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Pedaling Prince Mix: Georgia Wonder - Siren
#1
I am self-taught both in video/film editing and audio engineering, having been experimenting with audio and video since my teen years back in the 1980s.

My guiding principle in mixing I call the "principle of least treatment."

Having heard the crystal clean sound of CDs from the earliest days of consumer digital sound in the 80s, comparing it to the overprocessed, overcompressed mess many commercial mixes are today, I have come to believe that current mixing techniques rely too heavily on processing, particularly in the use/abuse of compression in mastering.

In general, I go as gently as possible on all processing, using only the minimum EQ, automation and compression necessary to get everything to blend smoothly, and under no circumstances do I EVER apply processing or compression of ANY kind at the mastering stage; my goal is to preserve 100% of the dynamics of the original recording.

I joined this forum in order to get all of YOUR thoughts on what I've done with these multitracks. Criticism is welcome so long as its polite and constructive. Smile

Most of the time I stick with the sounds and instruments provided by these tracks without adding, removing or editing anything, the idea being to try to preserve the original intent of the artist. However, in this case I decided to make one major change. There was one synth track here that was obviously meant to be evocative of ocean waves; I decided to see what would happen if I dropped that track and used REAL ocean waves in its place (I tend to prefer real sounds over synthesized ones). I wasn't sure what to expect, but I felt it came out better than I was hoping... Blush

Any thoughts on that?


.m4a    07 Siren.m4a --  (Download: 17.52 MB)


John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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#2
sounds great! the backing vocals are a little overwhelming in the choruses to me, but there's a vocal tracking doubling the main melody and octave below that's volume matched to the lead line, and it sounds fantastic, like an annie lennox sort of effect. almost at the beginning of each phrase in the chorus, the C in "come to me" and elsewhere in the track, attacks really hard, and I think it could be a little less distracting. and if it were me, I would bring up the volume of all of the choruses, progressively higher throughout the song, to give it a little more forward momentum, but some people think that doesn't matter in a dance-y track like this one. I only hear the waves peaking out at the end (I haven't attempted this one yet so I'm not sure if they're present elsewhere) but I thik that was a really cool idea... my group used a similar effect on our EP in the intro/outro on a tune about a whaling ship being lost in a storm, and I've been looking for an excuse to try it again ever since.

impeccable work as always!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#3
(21-01-2014, 03:38 PM)pauli Wrote: the backing vocals are a little overwhelming in the choruses to me . . .

That seems to be a common comment on any mix I do where there are backing vocals. That's good feedback insofar as I'll bear in mind, should I ever be doing a mix for someone else, that my client is likely to like the background vocals a little lower. For myself, though, I prefer backing vocals more prominent generally, so for mixes for myself I think I'll keep my backing vocals where they are. Wink

(21-01-2014, 03:38 PM)pauli Wrote: almost at the beginning of each phrase in the chorus, the C in "come to me" and elsewhere in the track, attacks really hard, and I think it could be a little less distracting.

Actually, that's a problem endemic to the original recording. The backing track containing the "come to mes" was pre-edited and it sounds to me like the original recording had a DC offset that caused a "click" at each edit point coinciding with the hard "C" sound. I tried to edit it away but couldn't without cutting off the "C" sound entirely.

(21-01-2014, 03:38 PM)pauli Wrote: I would bring up the volume of all of the choruses, progressively higher throughout the song, to give it a little more forward momentum . . .

I was going to try that for you (great idea!) but I can't seem to get the project to open; it seems to have gotten corrupted somehow. Sad

(21-01-2014, 03:38 PM)pauli Wrote: I only hear the waves peaking out at the end (I haven't attempted this one yet so I'm not sure if they're present elsewhere) but I thik that was a really cool idea... my group used a similar effect on our EP in the intro/outro on a tune about a whaling ship being lost in a storm, and I've been looking for an excuse to try it again ever since.

I'd love to hear that EP. Smile
John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
Reply