05-11-2013, 07:10 PM (This post was last modified: 05-11-2013, 07:15 PM by Artbass.)
Hi all,
so after what seems like ages I finished another song for you to criticise. After working on my band's stuff I needed a break from mixing. Remind me never to mix Progressive Rock again...
Anyway, I'm no expert in latin music but I occasional visit a world beat party to have some fun and to forget about my rock background for a while. I also had some deep thoughts about "world music" while writing my master thesis. It was interesting to revisit these thoughts while mixing this tune.
My main problem here was the fact, that the tracks seemed not to belong together at first listen. It surely needs some getting used to the instrumentation, but mostly it needed the mixer's best friend: balance (and some reverb and compression...).
So with my European ears, that know nothing, this is what I came up with.
Hi Artbass !
Nice to hear another mix I know nothing about this genere ,nice clean sounding mix and the the bass sounds great especially the upper bass notes and the slap !
That slap bass needed a good dose of compression...
I do also most LCR panning... but I mean your mix have each instrument have is location in the LCR and it make the feeling like "tension", I like to feel more like is a whole band playing and not each instrument in is corner playing for them self, don't know if I explain it good
All best
(06-11-2013, 12:13 PM)Jacques Wrote: I do also most LCR panning... but I mean your mix have each instrument have is location in the LCR and it make the feeling like "tension", I like to feel more like is a whole band playing and not each instrument in is corner playing for them self, don't know if I explain it good
Oh, I see. But I'm not sure what I could do different, to be honest. When panning, I try to seperate stuff. That is the sole purpose most of the time for me. And I try to balance that seperation as good as possible (like in this case: hihat to the left, that rolling snare to the right). Now I have no idea what a band setup would look like in this specific case. And being given 3 drums that share the same tonal quality, I can not think of another (panning) move to seperate them but panning them in 3 different positions.
And I, for my part, do not have the imperssion that they are playing each in their own corner. I guess it all comes down to perception here and that is hard to discuss.
Your mix makes sense to me, sounds good.
Think the conga or handdrums are little too much in front, takin focus from the melody, maybe a higher locut or some fade up/down to make them have their spotlight time and then disappear back to make rhythm.
Thinkin about it, its like one big crescendo, thats the way to mix it, a risin curve till the saxes hit and tempo increases and the climax - bang. Again - setting the master limiter too hard will hide that so dynamics are your friend in this piece of music.
I think - but Im known to be wrong, sometimes :-)
Old ears, old gear, little boy inside love music and sounds and my wife, not necessarily in that order
(06-11-2013, 03:34 PM)Voelund Wrote: Think the conga or handdrums are little too much in front, takin focus from the melody, maybe a higher locut or some fade up/down to make them have their spotlight time and then disappear back to make rhythm.
Is that what you hear during the whole tune or is that in that specific section in the middle? If the latter, that is with intention. The marimba and second guitar seem to be comping at that moment and the extra third hand drum is entering. To me that screams "solo".
Quote:Thinkin about it, its like one big crescendo, thats the way to mix it, a risin curve till the saxes hit and tempo increases and the climax - bang. Again - setting the master limiter too hard will hide that so dynamics are your friend in this piece of music.
I think - but Im known to be wrong, sometimes :-)
Cool idea. Go and mix it like that Speaking of the master limiter, it actually had not much to do. Only capturing some stray spikes. But I indeed use several stages of compression.
personally I like this mix and specially the way how the Bass remains perfectly audible and presence even with the crescendo of the song ;
even the section of Marimba/Conga match my taste.
The only problem is that every time I hear this song (not necessarily your Mix), I need to drink in sequence 1 Daiquiri, 1 Mojito and 1 Cuba Libre.
".....the Bar is smoky and outside is very hot... the bad girl sitting at the table is looking me with naughty eyes....maybe I like to her.....but seems that I don't like to her boyfriend.... a big and sweaty man.... with a big scar on the face..... maybe is better if i get up and I say to both of them that I'm gay....."
