Jackie Greene: 'Rise Up Singing'

[Valladares]

Here goes my take...

[Valladares]

I've just uploaded an improved take... I do consider it the "final version".

[ThePhonk]

Hi Valladares,

thanks for reminding me of this great song and the happy hours I spent with it Without arriving anywhere specific I see that there are lots of fine mixes of this song that I did not notice so far, some of them half a year old. What a shame!

I have the privilege of having saved your original mix back then, and being now able to compare your "final" one to the... "progressing" (?) one. (I'd happily share this privilege with everybody else and would encourage you to post new mixes in addition to the previous ones, either in a new post or in an update to the original post.) You moved in a direction where I tried to place this song myself (but did not get there yet): rather dry, and emphasizing the meatiness of the guitar.

Please note that when I talk about certain offsets, I refer to the original multitrack, but not your mix. The attached partial screenshot from the Reaper project I use for listening makes the reason pretty obvious, I guess.

What I like in particular about your new mix is the refined overall balance and separation that lets individual voices shine with just the right amount of brightness to add taste without becoming dominant, for example the very tasteful claps in general, the bass starting at 2:39, the acoustic guitar at e.g. 3:39 in particular or the piano at 4:01.

What I don't like are the cymbals. Check the crash (I guess) at 2:12. It sticks out in your mix like in no one else's. And I would tilt the overall frequency balance 2 to 3 dB clockwise (+2 to +3 dB at 20 Hz, -2 to -3 dB at 20 kHz).

All in all your mix brings out so much of what I like in this song. Thanks for sharing it!

Marc

[Valladares]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for your comments!

In my previous take, you will note that the lead vocal has a great amount of compression, you can hear all the breathing. Now i think i've fixed it, less EQ, less compression and some noise gate work. It sounds more natural now. I've done some bass level/eq adjustments too.

I've heard some mixes of this song and didn't like the drum sound. It seemed muffled, no punch. There are lots of mixes of this song at SoundCloud with no balance between bass and kick, you can't hear the kick... It was my intention to raise the drum sound level, along with some bright, but i do agree that the cymbals sounds harsh at some moments...

I do all my mixes just with an ATH-M50 plugged in on-board ordinary Realtek chipset. I have to learn how to deal with it's lack of quality, specially on high frequencies. Even so, i like to explore the higher frequencies, to give some "breathe". You will notice that on Francis Dunnery's "Immaculate" and BFTZ's "Black Out Betty".

Thank you again, sorry about my bad English...
Valladares

[eduardorke]

The mix is good. In my personal taste the snare and BV are hidden. But it's a good job.