Had a chance to listen to a number of mixes now...
A few observations on what I learned from other mixes and also how I approached my mix:
1) Is this song wanting to be Reggae (spacey delays), Rock (distorted guitars, harder drums) or Folk (more acoustic)? I ended up at "Caribbean Cowboy", as a cross between Folk and Reggae. Listening to others, the range of excellent interpretations across genres is apparent. Illustrates how the multitracks become very different songs in different mixers' hands.
2) How to keep the listeners attention? Many mixes muted portions of the arrangement (i.e. drums) to add contrast, others flew existing parts around (generally guitars and/or whistles); and some added new parts (i.e. piano accompaniment). I found what I needed in a quite unexpected place: the percussion (esp. the Timbale, Congas and HiHat). Those hits seemed well timed to transition between sections and add interest in the right places.
3) Managing dynamics between verse and chorus? There wasn't much to work with. Just the drums (snare, hat) and the Organ. I felt that was the toughest aspect to get right. In my mix, by heavily treating the Organ to become an ambience pad, and drawing out the HiHat and percussion. On other mixes, some nailed this, but in other cases there are otherwise excellent mixes where the overall presentation suffers by not delineating the verse and chorus sufficiently.
4) Where to put things in the stereo field? The area where we seem to have, collectively, taken the most divergent approaches: opposition panned delays; doublers/wideners; opposition panning of rhythm guitar and piano; to all sorts of creative reverbs. I ended up with something close to mono for the verses, but with more use of stereo in the chorus and outro. I felt this song centers on call-and-resonse phrases between lead vocal and lead guitar (and, at few other times, the base). So I treated it more like a duet there, which is why the main guitar stays centered throughout.
My sincere respect (condolences?) to Mike for offering to listen through all the mixes!
Good luck to all on the competition!
Cheers, Jeff
A few observations on what I learned from other mixes and also how I approached my mix:
1) Is this song wanting to be Reggae (spacey delays), Rock (distorted guitars, harder drums) or Folk (more acoustic)? I ended up at "Caribbean Cowboy", as a cross between Folk and Reggae. Listening to others, the range of excellent interpretations across genres is apparent. Illustrates how the multitracks become very different songs in different mixers' hands.
2) How to keep the listeners attention? Many mixes muted portions of the arrangement (i.e. drums) to add contrast, others flew existing parts around (generally guitars and/or whistles); and some added new parts (i.e. piano accompaniment). I found what I needed in a quite unexpected place: the percussion (esp. the Timbale, Congas and HiHat). Those hits seemed well timed to transition between sections and add interest in the right places.
3) Managing dynamics between verse and chorus? There wasn't much to work with. Just the drums (snare, hat) and the Organ. I felt that was the toughest aspect to get right. In my mix, by heavily treating the Organ to become an ambience pad, and drawing out the HiHat and percussion. On other mixes, some nailed this, but in other cases there are otherwise excellent mixes where the overall presentation suffers by not delineating the verse and chorus sufficiently.
4) Where to put things in the stereo field? The area where we seem to have, collectively, taken the most divergent approaches: opposition panned delays; doublers/wideners; opposition panning of rhythm guitar and piano; to all sorts of creative reverbs. I ended up with something close to mono for the verses, but with more use of stereo in the chorus and outro. I felt this song centers on call-and-resonse phrases between lead vocal and lead guitar (and, at few other times, the base). So I treated it more like a duet there, which is why the main guitar stays centered throughout.
My sincere respect (condolences?) to Mike for offering to listen through all the mixes!
Good luck to all on the competition!
Cheers, Jeff
All sound is a distortion of silence / soundcloud.com/jeffd42