunes you may have either missed before or not enjoyed as much... sometimes when you get several works together it helps you 'get' what someone's influences and motivations are in a much clearer way.
100% agree! Besides, I'm still very much an "album guy". I listen to albums a lot, and even when I was publishing my tracks on SoundCloud I tended to group them in playlists, which gave me a rough indication of where I felt they belonged thematically. The album I'm working on is indeed a collection of tracks I already released (which I'm refining and expanding) and had in a playlist there, plus a new very long one. The tracks in this EP felt more like an 80's bunch, and that gave me the opportunity to think more in terms of album than individual song.
GMaq wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:01 pm Now next, you have to change your blurb on Bandcamp! "I'm getting older but, unlike whisky, I'm not getting any better" is completely invalidated by this album! Your playing, arranging and production skills have ALL improved significantly since you started posting here and this is a great collection!
You're way too kind as usual :mrgreen: That said, I've had that blurb on all my social accounts for quite some time, and it's mostly meant as a self deprecating joke: as "some people age like fine wine, I'm aging like milk!"
GMaq wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:01 pm I've said here before I came of age in the 80's and felt like a complete stranger there so I'm not going to blow smoke and say this is a genre close to my heart and that it has any of the fond nostalgia that it does for you but your enthusiasm and conviction as a 'true believer' is quite infectious and I'm genuinely enjoying listening to this, the love and craft shines through and your guitar playing is absolute FIRE! Take a minute and give yourself some credit for investing the hours and discipline to manifest this!

You'll make me an 80's guy yet!
Thanks, I'm really glad you enjoyed it so much despite it not really being your cup of tea! The new album will be closer to the 70's, so hopefully you'll like that one more :mrgreen:
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by bulevardi »

Wished I could play this good!
Very nicely done Rainmak3r :)
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by Rainmak3r »

bulevardi wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:52 pm Wished I could play this good!
Very nicely done Rainmak3r :)
You just hear what ended up sounding good enough: what you don't hear are the 357 attempts to play the same thing over and over and making a mistake that ruined it :lol: (true story, I got Ardour to crash once due to too many recorded files!)

Thanks for the kind words, and glad you liked it!
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by bulevardi »

Rainmak3r wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:55 pm You just hear what ended up sounding good enough: what you don't hear are the 357 attempts to play the same thing over and over and making a mistake that ruined it :lol: (true story, I got Ardour to crash once due to too many recorded files!)
Oh yeah, I guess we all go through this.
You don't want to know how many takes I record for each part :D
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Re: Call of the 80's (EP)

Post by GMaq »

Rainmak3r wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:46 am That said, I've had that blurb on all my social accounts for quite some time, and it's mostly meant as a self deprecating joke: as "some people age like fine wine, I'm aging like milk!"
I like that one! I think we share that trait, I have a friend that doesn't appreciate what he refers to as my 'self-defecating' sense of humor... :lol:
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