05-10-2014, 10:55 AM
hi Marco,
firstly, thanks for dropping by and giving my mix your ear and taking some time with it.
i noted that the genre is new to you? i think it's always a good idea to push the boundaries and explore, so well done in exploring. i'm wondering how much time you've been able to spend in discovering the genre, from a research perspective? if something is new to you, it's important to check out the scene and see what the trends are, what's changed over the years, the levels of instruments in the mix, checking out the kind of reverbs that have been employed (i.e. how the depth field has been worked), and all that kind of stuff. i think it also goes without saying, that the research should involve the best quality material (NOT highly compressed mp3, because of the artifacts) so your ears can tune into quality from the start. when you've researched, you will be in a really strong position to begin mixing. if we launch straight into a project without doing the research, we would be guilty of complacency, and that doesn't make for good mixers
Now having said that, it doesn't mean that you can't explore and "do your own thing" - there are no rules....but some people do have expectations and as a mixing engineer, you need to know who you're target listener is going to be so you can help meet those expectations. this forum offers fantastic opportunity to take some risks and explore new terrain.
do you have a good pair of headphones?
i use headphones for listening to forum posts (HD560's, which i bought new back in 1992) because they can reveal some issues that have often escaped the mixer. headphones have their weaknesses; assessing bass is one of them, and assessing depth is another. a key point is the fact that when listening with monitors, the mix is 60 degrees wide, but in headphones it becomes 180 degrees, so the sound-stage appears much wider with them. because we don't know whether our audience is on headphones or monitors, we need to check how the mix behaves in both listening environments.
bass instruments (i deem bass to be anything below 200Hz, roughly speaking) should be central in a mix generally speaking. with this in mind, take a listen to both your v1 and v2 mixes again and assess the changes and implications of your decisions. in your v1 mix, there was less low-level bass present out towards the sides, yet in v2 there's rather a lot (in other words, i thought v1 was good, v2 less so). your v2 mix in headphones, could make for uncomfortable listening to the point that it becomes fatiguing? furthermore, because bass is non-directional, putting unnecessary bass out to the sides means the woofer is working harder than it needs to. this also means that if the woofer is trying to deliver bass off to one side, then it is less able to deliver the mid range with any degree of accuracy (read up on speaker technology to understand the issues) and then distortion will occur. the main instrument that's problematic in your v2 mix, is the organ....where you've panned the lower action to the RHS.
i'd describe your mix as being warm, and i'm wondering if it's your monitors that's tending to skew the mix in this direction (perhaps they are overly bright in delivery, which would cause you to mix darker to compensate?), or whether it was a choice you made from the start? that's not a criticism, more of an observation. personally, i'd have liked more mid range stuff going on in order to compensate a little for the bass element(s), and this would have helped provide better clarity in the instruments. for example, we are all very familiar with how a piano should sound.....but i can appreciate creative decisions/reasons might cause one to give it more of a warm presence. i'd only say that one should be aware of the other instrument's frequency response within the mix, and also flag up the psychoacoustic effects on the listener when they are being somewhat deprived of treble - it suggests the instrument is further back in the mix, even if it isn't and it can be this ambiguity that distracts a listener. but i can't help feeling your low-mids are overly abundant, which is easy to do given the bass guitar's presence in Raggae.
what are you using for monitors? is your room bright and highly reflective?
overall, i thought you did a good job given this was your first go at the genre.
catch you laters
Dave
firstly, thanks for dropping by and giving my mix your ear and taking some time with it.
i noted that the genre is new to you? i think it's always a good idea to push the boundaries and explore, so well done in exploring. i'm wondering how much time you've been able to spend in discovering the genre, from a research perspective? if something is new to you, it's important to check out the scene and see what the trends are, what's changed over the years, the levels of instruments in the mix, checking out the kind of reverbs that have been employed (i.e. how the depth field has been worked), and all that kind of stuff. i think it also goes without saying, that the research should involve the best quality material (NOT highly compressed mp3, because of the artifacts) so your ears can tune into quality from the start. when you've researched, you will be in a really strong position to begin mixing. if we launch straight into a project without doing the research, we would be guilty of complacency, and that doesn't make for good mixers
Now having said that, it doesn't mean that you can't explore and "do your own thing" - there are no rules....but some people do have expectations and as a mixing engineer, you need to know who you're target listener is going to be so you can help meet those expectations. this forum offers fantastic opportunity to take some risks and explore new terrain.do you have a good pair of headphones?
i use headphones for listening to forum posts (HD560's, which i bought new back in 1992) because they can reveal some issues that have often escaped the mixer. headphones have their weaknesses; assessing bass is one of them, and assessing depth is another. a key point is the fact that when listening with monitors, the mix is 60 degrees wide, but in headphones it becomes 180 degrees, so the sound-stage appears much wider with them. because we don't know whether our audience is on headphones or monitors, we need to check how the mix behaves in both listening environments.
bass instruments (i deem bass to be anything below 200Hz, roughly speaking) should be central in a mix generally speaking. with this in mind, take a listen to both your v1 and v2 mixes again and assess the changes and implications of your decisions. in your v1 mix, there was less low-level bass present out towards the sides, yet in v2 there's rather a lot (in other words, i thought v1 was good, v2 less so). your v2 mix in headphones, could make for uncomfortable listening to the point that it becomes fatiguing? furthermore, because bass is non-directional, putting unnecessary bass out to the sides means the woofer is working harder than it needs to. this also means that if the woofer is trying to deliver bass off to one side, then it is less able to deliver the mid range with any degree of accuracy (read up on speaker technology to understand the issues) and then distortion will occur. the main instrument that's problematic in your v2 mix, is the organ....where you've panned the lower action to the RHS.
i'd describe your mix as being warm, and i'm wondering if it's your monitors that's tending to skew the mix in this direction (perhaps they are overly bright in delivery, which would cause you to mix darker to compensate?), or whether it was a choice you made from the start? that's not a criticism, more of an observation. personally, i'd have liked more mid range stuff going on in order to compensate a little for the bass element(s), and this would have helped provide better clarity in the instruments. for example, we are all very familiar with how a piano should sound.....but i can appreciate creative decisions/reasons might cause one to give it more of a warm presence. i'd only say that one should be aware of the other instrument's frequency response within the mix, and also flag up the psychoacoustic effects on the listener when they are being somewhat deprived of treble - it suggests the instrument is further back in the mix, even if it isn't and it can be this ambiguity that distracts a listener. but i can't help feeling your low-mids are overly abundant, which is easy to do given the bass guitar's presence in Raggae.
what are you using for monitors? is your room bright and highly reflective?
overall, i thought you did a good job given this was your first go at the genre.
catch you laters
Dave
Beware...........Cognitive Dissonance!