03-02-2020, 01:05 AM (This post was last modified: 04-02-2020, 11:25 PM by Mixinthecloud.)
Is in the room....
A lot of decisions had been made in the recording and presentation of these files so that had an influence on the final product.
My first impression of the reference mix was that it needed to be harder edged, so that is the direction I chose for this mix.
It came together pretty quickly. I found I needed to clean up the snare a lot which I did by duplicating the top snare, de-noising it and editing the impulses to use as triggers on a gate on the snare buss. I offset the trigger track a few milliseconds early and tuned the attack, hold and release times accordingly. That helped a lot. I also threw a limiter on the OHs to knock down the snare in there as well. I chopped up the toms pretty easily so no gating there. Just compression and a good amount of gain.
The bass was full of tonal options and I pushed the mid-range and added buss compression and an in-line stereo phaser to give it a bit of movement and personality and threw it into the plate I used for general ambiance.
The main rhythm guitars had only EQ on them. The last two had echo and reverb to separate them according to the arrangement.
The keyboards were also very straightforward with EQ only.
The lead vocal required most of my attention. I attempted to create something unique and specific but not sure I got a keeper.
The background vocals were panned and EQ'd with plenty of the same effects chain as the 2nd and 3rd guitars.
I like the aggressiveness of the drums and how they work with the bass and guitars and the keyboards laying a warm bed below.
Sounds good. A couple of things that jump out at me. I kinda like that Synth 1 is louder than usual. I'm just not sure if it's too upfront or if it's dry or what but it feels 'layered' on top of the mix and subtly pushed the rest of the mix back. I think the complex tone of it also played a part since it takes up a lot of frequency real estate.
The snare is a little small for my taste.
First line of the bridge get swallowed. Is there some modulation of some sort on the vocal at that point? It's cool but the first line gets swallowed and it should come in a bit more solid.
Hmm, honstly I find the synth quite strident. If you wanna go this route I'd try to balance something against it e.g. a fat deep bass or full kick. The breathes of the vocal in the verse are also very loud, I'd edit that. Other than that I appreciate your different approach and I'm curious how it'll turn out
(05-02-2020, 09:09 PM)AndyGallas Wrote: Hmm, honstly I find the synth quite strident. If you wanna go this route I'd try to balance something against it e.g. a fat deep bass or full kick. The breathes of the vocal in the verse are also very loud, I'd edit that. Other than that I appreciate your different approach and I'm curious how it'll turn out
Yeah, those breaths were a challenge. I actually chopped them out and edited their volumes in the wave form in another mix. Here I tried to use limiting on the lead vocal as an affect which would work with the full volume breaths. It works in most instances but I think a few have to be cleaned up for sure.
As for the synth, I treated it as it it were another guitar part.
Hi MixinTC
In overall it's a cool mix. Blance feels okey. godd tones and dynamiC. But.
I dont think the synth works in such upfront place. It's like changing the genre. and is also very reach in harmonics make mix feels a bit to reach in terms of denisity. I've got this impreassion.
Second thing, i'd play with reverb for vocal, as the one you choose feels a miss. Other elements sounds great. Reassuming i would just give it straight forward sound without too much experiminatation. Cheers!
Lots of good ideas in this mix that are different to the rest which is really refreshing, but the mix doesn't quite gel together for me yet.
I think generally the vocal reverb is a bit on heavy side and is making them sound a touch hollow and is giving the feel of pushing them back in the mix perhaps, rather than putting them in a space, as such? I feel this is also affecting my perception of the mix balance and clarity. I feel things are getting a bit lost, especially around the 2:25 mark?
Verse vocals are a bit too upfront for me in comparison with the ensemble. I know this is a taste thing, but I think it is affecting the longer term dynamic between verse and chorus. I feel the verse vocals are making the chorus feel a bit small by comparison?
I think I agree that the intro synth does give the impression of overpowering the size of the guitar a bit too much I feel. Effects on guitar 2 are a little heavy for my taste too and are taking away from the tone a bit too much perhaps? Having now heard your idea for the second guitar, my gut feel is that I would like to hear this with maybe a touch lighter reverb, and maybe a light flanger or something similar on it to liven it up a bit?
I think the basic tones and ideas are generally ok. A lot of really interesting ideas there to liven things up, but the effects are a bit too heavy for me, and the balance is not quite working for me yet I don't think.
Yeah I think this session is a bit of a challenge. I agree it's a fun one though all the same!
Cheers!
Just uploaded a mix/master? Waiting for comments? Why not give back and critique a mix/master, or two!
Lots of good ideas in this mix that are different to the rest which is really refreshing, but the mix doesn't quite gel together for me yet.
I think generally the vocal reverb is a bit on heavy side and is making them sound a touch hollow and is giving the feel of pushing them back in the mix perhaps, rather than putting them in a space, as such? I feel this is also affecting my perception of the mix balance and clarity. I feel things are getting a bit lost, especially around the 2:25 mark?
Verse vocals are a bit too upfront for me in comparison with the ensemble. I know this is a taste thing, but I think it is affecting the longer term dynamic between verse and chorus. I feel the verse vocals are making the chorus feel a bit small by comparison?
I think I agree that the intro synth does give the impression of overpowering the size of the guitar a bit too much I feel. Effects on guitar 2 are a little heavy for my taste too and are taking away from the tone a bit too much perhaps? Having now heard your idea for the second guitar, my gut feel is that I would like to hear this with maybe a touch lighter reverb, and maybe a light flanger or something similar on it to liven it up a bit?
I think the basic tones and ideas are generally ok. A lot of really interesting ideas there to liven things up, but the effects are a bit too heavy for me, and the balance is not quite working for me yet I don't think.
Yeah I think this session is a bit of a challenge. I agree it's a fun one though all the same!
Cheers!
Hey Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to have a listen. I did take a decidedly different approach to this to try and make it unique. Apparently, a bit too unique! LOL
