Bangles - "Be With You"

Had to listen to this track online on Napster as I don't have it ripped on my hard drive. Perhaps, Jim could shed some light on this one as the song didn't remotely sound familiar either way. Must have been one of their final charting hits according to the database.

I have just sent eriejwg an mp3 of my promo CD single (CSK 1569), which features one track, and has both a listed & actual time of (3:01), for his analysis.

Quick question about "Hero Takes A Fall:"

I have both mixes, but am not sure which is the single mix.

One has "wet," gated-reverb type drums and seems duller overall.

The other has "dry," crisp drums, seems brighter in general, and is perhaps a drier mix overall as the vocals seem to stand out a bit more. Also, it sounds like there might have been a dynamics compressor used on this mix, as it has a "pop" and "slap" characteristic of analog single-band compressors.

I'm suspecting the "dry" mix was the single mix; can anyone confirm?

Edited by NightAire

Hits Man, are you referring to "Be With You" or "Hero Takes A Fall?"

Re: Be With You

I didn't remember this song either, so i just played it,
great song!
I was now curious to hear these two very different
masters...so i compared the version from "Everything" and
the one on "Greatest Hits".

As Hits Man noted, it struck immediately how "flat" the
album version sounds compared to the Greatest Hits copy
which has more depth, clarity and less compression.


Then i started noticing little details - and these 2
versions are indeed different mixes.   

Now,
it's hard to a/b, but almost every track within the mix
is placed ever so slightly differently, and uses
different reverb. The drum track especially -
the snares have different reverb, some backing vocals
are placed differently; strings, guitars etc... ALL very
subtle but once you hear them - you know.

Here are a few places to help hear the differences:

-First, just so we know the channels are not reversed,
the drums start at :04, and
both mixes have a "twirlly" synth effect that occurs in
the right channel at :05.

-At this point, notice the LP version has a "hi-hat" type
percussion over to the right, at about 2 o'clock.
This same hi-hat in the Greatest Hits is on the left, at
about 10 o'clock.

-At about :11 just before the vocal starts, on LP
version, a low synth, a little like a mellotron, is
turned up *before* she says "out my window". On the
Greatest Hits version, that synth suddenly cuts in with
her vocal, not before.

-Also as soon as vocal comes in on LP, a loud electric
guitar note is hit with every snare - the note is loud
and almost in the center, at about 11 o'clock.

But on Greatest Hits, this guitar is mixed hard right, at
3o'clock.



-At about :30 sec in, there is a elec. guitar overdub as
she sings "in the distance i hear a sound"....
on the LP that guitar overdub starts on the right and
pans left. But on Greatest Hits, it is mixed just off
center to the right, and does not pan.

-On the LP - there is a tambourine persent in the entire
mix (mentioned by Ron in his first post).
It is low, and in the dead center. But as the song
progresses, they turn it up a bit. You can hear it more
clearly in the 2nd verse, and 2nd chorus.
Still having trouble hearing it? Check the drum rolls at
1:37, and 2:11.   They smack the tambourine in the middle
of those drum rolls.
The tambourine is not present at all in the Greatest Hits
mix.

You get the picture... if you keep a/b-ing thru-out, you
notice more little panning and level differences.

So, either one of them is the 45 mix, OR the 45 was the
same as the LP and they remixed it for the Greatest Hits
album.    

If i have to chose a mix, hands down the Greatest Hits
mix is sonically superior for me in every way.

MM

Edited by MMathews