Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Went for the full 4-take vocal comp
#1
Let me know what you think.

Felt like the beatboxing was lackluster so I sampled some electronic stuff and some world drums as well, ("African tom-toms," as some people call them, to go with the djembe, or "dun-dun," "sangban," and "kenkeni," as they're actually called.)

I felt moderately passionate about this mix because the vocals were so powerful, and it ended up being almost 70s of work after the vocal comping, rhythm section editing, and drum sampling/arranging, which I'd consider extraneous or "project-variable," in the amount of time-consumed. Time between static and dynamic mix-downs was probably under 32 hours.

I'm unsure if the vocal lines are cut and pasted in a way that's true to the rhythmic intention of the soloists in a few places, because its all so heavily edited that I perhaps lost some of their original "pushing or pulling" rhythmic tension on the LVs. If I decided to spend more time on this I would likely look at that first, but things like that might require attention and perspective from another set of ears on site.

This mix marks the first time I've had real plug-ins as well, thanks to waves recent sale. It features the R-Channel Vocal Suite, the F6 and C4 multiband compressors, H-comp, some random stuff like SuperTap and HReverb, the L3 mastering suite, and PRS supermodels on the scat solo. I have also the Bomb Facotry 1176 and some really good freeware plugins.

Next step real monitoring headphones! These ones have a cup in 4K and a slight low boost.

Cheers!

In retrospect I feel like I could have put the whole mix in a room and that might help blend the percussion elements with short reverb, the LVs with plate reverbs, the uke with a medium reverb, and the bvs with long reverbs, more cohesively in the same space.

After listening to a few other mixes as well, I feel like the super-reggae style delay on the uke is kind of mandatory, it completes the flavor of the music in a perfect way.


.mp3    I am The Moon_15.mp3 --  (Download: 11.49 MB)


Reply
#2
Nice to see I'm not alone in putting "insane" amount of working hours, Dan! This is impressive stuff with a hypnotic, snake-like quality. That said and though I'm anything but technical and there are lots of people out there who can give better advice, here's my list of highlights (and some little reservations):

- The ADT on the bass for the choruses +
- All the editing you must have done to make any sense of that onslaught of voices +
- The treebly, trianglish percussion thing on the right side +
- Using the "trumpet" solo, because who would not? +
- Dynamics under control despite dealing with a witches's sabbath of vocal section +

And so nobody thinks I'm your mother or something:

- The synth-bass during the solo takes more than it gives, that part is already at the verge of implosion without it
- At the end when everyone goes beast mode, I think there's some distortion on the voices
- Maybe too many elements with an in-your-face treatment and colliding with the voices ("snare" sample first comes to mind)
- And yes, it'd be on a different league with some reverb per section treatment, like you said

Whatever, I'd be pretty happy to hear this were I in the band
Reply
#3
Yeah, I listened to it after a few weeks, and not having my ears buried in the same sounds forever made me instantly realize that the snare sound basically just doesn't fit at all. Sonically its super close to the beat-boxing, and was easy to blend with that, but compared to the balance of the whole mix it would have been better if it was some sort of lower-pitched snare/African drum composite sound, with perhaps the attack of a snare, and the decay of a kenkeni or djembe, or something of that nature.

Since I did this I've studied Warren Huart's mixing process, and it's completely changed the way I do bass guitars, (double or triple multed every time now) and the way I think about reverb. Before I was super-scared of having a "muddy" or "woofy" mix, and I was high-passing a lot of low end out of my reverb on things like drums and bass guitars. Warren's a classic rock guy, and while I worked on one of his A-list productions and had access to the mix that he did for reference while I was working on my version, my ears opened to what is acceptable. Part of this hesitancy to add more low end to more different things comes from also mixing in headphones which don't have flat response so I was hearing more low end than was really there, but Warren is monitoring on 3 foot tall genelec's and his mix had so much more warmth that it sounded completely different and I decided to edge things more in that direction ever since.

I might have used the wrong compressors on some of the vocals, "H-comp" with the "analog" knob turned up does produce some distortion, I haven't really used it on vocals since, I've been leaning on RChannel, RVox, and the BF1176 mostly. The entire mix might also be limited more than it should be. Or I might actually be clipping inside plugins in my vocal effects chains and not noticing it, that's something that warren's videos also covered.

The synth bass I just included because it was there and I felt obliged, could just take it out or turn it down. I automated it up in a few places where it was doing more interesting things, that could be reverted.

The bells were a part of the dun-dun, sangban, ect. samples.

So yeah more reverb on basically everything, (Warren wasn't leaving anything completely dry in the mix that I referenced,) and more low end in a lot of the reverbs would make this sound better. I just had the wrong idea of what I could and couldn't do when I mixed this to begin with.

Also worth noting that since I did this mix I've learned how to use edit window shortcuts and tab to transient and my time spent editing drums has been cut in half or more. Its great!

Thanks for the comment!
Reply
#4
I'm also forced to mixing with headphones and there's this plugin that's supposed to "flat" the sound of headphones called Sonarworks Reference and I think it's really helping me, though it could be cheaper. I checked it out because I had bought a pair of Sony MDR7506 and freaked out at how harsh and treebly they were but this plugin changes their sound so much they just feel good now.

Then there's also Toneboosters Morphit which is cheaper and has a more friendly registration process.

And some people like to use plugins that simulate the feeling of mixing with monitors. I have Toneboosters Isone because it came within a bundle, it's fun, but not for me. Anyway, maybe some of this stuff could be useful for you.
Reply
#5
I guess there's a melodyne trial so I'll get that mix of you and me and the radio out at some point in the next month.
Reply