Falling For You (Billy & Steffen)

[stoman]

While I was going through my old stuff I found this forgotten tune. I think it was the first or second collab I've ever done with Billy Playle. We met at a long gone collaboration site called OMF (OpenMusicFactory, run by Alessandro da Lisca & Emiliano Andreotti) in 2007, and that's when this song was created.

This is a quick new mix of it. I'm attaching two versions of the master. The one suffixed with "_mixbus" is mostly the same as the other, but I routed the master (which I did in REAPER, as always) through Harrison Mixbus and adjusted it slightly there (some light EQ and some saturation), then returned it back to REAPER.

The song is based on an instrumental midi draft that I had posted at OMF. Billy replaced all the midi parts with real instruments, wrote the lyric and also did the vocals (including the vocal melody).

FALLING (For You)

Lyrics, vocals & all instruments: Billy Playle
Composed by Steffen Offermann & Billy Playle
Mixed & Mastered by Steffen Offermann
Original Version: Copyright 2007 by Steffen Offermann & William Playle

Regards,
  Steffen

[PVD]

Nice feel, good listen.

Paul

[NickT]

Very nice guys! 

[Paulo]

Sweet song, just like everything where Billy is involved with... I like most the non mixbus mix...

The mixbus one sounds like the magneto plugin from steinberg, it's a matter of taste... I'm not a fan of tape type saturation.

[NickT]

Steffen,

How do you like mixbus? It is on sale for $40.00 and I am thinking about trying it.

Thanks,

Nick

[stoman]

Thanks erverybody!

Nick, at 40 US-$ it is pretty much a no-brainer. I don't use the DAW section (which is a modified version of Ardour), but I route all my mastering (which I still do in REAPER) through the mixbus and usually apply some very light EQ'ing and saturation there before I route it back to REAPER. The sound is very good IMO.

It's not that you can't achieve that sound with other plugins, but it's really easy with mixbus. The channel strip has an EQ, tape saturation, K-metering, and a compressor/leveller/limiter.

Using JACK for the routing is a little bit tedious, but you get used to it. Unfortunately I have to readjust the IO channel routing every time in mixbus when I've done an audio export in REAPER - it always forgets the settings. But it is still more fun than a real console IMO.

The deal ends Sunday, IIRC, so hurry!

BTW: You can do complete mixes in Ardour. It has all the necessary features, including automation. It is just not as comfortable as modern DAWs usually are.

Note that VST plugins are only supported in the Windows version, and it is 32 bits only on Windows. The Linux version is 32 and 64 bit. It also runs on a Mac. No midi (yet).

Regards,
  Steffen

[stoman]

Oh, and I have not been able to route from Cubase to Mixbus using JACK. No idea why. I haven't tried it with Studio One yet.

Regards,
  Steffen

[CosmicDolphin]

Very Smooth.........I like all the percussion parts.

There's a harsh frequency in the vocal that bugged me though ....notching it out could pay dividends 

Cd

[CosmicDolphin]

Steffen,

How do you like mixbus? It is on sale for $40.00 and I am thinking about trying it.

Thanks,

Nick

They used to do a free Demo...not sure if it's still available.

I tried it...hated it...deleted it.......I think alot of these things are like virtual snake oil. Nothing about the sound you can't do with other plugins quite simply.

CD

[stoman]

Yes, Mark, I agree - the handling, as far as Ardour is concerned, is awkward and clumsy. The mix console itself is not really up to modern GUI standards either, but the sound does make up for that. I don't think I'll ever use Ardour for mixing, but I may end up doing stem/group exports from Cubase and then do a stem-based mix in Ardour, just for summing in MixBus. I actually did that once, and it does make a big difference.

I would never, never, never pay the regular price (219 US-$, I think) for such an incomplete product, as there are far better ones out there, but at 40$ you get a very decent sounding console emulation that's more than worth its price.

When I demoed the previous version, I hated it too and deleted it after a couple of days (at least it lasted that long - when I demoed Sonar twice, it did not survive longer than 10 minutes each time).

Regards,
  Steffen

[stoman]

There's a harsh frequency in the vocal that bugged me though ....notching it out could pay dividends 

There are actually a couple of frequency issues, but they are hard to deal with.

I added another mix to post #1. Does it sound better or worse to you, Mark?

Regards,
  Steffen

[NickT]

Thanks guys!

[CosmicDolphin]

There's a harsh frequency in the vocal that bugged me though ....notching it out could pay dividends 

There are actually a couple of frequency issues, but they are hard to deal with.

I added another mix to post #1. Does it sound better or worse to you, Mark?

Regards,
  Steffen

Sounds better to me Steffen