Memories of Punk

[davemcg61]

This brought back memories of high school and temporary hearing loss. Back in 1979 I went to a punk concert... don't even remember which band... likely due to over-abundances of drugs and alcohol.

I kept all that in mind when mixing this track, keeping everything as loud as possible. I edited out the amplifier hum where ever I could, EQing and compressing the living hell out of the drums. Then I matched in the bass guitar, and then the guitars. The lead guitar solo was given an abundance of stereo delay, as were the lead vocal tracks. When mastering, I kept the limiter happily slammed to the wall.

Beware, this is loud and raunchy. Tell me if you agree.

[KMuzic]

Hi Dave

Thanks for the explanation of how you achieved your mix. I think it worked really well for the style of music. Driving and raunchy!
On my next revisit to this song I'm going to try some of your tips.
Job well done, I like it!

Cheers

K

[davemcg61]

I think this is the first post I made here back in January, so it's time I went back and applied some of what I've learned here, thanks to you folks.

I couldn't believe the wacky EQ going on, so I basically wiped everything and started over. The bass guitar will seem much cleaner and sits below the kick. The rhythm and lead guitars are brighter with far less compression to keep the dynamics. On the topic of dynamics, Only the kick and snare tracks were compressed before going to the drum bus; all other tracks were EQ'd and balanced, but only the group buses have compression. The effects used are basically the same, but changed from track inserts to sends and automated similarly. Mastering was far different - different EQ and compressors. If I recall correctly, it took many hours to mix and master this tune the first time around. This time my workflow was such that the mix was done in two hours, and the mastering only took about 30 minutes. Tell me what you think.

[KMuzic]

This was one of my first ones too !! well, in the first month.

Good job Dave.. Day and night from the first one. nice, tight and bright just like a good green day type song should sound like.

Ill give this one another try soon!!

Good Job

Cheers
Kirk

[davemcg61]

Thanks, Kirk. All the EQing techniques learned thus far were applied. If there wasn't a reason to touch a band, it was left alone. I had been compressing tracks and again on the group busses. Now the tracks are left uncompressed, unless it really requires it, like the snare and kick.

[Deliza]

Hey, Dave! About v2 (which pretty much obliterates v1), those twin guitars are really spot on, bright and angry, just like the OH's. So the hi-end is great and crispy. You could do with a little more bass, though, as it'd help with disguising the not too tight kickdrum playing.

Panning one of the voices feels a little odd, at least on headphones, specially since I think it's the main one. Also because, in a quite symmetrical arrangement, it's panned along the hat, which is the only constant part that is panned without having a twin part. Of course, not everything has to be balanced all the time, I guess.

Overall, it feels crunchy, alive and silly, just like it should. Nice job!

[davemcg61]

Hey, Dave! About v2 (which pretty much obliterates v1), those twin guitars are really spot on, bright and angry, just like the OH's. So the hi-end is great and crispy. You could do with a little more bass, though, as it'd help with disguising the not too tight kickdrum playing.

Panning one of the voices feels a little odd, at least on headphones, specially since I think it's the main one. Also because, in a quite symmetrical arrangement, it's panned along the hat, which is the only constant part that is panned without having a twin part. Of course, not everything has to be balanced all the time, I guess.

Overall, it feels crunchy, alive and silly, just like it should. Nice job!

How about this version, Deliza? I lowered the second vocal track and reduced the pan to 1/8 from 1/4. A little more EQ got the kick drum a tad tighter, allowing me to raise the level. That one change makes the bass guitar a little more present too.

[azwayne]

I actually like the first version better! It's quintessential Punk styling and this is such a great tune for it! Even though when someone says "Punk" to me my mind goes in one of two directions, depending on the song. Either the Clash (deceptively simple tunes carefully not overdone but really stand up) or the Ramones on steroids (*really* aggressive the the point of almost being non-musical, the sort of thing that makes you want to pound eighth notes on a metal trash can just because its loud and really annoying.)

[Deliza]

It's funny how malleable is a tune so simple as this. Lots of mixes here go for a GreenDay sound, but what I like about v2 is that it reminds me of late 70's powerpop, where there were a lot of songs like this, and very often ended up having a sound like yours. Less low end, more bite and energy.

V3 kicks hard for a second, but eventually I think is worse than v2. It makes wonder if you changed monitors, or room or something, because the mix seems to have gone thru a lot more changes that you mention, especially the global EQ; low end feels like I'm in a lowrider blasting out of a subwoofer. Snare sounds better than previous versions, and drums are bigger, rounder and more modern in general, but guitars lost that hi-mid range bite. Bass and kick probably gel better now, but both are loud enough to weigh down the mix. Also, there's more low end is louder over the left side, which is weird and noticeable on headphones (though why would someone listen to tunes like this on headphones, anyway?).

My turn now!