03-11-2016, 06:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 18-11-2016, 08:43 PM by chantelle777.)
Edit 3:
Been doing a LOT of reading, listening to CLA on Youtube, and tweaking the hell out of this song. I broke a few rules—mainly to never pan hard LCR (I'm eating my hat, Roy, if you're listening). Panning "hard" seemed to open up the space a lot more, so I've done that with everything. Adjusted a few EQs to add body back into the guitars. I also added compression through the bus and added slight EQ boosts to low & high end, plus slight (-0.30 dB) limiting to the Master.
By no means perfect but I feel better about it at least.
Cheers,
Chantelle
Edit 2:
Okay, so I had my lesson yesterday, and well, my instructor reeeeallyy doesn't like me mixing on headphones. When played on the studio monitors the song sounded muddy, and she was correct. So…
Here's what I did today (Nov5):
• Removed reverbs & EQ'd from scratch, removing unnecessary low frequencies from the other instruments to boost the bass
• Corrected volume/EQ of drums as they were WAY too quiet
• Muted room mics as they were adding to the muddiness.
• Adjusted panning to re-balance instruments
• Removed side-chaining from vox/guitar as it wasn't really doing anything
• Added a small "ducking" or a pocket EQ on the guitar group to clarify lead vox
• Re-Added reverbs
• Lead & Background Vox, ironically, were the one thing my instructor liked, so I've left them alone
Anyway, I'll be working on this song in the studio next week but I couldn't resist trying to correct things on my end and see if the teacher's advice worked. I'm still training my ears to find the perfect balance and troubleshoot discordant frequencies. Got lots of reading to do for the next couple weeks.
Edit 1:
I've added an updated version of the song. I adjusted panning and levels to combat "competing" sounds, and lowered low-end frequencies on the lead vox to help bring out the bass, which was also boosted slightly. I also lowered the volume of the room mics slightly. Boosted overall volume by 1db. Better? Worse? The same?
Hey Folks;
I'd welcome feedback on this mix. I'm working with Ableton Live 9, mixed on Audio Techniqua headphones.
I'm pretty happy with it, except for parts where the lead Vox sounds a little sibilant at peaks. Putting very mild compression on it helped. Trying to resolve it further without making him sound too strained or muffled.
I also sidechained the guitar group through the lead vox as they were competing a little at the peaks. I'm a n00b at side-chaining so it might be my imagination that it improved anything.
Of note: I've been taking audio engineering lessons in ProTools and have struggled with my mixes; it's an acoustically unbalanced studio environment with an audio engineer who has admitted to hearing loss (!!!!). So I've been working at home to see if it's really me or the environment/instructor.
Before I began taking lessons I was working independently in Live since 2008—strictly on a laptop & headphones!—and have received good feedback on my personal work (country music isn't usually my forte but I love this song).
Thanks in advance!
Been doing a LOT of reading, listening to CLA on Youtube, and tweaking the hell out of this song. I broke a few rules—mainly to never pan hard LCR (I'm eating my hat, Roy, if you're listening). Panning "hard" seemed to open up the space a lot more, so I've done that with everything. Adjusted a few EQs to add body back into the guitars. I also added compression through the bus and added slight EQ boosts to low & high end, plus slight (-0.30 dB) limiting to the Master.
By no means perfect but I feel better about it at least.
Cheers,
Chantelle
Edit 2:
Okay, so I had my lesson yesterday, and well, my instructor reeeeallyy doesn't like me mixing on headphones. When played on the studio monitors the song sounded muddy, and she was correct. So…
Here's what I did today (Nov5):
• Removed reverbs & EQ'd from scratch, removing unnecessary low frequencies from the other instruments to boost the bass
• Corrected volume/EQ of drums as they were WAY too quiet
• Muted room mics as they were adding to the muddiness.
• Adjusted panning to re-balance instruments
• Removed side-chaining from vox/guitar as it wasn't really doing anything
• Added a small "ducking" or a pocket EQ on the guitar group to clarify lead vox
• Re-Added reverbs
• Lead & Background Vox, ironically, were the one thing my instructor liked, so I've left them alone
Anyway, I'll be working on this song in the studio next week but I couldn't resist trying to correct things on my end and see if the teacher's advice worked. I'm still training my ears to find the perfect balance and troubleshoot discordant frequencies. Got lots of reading to do for the next couple weeks.
Edit 1:
I've added an updated version of the song. I adjusted panning and levels to combat "competing" sounds, and lowered low-end frequencies on the lead vox to help bring out the bass, which was also boosted slightly. I also lowered the volume of the room mics slightly. Boosted overall volume by 1db. Better? Worse? The same?
Hey Folks;
I'd welcome feedback on this mix. I'm working with Ableton Live 9, mixed on Audio Techniqua headphones.
I'm pretty happy with it, except for parts where the lead Vox sounds a little sibilant at peaks. Putting very mild compression on it helped. Trying to resolve it further without making him sound too strained or muffled.
I also sidechained the guitar group through the lead vox as they were competing a little at the peaks. I'm a n00b at side-chaining so it might be my imagination that it improved anything.
Of note: I've been taking audio engineering lessons in ProTools and have struggled with my mixes; it's an acoustically unbalanced studio environment with an audio engineer who has admitted to hearing loss (!!!!). So I've been working at home to see if it's really me or the environment/instructor.
Before I began taking lessons I was working independently in Live since 2008—strictly on a laptop & headphones!—and have received good feedback on my personal work (country music isn't usually my forte but I love this song).
Thanks in advance!