Way different from my usual House soul-penetrating beats sets found in Jack2it, but this came out of real liking for the works of the vocalist, Loreena McKennitt. "Real" instruments (y'know, ones made out of wood 'n bits of dead animals, 'n so on ........ have I lined myself up for a real kicking here ? ) and the fantastic, emotive, haunting vocals of Ms. McKennitt in a (mostly) Celtic/Irish sound

Virtually zero-beat mixing as there is basically very little in the beat department with these songs, although plenty in the rhythm one, if that makes any sense. Most tracks are presented mostly full-length; the challenge was to mix out one into the next in a harmonic manner and to keep the rhythm flowing.... I think I got there by and large

If this set inspires you to go and investigate Ms. McKennitt's works further, or at least think "wow, that was good", then for me it's mission accomplished

Hi Nebulus,

Had a good listen to the "...Loreena ..." mix last night.

At the start of the mix, I just couldn't get into it at all. Thought the intro to the first song was a bit long and was looking to switch after 1 minute. But I thought that it was only fair to give the mix a chance. So I switched off the lights, plugged in my phones ... What A Transformation.

The power of the songs and the artist came into their own and within minutes was picturing wind swept landscapes and craggy peaks. I'll mention now that I thought the sound quality throughout the mix was sublime.

For the first 25 or so minutes, I thought the mixing was perfection. It must have been tricky to mix songs without any beat to guide you, but you pulled it off. Nice One!

But, from when the first "rhythm" track came (whose intro did seem to be a bit sudden), the mixing, to my ears, was just a little off. I though that all of the subsequent tracks were introduced about 1/2 second too early. Plus at around halfway through, I thought that there was an opportunity to layer the instrumental outro with the incoming vocal intro that wasn't taken.

However, from about an 1 hour in, the mixing returned to being silky smooth which continued until the end of the mix. Did you add the child's vocals to the penultimate track? If you did, very nicely done.

As for the flow, I think it worked very well. Every time, I checked the watch, I was constantly suprised at how much time had elapsed. A very good sign of a nicely flowing mix.

To sum up, you have created a mix that exposed this listener to a new style of music that kept me listening to the very end. That's a Very Big Plus in my book.

Congrats.

Sly.

Devil,

Those are the kind of comments that quickly bump a mix up to the top of my most want to hear list. Nicely written.

Nebulus, I´m really looking forward to hearing this.

Thanks Sly .... good to hear the set met my mission objective

Your critique reflects perfectly the mixing experience of putting this set together ... nice one!

I always had 2 sections to this set - the first 20-30 minutes, and the last 20-30 minutes. Glueing them together presented the biggest challenge .... and you noticed some of it (i.e. the start of the first "rhythm" track . I note with interest your comments about coming in 1/2 second too early .... the amount of mucking about I did nudging an intro forwards/backwards a few milliseconds almost took me to the realms of Total Perfection Syndrome In the end I got it to where I was 90% happy .... the remaining 10% was not worth risking my sanity over

The child's vocals are not mine (I mean the sample, not the actual voice ), but part of the penultimate-penultimate track (i.e. the 3rd-from last) .... which also implies you did not detect the ultra-smooth slide from penultimate to last track !!

Overall, I'm happy I "captured" you for the set duration ... always a good sign

Duro - if you manage to catch this set, I hope you like it too

Neb.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nebulus,

I'll just have to chime in on this one, both to acknowledge what a thorough listen/write-up Sly gave it and how much I enjoyed the set.

You guys have completely covered the bit I also noticed, the "bridge" between the first and second halves of the mix ... and the ever-so-slight off-beat section ... things I might hardly have registered if I wasn't trying to analyze well enough to make comments.

As for the selecting, well I only recognized a couple of the tracks as being from the two LMcK albums I own ... it was good to hear new songs. As Nebulus points out in his intro, the tracks may lack beats such as we are all accustomed to, but it wants for nothing in the rhythms department ... and focusing the transitions on the harmonic correspondences works a charm ... the blending was really delicious ... there were times when I thought "I might have put a bit of instrumental in between those two vocal tracks" but I remembered Neb mentioning that this was a special treat for the Missus, and her listening pleasure naturally comes first ... and I'm guessing this mix was much appreciated round about Valentines Day

Anytime you want to play us some more music made from bits of wood and metal and animal skins, it will be welcome....