Passing Ships

[pauli]

Comparing your mix to CAL's is a bit of a shocker, innit?

[juanjose1967]

I think your mix is very good. All instruments are very clear and separated especially in the busy part of the song.

I have just finished my mix and I can tell some differences that you've managed much better than me: the lowmids in the cellos are fantastic and so is your lead guitar (ElGtr5). Good work, Pauli!!

[pauli]

Thanks for kind words most of the this mix involved pretty firmly compressing almost everything, but with fresh ears I'd say I still overcooked the EQ on the piano.... the piano sound on CAL's mix is almost discouraging. ElGtr5 in particular I squeezed the dynamics until they farted to bring it up a bit in the balance, but the farts are occasionally a little too upfront and distracting... I shall have to revise this.

The key to the low mids in the cello is.... doing nothing. I think I adjusted the timing between the multi-mics for more better phase summation, but apart from that it's just a gentle squeeze and a low cut.

I'll hop over and give your mix a listen

[paulcjohnson]

Not bad at all but overall if feels a little dull and soft. I'd prefer to hear the vocal more up front and present and pretty much everything brighter and more punchy. Nice job though!

[pauli]

Thanks for listening and commenting. You're correct on the vocal, it definitely needs detailed automation since I have so much compression going on in the mix. After having another listen, I could've been a little more diligent about the vocal sibilance as well.

As for brightness and punchiness, it's a little lacking and probably not consistent with modern commercial standard. Compression is certainly darkening a mix a bit and might be dulling the punch as well, but to a certain extent that's intentional and a product of my references. This mix for me naturally wanted to come together a little on the dark side simply because the recordings are a bit dark. I personally don't like pushing the treble if for nothing else because I don't have tools that are high quality enough to excite the highs without becoming abrasive, but in this case you're right... I probably should have raised the highs on some of the tracks to compensate for tonal changes incurred by compression.

Thanks again

[loweche6]

I actually think the brightness could be brought up in mastering. If this is a straight mix, unmastered, I wouldn't think it would be a problem, considering it is pretty much across the board. And just adding a mid side equalizer and bringing up the center channel, you could get the vox to really pop. If this was mastered, then I'd say, yeah, a little lacking in the top end of the spectrum.

It's a really enjoyable mix, I especially like the frequency placement of the piano, making it fit in the mix by adding some high-mids. I usually shy away from that part of the spectrum (I have a tendency to go overboard [in either boosting or cutting] that range).

Nice mix!

Draper

[pauli]

Thanks Draper. This is (basically) unmastered, I mixed through a compressor and put a limiter on top with some pretty conservative gain reduction to bring the level up a bit. I used to try mastering my music and adding brightness at that stage, but the EQ plugins I have available to me aren't really suitable for boosting highs over the entire mix buss... they always seem to add sizzle and harshness more than air and clarity. Honestly I think a little air in the vocals and a little shine on the cymbals is all it needs, but bright music usually just hurts my ears

Thanks again

[takka360]

Had a little play with it just out of interest hope you don't mind
The production of this song is all wrong I think from day 1.
If you listen Chris lords mix is nothing great and that's why.

[pauli]

Of course I don't mind... but I thought CLA's mix was intimidatingly good, but it was pretty dark like mine. His sounds like got hit really hard during mastering in the choruses, but he's known for compressing the snot out of his mixes so that may very well have been his decision.

Out of curiosity, what do you think is wrong about the production? I have some reservations, too... almost every instrument required a lot more compression than I'm comfortable with. On my version the drums are really getting pounded, like 10 to 20 dB of reduction in some places, just to keep them stable in the mix. What's your take on all of that?

[takka360]

The way the drums are recorded etc they have no power and don't work with the rest of what is going on no matter what you do.
The producer needs shooting .