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You know better (Patreon) Draper Mix
#1
HI!

So, I heard this as a modern country song. It just felt right, along with the bass in the reggae style, nice and subby. The snare took a LOT of work for me (multiple days of going back and forth) and then realizing that I needed a snare that snared longer. I have added layers of kicks and snares, but did not replace any tracks fully.

As you may also notice, I re-amped the guitars. I couldn't not hear them dirty, and blues-country-ie.

I also did not listen to any reference mixes of this song before (just a combination of reggae and modern US country hits [shiver]), so I think genre-wise I may have gone a bit left field. . . but it just feels right to me.

I think I have hit the perfect balance of loving the mix, and growing tired of hearing it "just one more time."

It was a lot of fun mixing this, and trying to get the sound that my mind wouldn't let go of.

I hope you all enjoy!


Draper

****Edit****
I have updated with a revision of the original mix. The newest mix is called Contest Final Touch


.mp3    You Know Better Final.mp3 --  (Download: 8.48 MB)


.mp3    You Know Better Contest Final touch.mp3 --  (Download: 8.48 MB)


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#2
hey Draper,

Really interesting mix. lots of interesting twists and turns but with the lead vox acting like a constant compass heading keeping it all together. Really like that vox!

snare fills sound great, especially in the bridge section and then that drop chorus going into the vamp is really well done. Nice job.


(05-01-2019, 03:16 AM)loweche6 Wrote: so I think genre-wise I may have gone a bit left field. . . but it just feels right to me.

i'm always inspired by folks who can do this. I just mix a session that's put in front of me. Good on you my man!

(05-01-2019, 03:16 AM)loweche6 Wrote: It was a lot of fun mixing this, and trying to get the sound that my mind wouldn't let go of.

sometimes that's all you can do....relax and feed the beastCool

good luck, cheers,

Simon
Be fierce in your encouragement, kind in your criticism and try and remember that the art of a good critique is not to make someone else's mix sound like yours...but to help the mixer realize their own vision.

https://soundcloud.com/hbguitar
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#3
I like the way this gels in the choruses. Don't understand the echo effect on the vocal in the beginning. Not sure what you were after there.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
[email protected]
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#4
Thanks for the comments!

Simon, thank you! I try to hear what I think the song is working towards, and try to best accommodate that. And thank you for the comment on the vox. I tried my best not to mangle it, as it had a great starting tone, and it could have been easy for me to overwork it.

MITC

Thanks for comment about the choruses. I literally worked on the snare part on the chorus about 3-4 hours a day, probably 5 days in a row. I would listen the next day, and just would not be happy. It dawned on me, on the last day, that the snare just happened too quickly for my taste. It wasn't the resonance of the snare body, but the tightness of the snares themselves. Once I added the snare with the looser sounding snares, it made it click.

The delay is an attempt at some pseudo prosody, echoing the chaotic nature of what it feels like to have a bit too much to drink. It may be a little heavy handed, and may be a little bit gimmicky, but I just heard it, and couldn't let go of it.

Thanks for the comments! I try to get better every day, and looking at it from every perspective is important.

Draper
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#5
(14-01-2019, 10:22 PM)loweche6 Wrote: Thanks for the comments!

Simon, thank you! I try to hear what I think the song is working towards, and try to best accommodate that. And thank you for the comment on the vox. I tried my best not to mangle it, as it had a great starting tone, and it could have been easy for me to overwork it.

MITC

Thanks for comment about the choruses. I literally worked on the snare part on the chorus about 3-4 hours a day, probably 5 days in a row. I would listen the next day, and just would not be happy. It dawned on me, on the last day, that the snare just happened too quickly for my taste. It wasn't the resonance of the snare body, but the tightness of the snares themselves. Once I added the snare with the looser sounding snares, it made it click.

The delay is an attempt at some pseudo prosody, echoing the chaotic nature of what it feels like to have a bit too much to drink. It may be a little heavy handed, and may be a little bit gimmicky, but I just heard it, and couldn't let go of it.

Thanks for the comments! I try to get better every day, and looking at it from every perspective is important.

Draper

The

Ah. OK! I get it now. Someone used a sample of clinking glasses. I got that one.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
[email protected]
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#6
Quite brave approach. I like it.

Balances are just fine. I like the way the band is gathered around singer to support him.

Overall room sound is quite damped, as if the band is playing behind a curtain, but it suits the vox sound. On the other hand, full stereo panning with distant band feels a bit unnatural, but who cares, it works...

I like the drum sound in chorus

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#7
Hi loweche6! Wow -- a much moodier and dubbier version this! Love the effects spin on "too much to drink" in Verse 2. (Although I wonder whether it might have been even more effective in the gap following the word "drink", given than nothing else much is happening there.) The overall tonality feels a little boxy, so I think you could trade a bit of 120Hz and 3kHz for 60Hz and 10kHz respectively. That said, the 100-200Hz region is a bit of a battleground at the moment, so master-buss EQ isn't really the right fix. The bass is very powerful in the region, as is the kick, and the lead vocal's also probably contributing a little too much there as well. Then the first Hammond part also uses a lot of that same energy when it comes it, as well as being very narrow, which increases its competition with the central vocal. So I think you just need to be a bit more sparing with that spectral region, and really weigh up which parts will most benefit from it at any given moment in the arrangement. It's often a tricky region for a lot of mixes, because you want enough warmth, but at the same time it's easy to overdo things and make the mix sound woolly overall.

I can't quite make my mind up about the drums. On the one hand, I like the punch you've got on the snare, and the side-stick's also coming through nicely, but overall I get the feeling that the kit as a whole is too distant-sounding, and not really solid or loud enough in the mix to drive the rhythm along properly. But, at the same time, from about Chorus 2 onwards, there are some very aggressive transients coming through. It almost sounds like it's a heavy-metal-style kick-drum beater 'click', but whatever it is it gets quite fatiguing on the ear and I find myself wanting to turn the playback volume down. And, if anything, I'd want to turn your drums up, as a whole, to get more rhythmic energy and momentum.

I like the drop-down you do in the Verse 3 arrangement, although it does suggest to me that the congas are also rather too reverberant. In a general sense, in fact, it seems to me that you're using your delays/reverbs a bit too liberally, which is losing you some mix clarity and contrast. I'd try to make each reverb you use a bit more efficient, and adapt it more to the needs of the instrument(s) feeding it, so that more of the individual character of the sounds comes through. I have similar thoughts about the retro timbral flavours you've chosen. In principle I like that kind of thing, and I think it suits this production too (especially if you're taking more of a cue from the reggae/dub influences), but at the same time it's almost like you've overdone it, such that it begins to sound like it wasn't intentional. The key to making retro sounds work in a modern setting is finding some elements of the production that say 'retro' but at the same time making sure that other aspects of it are clearly more contemporary, and it's the latter aspect that feels like it needs more attention here so that the retro elements sound like an artistic statement.

In general I like the vocal balancing, and the high vocal level certainly make sense in terms of lyric transmission. However, I think you might actually bring it a little lower in level in the verses in particular, and use a bit more automation to keep the words coming through clearly at that lower level. I also felt that I wanted some of the backing fills and licks to come through more clearly during gaps in the vocal line, so I'd maybe look to automate a little more with that in mind too.

Hope some of that makes sense, and thanks for getting involved with the contest. Another eye-opening creative vision -- a pleasure to listen to!
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#8
Thank you so much everyone, especially Mike for having this contest and always being so hands on.

I changed up a few things, made it a bit less reverberant and delay ridden than before. I think there's still a bit of mood, but just tamed.

I think I have also addressed the boxiness/kick and bass relationship, as well as helping clear the area muddled by other instruments as well.

My dynamic eq did a lot of the work on the vocal edits, helping me retain a bit of the warmth of the voice, while making sure it isn't overdone.

Again, thank you everyone for your comments!

Draper


.mp3    You Know Better Contest Final touch.mp3 --  (Download: 8.48 MB)


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