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Four coooool tracks this month - nice! So we had to come up with something that had "The Lick" in it...


Please have a listen and vote for your favourite, bonus points for comments and feedback!

Voting closes 23nd March 2021 9:00 am

Onto the entries!


Bluetone - The Lick

Had to get this done quickly because I have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks, so...Here we go

I uploaded a WAV file this time, seems to improve things quite a bit.

All Tele, played a bassline and shifted it down an octave, downloaded a drum loop MP3 so the kit components weren't editable, but hey. As usual, all comments and crit welcome.



Guidothepimmp - The Lick

I am done fretting (mind the pun) over this track. It is what it is. I am now officially fresh out of ideas 🤣

So here is GTPs "The Lick". This round I went completely out of my comfort zone, It ended up with a lounge kinda vibe which surprised me somewhat. Largely clean guitar, tried to get a bass groove thing going, and all of that on top of a drum sample I picked up on Landr. I couldn't edit the drums much being theyre a sample.

Lead was a tele. At some point I realised I was on bridge pup, I really wanted to be on neck pup, so I switched then and for you attentive folk, you may note there is a tonal change to a sweeter lead tone. I couldn't be arsed about redoing the bridge piece again.. so it stays.. Hidden in the back is an electric organ filling some space, and my boy cameo'ed by shaking the pepper in the background.. Thanks Blue for the cool challenge!


Studmissile - Wasn't Counting on Crying with The Lick

Done! Can you hear the lick? 😄


V8 - Hardly Subtle

12 Bar Blues, in A. 'Hardly Subtle' coz' there's 12x "The Lick" and 4x Freddy King's 🤦

Thoroughly enjoyed this one - I had doubts initially, but great idea @Bluetone 👍


And if you just wanna run through all the entries without clicking here's a playlist :

Thanks for listening & Enjoy!

Who Licked the bestest?

This poll has ended.

That was a very cool topic (and suitable for all music instruments xD), unfortunately I was very busy the last weeks. But I'm looking forward to listening to your entries 😀

6 days later

So had a few lsitens on speakers and on phone's - for what it's worth, my 0.02c!

Guidothepimmp- Real bass, make me real happy :thumbsup: X-cuse me while I kiss this guy...

The lick(s) (1:18 ish?) were real subtle and real slick - I didn't hear them until I stuck on 'phones. Lead/solo tone was pretty sweet (sustain was great), playing kept me listening all the way through - nicely!

Drums did have a lofi loungey vibe - I'm digging the changeup from a normal kit sound. Though I'm wondering if it made the lead sound a little dull - not sure about the overall mix, might have had it little bit brighter?

Studmissile - Best vocal yet - right up front, where it should be for country?

1:26, you manged to sneak it in there...heh. Many, many plus points for the harp! More of that in the track please.

Overall something didn't quite glue together the track - can't put my finger on it - the vocal and harp are great, but the rest doesn't feel like it's in the same room - reverbs maybe? I dunno, just thinking out loud.

Bluetone - Man, that tele sounds killer. Also the solo using the bridge pup just lends itself to that sound, really dug that. Kinda country, kinda rock. And your bends are really, really tasteful - real well timed and in pitch. Totally jealous, wish I had more of that in my playing.

Not convinced by the octaved down tele bass, felt like a bass, it works - but a bit woofy?

Tough vote - Bluetone's is the most polished mix, everything works. I like Guido's vibe and guitar tone, and Stud's harp and vocals were just great.

I would love to hear the three of you shoot out your tele's someday...I know you all is tele owners!

V8 Thanks, V8. Tele bass sounds rubbish. RUBBISH. 😆 But I had no time to farm it out to you for the real thing.

  • V8 likes this.
  • V8 replied to this.

    Bluetone Heh, nah it was better than you think 👍️ It had the feel of bassist, if not the tone. Not sure I'd be that restrained 😉

      Great entries everyone, ridiculously tough vote

      @Bluetone Superb playing, excellent mix.

      @guidothepimmp Great blues jam. Not the biggest fan of the actual lick but if you are going to play it, this is how it should be played. You got my vote.

      @V8 That opening groove is funkalicious , awesome playing.

      Great challenge idea @Bluetone

      V8
      Thanks man, great feedback. I hear you on the brightness thing. I actually have no clue what I am doing when mixing, and it always trips me up some.. On the back of this comment I have been checking out some how to's, and wouldnt you know it, there are some things I am doing which... you guessed it, I shouldn,t be doing.
      Example, I do tend to mix each channel slightly bright.. the result, everything is bright, so nothing sounds bright (if that makes sense?).. ie, there is no reference point in the tracks to highlight brighter tracks

      Similarly, I couldn't understand why my mixes don't sound wide.. well, everything is largely mixed wide, so nothing ends up sounding wide, again, there reference is not there to detect the wider mixed tracks.

      Fascinating stuff. I will be looking into this some more for sure. Thanks for the tip!

      @studmissile, Thanks mate!

      • V8 likes this.
      • V8 replied to this.

        guidothepimmp Thanks man, great feedback. I hear you on the brightness thing. I actually have no clue what I am doing when mixing, and it always trips me up some..

        Ahh, no worries. From my little experience of mixing - the one thing that you reallllly should do is use a reference track. It keeps your ears honest - super easy to get listening fatigue, but if you have a track as a baseline then it's sooo much easier to avoid boo-boo's.

        For this challenge, Bluetone's was good - his tracks are a tad guitar bright, so was easy to reference yours (slightly dull), stud's (slightly bright) and mine (all about the bass and kick)

        V8 I bought a set of studio reference monitors right after I made this clip, so... Hopefully that will change quite a bit! 😆

        • V8 replied to this.

          Bluetone LOL, nice! What ya get?

          Also, my entry should adequately dis-abuse you of any notion that I know what I'm talking about 😁 My ears should be so non-functional after decades of abuse from crappy earbuds & general overly loud listening. The only thing I found that helped with tinnitus was acupuncture - weird but true!

          V8 Just a pair of Presonus Eris 3.5s. But I'm well impressed and they're already making a huge difference to my mixing (and cutting down on time like crazy).

          guidothepimmp Thanks Guido! Now I've the dubious distinction of picking the next one. Oh yay...!

          Bit disappointed at the voting turnout, oh well - swings n round-a-bouts

            Thanks guys - any great idea's for the next one? I'm tempted with "space" (we've done, but a long time ago) or maybe a annual song writing comp - there's a bothners voucher in it 😁

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