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SZLACHETKA - Heart Strings of My Home Town - Updated
#1
Pulled on some heart strings, this one did. . .

Challenges where first, aligning the drum tracks and then figuring out the approach to the arrangement based upon the kick, bass and guitar in the genre. The guitar took a lot of work to get close and I'm not sure I'm happy with it yet. The kick and bass found their home when I tried not to force them into what they weren't. With that and some filtering on the environment/OH tracks I think the drums came together well. There is some phasing though from the BGVs, I think.

The keys and vocals were pretty straight forward so no real struggles there, however there are some serious pluffs on the lead vocal mic.

I took some liberties with the opening because of the disparity between the guitar riff level and the vocal in context to the body of the song. I like how that turned out. It lead, I followed.

SZLACHETKA - Heart of My Home Town - Mix 2

I followed my own advice here and found a better home for the guitar and its monotonic quality which makes it difficult to present well. And I think I found something which works (see Note1, below). As a result I needed to re-home a lot of the rest of the tracks. This included duplicating the keyboard track and splitting out the Rhodes vs. the organ and then operating on them discretely. That helped a lot. Clarified the bass and honed the kit. Sliced up the tom tracks instead of gating them which made more sense. Gated the snare which also helped the cymbals a lot. There remains a wash in the cymbals which comes from the BGVs. I tried gating them but when they came in the difference was not viable, IMHO. More hi-passing on the vocals to eliminate as many plosives as possible and then a re-balance of the BGVs against the lead.

-12.9 LUFS; 11.7 LU

Note1:
Took one of the guitar tracks and offset the tuning by 3 cents and panned them partially left and right, respectively. Put the guitar buss through a stereo in-line IR reverb and fiddled around until I found a space which worked with the tone and dynamics of the guitar and gave me the space I wanted for both the rhythm and lead phrases.

I hope there is something to discuss in my approach. As always, I look forward to your input and comments.

Your friend,
mITc


.mp3    SZLACHETKA - Heart of My Home Town.mp3 --  (Download: 9.01 MB)


.mp3    SZLACHETKA - Heart of My Home Town - Mix 2.mp3 --  (Download: 9.01 MB)


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#2
I gave it a quick listen through. I'm a little burnt out at the moment. That said it feels very good. My only issue is the guitar tone. It gets harsh and overly crunchy at times. Though I think that's mostly due to the actual guitar sound.
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#3
(13-08-2019, 03:25 AM)RoyMatthews Wrote: I gave it a quick listen through. I'm a little burnt out at the moment. That said it feels very good. My only issue is the guitar tone. It gets harsh and overly crunchy at times. Though I think that's mostly due to the actual guitar sound.

You may be right about the guitar. It was an odd sounding choice by the player and the two mics were a bit confusing. I mostly tried to fix what I thought was a broken sound. Probably needs to be chopped up into phrases and treated completely differently in those sections. I tried to do a shortcut and failed. There are places I like how it melds with the organs which I may keep, but the solo is a toss.
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#4
(13-08-2019, 02:50 AM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: Pulled on some heart strings, this one did. . .

Challenges where first, aligning the drum tracks and then figuring out the approach to the arrangement based upon the kick, bass and guitar in the genre. The guitar took a lot of work to get close and I'm not sure I'm happy with it yet. The kick and bass found their home when I tried not to force them into what they weren't. With that and some filtering on the environment/OH tracks I think the drums came together well. There is some phasing though from the BGVs, I think.

The keys and vocals were pretty straight forward so no real struggles there, however there are some serious pluffs on the lead vocal mic.

I took some liberties with the opening because of the disparity between the guitar riff level and the vocal in context to the body of the song. I like how that turned out. It lead, I followed.

I hope there is something to discuss in my approach. As always, I look forward to your input and comments.

Your friend,
mITc

The organ is a bit too bright in the chorus, would keep it down a little. The strong vocal reverb in the beginning is also distracting. Good guitar & drum sound. Your mixes are always a bit harsh in the top end.
The good thing about live mixing is that you don't have to worry about how it sounds later on someone's soda can. You got your live acts, your mixing desk, your PA, and your audience that you directly connect to and you have to get it right without the possibility to fiddle with the settings afterwards.
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#5
(13-08-2019, 09:33 PM)Thomas Mueller Wrote:
(13-08-2019, 02:50 AM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: Pulled on some heart strings, this one did. . .

Challenges where first, aligning the drum tracks and then figuring out the approach to the arrangement based upon the kick, bass and guitar in the genre. The guitar took a lot of work to get close and I'm not sure I'm happy with it yet. The kick and bass found their home when I tried not to force them into what they weren't. With that and some filtering on the environment/OH tracks I think the drums came together well. There is some phasing though from the BGVs, I think.

The keys and vocals were pretty straight forward so no real struggles there, however there are some serious pluffs on the lead vocal mic.

I took some liberties with the opening because of the disparity between the guitar riff level and the vocal in context to the body of the song. I like how that turned out. It lead, I followed.

I hope there is something to discuss in my approach. As always, I look forward to your input and comments.

Your friend,
mITc

The organ is a bit too bright in the chorus, would keep it down a little. The strong vocal reverb in the beginning is also distracting. Good guitar & drum sound. Your mixes are always a bit harsh in the top end.

The opening vocal is REVERB only. I was attempting to set the tone of remembrance of an old home town; a hearkening... Obviously I failed.

That is the first time I've heard someone say my top end is harsh, let alone always harsh. I wonder if it is my old ears.

Thanks for the listen and your comments.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
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#6
(13-08-2019, 10:07 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote:
(13-08-2019, 09:33 PM)Thomas Mueller Wrote:
(13-08-2019, 02:50 AM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: Pulled on some heart strings, this one did. . .

Challenges where first, aligning the drum tracks and then figuring out the approach to the arrangement based upon the kick, bass and guitar in the genre. The guitar took a lot of work to get close and I'm not sure I'm happy with it yet. The kick and bass found their home when I tried not to force them into what they weren't. With that and some filtering on the environment/OH tracks I think the drums came together well. There is some phasing though from the BGVs, I think.

The keys and vocals were pretty straight forward so no real struggles there, however there are some serious pluffs on the lead vocal mic.

I took some liberties with the opening because of the disparity between the guitar riff level and the vocal in context to the body of the song. I like how that turned out. It lead, I followed.

I hope there is something to discuss in my approach. As always, I look forward to your input and comments.

Your friend,
mITc

The organ is a bit too bright in the chorus, would keep it down a little. The strong vocal reverb in the beginning is also distracting. Good guitar & drum sound. Your mixes are always a bit harsh in the top end.

The opening vocal is REVERB only. I was attempting to set the tone of remembrance of an old home town; a hearkening... Obviously I failed.

That is the first time I've heard someone say my top end is harsh, let alone always harsh. I wonder if it is my old ears.

Thanks for the listen and your comments.

One could also interpret the beginning as the singer standing in the church of his old hometown lol.
Anyway, it's a nice son for using reverb even if you find my reverb to be too much, i wanted to use it to give the song some "old school" vibe (like 80s rock), but yeah, seemed to be no good choice either i guess. And I may have seid this a bit drastic when I said your mixes sound "harsh" at the top end, it's just a bit more than I'm used to which leads to harsh sibilance and guitar sounds at some points (especially when listening through horn speakers), you could counterargument that my mixes have too dim highs so whatever. Obviously I can't comment on your hearing quality.
The good thing about live mixing is that you don't have to worry about how it sounds later on someone's soda can. You got your live acts, your mixing desk, your PA, and your audience that you directly connect to and you have to get it right without the possibility to fiddle with the settings afterwards.
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#7
the bass you used only the low frequencies and not the highs. The guitars don't explode. still good work
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#8
(13-08-2019, 10:59 PM)my_name740 Wrote: the bass you used only the low frequencies and not the highs. The guitars don't explode. still good work

I actually did but you are correct in stating that the bass is not very distinct. I matched the bass and the kick and in listening to the kick is was all bottom and very little top end, which I considered a clue to how to build the bottom end of the mix. More throb than punch. I mean you have to give the artist his palette, right?

As for the guitars, when they exploded I got covered in gooey slim. As I am not a fan of getting slimmed, I contained them as best I could. I guess I could have crossed the beams... To be serious, I had a tough time with the guitar sound. I will work on improvements.

Thanks for the listen and the comments.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
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#9
(13-08-2019, 10:44 PM)Thomas Mueller Wrote: One could also interpret the beginning as the singer standing in the church of his old hometown lol.
Anyway, it's a nice son for using reverb even if you find my reverb to be too much, i wanted to use it to give the song some "old school" vibe (like 80s rock), but yeah, seemed to be no good choice either i guess. And I may have seid this a bit drastic when I said your mixes sound "harsh" at the top end, it's just a bit more than I'm used to which leads to harsh sibilance and guitar sounds at some points (especially when listening through horn speakers), you could counterargument that my mixes have too dim highs so whatever. Obviously I can't comment on your hearing quality.

You are right in that I hi-passed the piss out of, and added a ton of top end to the guitars and they still sounded too thick for my liking. I will need to shed on them some and try to find an environment in which they find a better home. Right now, that is a home I am unfamiliar with. It will assuredly change the character of my mix when I can find that abode.

I do think your horn based monitors may be a contributor to the high end balances we find in each other's mixes. I will keep that in mind when listening in the future.
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#10
(13-08-2019, 11:30 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote:
(13-08-2019, 10:44 PM)Thomas Mueller Wrote: One could also interpret the beginning as the singer standing in the church of his old hometown lol.
Anyway, it's a nice son for using reverb even if you find my reverb to be too much, i wanted to use it to give the song some "old school" vibe (like 80s rock), but yeah, seemed to be no good choice either i guess. And I may have seid this a bit drastic when I said your mixes sound "harsh" at the top end, it's just a bit more than I'm used to which leads to harsh sibilance and guitar sounds at some points (especially when listening through horn speakers), you could counterargument that my mixes have too dim highs so whatever. Obviously I can't comment on your hearing quality.

You are right in that I hi-passed the piss out of, and added a ton of top end to the guitars and they still sounded too thick for my liking. I will need to shed on them some and try to find an environment in which they find a better home. Right now, that is a home I am unfamiliar with. It will assuredly change the character of my mix when I can find that abode.

I do think your horn based monitors may be a contributor to the high end balances we find in each other's mixes. I will keep that in mind when listening in the future.
Posted a second mix attempt. Maybe you'd like to take a listen.
The good thing about live mixing is that you don't have to worry about how it sounds later on someone's soda can. You got your live acts, your mixing desk, your PA, and your audience that you directly connect to and you have to get it right without the possibility to fiddle with the settings afterwards.
Reply