04-11-2013, 01:37 PM (This post was last modified: 04-11-2013, 01:38 PM by Les1.)
Hello everyone, I'm a french guy living in Paris who has just discovered this wonderful forum!
I've been watching & reading mixing tutorials for monthes, but this is one of my first try EVER to mix a song in Reaper.
Basically I've applied substractive EQ, compression, glue reverb and gentle EQ boost on every track. Then I used a transcient shaper for the snare + tape saturation on the whole mix.
That would be wonderful if someone could gimme a feedback on my work? I need to progress. Thank you!!!!!!!!!
Hi there, not a bad first try I'd say, balancewise it's just the ride that is a bit too much, doesnt really blend in and comes in way louder than the crashes. I think it's nice to hear so many different interpretations of how this song should sound, I went with a bit more punch on the drums, but the smoothness works as well. Reaper rocks, ofcourse
Hello Whoosh, than you very much for your feedback! You're right, the ride was way too lood! I tried a more balanced version (Mix 2bis).
I also listened to your mix and I really like the clarity you achieved, especially with the guitars! I find it difficult to separate them from the Hammond sound in my own mix, it's kind of messy...
I tried a version (Mix3) with all guitars panned to left and all organs panned to right instead of Guitar 1 + Organ 1 left and Guitar 2 + Organ 2 right.
Do you think it's better?
Thanks, I'll listen to your new versions later today. As for seperation, I EQ'd most of the tracks to get them to stand out from each other in combination with panning them. The one thing I'd change about mine is the seperation between the 2 guitars.
Levels level better this way. I like the way the first one, mix2bis, sounds. The third one doesnt balance very nice for my ears.
If you want it to be clearer, the key is using EQ on the tracks to create space (by high passing or low passing whatever isnt doing anything for the instrument) or enhance the most important frequency of that perticular instrument you like to hear, some parallel compression on the bass to bring out the kick maybe (right now its what I call a vacuum kick, you "feel" the kick but cant hear it, but then again, there are countless commercial productions that use that) Basically, it involves "cleaning" each track of everything that isn't important
That's really what makes this fun,there are so many different ways you can make a track sound.
Thanks again for listening to my versions! I agree that there's something that isn't working very well in Mix3, so I'd go for Mix2bis too.
I applied HPF + LPF on each track and some gentle boost on key frequencies to avoid masking, but maybe that wasn't the right ones! I still need training to identify the signature frequencies of each instruments.
I find this song "Revelations" pretty difficult to mix because of the 2 guitars and 2 organs that share a LOT of frequency range.
Your concept of "vacuum kick" seems very interesting, but I don't get it. NY Parallel Compression on the bass to bring out the kick?? How does it works?
Yes, I can't believe that there's so many way to mix a song! I'm starting to realize the importance of choosing the right engineer for the righ project!!
You're welcome. I agree, it isn't an easy song to mix.
Not sure if we are supposed to discuss this on this forum, since it isn't related to the mix perse, but as for parallel compression, my bad, Im didnt mean the NY drum buss compression, I meant using a sidechain compressor on the bass, that reacts to the kick signal, so whenever the kick plays, the bass gets compressed a little. Which is ofcourse called sidechaining, and not parallel. Sorry bout that.
(06-11-2013, 03:32 PM)Les1 Wrote: Hello Whoosh, than you very much for your feedback! You're right, the ride was way too lood! I tried a more balanced version (Mix 2bis).
I also listened to your mix and I really like the clarity you achieved, especially with the guitars! I find it difficult to separate them from the Hammond sound in my own mix, it's kind of messy...
I tried a version (Mix3) with all guitars panned to left and all organs panned to right instead of Guitar 1 + Organ 1 left and Guitar 2 + Organ 2 right.
Do you think it's better?
I like where you're heading with this in general, but there are a few things I'd like to see tweaked.
First, the vocals are too low in the mix; I think they need to come up a good 3-4 dB. Second, I don't like the sound with the guitars on one side and the organ on the other; if you want to separate them out a bit why not try hard panning the organs left and right then pan the guitars only 50% or maybe 35% left and right? The idea will be to create the impression of a stage with organs at each end and the guitarists bracketing the vocalist on either side.
I love the reverbs here! What I love is you managed to take them just to the edge of being too much but not quite. It's quite a lovely effect! Makes me picture the band playing in a big club.
