21-05-2015, 09:44 PM (This post was last modified: 22-05-2015, 11:18 AM by londonmatt.)
Found this quite an interesting challenge - lots of bleed, not great sounding drums or guitars etc. So I've done quite a bit of parallel processing in an effort to get it sounding big without losing the organic vibe. Would be interested to know whether you think I've managed - or any other comments also welcome.
(Unlike others, I didn't particularly try to preserve the '70s' sound, as I kind of think if the band were recording now, they'd probably do things differently. Apologies if that seems like complete sacrilege )
22-05-2015, 12:07 AM (This post was last modified: 22-05-2015, 12:13 AM by drFiend.)
The most important, compression screams for more work - it has unpleasant pumping out of music tempo and crackling distortion, especially on low end. At times sounds like the drummer is punching the vocalist in the face. Too fast, or maybe some HP on sidechain will help?
The snare is sort of phasy "electronic" sounding - is than intended? It could work with different compression, though.
Stereo image is almost here, checked it on headphones on purpose, it does not sound unpleasant or weird except solo. I think it fits the style.
Not a fan of Vitamin (if I haven't mistaken), but it's ok for more commercial HF. Worked on vocals, not sure with guitars. Good on low volume, distracting on high. If low listening volume is intended, nothing wrong. It maked me instantly turn in down even with ReplayGain.
Liked loud electro organs and guitars blend.
A few points:
- the low end distortion you're hearing is probably due to the parallel (and distorted) bass channel, which I've backed off and reduced the saturation.
- the snare is electronic, it's a (not great) sample from Logic. I don't have quality drum samples available, I'm looking at getting NI Komplete soon which includes studio drummer, which would be far superior to what I have currently. However, I realised that the snare was triggering quite a lot in response to kick or hihat hits, so I've gone back in and cleaned all those up which helps a lot.
- automated the panning on guitar 2 to bring the solo into the centre - now means there isn't anything balancing guitar 1 on the right for that time, but I think you're right, it makes more sense to go that way.
- I didn't use Vitamin on vox or guitars, just EQ. Have backed off the top end just a shade. I did use Vitamin to add a tiny boost to the top end at mastering but I've ditched that as well.
- Not sure what the issue was you were hearing with master buss compression as it was doing about 1dB GR - however have tweaked the ratio down a touch, and also backed off the FG-X at mastering. It's now -12 LUFS, -14dB RMS average across the whole track.
All in all, a bunch of quite small changes but I think it's improved - thanks again for the input.
22-05-2015, 10:44 AM (This post was last modified: 22-05-2015, 10:45 AM by drFiend.)
So this was FG-X? Then it makes perfect sense. This tool is notable for causing stuff like this. Demoed it long ago out of interest and bypassed as fast as heard the effect. This is not normal limiter, this is sort of clipper. If I want to listen to clipping, I'll just flattop something for free. Sometimes it sort of works (not noticeable) but often not.
By the way I too played with distortion on bass but ended up discarding it. Steals too much from low end punch parallel or not.
New version is much better and I don't hear any obvious pumping/distortion. And solo got out of my right ear.
I mixed this one way back and remember a lot of the challenges you mention.
Dynamically the whole mix feels a bit flat to me... not necessarily solely as a result of your processing. Keep in mind that these tracks are sourced from tape, which naturally rounds off transients... and it's old tape, so doubly so. Main takeaway from there is that you may need to work a bit to protect what transients you have, rather than attenuate them as we usually have to do with digital recordings, to keep the sound lively and modern. So parallel compression is a good start in the right direction there, but it's good to try and leave juust a little more transient on the parallel channel, especially in a situation like this where you're basically performing a restoration... the guitars and vocal both feel a little blunted in this respect to me, and the mix as a whole is a bit squeezed. Even modest compression settings across the mix are potentially dangerous in this situation, though... don't forget that the guys working on tape didn't have the 96 dB of dynamic range that we have to work with when mastering for CD.
Try to think of channel compression more as a tool for shaping dynamics rather than explicitly managing them... consider the transient and sustain envelope your primary target and try to manage the dynamics more with automation and buss compression.
There's quite a bit of crackling/distortion surrounding the guitar solo across the stereo image... not sure what's going on there. Could be printed on the tracks, but it almost sounds like digital distortion.
Re parallel distortion on the bass.... I personally think this bass needs more midrange harmonic content to get itself across and bring the funk, and distortion is the best bet. If it's hurting the low end, try bandpassing the parallel channel with a linear phase EQ, allowing only the content you're aiming to enhance to get through. There will probably still be a bit of subtle comb filtering depending on how you're achieving the distortion, but this is very easily solved with a simple phase rotator... usually you can just fiddle with it until it gets louder, then you can be pretty sure that the phase relationship isn't going to be counterproductive if you need to pull the parallel channel up in the mix.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
Matt,
I like the fact that you did a 'modernization' of this song. Not easy to do considering the tape based tracks.
I like the spread you've given it and the new space you placed it in. I know you can really get crazy on all of the tonalities of the instruments in this song and I think I hear you struggling a bit with the guitars. However, I like the result. Thanks for the good work.
)
