I really don't need to go with more 3rd party plugins. Between the stock plugins in Studio One-which, by-the-way, are excellent-Waves, Softube, Focusrite, a bunch of other 3rd party plugins, and the indigenous Apple plugins, I'm sure you you would agree that I'm quite well stocked. So I have pretty much everything I need and then some. I was just curious to know what you and John were using.
Quite honestly, I'm not good with the more technical things like some of the analyzers (scopes; that kind of thing).
Again, I'm very old-school, so I like to think along the lines of, they didn't have so many options back then, but still made the best sounding records; even by today's standards. However, with certain modern conveniences/options, I'm sure my mixes will be much better. I hope you and John can help me out here.
yeah, the analyzers are tricky, but they really are useful, especially if you're in an untreated room like I am... if you check against your mix references and they sound similar in balance terms but look radically different on a spectrogram (especially from 150 Hz on down) then it's possible there's an issue that your speakers/room isn't reproducing. And as far as compression goes, it's far to easy to keep upping the ratio or dipping the threshold as you get used to the way it sounds after processing... there have been times where I was doing exactly that and I was fistpumping thinking YEEEEEAAAHHH.... only to listen to it the following morning and find a creamy congested mess so having a visual reference is helpful when you get about 4 hours in and your objectivity is suspect.
being old school is cool and it's also cool to limit yourself in the beginning to force yourself to rely mainly on EQ and compression, as well you should, but simpler technology is NOT why the old mixes sound better... the quality of the music to begin with was oftentimes better, and for much of the analog era, you couldn't even "rip" a record to tape... the only way to steal music was to take a chance shoplifting at the local record store. Producers knew that in order for their music to sell, they had to produce quality music by talented artists to be mixed by talented engineers. Our technology today is capable of MORE dynamic range, higher fidelity, and in short, better mixes. unfortunately, it's now very easy and very common to steal music on the internet, so studio budgets have gone from virtually limitless to hog slop, and today's mixes just aren't give the same TLC as before... so don't be afraid of the technology- even a 100 dollar digital converter is capable of a higher fidelity than even the best tape system of yore... it's the production values that have gotten worse. Do things the old school way... take your time and get it RIGHT at the mix so you don't have to compress/limit it all to hell at mastering, but don't be afraid to use modern tools to make it even better!
</soap box>
And if you have any questions, SOMEONE here at the forum will be able to help Good bunch of folks here
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
06-05-2014, 04:26 PM (This post was last modified: 06-05-2014, 04:27 PM by juanjose1967.)
Don't worry, Stu. I admit that I'm no good at analyzing at all just like you! people with such knowledge (many of them here!) always amaze me. I started mixing one year ago just from scratch: no musical background or studies. Just a guy that likes music. I started not knowing exactly what I was doing but I kept on learning and experimenting. I can now say that I'm starting to get mixes that I like (and I'm the toughest judge here against myself!!); so if I could, you can too. Just perseverence and learning will help you. I use Studio One too and I agree: most of the plug-ins I use are native ones because they're great! good choice!!
-adjusted eq, compression, and level to both bass drum and bass
-put some distortion on bass
-raised Hammond level .5 dB
-adjusted bus eq (could probably be better)
07-05-2014, 07:06 AM (This post was last modified: 07-05-2014, 07:06 AM by HbGuitar.)
greetings fellow Studio One user!
I haven't listened to all your mix versions but i like the final one. Bass sounds nice, especially during interlude. I also think that you've done a nice job creating space (I'm guessing) using verb/delays.
The only thing that i thought initially when listening direct through PC speakers was the verb/delay tail is quite noticeable in places. When I played through DAW/primary monitors it wasn't as prominent....whenever i find a mismatch between monitor sources i generally have to re-balance something slightly.
This is just an observation...i think your mix works great...i use lots of verb and delays in my mixes so i notice it.
Listnin last version. very authentic 70s sound !
Kick come through just fine, I wonder i half a db more bas would ruin things ?
The ending is a bit shockin, like someone cut the power - maybe look into that, or if you made it so for the effect, it works :-)
Guitars sound great !
Old ears, old gear, little boy inside love music and sounds and my wife, not necessarily in that order
can i ask that you encode to 320kbps for the sake of quality....it makes for better listening. well done on the mix...good start. just something for you to think about meanwhile: the guitar on the RHS is causing me fatigue because of the way you've EQ'd it? take a look and see what can be done to address the problem. if you do any boosts, i recommend you keep the Q value small..say 1.4 is an octave, anything narrower than this will have issues if you aren't careful. infact, if you can, i recommend avoiding boosting....try and cut instead. so, if an instrument isn't clear, try and cut material from the masking instruments? boosts often sound unnatural and it's easy to mess up....where as cuts are less intrusive on our ears and can be made quite aggressively without such consequences.
liked the way you got the organ out e.g. 2:20 onwards.
an early tip on reverbs....if you can hear them, you've dialed in too much. so, tweak until you begin to hear it, then back it off a fraction and that will probably do the job. of course, if you wanna be daft like me and make an instrument out of it instead, forget the tip and crank the dial hard!
(07-05-2014, 05:12 AM)Stu Wrote: Here's the next tweak!
-adjusted eq, compression, and level to both bass drum and bass
-put some distortion on bass
-raised Hammond level .5 dB
-adjusted bus eq (could probably be better)
WHY COULDN'T THEY HAVE RECORDED THE BASS BETTER!?
Wow! Gotta love those reverbs on the guitars! In general, I agree with Metallurgist's advice about reverbs, but there are exceptions to every rule and, for my money, the reverbs on those guitars are nice just the way they are. One interesting thing. The highs seems a little restrained here, giving the whole piece a kind of "AM radio" feel. That sounds bad but it isn't; it's perfectly in keeping with the feel and era of the music.
Still not enough bass for my taste but at least there's some bass presence now since you added that distortion. Kick drum still sounds a little thin, though, in my opinion. As I recall from this mix that kick drum didn't have much thump to it originally so that's not all that surprising really.
so having a visual reference is helpful when you get about 4 hours in and your objectivity is suspect.
