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The Blues Is A Lady - AZmix
#1
Okay. here's my take on this one.

I'm pretty happy with the sound but wish I could figure out how to put more energy into the final product.

Problems I ran into:

There are timing problems all over this multi-track with the biggest culprit being the bass part. Not wanting to be critical, though, but it sounds like it was played by someone lacking experience. If I were a better bass player, I would have simply replaced the part. It's hard on a track like this to know just how precise to make things fit because it wants to be a little loose but the more I corrected, the further it began to sound that I needed to go. Frustratingly, in some cases, I heard the timing issue but for the life of me couldn't find the culprit after I zoomed in to have a look and a listen. For the vocal tracks, before I decided that I wasn't entirely happy with the groove at some points, I had already done a good amount of work in Melodyne and would effectively had to start that over if I were to move clips about so Itried to fix most of it within Melodyne but it's a lot harder to sync it up with the parts doing things that way.

Didn't like the tone of the main electric guitars so put an amp simulator on those two tracks with a clean amp and just a little drive to be able to adjust the tone a bit since EQ wasn't doing the job.

The vocal double track was not always consistent with the style of the primary track. Also differed in timing. That pushed my Melodyne skills past their limit and while I'm satisfied with the result, it could still have been better.

Had a terrible time trying to get a good drum sound. The samples were okay, just not great. Not entirely happy with the result but it works.

Was hard to find the right ambiance for this track. Since I thickened up the track considerably, there wasn't a lot of room for delays and reverb but after some experimentation, I think I got what I was after.

Anyway, here you are. Hope you like it.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.


.mp3    the-blues-is-a-lady-mix-ltd.mp3 --  (Download: 10.44 MB)


Old West Audio
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#2
So I re-uploaded the file after deciding a couple of things needed adjustment and also went back and gave the solo guitar its own (long) reverb. It's actually surprising, the way this mix is, how much of that I could add in before the thing started to sound quite out of place.
Old West Audio
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#3
Hi Wayne

Very creative .. really wide. sounded good at lower volume
the lead guitar and the harmony guitars kind of get lost with those weird top end frequencies, sounds like he was using a squire strat going straight through the board .. lolHuh, maybe some filters would help that. I just set the tracks up for this song in my DAW and listened to the E Guitars ..yikes, seems like a lot of challenges ahead.
anyways, I like where your going with it.
cool vibe!!

KSmile
Gear:-Zoom R24 interface, controller - Cubase/Reaper - Assorted Waves, Airwindows suite, AKG K240 Cans, Event TR5 reference monitors.
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#4
Yeah, that is a problem. They contribute more to the articulation of the guitars than the tone once the electrics join in but they're still there. In my session, I went back in and made some EQ adjustments on both the acoustics and the chorus-after harmony section (which I muted the first time it appears in order to try to add more movement to the tune) and that seemed to help them come out more.

If you're gonna mix this, take my advice... spend MUCH time adjusting the timing of all the tracks before you add anything more than compression. The results are most definitely worth it. When everything gels, this is actually a really cool tune. He could use a little vocal coaching to smooth over a few phrases but he did a very good job overall and I like what he assembled.
Old West Audio
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