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Hannes Keseberg - You Know Better -Post MS Review and Competition Final
#1
Hello everyone...

It's been some time since I've posted but I am happy to say it is because I have been busy with other mixing opportunities.

It is nice to be back in the fold at CambridgeMT again.

So this composition reminded me immediately of Tracy Chapman's remarkable "Give Me One Reason". So in that vein I approached this mix.

I started with the bass and let that define the rest of the mix. Once I settled on that sound the rest came pretty easily. This was wonderfully recorded and needed very little to bring out the heart of this song, in my opinion.

I hope you find it worthy of a good listen.

1-06-2019 Update


Thanks to some very good input I have made some changes. Cleaned up the bottom, brightened the top and remastered for level.

1-26-2019 Competition Update


After taking time to absorb Mike's review and some time on other projects to give my brain a rest, I am offering up my final mix for the competition.

I do not have the musical skills of some of the mixers here so my approach will always defer to the genre, the artist's apparent wants and approaches and notes which have been added to the tracks as provided by CambridgeMT. As a result my arrangement edits are pretty basic but always in service to the song.

To that end, I have added my arrangement changes at the front of the song. Automated mutes for the percussion were made throughout to add dynamics and interest. Other automation includes levels on the rhythm guitar through the song. As most listeners had intoned, the whistles at the end where a bit piercing in my original mix and that has been addressed. Call and response levels between the guitars have also been evened out with phrase leveling on the wave forms. My drums have remained mostly intact although I have slightly raised the snare level and slightly altered the EQ on the overheads. The bass had some minor tone adjustments and reverb was removed entirely for better clarity without adding more EQ (to avoid attention to clicks and pops).

I tried to remain true to what I felt was the focus of the song, being the vocals and the lyric and tried not to overwhelm by overstating a reggae or rock feel onto a mostly country ballad with a funky groove. I hope I was successful.

There are some really great takes on this song from many very talented mixers. I hope you find this worthy of your review and enjoy the listen as I have from so many of you.

Thanks,
mITc



.mp3    Hannes Keseberg - You Know Better.mp3 --  (Download: 8.26 MB)


.mp3    Hannes Keseberg - You Know Better - Competition Final.mp3 --  (Download: 8.44 MB)


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#2
Hey MITC,

you always manage to deliver cleaned up, "simple" sounding mixes, with a great sense of balance, dynamics and space. Incredible job. I escpecially love your attention to detail (0:47). The shift to the last section flows very well and ends with a clear concept in mind (also fading out the verb on the vocal I think?). Some how you manged to get the snare to a very nice place. I could not do that, even with some noise triggering underneath.
Only think which bothers me is the tone of the lead vocal. It is too full for me and could use a more open sounding high-end. If you decide to boost some high-end, I would be careful with the mids. 2.1kHz was a really ugly frequency in this recording.
For a master its a bit too quiet, imo. Only 13LUFS in the loudest section. A bit more compression/limiting to tie everything together would be a nice touch.

Cheers,
LukasAngel
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#3
Lucas,

Your assessment of many of the things I did here is spot on. You spotted the reverb fade at the end which I did to reinforce the message of the song.
As for the lead vocal, again your ears are excellent. I just recently purchased the API 550 series EQ plugins and pushed them hard on the lead. I was trying to get the distinction on the lyric while trying not to make it too loud.

Excellent comments.

Thank you.

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#4
Hi MITC,
Nice relaxed mix ,Listening On 3' Iloud and Hd600's at the Moment a touch heavy in the bottom end below 50hz and a db or so tame 5k and above .The top maybe caused by ear fatigue after playing in live gigs last night and the night before.
Will Have another Listen in the Next Couple of Days !
Cheers Big Grin

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#5
(25-12-2018, 07:44 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: I started with the bass and let that define the rest of the mix. Once I settled on that sound the rest came pretty easily.

Just some nags which might help or hinder Blush

Prosumer gear suggests the bass is overly present in the <120Hz, even at low SPL. The bass guitar and kick, aren't translating to non-prosumer small speakers. I think your plan on using the bass is a good one though, especially in the first half.

I'm generally finding the mix muddy, though much of this is probably caused by the bass overhang or it's masking, in the lower mids.

Vocal needs some air, urgently. Better clarity in his diction also requires a lot of work due to the radical dynamic in the tracking. The right compression approach would also make a big difference in that respect, and this in turn might direct or guide you in the >1000Hz strategy, depending on compressor characteristics, Eq, chain signal flow, etc. You do need to appropriately eq the verb feed though.

Some other issues, less obvious: Organ suffers masking, eg at about 2:15. The wide pan of the organ's modulations should be fixed to comply with Haas rules. Some notes on the conga get masked from the mid channel. Some notes of the whistles could do with taming in the upper range, for example. The verb is no doubt helping to exaggerate the gain along with the cumulative effect of track dB's. I understand your intention with the whistler's ambiance, but some might feel it's out of context with everything else.

I'm finding the timpani's sporadic and uncorrelated musical arrangement difficult to relate to when included with the other percussive elements. In mono it's a confused picture. What to do, if anything? Maybe asking what it's emotional contribution is might help guide the decision-making process.

While I've commented on the mix, the nature of some issues might imply the listening environment's getting in the way. Also feeling a right channel bias too which could be related.

Dang me, that's blown my forum feedback time budget for the month! Did it help?
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#6
I can't hear the drum at all.
The vocals are very loud in the foreground.
I think the instruments and vocals should be done quieter.
Plus it is necessary to solve confidential issues between the bass and kick.
I think this is a good start, but there are still a lot of work in the mix.
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#7
The basic sound is really good to me, perhaps it could benefit from a little overall presence though. The first words of the vocal "Hey here darling..." could be a bit louder, more present so that you don't loose the listener after the intro. The snare only in the chorus could come up a bit to underline the rhythm. Nice!

Cheers!
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#8
great mix. Could be a bit louder though. Goes down smooth.
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#9
(05-01-2019, 09:13 PM)AndyGallas Wrote: The basic sound is really good to me, perhaps it could benefit from a little overall presence though. The first words of the vocal "Hey here darling..." could be a bit louder, more present so that you don't loose the listener after the intro. The snare only in the chorus could come up a bit to underline the rhythm. Nice!

Cheers!

Wonderful suggestions. Thank you for the listen.
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#10
(06-01-2019, 02:49 AM)ayite96 Wrote: great mix. Could be a bit louder though. Goes down smooth.

Agreed. thanks for the listen.
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