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Trick Bird - Window
#11
(24-09-2015, 11:52 AM)The_Metallurgist Wrote: greetings,,

firstly and importantly here, i recommend you exercise care when applying modulation effects that alternate between the left and right channels because it can induce a nauseous feeling in headphones/buds especially; i am personally susceptible to such things! you have something running on the bass which is triggering it. i complement you on your endeavours in seeking ways to make the song move and sound more interesting though. the bass element in your mix is quite weak relative to the mid range (>300Hz) which is also making the bass drum sound a little lonely down there. the fact that this bass, as arranged, is utterly disinteresting, i'd try and explore other ways to make it more dynamic, at least during certain parts of the song. what other ways can we get creative with it, within the confines of the song and it's concept? note that if you keep an effect running all the time, the ear tunes out and ignores it after a short time when the effect essentially becomes worthless and redundant (at least for the listener, that is, such is human nature). so i'd note the modulation effect running on the bass has other limitations also.

i recommend backing off all your compression, indeed, i'd ask myself why compression was needed given the raw material is heavily compressed. the vocal especially is suffering here, but the mix overall could do with more dynamics generally to help minimise the missing musical dynamics?

your snare doesn't sound central to me....was that a creative decision?

a final recommendation: always check your mix in mono now and again. and by mono, i don't mean listening to the stereo downmixed to mono over two speakers....but you need to solo it properly and switch off your other box, unless you have a solo speaker purposely for this task. you will hear certain elements that pop out and punch you in the face; these are the ones you have to balance much more carefully in your mix. ALWAYS check how your mix translates in mono - or die. now all i have to do is practise what i preach LOL.

there's some harshness/brittleness in your mix generally and non-specifically. i suspect you've been finding ways to get some air here and affect the song's spectral balance by pulling it away from the over-indulgent mid range material present in the raw goods? i don't blame you. any boost in EQ, unless (or despite) a broad Q, will tend to cause this. perhaps a trick (pun intended) is to actually work the low/low-mids first before touching the treble area. often by so-doing, we can find the treble is present but the crud was simply helping to skew our perception. i'd note that your mix is still biased between the 300-1000Hz region - the zone where instruments can sound very nasal. i know it's a problem inherent in the material and you sound like you worked your butt off trying to address this. i think in the circumstances, your efforts were super. i downloaded this song, took one listen to the vocal, and the arrangement, then gave up immediately!!

oh, Hbguitar's observation is the track #15, guitar04. it did stick out oddly for me too.

anyway, break over, back to work Sad

Thanks for your insightful comments. I did go heavy with final compressing and limiting due to a loud reference track I knew this but couldn't help competing and hammered a bit of life out no doubt. I always like a bit of chourus on bass but it is a less is more thing more or lessUndecided The 300 - 1000 region was very difficult in this song. My efforts to get things to sparkle - or at least glimmer - were indeed long and arduous. Did I succeed? Who knows. But I had fun.Big Grin Thanks Again.
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#12
Hey Nos, Sorry I haven't commented on your mix! I'm a terrible community member. I will give her a listen when I get home, just listening on my laptop speakers, atm, so critical listening wouldn't be so critical right now. . . but I think I hear what Dave is talking about. I'll give a listen when I'm home with my HD650's and monitors.

Sorry I've taken so long!

Draper
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#13
I love what you did to the guitars... Only one issue is I think the drums are too punchy and big on the mix and maybe you could notch some high frequencies on the hi hats and tambourines... Great job Smile
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#14
I agree with raghav, your drums do seem a bit punchy in the mix, but I actually think you could get some more body from your snare. Bring the kick down just a touch, and bring some of the lower mids up in the snare. Or, you could bring your kick down a lot, and keep the snare as it is. Right now there just seems to be bit of a disparity in the drums. It sounds like you weren't 100% sure on how you wanted your drums to end up, so you made concessions (as one must always do when mixing) and I think separately the sounds work, but together something isn't gelling.

Everything else sounds really nice. Maybe a little too much saturation on the vox? just a smidge.

Nice job (review only a few months late)

Draper
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