Purple Hat Mob - Access Denied

[mikej]

Hi,

Comments welcome.

Thanks!

[AndyGallas]

Very nice mix, I like it! 5 Stars

[mikej]

Wow, thanks!

I must admit I was feeling a bit hesitant to tackle this mix after hearing yours.

Last few mixes I've been experimenting and working hard at a few things, such as trying to get the drums more slamming, and getting a better mix balance, etc.

I feel it's slowly all starting coming together a bit now, so I decided it was time to give this one a go.

I thought I should challenge myself and push myself to try that bit harder.

I recall I also learned a lot from listening to your 'Die Young' mix too.

Thanks again!

[Friggy]

There's a lot of gating artifacts. You can hear a lot of cymbal sounds spike up during certain drum hits. If the bleed can't be managed, I'd back off on the gating and compression and just use a sample to get added punch to the drums.

[mikej]

Hi!

Thanks for taking the time to listen and to comment.

Yeah you are correct - I think it's mainly the hi-hat bleed on the snare that you are hearing. I do really like the snare sound I got though, and the artifacts don't bother me so much. I think the volume comes up mainly on the occasional first beat in the bar, so the bleed is kind of musical I guess?

Sure there's loads of gating, compression, expansion and limiting going on with the drums. I was trying really hard to try and beat AndyGallas mix . I didn't feel the need to use samples, but I'll certainly try to keep an ear out for the side effects of bleed spiking up in the future. With my current approach to drums I can see this being an issue for me in the future too.

I just pulled up the session and I think you are probably right in saying that it will be quite difficult to manage the bleed without using samples, or not hitting the compression so hard. Not sure I'll have another go at this track just yet, but I'll keep your suggestions in mind and I might have a go at replacing the snare sometime now that you've given me the idea to try. Many Thanks!

[MakeMixingGreatAgain]

There are phase issues clearly heard at 1:30. Probably as a result of extreme cutting. Midrange isn't solid, but hollow.

[mikej]

There are phase issues clearly heard at 1:30. Probably as a result of extreme cutting. Midrange isn't solid, but hollow.

Hi! Thanks for commenting. Apologies, but I'm afraid I am having a bit of difficulty trying to figure out exactly what you mean. What are you hearing phase issues with? Any particular instruments, or is it the whole mix? I also checked with PAZ meters and around 1:20 to 1:30 is about the only place the meters are not showing anti phase... Extreme cutting where exactly? What frequency range are you counting as midrange? For a lot of this track I think it's mainly bass, drums and vocals, and upper mid sounding guitar, which might explain the hollow sound, but I'm really not sure I'm understanding you correctly? Thanks!

[MakeMixingGreatAgain]

It's hard to pinpoint, cause mix sound like there is a phaser on the 2bus. Usually it happens when you are trying to eq separate elements in solo and then expect to sound everything solid. But the issue is that EQing shifts the phase and if the phase relation is bad between elements, parts of the frequency spectrum will be disappearing and suddenly come out in a very ugly way. What's your monitoring?

[mikej]

Well, I understand what you are saying but I am still having a tough time relating it to the mix right now. I'm pretty sure the types of phase issues that you are talking about would be more of an issue with multi-miked sources, and not quite what you are attempting to describe. Phasey sound might just be down to delays and processing choices I guess, unless you can pin point it a bit better for me? Monitors are Yamaha MSP5 + Sub since you ask, but I don't feel that is particularly important.

[MakeMixingGreatAgain]

Is your room treated? My mixes used to sound like that when I was cutting room resonances instead of solving actual problems in material. Maybe you also used different room reverbs on each element and they causing phasing? Overall sound is hollow, phasy and pumping too much, like with 1176 with all buttons in mode.