15-04-2016, 06:01 AM
So I went metal on this tune partly because I didn't realize it was trying to be a pop tune and because the structure of the song seemed to want to be very heavy and gritty on the low end.
I had several problems with this mix.
First was trying to get the bass to behave as he changed both dynamics and style throughout the tune. It was very hard to keep the resonance at 150 and ~400Hz from building up as instruments came and went. I also had problems with the bass and the kick being mostly out of sync but occasionally combined to knock me across the room. Finally ended up putting a multi-band compressor on my instrument bus and enabling only sub 85Hz to bring this under control.
The second problem was trying to keep everything from masking everything else. I muted several sections of the synth and effects parts and got rid of the organ sound altogether.
The third problem I has was that second electric guitar part. It was hard to get it to make a difference when it came in other than just adding noise and fizz. I applied a multiband compressor to it, added in some help from lowender (not for sub bass but just to add more to 1kHz and down), and tried my best to make it felt as much as heard.
By far the biggest problem was trying to keep the vocals up front and present. Everything was trying to compete for that 600, 800, and 2000 Hz space.
Not entirely satisfied with this mix but I think it is passable. I may go back at some point and try to make this a proper pop mix and see what happens there. Thinning things out might help make everything heard under that style of mix and the low end would be much less problematic, being much less present.
Comments welcome.
I had several problems with this mix.
First was trying to get the bass to behave as he changed both dynamics and style throughout the tune. It was very hard to keep the resonance at 150 and ~400Hz from building up as instruments came and went. I also had problems with the bass and the kick being mostly out of sync but occasionally combined to knock me across the room. Finally ended up putting a multi-band compressor on my instrument bus and enabling only sub 85Hz to bring this under control.
The second problem was trying to keep everything from masking everything else. I muted several sections of the synth and effects parts and got rid of the organ sound altogether.
The third problem I has was that second electric guitar part. It was hard to get it to make a difference when it came in other than just adding noise and fizz. I applied a multiband compressor to it, added in some help from lowender (not for sub bass but just to add more to 1kHz and down), and tried my best to make it felt as much as heard.
By far the biggest problem was trying to keep the vocals up front and present. Everything was trying to compete for that 600, 800, and 2000 Hz space.
Not entirely satisfied with this mix but I think it is passable. I may go back at some point and try to make this a proper pop mix and see what happens there. Thinning things out might help make everything heard under that style of mix and the low end would be much less problematic, being much less present.
Comments welcome.
Old West Audio