Some Sort of Samba: Which mix is better?

[Marko]

I'd like your opinions on the two mixes here. Which one sounds better?


Some Sort of Samba (http://www.planetcanadice.com/Music/SSOS_M.Drost.mp3)


Some Sort of Samba (dry) (http://www.planetcanadice.com/Music/SSOS2_M.Drost.mp3)

Thanks.

Marko

P.S. I think there is a samba beat somewhere in this piece.

[thesoundsmith]

I think it depends where this is going. They're both pretty good, but the dry one is more up-front and crisper, and the first one is more back in the room.

Nice little vignette, I suspect for my taste the end result would be about 30% of the verb from the wet one.

Sort of Desi Arnaz meets Rod Serling... ("Consider if you will - Fred and Ethel Mertz, long time dance partners and foils for the Ricardos, as they meet their match in... The Samba Zone!")

[Bruce A. Richardson]

I like the more dry version. I would even dry it out slightly more, and perhaps really push the Surdo forward. To me that is the backbone of this kind of Samba beat, that constant low backbeat on the cut-time two. I would perhaps want to hear it staged as prominently as the congas, but I do realize there is a lot going on in there, and not everything can be front and center. At least not without a fight!!

[Marko]

Dasher,

"Sort of Desi Arnaz meets Rod Serling.. The Samba Zone!"

Yes! This is precisely what I had in mind. Thank you!

The 'verbier' sequence seems to have more of a frenzied aspect to it, which I find desirable here. I typically prefer dry summaries, but I used a variety of samples from different sound libraries (StormDrum, EWQLSO, Bosendorfer 290, KHSS, SAM bones and Sam horns and more). Getting all of them to hang together in each of their native splendours doesn't sound right in the final mix. And so I settled on the two different mixes.

The dry one seems like a studio recording, but the wetter one takes me into..."The Samba Zone!"

A dimension of rhythm
Next stop is "The Samba Zone".

"Consider if you will - Fred and Ethel Mertz, long time dance partners and foils for the Ricardos, as they meet their match in... The Samba Zone!"

Wonderful image and plot. This will haunt me for a long time.

Thanks.

Marko

[Nayi]

Nice piece! Good to see different stuff posted here.

I like the dry version better although the begining of the cue (first 12 seconds) sounds perhaps a little better on the first version.

If I have to choose one I would probably go with the dry one.

[Marko]

Bruce,

The surdo sound is a djembe sample, but they sound pretty similar in their lower hits. The low hit is definitely prominent. But bringing it up more may drown out the piano.

Of all the percussion used her, I find the conga the most difficult to get right. I go back again and again to tweak the grooves that I have made.

Thanks for listening.


Nayi,

Thanks.