Actions: 'Devil's Words' [OctoOnFire]

[OctopusOnFire]

Hi guys,

First submission here two years after creating the account. Been doing this and that, learning stuff, and participating in some sites, but I kinda had forgotten about this great supply of very cool songs to mix and practice.

To the point

I'll be mixing some songs from here, trying to be quicker, going for a sound, trying bolder things that I wouldn't otherwise, etc. I really liked this song to start with. It's catchy, very energetic, and looks fun to mix. I went for a "radio sound" (whatever it means), trying to stay dynamic and punchy but twisting the knobs a little harder. Anyway, any feedback is appreciated, especially about getting in the ballpark of where I want the mix to go.

Quick recap:

- Drums: Triggers on everything, replaced kick and snare. FG-401, a vca compressor on the buss and the rest mostly eq hi and low, some enhancement (Revival). And T-racks clipper on top.

There's a 'drum room' with the overheads through a room verb and a distressor+fg-bomber (Transient manipulation, mostly for bringing out the tail)

- Bass: It went trough several stages of saturation and a distressor. It's sidechained to the kick.

- Guitars: Mostly just EQ and a little saturation. However, I duplicated the rhythm heavy guitars and ran the copies through fuzz distortion (SDRR2 gives you a lot of options), then an EQ filtering everything but the 2k-20k (ish) region. Then added it to the original guitars, carefully. It opens them up nicely.

- Vocals: EQ, compression and some distortion. I made a copy of the track (FX too), it goes through a chorus/widener (Microshift).
The double lead goes through a pitch shifter an octave down with distortion about 15% wet. It just thickens the voice in the choruses nicely.

The usual reverb and echo on the voice and the rest of the stuff. Lately I'm trying to use different reverbs for different elements in the mix.


- 2bus: Lots of stuff doing small additions. C6 multiband controlling the mids and lows, Tape saturation, console saturation, the FG-Red bus comp, M/S saturation, some EQ and a limiter.
It's "mastered" loud, just to simulate what I want to go for. The limiter is taking about 2-3 db of GR.


That's it, I tried to be brief, but I hope the info is any useful

Cheers

[UPDATE: New revision added after the feedback. More info on Post #6]

[LukasL]

Hey Octopus,

on fire this mix is.

No seriously great mix. A few things come to mind though:

- Sibilance on the vocal.
- Kick and Snare are bit too crispy and started hurting my ears a bit.
- The FX on the vocal at 2:23 really dont fit this quiet part, a more gentle approach would be suited I think heavy compression and the disortion dont fit)

Everything else is top notch, espcially the drums, bass and guitar tones.

Cheers,
Lukas

[kapu]

Hi! It feels a bit crispy, perhaps take the cymbals down a few dBs? Very clear and good separation. I'd personally like to hear the 'master glue compression' or something more, but that's a personal preference. Very good work in overall! ^_^

[HVLTN]

Hey Octo

Smashin'! Really love the delay on the clean guitar during the verse!

Like Lukas said, the sibilance is a bit strong, in particular on the sides, e.g. during the first verse at 0:33 and 0:36 I feel surrounded by 's'-sounds. So fixing the sides may just be enough.
Also, during some parts the vocals are exeggerated around 380 Hz, e.g. 0:57. You could automate the eq during the critical parts or if you're gifted with some multiband compression skills (which I am not, hah) that would be another option.

Apart from that I think the overall balance is fine as long as the vocals are present. I do think during absence of vocals though, the whole sound is slightly a bit too dark/hollow, frequency wise. Especially during the intro, if you add some air the guitars somewhere around 5k (a bit hard to tell on the master mix, due to the crash cymbals) with a balanced Q for just 0.3 dB, it smoothens the transition to the first verse and, to my ears, creates a more well rounded sound, which is my personal interpretation of "radio sound", but ymmv.

In addition to that I think there's too much rumble around 70-80 Hz on the tom(s) to the right, the first verse does reveal this heavily.

Still a very solid mix!!

Cheers, hoshi

edit: And welcome back!! I also just returned after leaving for more than a year after my registration, so let's keep improving here together

[OctopusOnFire]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

Okay, listening back now I hear what you say. Most things at least.

- Overheads could go a little down, at least carve some 7k away or smth. The hihat is specially stubborn...

- Rhythm guitars could be a bit thick, maybe need a little more sparkle, probably the overheads didn't help too.

- Kick could definitely go down a few db, it pokes out too much. Maybe I can twist the bus compressor a little harder then.

- The voice is a wild one to tame. I'm mixing another song from the same band and separated the quieter parts to different tracks (even using plugins clip by clip O.o), I'll do the same here. I'm already using dynamic eq and multiband compression, I think.


Spot on feedback, that was brilliant

I think it's pretty close, I'll try not to screw it up now.

[OctopusOnFire]

Okay, so I made some adjustments yesterday.


- Worked on the kick and snare poking out too much to the point of being tiring. Also the overheads have been pushed back and cleaned up the ear piercing and used some L/R EQ to tame specific elements such as the hihat. At first sight it may seem less energetic and more contained, but I think it really helps in the long run keeping the mix cohesive. I also played around with some nonlin reverbs for the kick and snare, to give them space while keeping the tail on check. It is VERY easy to be fooled after several hours of mixing into bringing up the kick and snare too much because your ears have become used to the punch and it doesn't seem punchy anymore.

- Bass: I made it work better with the kick, did some minor adjustments in the low end, readjusted the volume.

- Guitars: A small bump around 5k on the rhythm guitars now that they have more space to pop out on the sides. Minor eq adjustments on the other guitars.

- Voice and BGV: Both are clearer and brighter, and the sibilants are more controlled. For the quiet part near the end, I split the voice track into a new one, less dirty, compressed and distorted. It has a different reverb as well. The whole voice track has a smidge more verb because the former one seemed to have the voice too separated from the music.

- Some readjustments were needed on the main bus after these changes. I had more room for the compressor to work, so I twisted it a little more. I went a little easier with the distortion, especially the lower end.


Summing up, I think I polished it where it was rough around the edges, and after a second listen, I think I didn't go too far with the brightness. Comparing both mixes, I think the second one lets the different sounds bloom more naturally while the first was kinda sucking them out of life, despite the apparent energy given by the drums.
But it is my mix, so I'm biased and kinda used to it. So maybe I went too far here and there? Let me know what you think.

Cheers.