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Uncle Dad - Who I Am - Mixed by Mange
#1
Third song on this site.

Started throwing away some tracks.
M81 Kick: Kept two of the three kick tracks. Three kicks got to be overkill.
Fat head: Some overhead/room mic, Nah.. away with it.
HiHat: With great hihat from the overheads and two stereo miced strumming guitars at the same pace as the hihat I decided this too had to go.
Cieling mic: yet another distanced drum mic in the trash.
Banjo AK47: Found the CU29 more even in the dynamics.
Fiol 260: This was a bit boxier than the AK47. Liked less box more.

Kept the stereo takes of the guitars but didn´t use them centered.

OHs was narrowed quite a bit as the swaying of the cymbals came through too much.

Drums were tracked quite compressed so I just used a little compression on the drumheads bus. I usually use three drumbuses. Heads, cymbals and room. These three then goes to a DrumMix bus. Maybe a tip for someone. Maybe a laugh for others.

As Mike Senior mentions/suggests in his great book I this time mixed last chorus first, then I tried to make the earlier parts less and less. Only used the mute button to achieve the build up.

For automation, all I can recall is the different mutes/cuts and a slight mult on the snare/rim to gain better control of the snare/rim balance. Other than that the mix is static.

Used Tracktion 4, all stock plugins with the little help from Spitfish deesser.


All suggestions for improvement are welcome.


.mp3    Uncle Dad - Who I Am [Mixed by Mange].mp3 --  (Download: 5.59 MB)


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#2
Hi!

There's no mix posted... Smile

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#3
Blush Updated
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#4
Haha, no harm done... Smile
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#5
Hey Mange !

Another good mix of yours !
Sounds sweet and well balanced.
If i may just suggest something ... : The kick is a little too present for me, in this sort of music where you'de better feel it than hear it so distinctly. Maybe a little too much of 3-5k on it...
Bass sounds really deap, but not as defined as i would appreciate to hear it. I'm not sure it will be clearly heard on small speakers. I'll give a shot and tell you ..
Rim is maybe a little too dry/too low in the intro, i might bright it up a little a maybe apply a short reverb to give it a little ambiance glue with the rest of the kit.

For the rest... it's all good to my ears ! Very nice to listen to. No harshness at all, tracking of this song is really good though, it's hard to make a bad mix with such a quality tracking. You made good choices about killing some tracks ! I did the same with another Telefunken song (don't remember which one...). The choise is interesting and makes us decide from the start what to mute or what to keep.

Good job man !
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#6
For example, i think that ERJEE's mix has the perfect kick sound for this music.
The rest is all good, different, as mixes are, as humans are.
Listened to yours again on small shitty pc speakers and confirm : the bass should be tweaked a little to jump out of the mix in the 800-1k region ...

Nice done anyway
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#7
@XabiX: Thanks for taking time listening... twice. Will play around with your suggestions as soon as I can.
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#8
Had a look at the pointers made by XabiX.

Rim: I changed level and amount of reverb but eventually went back to my original setting.
Bass: Redid the EQ and added some distortion! First time trying this trick.. read about it in Mikes book. I have not tested it on true grotboxes yet. Just ordinary monitors hipassed and lowpassed to somewhat approximate some grots.
Kick: Backed off som smack, it got better. Didn´t take it to the point of ERJEE though.

More or less closing this track now. Pointers are still welcome.


.mp3    Uncle Dad - Who I Am v2 [Mixed by Mange].mp3 --  (Download: 5.58 MB)


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#9
Well done for the bass !
I use that trick almost all the time... reamp the DI in another track, and distort the DI track a little... always helps !

Still not convinced by the kick, too much hi mids for my taste, but its balance is correct and it's all about personnal taste after all ...

Well done Mange !
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#10
(07-03-2013, 11:16 AM)mange Wrote: Third song on this site.

Started throwing away some tracks.
M81 Kick: Kept two of the three kick tracks. Three kicks got to be overkill.
Fat head: Some overhead/room mic, Nah.. away with it.
HiHat: With great hihat from the overheads and two stereo miced strumming guitars at the same pace as the hihat I decided this too had to go.
Cieling mic: yet another distanced drum mic in the trash.
Banjo AK47: Found the CU29 more even in the dynamics.
Fiol 260: This was a bit boxier than the AK47. Liked less box more.

Kept the stereo takes of the guitars but didn´t use them centered.

OHs was narrowed quite a bit as the swaying of the cymbals came through too much.

Drums were tracked quite compressed so I just used a little compression on the drumheads bus. I usually use three drumbuses. Heads, cymbals and room. These three then goes to a DrumMix bus. Maybe a tip for someone. Maybe a laugh for others.

As Mike Senior mentions/suggests in his great book I this time mixed last chorus first, then I tried to make the earlier parts less and less. Only used the mute button to achieve the build up.

For automation, all I can recall is the different mutes/cuts and a slight mult on the snare/rim to gain better control of the snare/rim balance. Other than that the mix is static.

Used Tracktion 4, all stock plugins with the little help from Spitfish deesser.


All suggestions for improvement are welcome.

When I first started listening to this I wasn't sure I was going to like it; it sounded kind of flat and sparse. It wasn't until I listened further that I started to understand the effect you were going for, adding more to the mix as it goes to create that sense of buildup you mentioned. By the end of it, I was actually enjoying it. Smile

That being said, I did feel that the drums sounded flat and unnatural somehow. I suspect it would've helped if you'd kept that fat head overhead room mic; would've added a little more natural character. Also, the snare got a little too snappy towards the end, feeling a bit like someone was knocking on my forehead.

Lead vocal level is perfect, if maybe a little too compressed; might dial the compression down a notch. Also, the backing vocal would sound better up a dB or two, I think.

Might want to make the instrument tracks louder in the early going.

Otherwise a solid mix I enjoyed quite a bit. Smile

BTW, I agree on the CU-29 Copperhead choice. I LOVE that mic; whenever I see it in a Telefunken demo track I tend to use it. Nice flat frequency response and warm character suitable for recording just about anything IMHO. Wink
John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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