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Jules King 'Never Stop' - OctopusOnFire
#1
Hi guys,

I went for a balanced mix, since I usually tend to exaggerate the "smiley curve" EQ overall. Regarding that, there was a lot of stuff to attend to in the mids, especially the guitars. It was hard to keep their character while getting them under control and not becoming abrasive and ear piercing.

To fix the bass low end, I reamped it to keep it on check. I added samples to the kick and snare, keeping the given ones, just adding a little bit of frequencies and adding Overhead and Room takes for each to give them depth.

Keyboards were especially difficult to feature without them eating up the other instruments. There was a hefty amount of automation to let them shine through the mix in the busiest parts.


All in all I'm happy with the mix and I think everything has a place, it's dense, has impact, and it works well as a unit. However, I've been on this one for 3-4 days and my ears have got used to it, so any comment, especially on the tone and balance is appreciated.

Cheers,

OoF

Quote:UPDATE

Some general tone changes, let me know if ti works better.


.mp3    JulesKing_NeverStop_OctoOnFire.mp3 --  (Download: 9.73 MB)


.mp3    JulesKing_NeverStop_OoF_R1.mp3 --  (Download: 9.74 MB)


ITB Setup: Reaper, Airwindows, IK Multimedia TR5, XLN AD2 ATrigger and RC-20, Waves.
Monitoring: Dynaudio BM5 mkIII, Behritone, Sennheiser HD 650. Semi-treated room.

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#2
Hey Simon,

you pulled of this one very nicely.
I would bring up the bass up a tiny bit. I'd say the drums could have a bit more power in the chorus. I know the verses are pretty "soft" style wise, but the chorus could use a more "epic" drum sound.
Also the vocals sound a bit bottom-heavy in the choruses (in the sides especially). If this was you and you did your double track an octave lower, then I would pull this track down a bit. Overall I feel the vocals could come back 3db to let music shine a bit more.
One last thing, I think the panned percussive elements sound nice but are a bit distracting from the vocal and other parts. Maybe just turn them down, or pull out a bit of 2.5khZ and LP them for a softer sound? This just preference of course.

To be honest, this really is nitpicking and I could imagine this song and mix playing on the radio(meant as a compliment, lol). Very well done!

Cheers,
LukasAngel


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#3
Thanks LukasL,

I'm going for "radio sound" so I'll take that as a compliment xD. When in doubt, I'm favoring the voice, also another radio sound thing... and I tend to like buried vocals, so maybe I'm overcompensating now? Anyway, I'll end up finding the sweet spot lol. About the panned percs, I usually don't like to change the arrangement of the song, but they're distracting by nature, so I'd probably mute them and bring them up in some moments, probably with a filter effect or something.

I have to perfect the lower octave thing. I put it in the vocal chain, and it would be wiser to give it its own aux channel. Leaving it in within the vocal chain makes it go to every effect behind and losing some control over it. Well spotted.
ITB Setup: Reaper, Airwindows, IK Multimedia TR5, XLN AD2 ATrigger and RC-20, Waves.
Monitoring: Dynaudio BM5 mkIII, Behritone, Sennheiser HD 650. Semi-treated room.

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