Jet B: 'Suit You' kapu mix

[kapu]

Tried to achieve something between Billy Idol, Plastic Bertrand and that-famous-punk-rock-girl.

[Dangerous]

Great intensity and energy Kapu.

Just wondering if the drums are overtaking the mix a little here. I did listening to the mix from across the room where this was made more noticeable. A guitarist perspective also.

Regardless, I like this a lot. Well Done.

Dave

[kapu]

Great intensity and energy Kapu. [...]

Thanks. I trust your ears, and me too was thinking the drums were a bit loud, so I readjusted levels a bit and updated file. Still, I kinda like the overpowering smashiness the snare has. It's like a 300 pound fisherman fighting with a giant squid using a huge fish as a weapon. ^_^

[sagalegin]

Sounds big. Drums are a little in your face. Like the overall power and space. Good job

[kapu]

Sounds big. Drums are [...]

Thanks! The levels might still need some adjusting. ^_^

[Roy]

Yeah. Definitely a big sound. It might be a little too squashed but it works for the song. I only have a couple of minor issues.
-The HiHat bugs me. It feels a washy and gets distracting. It moves too much. I think that's probably in the programming in a effort to humanize it.
-The compression on the snare restrains it a bit. Mostly on the fills and rolls.
-I'm on the fence about the bass sound. The upper end sound works and gives it definition but add a little brittleness to the overall sound of the mix. I might be overthinking that though.

In the end I like the overall sound. It's definitely rock and roll and any issues I may have are just personal taste.

[kapu]

Yeah. Definitely a big sound. [...]

Thanks! The overall drum sound is a unholy mess, but I kinda like it. Used some sidechaining with the overheads and room to make it sumpy and pumpy, and that's propably what's disturbing about the hihat too. Initial sound for me was too static. Did you mean the entire mix needs more high end? I've been lately getting feedback from some clients that some of my work is too bright, so I've been deliberately trying train myself to make a bit darker overall sound. Maybe went too far. ^_^

[Roy]

Yeah. Definitely a big sound. [...]

Did you mean the entire mix needs more high end? I've been lately getting feedback from some clients that some of my work is too bright, so I've been deliberately trying train myself to make a bit darker overall sound. Maybe went too far. ^_^

From what I remember the hi end of the mix was fine. It didn't jump out at me. I was just talking about the high end of the bass guitar.

[kapu]

From what I [...]

Ok, thanks. Tried reshaping the bass sound. Hope it being a midi program isn't too obvious now. ^_^

[Max Headroom]

The first thing you made me do, was turn it down.

I'm wondering if it's a combination of compression and hard limiting on the 2 buss that's causing some of your treble comments? I suspect you are a product of the Loudness War era, with this smashed outcome. Inevitably it leads to artefacts that are unappealing, harshness and brittleness being typical. This contributes to fatigue, but so too the complete loss of dynamics as in this instance.

I dropped it into Orban to put some figures to the ear analysis. It was confirmed, the objective results support the subjective ones and I present them here for info.

Integrated loudness -5.4 LKFS
LRA 1.7
Highest reconstructed peak level 0.3dBFS
Reconstructed peaks above 0dBFS 1154

In the short time I've been involved in the forum, I've noticed a lot of clipping takes place generally. I mentioned to one forum participant the other day, that clipping is the fastest way to ruin a pair of speakers, and the artefacts that it brings are not pleasant, though some mixes can get a way with a little now and again, more than others. I think this is one of those mixes that most definitely doesn't and we can see why from the info.

If you are used to loudness, that is, the artefacts of loudness for the sake of it despite it's destructive qualities on audio, you will be pretty hooked on the need for it's distortion.

If this was loudness matched against Spotify's playout spec of -16.5 LUFS, with -1.0 max peak, this mix would sound dull, lifeless, and musically emotionless and uninteresting against a more dynamic presentation that had a good balance between loudness and audio quality. The more dynamic mix, with the same imposed loudness normalisation, would actually sound subjectively louder than yours. It's to do with transients. A dynamic mix sounds exciting when it's turned up, and almost begs for it. I had to take it the other way, as I said.

The hard facts speak for themselves; your material would be uncompetitive in this era of loudness normalisation.

During the louder moments your mix is no more than 4dB from being pink noise.

Couple of things I'd mention. I am finding this a guitar centric production too, with the vocal becoming lost sometimes. It's suggesting you might have, maybe, a little bit of instrument bias perhaps? The intro guitar hasn't any ambiance or Haas signatures, making it sound like it was performed in the surreal space of an anechoic chamber which contradicts the genre.

By the way, the first time I heard the voice, I thought of Debby. You too?