Turkuaz - TTTTC

[Mixinthecloud]

This was also challenging. Mostly her voice which is a bit mono-tonal. It look some tweaking to get it to present well, but I think it does.

I hope you enjoy the mix.

[sysrq]

Mix has a fairly good separation but there is a bit too much around 700Hz-4kHz at certain moments which makes it sound like from a telephone handset, this type of tonal balance could stay if frequencies around 400Hz are more prominent and if sound pressure around 3kHz and 4kHz frequencies is a bit reduced.
Kick is tight and with a short punchy pulse like quality which is good since it plays fairly fast at times only thing is it sounds a bit detached from everything else.
Bass has a nice dark mellow tone which fits this music style to some degree.
Snare sound reminds some heavy metal genre.
Brass section seems a bit too bright and upfront compared to guitar and keys.
Vocal reverb fits quite appropriately for this genre.

[Mixinthecloud]

Being that I get bored easily, I took another swipe at this fun piece. The vocals are the most difficult part of this mix to get to lay properly and to be intelligible but I think I found a nice spot for them here. I got very active with mixing the horns which seemed to be the key to a more musical mix. This mix has more definition of the individual instruments with better treatment for getting them to lay as an ensemble (I think). this mix also plays much better at any volume level, which for makes it a better mix than the first one here.

I look forward to comments.

[Cassandra]

Hi there
A huge difference from the first mix to the second...in a goodway of course. Could use a little more deep punch in the kickdrum and maybe but just maybe bring the vox little more up front to make it a 10. :-)
Will post my mix soon I hope.
/C

[Mixinthecloud]

Thanks for you input C. I definitely struggled with the vox. Lots of bleed and not the greatest capture of a voice. I let it get buried behind some of the big wall of sound in several locales in the song. I thought this worked.

[Digitaldruglord]

Thanks for you input C. I definitely struggled with the vox. Lots of bleed and not the greatest capture of a voice. I let it get buried behind some of the big wall of sound in several locales in the song. I thought this worked.

Additional note: Using a 1176 or Fairchild limiter on the vox (I use the 1176AE in UA plugs, my personal favorite) will place the vocals in its own space in the open as well as intense parts of the song. In my version of this song, I ended my lead vocal chain with the UA LA-2A (grey) followed by the 1176AE - a trick I learned some time ago from a old mentor of mine (who has since won 7 grammys). I find these 2 at the end of a rock vocal always works for my strategy.

[Mixinthecloud]

Thanks for you input C. I definitely struggled with the vox. Lots of bleed and not the greatest capture of a voice. I let it get buried behind some of the big wall of sound in several locales in the song. I thought this worked.

Additional note: Using a 1176 or Fairchild limiter on the vox (I use the 1176AE in UA plugs, my personal favorite) will place the vocals in its own space in the open as well as intense parts of the song. In my version of this song, I ended my lead vocal chain with the UA LA-2A (grey) followed by the 1176AE - a trick I learned some time ago from a old mentor of mine (who has since won 7 grammys). I find these 2 at the end of a rock vocal always works for my strategy.

DDL,
Thanks for the suggestion. Not all of us are fortunate enough to have UA plugins. However, my lead vocal chain included two compressors and one limiter and serious equalization removing tons of low end, made trickier by the compression. My final mix is passed through The Glue buss compressor which I have found to be quite nice for an inexpensive and versatile buss and channel compressor.

[loweche6]

What's up Cloud,

I feel like your revision has some mid information missing, that i feel like this songs needs. I think it's mainly in the horns. I understand that you did it so they could cut through the mix better, but I feel like I lose the natural feel of the winds. It also feels like there could be some comb filtering in your horn section? I might be hearing something else though, so don't hold me to that. The placement of the horns also seem to move and smear, so that is why I think it may be some phase issues. Could be a use of a plugin with multiple instances that introduces phasing. I know I have an exciter that I can only run once in my mix. If I have a second instance of it, it will cause all kinds of crazy phase issues.

I did just finish my first cup of coffee for the day though, so I'm not 100% awake yet, so take it with a grain of salt, haha.

Draper

[Mixinthecloud]

What's up Cloud,

I feel like your revision has some mid information missing, that i feel like this songs needs. I think it's mainly in the horns. I understand that you did it so they could cut through the mix better, but I feel like I lose the natural feel of the winds. It also feels like there could be some comb filtering in your horn section? I might be hearing something else though, so don't hold me to that. The placement of the horns also seem to move and smear, so that is why I think it may be some phase issues. Could be a use of a plugin with multiple instances that introduces phasing. I know I have an exciter that I can only run once in my mix. If I have a second instance of it, it will cause all kinds of crazy phase issues.

I did just finish my first cup of coffee for the day though, so I'm not 100% awake yet, so take it with a grain of salt, haha.

Draper

Hey loweche6!
Thanks for the feedback. Agreed, the horns are a bit brittle and the "comb filtering" you are hearing is the effect of a chorus on the stereo horn buss. This causes the horns to appear to move around because of the sweep of the chorus in the stereo field. I liked it. It could probably be better tweaked for mid-range content and maybe slightly less movement. At some point I may get to that. However, please listen to the way the band of the horns connects the two panned guitar lines and the relationship of the content of each.

Thanks again for your astute comments.

[Mixinthecloud]

3-5-2016
I had another go at the mix and mastering of this challenging romp. Too many things were compromises because of the vocals. this latest approach I think fixes a lot of the vocal issues and I took a 'less is more' approach to the horns which now sound much better.

Bright and punchy is what I was aiming for without ripping your head off. I think I accomplished that with the new mix. Listen at lots of different playback levels and please let me know if you think I've made any progress listening to all three version.