You Are The One - Mixed by Simman

[simman]

Great song! Here's my take on the mix and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[AcidCharlie]

Like the guitars a lot =)

[simman]

Like the guitars a lot =)

AcidCharlie, thanks for listening. Lead guitars are routed through an Eventide H3000 then to a slight amount of ping pong delay. Still working on the rest.

Greatly appreciate the feedback

[Pedaling Prince]

Great song! Here's my take on the mix and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Oh wow!

Way to hit it out of the park, man! This is, by far, the best mix of this song I've heard so far. Honestly? I generally prefer my own mixes, as I'm sure we all do. But this? I actually prefer it over my own! Seriously! You've got a really nice, smooth groove going on here, nice full bass without it being obtrusive, and the sharpness of the drums and the guitar nicely contrasts with that nice bed of bass, floating on it and rocking like a canoe in a gentle river! Nice!

My only complaints about the whole thing are the acoustic guitar is a little on the dull side and the piano is way too far back in the mix. In both cases, though, I suspect these problems were due to the limitations of the source material. Yes, that acoustic guitar recording is brutal and the piano sounds boxy like an old Victrola (I can understand why you wanted to bury it). However, if you'd like to check out my mix I think you'll agree that both can be salvaged if you're willing to get a little aggressive with the EQ.

Here's what I did:

On the acoustic guitar, I applied a -24 dB cut at 260 Hz, a 3.5 dB boost at 3100 Hz and a 16 dB boost at 4800 Hz; I also applied a hipass rolled off at 200 Hz. The low cuts helped address the hum and the mud and the high boosts helped bring back some of the sparkle. On the piano, I applied a 4.5 dB boost at 80 Hz to give it a little body, a 5.5 dB boost at 12 kHz to give it some air and to help it stand out and give it a little life I boosted 24 dB at 7600 Hz. I also applied some gentle compression to help it stand out in the mix.

I would love to hear what this mix sounds like with those adjustments applied and with the piano level pushed up a good 6 dB. I suspect that'll totally rock this baby!

[simman]

Great song! Here's my take on the mix and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Oh wow!

Way to hit it out of the park, man! This is, by far, the best mix of this song I've heard so far. Honestly? I generally prefer my own mixes, as I'm sure we all do. But this? I actually prefer it over my own! Seriously! You've got a really nice, smooth groove going on here, nice full bass without it being obtrusive, and the sharpness of the drums and the guitar nicely contrasts with that nice bed of bass, floating on it and rocking like a canoe in a gentle river! Nice!

My only complaints about the whole thing are the acoustic guitar is a little on the dull side and the piano is way too far back in the mix. In both cases, though, I suspect these problems were due to the limitations of the source material. Yes, that acoustic guitar recording is brutal and the piano sounds boxy like an old Victrola (I can understand why you wanted to bury it). However, if you'd like to check out my mix I think you'll agree that both can be salvaged if you're willing to get a little aggressive with the EQ.

Here's what I did:

On the acoustic guitar, I applied a -24 dB cut at 260 Hz, a 3.5 dB boost at 3100 Hz and a 16 dB boost at 4800 Hz; I also applied a hipass rolled off at 200 Hz. The low cuts helped address the hum and the mud and the high boosts helped bring back some of the sparkle. On the piano, I applied a 4.5 dB boost at 80 Hz to give it a little body, a 5.5 dB boost at 12 kHz to give it some air and to help it stand out and give it a little life I boosted 24 dB at 7600 Hz. I also applied some gentle compression to help it stand out in the mix.

I would love to hear what this mix sounds like with those adjustments applied and with the piano level pushed up a good 6 dB. I suspect that'll totally rock this baby!

Thanks for the kind words and feedback I greatly appreciate it. Haven't listened to this mix in a while but going back I agree with you that the acoustic could be a bit cleaner. The piano track is is a bit back as well but I need to look at what's going on with that. I will go back and tweak the two tracks a bit based on the recommendations and repost an update.

[simman]

Ok Pedaling Prince, here's another mix that incorporates some tweaks based on the feedback. I cleaned-up the lower mids on the acoustic guitar a bit and pushed the top end as well. The acoustic guitar track quality is not all that good to begin with but I chalk that up to being an old recording . Nevertheless it has a bit more air than my original mix.

To address the piano I did a few things but the biggest impact was actually swapping the location in the pan field with the hammond. Slight cut around 250-300Hz and added about +3db more at 5K and added high shelf to smooth out the top end.. There are spots where the piano jumps out too much and needs more volume automation. I will say that the piano part, IMO is lack luster and not very interesting which is why I set it back in my original mix.

Appreciate your thoughts on this version.

Thanks again.

[Pedaling Prince]

I cleaned-up the lower mids on the acoustic guitar a bit and pushed the top end as well. The acoustic guitar track quality is not all that good to begin with but I chalk that up to being an old recording . Nevertheless it has a bit more air than my original mix.

Yes, but I think you could push the EQ a lot harder and get a lot more air. It sounds good, though. Strange, phasey sound to it. I wasn't sure what to make of that at first but after I got into the mix I realized that the sound worked perfectly with the song! Just needs to be a little brighter overall.

Actually, "old" recordings don't usually sound like that. I suspect, based on the AC hum in the recording, that even the original recording was not so great even before the tape deteriorated. This is unfortunate as recordings from that era, on state-of-the-art gear, usually rival the quality of today's recordings, aside from the tape noise.

To address the piano I did a few things but the biggest impact was actually swapping the location in the pan field with the hammond. Slight cut around 250-300Hz and added about +3db more at 5K and added high shelf to smooth out the top end.. There are spots where the piano jumps out too much and needs more volume automation. I will say that the piano part, IMO is lack luster and not very interesting which is why I set it back in my original mix.

Well, personally I enjoyed it, only finding the recording itself to be a little sub-par. Though you did a nice job of giving it some life here.

Love the way that nice, thick bass jumps out at you when the Hammond kicks in!

One problem: the congas sound awfully dull. To sharpen them up in my own mix, I applied an 11 dB boost at 2200 Hz, a 24 dB boost at 5500 Hz, a hipass at 150 Hz and some gentle compression.