Who I am. My mix

[bmullen]

Wow, this mix really progressed well. Nice job!

[juanjose1967]

thank you guys!!!!

[Pedaling Prince]

My first mix of a country song. I was glad I found this song because I just love it. You know, a country song for a Spaniard like me is something quite exotic...

Anyway, for the first time I can hear all the instruments I've been trying to mix and most of them have an acceptable sound in my opinion (you might laugh about it but keep in mind that I've been mixing for only 5 months).

But, the best way to improve it is by learning your own mistakes, so I'm more than ready to hear your opinions and critics.

Thank you!

OK. This is interesting.

This mix, IMHO, requires what us screenwriters like to call a "page one rewrite." In other words, there's too much stuff that needs fixing for individual suggestions to help; you need to start over from scratch.

That being said, however, I was impressed with the relative clarity of the mix. To my ears, this sounds like a mix done by a talented mix engineer who was simply unfamiliar with the musical style he was working with. This makes sense given your own comment about how "exotic" country music sounds to your Spanish ears.

So I suspect you have the talent necessary to do a really fine mix of this material; I recommend only that you alter your approach. Here's what I'd do:

First, listen to the drum overheads, try to determine where each drum is in the stereo image, then pan the positions of each of the close mics as close as you can get them to those positions; that should give you a good stereo balance on the drums.

Now look at the individual instrument tracks and imagine in your mind's eye a stage where each of those tracks represents a performer; make sure your performers are spread comfortably on your mental "stage." Now, adjust the pan on each track until each instrument is in the place where you picture that performer in your mind.

Vocals, of course, will be dead center. Use a smooth reverb on them, something that sounds like the reverb on a concert hall stage. Keep it subtle; if you can hear it clearly when you solo the track but not when you're playing your entire mix you've probably got it perfect.

Now the only compression or EQ you should apply at this stage is to the vocals. A gentle compression ratio of 2:1 with a threshold around -15 or so should be enough. Then you might "air" the vocals a little with an EQ boost around 12 kHz or so (just five to 10 dB at most) and cut back a bit (three to five dB) around 300-350 kHz.

Also on the vocals you'll want to apply a high pass filter around 80 Hz to get rid of any "rumble" from the mic noise or air conditioning used in the studio; it'll help clear some space in the frequency spread for your bass and kick drum.

Now try running the whole mix without applying ANY processing to ANY of the remaining tracks, no EQ, no compression, no reverb, nothing. Given the quality of these tracks (these were a Telefunken microphone demo) that may be all you'll need to do, other than balancing the instruments against the vocal.

If it sounds a bit too flat, try using the reverb you're using for the vocal as a send effect and put ALL the tracks through it, as if they were all on the same stage with the vocalist. Again, just try to keep the reverb effect subtle. It should be almost subliminal; it's just there to give some "presence."

If you decide to try this, I'd love to hear the results.

[Pedaling Prince]

The vocals are way too loud.
I cant listen to the rest

I agree, but I think saying, "I cant [sic] listen to the rest," is unnecessarily harsh and counter-constructive; it might be true but stating it outright only hurts the mixer's ego and does nothing to help him improve his craft.

[Pedaling Prince]

Ok, I've tried to improve the song:

- The vocals are too loud in comparison to the rest of the track in the verses: I've tried to use a trick mentioned in Mike's book that said that turn the fader all the way down and little by little turn it up until you think that it's got a good level. Then just the opposite, by turning it up and going down. Then somewhere between those "good" points, will be the right level. Well, let's see if it has worked out or not!

- A little less reverb on the vocals: You got it!
- Sidestick (snare) is buried: you were absolutely right and I noticed that it couldn't be heard. Now at least I can
- Ac guitar is too loud in the verses: not anymore!
- Some panning of the violin and banjo would make your mix wider, that goes for ac guitar too.: granted!

The only thing I haven't done is trying to approach a more 'country style' sound because I believe that I have to listen to than kind of music for a few days in order to pay attention to how instruments sound. I don't think that listening a couple of songs will do the trick.

That's one of the most amazing things you find when you start mixing: before I was paying attention to the overall sound of a song, but I didn't care much about individual sounds in a song; and now I do! So little by little I'm learning about it; and the more I learn, the more I like it!!

OK. Maybe I was wrong on the whole "page one rewrite" thing in my last post. I have to admit, this is quite an improvement! Doesn't surprise me much, though; like I said, your previous mix showed lack of experience but a lot of potential.

Still, you might try the "page one rewrite" approach I suggested as an educational exercise. See what comes out of it.

That being said, here's what I'd do to improve THIS mix:

Vocals are still a tad high; I'd pull them down about 2 dB. BACKING vocals are fine where they are level-wise but I'd dial that reverb back quite a bit.

Snare's a little too "snappy;" felt like a tiny guy with a sledgehammer was smacking me over the bridge of my nose...

Might spread the instruments a LITTLE wider in the stereo image; sounded a little collapsed and boxy towards the end, at least to my ears.

Still, I must say a considerable improvement over your first attempt; I really enjoyed this.

[Pedaling Prince]

Jamolir, here it is with a couple of db down in the verses.

Glad you like it better now!



...and thank you Thedon!!

Ah, now THIS is NICE!

Overall vocal level sounds right now but still feel a little too up-front; I suspect dialing back on your vocal compression a tad will fix that. Also, snare snap and backing vocal reverb are unchanged from your previous attempt so those are still issues.

Still, this is one of the better mixes I've heard of this song. You can officially ignore my "page one rewrite" advice at this point.

[Pedaling Prince]

Jamolir, here it is with a couple of db down in the verses.

Glad you like it better now!



...and thank you Thedon!!

Great to hear huge improvement in such a short time

Absolutely! Honestly, I was startled by the degree of improvement when I listened to the second mix. Felt bad that I told him to start over when I listened to his first attempt.

[juanjose1967]

thank you, John! this was my fifth or sixth song I mixed in my life. I have good memories of it because it was the first time that I got a good sound that reminded me somehow of profesional songs. In my short time mixing (9 months only) I've improved a lot. It is now when I'm starting to get mixes that I really like. Of course, I know that I still have a long way to learn until I start getting comfortable when mixing, but I've noticed the improvement in me and that's good.

Thank you for your time and your valuable help and comments!