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Still flying - this song needs the full Joey Sturgis Treatment =)
#1
Original Post:
I´m working on this song, but I got frustrated about the harsh lead vocals tonight and just stopped working on it for a moment. Gonna put the vocals in the mix this weekend but I wanted to show this mix to someone, so I´ll just upload the instrumental version for now. There will be a lot of volume and eq changes when I add the vocals. You don't need to comment on this instrumental version because it's not ready yet but feel free to write down your thoughts if you want too.

Info:
- I replaced all the shells of the kit with samples from GetgoodDrums Matt Halpern pack. Those guys obviously want to sound like Periphery anyway Smile
- I also deleted the room sound and made my own room with Slates Verbsuite
- The rhythm guitars, bass and synths are all limited to create a huge wall of sound. They only move up and down in volume when I want them to be louder or quieter.
- drums are slightly compressed and clipped to keep most of the transients

Cheers and happy mixing,
Dirk

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Update 13.11.2016
Just finished the full mix of Still flying. I've added the vocals and a new intro, made some minor balance changes to drums and solo guitars, did a full automation pass and finally made some small edits to make the song smooth and groovy. I will step back from this mix for a day or two and get back to it with a fresh mind. The new file "Still flying Final Mix 1" sounds well balanced and polished for my ears, so I don't think I will have to fix a lot of stuff in my final round. Hope you guys like the new mix.

Cheers,
Dirk

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Update 15.11.2016

I wasn't 100% happy with the vocals so I deleted half of the plugins on my main vocal tracks and only kept the ones that were really doing something. Basically went from 6 plugins down to 3. The Vocals have more body now and gel more with the rest of the song. Also added additional automation to highlight some of the hidden details on the overheads and hats.

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Update 08.12.2016

After working on a lot of others projects I finally came back to this song and made two small adjustments:
1. Turned the vocals down a db. I prefer "vocal up" mixes but it was a tad too much.
2. Brought down the toms by 2 dbs after clipping them a little more.

Still_Flyin_Final Mix 3.mp3 is solid as rock and from here everything else is pretty much personal preference and won't change the impact much.

Cheers,
Dirk


.mp3    Still flying instrumental.mp3 --  (Download: 10.49 MB)


.mp3    Still flying Final Mix 1.mp3 --  (Download: 10.63 MB)


.mp3    Still_Flyin_Final Mix 2.mp3 --  (Download: 10.62 MB)


.mp3    Still_Flyin_Final Mix 3.mp3 --  (Download: 10.62 MB)


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#2
Sounds great i think i got as far as the instrumental then gave up on it .
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#3
Know that feeling, Takka. I wish I knew a way how to make the lead vocals sound smooth. I waisted 3-4 hours yesterday trying to fix those harsh frequencies in the 1-3k area with as less processing as I could but to no avail. Probably have to bring out the big guns and just squash them to death.
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#4
Sounds great so far, this one is pretty tricky to mix (I gave up on it and now I'm returning to it again after listening to the official mix and now knowing where to line everything up Big Grin) and instrumentally it has that URM sound, pretty much a commercial level mix without vocals. Personally I'd like more reverb on the snare and toms just to get them bigger sounding, more of a personal thing really but they do sound quite punchy. A subdrop or explosion sound effect would be cool for those single floor tom hits, I know that Joey does that from time to time for some added impact in certain sections of tracks.

Cheers, can't wait for the vocals,
Dcp

Mixing is way more art and soul than science. We don’t really know what we’re doing. We do it because we love music! It’s the love of music first. Eddie Kramer

Gear list: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, Mbox Mini w/Pro Tools Express, Reaper, Various plugins, AKG K240 MKii, Audio Technica ATH M50x, Yorkville YSM 6
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#5
Hey blitz stopping by to leave my thoughts on your mix.

I agree vocals where very hard to work with.. I'm still having trouble with them.
I like the balances on everything. For the instrumental you are on point.
One thing I don't like and this is pretty much taste is the kick deep muddy low end. I would have prefer a less heavy low end kick. I realize how you tamed the bass and it sounds good. I'm gonna do that on mine too.
I like all the lead guitar eq and tone you got on the guitars man i'm jealous Lol

Keep it up it's sounding great.
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#6
Hey Shul,

there is not a lot of stuff on the solo guitar tracks:

- a very good amp sim (Toneforge Guilty Pleasure) with the sm57 mic sim instead of the condenser sim (the condenser is too bright, I want a warm mid tone, not a bright one)
- high & low cuts
- a medium hall and an 8th delay
- a limiter

Note that I cranked the mids to the max. To get that sweet sound I´m looking for; guitars need to have mids. And in my opinion lead guitars need even more mids Smile

Tip 1: There is a limiter build in the amp sim, but I do a lot of my balancing and gain staging with limiting nowadays, and Waves L1 is just faster to open and adjust then the limiter in Guilty Pleasure.

Tip 2: Trackspacer is the only plugin that's on the synth bus. I have a send from the lead guitar bus to this instance of Trackspacer, and every time there is a lead/melody guitar Trackspacer carves space for that lead or melody in the synths.


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#7
The rhythm guitars only have high/low cuts, and I killed some frequencies that were outright awful. I made another -3b cut at 500hz on the guitar bus before I was finally happy with the sound. Other than that there is no compression and no fancy stuff on them, just basic eq and limiting.

As you can see in the pictures I limit the rhythm guitars quite a lot because I want zero movement / no volume changes other than my automation on the rhythm guitars. They just don't move at all throughout the whole song.


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#8
(11-11-2016, 09:01 PM)dcp10200 Wrote: Personally I'd like more reverb on the snare and toms just to get them bigger sounding, more of a personal thing really but they do sound quite punchy.

Thanks for the critique dcp, means a lot to me.

Regarding the snare reverb: I´ve added a separate snare room track with trigger and a snare room sample just to make the snare fatter and get more control over the snare room sound. All my four snare tracks (Snare Top1, Snare Top2, Snare Bottom and Snare Room) go to a snare bus with sends to the drum room reverb and a plate. The problem with reverb for me is that adding a lot of it always seems over the top. But when I listen to professional mixed drum stems I usually wonder how much reverb there is on the snare Smile It's hard to turn that "It's toooo much reverb" button in my head off so I always back off the reverb in the final stages of the mix.
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#9
Just finished the full mix of Still flying. I've added the vocals and a new intro, made some minor balance changes to drums and solo guitars, did a full automation pass and finally made some small edits to make the song smooth and groovy. I will step back from this mix for a day or two and get back to it with a fresh mind. The new file "Still flying Final Mix 1" sounds well balanced and polished for my ears, so I don't think I will have to fix a lot of stuff in my final round. Hope you guys like the new mix.

Cheers,
Dirk
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#10
sounds really good man

Things that stand out to me.
When the toms come in they are too dominant over the mix.. it's almost like they scream "I'm right here"
The vocal sounds like he recorded when he had a bad cold and his nose was plucked. I would go easy on the de esser or if you used dynamic compression maybe raise the threshold.
Love the intro

good mix
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