Big Dummy Shake - Audiomuze

[Audiomuze]

Hey everyone, here's my mix. Fun song to work with, and some interesting challenges with blending the real/electronic drums. Thanks in advance for any comments.

[k14studios]

Nice balance in this mix. Everything is can be heard and is present. I think I would have made some different EQ decisions though. The most apparent thing to me is that the drums sound a bit thin. During the intro, the drums set the mood for the whole song. If they're weak, that carries to the rest of the song.

I do like the reverb on the music. This song is screaming for some kind of glue be it reverb, delay, compression or all of the above. I don't particularly like the level of reverb on the lead vocal. Maybe dialing it back a bit will help the vocal track pop a little more.

[pauli]

Hey Audiomuze, typing as I listen. Sorry for the delay in critiquing your effort.

In the verses, I feel you're sacrificing a bit too much low mid beef in the drums/bass to the guitars. The snare in particular feels a bit far away and anemic... but it might not have anything to do with how you've processed the snare... most likely the guitars are just eating it. I'm not hearing a lot of thump from the kick either, but the bass guitar is coming across reasonably well. I'd suggest you start any revision by trying more aggressive EQ from about 600 hZ and down on these guitars... it's rock, so the guitars should obviously be a strong feature, but you'll get a lot more groove and emotion by giving the rhythm section a little more space to do its thing.

The verses could use a bit less reverb, and the vocal could be a little dryer throughout the mix... it's sounding a little bit distant for my personal taste, which makes it a little harder to connect with it. In this case, maybe consider the attitude in the lyrics... in my personal opinion, a distant vocal sound is a little contradictory with the in your face lyrical content?

My main concern though is that most listeners expect the chorus in any pop/rock tune to provide a big emotional payoff, and that's a little lacking for me in this mix. It's hard to describe emotional payoff in technical term, but in most cases, you'll want a sound that's "bigger" relative to the previous verse. The mixing illusion is all about contrast in the end. So I'd be looking to make the choruses louder, wider, more spectrally dense, deeper, and "taller" than the preceding verse.

Louder, wider and spectrally dense are easy enough to understand, and I think in terms of wideness you're already sort of getting the right idea in your current version. The average loudness, however, definitely shrinks in the choruses... I realize every rule has exceptions, but in a rocker like this, you're likely to turn most listeners off if the first chorus is smaller than what came before. That's a real challenge with this arrangement if I recall, because the instrumentation isn't as dense in the choruses. So in order to get the loudness to where it needs to be, you'll either have to rely on as much spectral content from each instrument as possible (which will mean taking it easy with the EQ carving) or you'll have to pare down the instrumentation in the verses. Both are acceptable solutions in my opinion, so that'll come down to your personal taste. Consider applying distortion/saturation to elements that are sounding a little thin in the choruses to give them some beef, and maybe bust out the EQ to trim out a little beef on similar elements in the verses.

Taller and deeper, though? Deeper for me refers to the sense of space in the mix... some mixers like to keep that relatively consistent throughout a mix for a more realistic sound stage, and in many cases I'd do just that, especially in acoustic music. In this case, though, I recommend experimenting with enhanced reverbs and delays specifically in the chorus sections to give them a little more bombast... but be careful not to wet it down too much, either. When there are thick, chunky rock guitars happening, it's often a good idea to keep reverbs well under a second long when designing your space, and you wouldn't be too careful to aggressively EQ the returns either. When I say taller, I'm talking about the frequency extension of your mix. In most listening environments, sub woofers are usually on the floor, woofers are either on the floor or as high as chest level, and tweeters are often level with the ears, so extending the bass and treble during the choruses has the potential to give your mix true physical expansion... very literally making your mix bigger. In addition to this, consider that high frequencies are experienced entirely in the ears, at head level, while low frequencies are experienced throughout the body, and everything lower than about 80 hertz is experienced almost entirely in your gut... this creates an illusion of size in environments where the woofers and tweeters aren't positioned ideally.

Hopefully some of that is helpful?

[Audiomuze]

Thanks mate, appreciate your comments

[Audiomuze]

Hey Pauli,

Thanks heaps for all your comments, really appreciate that. Yep, good comments, and I'll certainly take them on board.

It's an interesting arrangement, and I guess it will speak in different ways to different people. To me, with the tracks that were presented, the verses really needed to rock out & drive, and the choruses needed to be held back a bit, almost more suspenseful. Yes, that's opposite what you'd expect, and maybe it didn't work that well, but I was always disappointed listening to other versions where the verses were 'smaller'. But I do understand what you're saying, and I need to be aware of how well the 'big picture' works rather than getting lost in the details. I certainly appreciate the comments/suggestions about how to get a better balance between the sections, and have some idea of how I could reshape things a bit. Thanks again, much appreciated!

[pauli]

I start by turning up the electro drums relative to the rest of the song. Maybe automate the choruses up a notch....

Most of the time though, your best bet is to refigure your balance starting from the final chorus. If you get that final chorus grooving and work backwards, that's often the best way to keep the big picture in perspective without losing sight of the details for me. It's tough with those raging guitars in the verses though, because they're certainly a lot more interesting than anything going on in the choruses... I think this tune could use a bit more production, overdubbing in the bridge to fill it out a bit.