Cur An Long Ag Seol - Juraj's mix

[The_Metallurgist]

That's it I can't make it any better. Giving up... :-)
I wish I could separate the acoustic guitar and mandolin to define them a bit better. Please fire some feedback.
Cheers
Juraj

hi Juraj,

i understand. the first point to note is timing of the acoustic and the mandolin...they are out. listen to the acoustic bleed in the mandolin and time this bleed up with the acoustic. little things help, yeah? you will note there's insignificant bleed into the acoustic?

this is a bright mix...with bright materials. i'm mixing this currently and am well aware of the issues of the strings - bright, sharp, brittle, and it all needs rounding off, smoothing out with some good EQ to try and hit the most hazardous resonances. if you have access to tape sims, use um! major weapon in defeating the problems....try and think analogue with everything you do here in order to nail the issues and brutal accuracy that comes with working in the digital domain.

i'm finding the stereo image here difficult to comprehend, confusing. it makes the song a problem for me to engage in because i have no idea which instrument is leading - so i hit the skip button for sanctuary

i think there were room mics with this mix? can't remember. if there were/are, i'd personally ditch them. if i need ambiance i'll make my own. it gives me total control, rather than the recording engineer having it!

we all have a different mix vision, and maybe you perhaps haven't really thought through your vision before going into the mix? well, at least that's what it sounds like, if you know what i mean? personally, i put the acoustic to the left (not panned hard), mandolin to the right and i dumped the fiddles behind them in the depth field - panned wide'ish across the stereo image. the accordion came center and was given a little spotlight to flag it up in the mix because it offered some nice sonic variation. thinking this way gave me a stereo spread, good separation of the instruments, i could play the room better with ambiance and depth controls and fine-tune EQ to suit depth (and perhaps lose a bit of brightness off the fiddles too, and help them blend nicely).

a word about compression: it's paramount you know how to use a compressor otherwise the sharp attack on the mandolin and acoustic will actually worsen and this is the opposite of what you are looking for, of course. if it helps, i actually didn't use compression other than what the tape sims gave me....but you need good sims here. it also needs extreme vigilance on the stereo buss; i note you hit this song far too hard; this is a folk song, not Metallica, eh?

whatever you do, DON'T give up. you can only give up when you've nailed it....because then you will have learned something valuable. but sometimes it's also good to switch off if you're struggling and do a different mix....then come back to it later with a fresh perspective and renewed vigor

so....post your revision......and let's get this working, eh?

cheers
Dave