Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
NEW My 'Crazy Girl'
#11
(14-03-2020, 01:36 PM)RoyMatthews Wrote: I feel like my comments might be perceived as being overly harsh. I stand by them after listening again and could expound on them more but there's certainly nothing personal behind them. Dave has said pretty much everything I wanted too and more eloquently so there's no need to re-hash. In the end, if you feel it's what you want then great. That's all that matters. Others may hear it differently which also is great.

No offense taken, Roy. It was not my intent to impugn anyone's opinion on my choices, just an explanation of my approach. I had a lot of fun with this mix with no desire to please anyone other than myself.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
[email protected]
Reply
#12
(14-03-2020, 10:52 AM)Dangerous Wrote: I usually feel most comfortable commenting or critiquing someones mix, when I'm unfamiliar with the song and it's contents. So most posts I make are in this context, either new threads I haven't explored or older ones that have faded in memory. I generally find it difficult to post a mix of a song and then comment on others. My mindset is still very much stuck with my own direction and ideals for the song in question, for better or worse. As for this song, I've only listened to a hand full of versions including the reference track in full. I'm not familiar with the elements at play, but there is quite a variety of styles and arrangements with the mixes presented, so there must be scope within.

You are sounding a little deflated and defensive Mitc, but I'm not sure why? As far as the mixes I've listen to, this would be my favorite as for the reasons fore mentioned in my previous post. I wouldn't get too worked up about the snare. If thats the sound you want, run with it. My only thought was it could come back a bit in volume as far as balance was concerned. Turning the mix right down left me hearing the snare and nothing else.

As for cohesion, I feel your thinking is on the individual elements / instruments and their passages. The issues I'm hearing is more with the short term rhythmic mash up of the song as a whole. I'm not sure what you are going with the compression and master bus processing , but it almost feels like something here is amiss. Without really knowing whats at plays though I'm purely guessing.

I not sure if you have pulled up stumps with this one, but I reckon it's worth trying to get it right. A lot of mixes I listen to, you get the feeling they have pushed it to the limits of where they are trying to go. I'm not feeling that here.

Dave,
I appreciate your follow up on my comments.

I was trying not to be defensive and certainly not deflated in this case, but only trying to be honest in my approach to things. To tell you the truth, that commenters would be so passionate about it is actually a good thing. Striking a nerve is what we all are attempting to do, I think. Good or bad, the worst thing is to be indifferent.

I often find I avoid listening to too much of the reference mix because I do not want it to sway my approach to a song. I audition it only to determine if it is something I like, in genres I feel comfortable with. Not being sure if the reference is from the artist or from Mike is not really germane. I like to think I am allowing the song to dictate my approach. Whether that is an accurate assessment, who knows. It is just my approach. I have no credibility in the industry, just my own passions as do we all and that is all I have that drives me in my mixing endeavors.

Heck, this song is no where close to the middle of the fairway. When I listen to the wawa guitar it certainly doesn't say Paul Anka to me. With the lyric and the arrangement and the title in mind it just seemed to me to be a bit of a goof so that is the road I took. A fun, irreverent take on a crazy girl in song form. I've known a few.

I'm not sure who mentioned something going on with the master buss compression, but here's a note about that. There is none. There is a ton of compression on the drum buss which I used in pursuit of the feel I was after.

I am not the kind of mixer who works from templates. I add processing only when needed and/or when I am trying to chase a sound or a feel. I use no channel defaults ever and infrequently use master buss compression. I typically only use a peak limiter with a very fast release just to catch the tip top peaks sneaking above 0. I do not push into it. I will use master buss compression when I think it serves the song or my idea of it.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do in a mix is knowing when to stop. Maybe I stopped too soon in this one. Who knows. I stopped when I was happy with it. Could I have done more with the keys, maybe. Maybe I could have done a lot more things. But I think we can all say that about our mixes at some point.

I often catch myself critiquing other mixes in reference to my own and contrasting their decisions with mine. I find it is very difficult NOT to do that. When I become intimately familiar with the contents of a song and know the character and issues with it, it is hard not to make comparisons. There can be a lot to learn from others who have faced the same music and come up with different results, good and bad. Trying to keep comments purely objective/technical and not subjective is not easy. Music may be the most subjective context humans can face. Being technicians and musicians and artists offers no pass on that. I have found that listening to other mixers content on here has been very rewarding and educational and have 'stolen' ideas when I feel they have captured something I like or may have missed in my own approach. It can also be hard to stick to your guns after you've made decisions on mix and commenters who you respect feel you may have missed the mark by a mile. I have to say that the comments received on this mix have been the strangest I can remember. From hating my drums to saying it all works is a really wide range of feelings and having some of them them come in the same comments is different, at least for me. Confused? Yeah, me too.

Anyway, I do really appreciate the time spent with comments and feelings on my mix for this song. You have given me the opportunity to express some feelings of my own I may not have been able to express elsewise.

Angel Smile
PreSonus Studio One DAW
[email protected]
Reply
#13
Hey Mict,

your choice of drum sounds is very interesting but worked better with the "dirtyier" bass in my opinion. Overall I like the "Master4" version more, as it seemed cleaner to me. I do think that a little more bass would be nice.

Cheers,
LukasAngel
Reply
#14
(25-04-2020, 09:55 PM)LukasL Wrote: Hey Mict,

your choice of drum sounds is very interesting but worked better with the "dirtyier" bass in my opinion. Overall I like the "Master4" version more, as it seemed cleaner to me. I do think that a little more bass would be nice.

Cheers,
LukasAngel
Lucas,

Good point about the bass or low end of the mixes. After some time away from this, I think I could have bolstered that as well.

Thanks.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
[email protected]
Reply
#15
I'm returning the favor. Smile
To me the first version is the best,for me has the most energy. I know it's a little illogical. Huh I often come across the case that the more versions we make the more we move away from the good thing.
I do not know the cause of this, perhaps an excessive re-examination of our actions, wrong guidelines, over listening...
Reply
#16
(09-07-2020, 10:58 AM)Nikola Mikovic Wrote: I'm returning the favor. Smile
To me the first version is the best,for me has the most energy. I know it's a little illogical. Huh I often come across the case that the more versions we make the more we move away from the good thing.
I do not know the cause of this, perhaps an excessive re-examination of our actions, wrong guidelines, over listening...
It seems to be common that our first reaction to a song is often the one with the freshest and most organic take. Re-examination often produces less than stellar results as we nit-pick every decision and sound. A classic example of 'less is more'.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
[email protected]
Reply