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Old Analog Dude
#1
Hey Folks,
I ran into an old bandmate a while back and offered to help him mix his new band. I did live mixing back in the 80's. Then somebody said, "why don't we do a demo!"

Well, there is no fool like an old fool, so I said, "yeah, I'll learn Pro Tools so we can do it on a computer!"

I am really green at this point. Learning the software has been a huge process for me. I only have four good brain cells left. This stuff is easily nine or ten brain cell stuff.

So here is my mix. Probably a bit too "Live", but as part of the learning process I would appreciate guidance in the next step of the process. I am not able to do surgical editing yet so this is pretty basic mixing.

I will apologize in advance if this offends anyones ears....Thanx in advance...Curley


.mp3    LOUD AND CLEAR_V6 REMIX.mp3 --  (Download: 4.18 MB)


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#2
Welcome to the addiction that is known as mixing!

So, I'm just going to lay out what I hear. I hope that my critique doesn't come off too harshly!

Firstly I think you are mixing with your faders up too high. I think you need to give yoursels some headroom. Everything seems constricted. The snare sounds kind of cardboardy (yes it's a word, I just happened to make it up) and it is too far up front I think.

I think your Vocal is a little too scooped in the mids, so its sounds thin.

Also, your overall levels and eqing would benefit from making sure you have everything leveled really well in mono, before you pan anything. I spend a lot of time doing that, and always going back and checking for phase and for general balance. I lose the main vocal at the beginning of your choruses, and I think the entire mix is just too drum driven (i'm not sure that sentence has been uttered by me very often). Your highs overall are a little bright.

Good first swing, just take your time in the mono balance stage and make sure everything really is loud and clear!

Keep it up!
Draper
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#3
Thanks for taking time to listen. This Digital Studio thing is new to me. I basically am having "flashbacks" to the live days.
Your assessment is right on. The faders are up too high. The gain structure needs to be redone. I did indeed "scoop" the vocals.
Back in the day, If you could get the drums to "pop", you had a good P.A. The "cardboardy" snare usually got it to cut well.

So, as I strive to get to the 21st century with this process, I hope that I can count on folks like you to "keep it real".
There is no better resource than "friends in the business". This will be a great site to learn from. Thanks again.........Curley



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#4
One way to learn is to listen to other mixes, reference them if needed, compare and check and read what others are saying about it.
There's nothing more important than to develop your critical listening.
"Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something." - Frank Zappa

Some air moved here
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#5
(21-11-2014, 11:37 PM)ptalbot Wrote: One way to learn is to listen to other mixes, reference them if needed, compare and check and read what others are saying about it.
There's nothing more important than to develop your critical listening.

Great input...........It's always been said that good music is any music that pleases the ears. The trick here is to please more ears than just my own.

This is going to be a great group of people to learn from..........I'm looking forward to more interaction.

Thanks again..................Curley
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#6
(At the risk of stating the obvious since you say you're new to digital.)

Also, please remember, when you reach 0 dB on your master fader, that's a hard clip, not saturation. Digital is very unforgiving in that way. Most DAWs meter peak power with an option of showing average. If you want to hear what it does, import something you're very familiar with and then force it up (like inserting a clean sounding compressor plugin on the mix bus and crank the makeup gain.) If you've got good ears and good monitors, you should be able to hear the effects for yourself.

As for the mix, I agree with what was said above. I found the acoustic guiter too prominent and some of the vocal changes got lost. It is, however, much better than I did on my first pass (that one didn't get posted) so I can't complain all that much. Smile
Old West Audio
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#7
You folks are awesome. Your ears are also much better than mine.
I know I did damage in the "live" days. Tinnitus in both ears will prevent me from ever being a true studio engineer. But, that doesn't mean I can't have a great learning experience in Digital audio.
My second biggest issue is having to mix on phones (Sennheise Hd-280's). I am a care provider for my mother and her 94 year old Alzheimer's patient. The noise from my mixing would drive them to murder.
I've got a great pair of JBL 4313 Studio Monitors that I would love to mix on. Would these still be considered a decent control room monitor? For now they just sit and look pretty.

I really appreciate you folk taking the time to teach others. Knowledge is useless if unshared.............Curley
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#8
Thanks everybody......I got some great feedback from you. This encouraged me to try again. My Pro Tools skill package is very limited at this point. But, with each attempt, I learn. That is what this is all about.

When Thomas Edison was told he had failed to invent the light bulb, he responded with, "I have not failed, I've just found ten thousand ways that didn't work".

Try, Try Again...................Curley



.mp3    LOUD AND CLEAR_V2-upload.mp3 --  (Download: 4.18 MB)


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#9
In my opinion the snare sounds really thin. Maybe try to fix that a little bit with EQ. Maybe add some reverb to the snare too?
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#10
Hello and welcome to the fun
Cant listen right now but I can answer your question about the JBL 4313
Lovely speaker, I have a pair and got them reconed as age ate some of the speaker material. Also the condensators in the crossovers are known to dry up, causing a wrong crossover frequency.
I love the sound of them but find them too pretty. I make awfull mixes on them. I use a pair of Dynaudio bm6a powered speakers.
The jbls need a really good amp to deliver decent bass. The guy I bought them from used a big american amp, if I remember right a 300 watt. My 110 watt pioneer is kinda ok but they sound much better run by my LAB amp, but its pretty unconvenient runnin them with that as its used for giggin and live in my live rack
I'll give your mix a listen when Im able

A thing you may enjoy is analog soundin plugins. UA make wonderful emulations of fairlight compressors and orher classic gear. It lives on my drum bus only kissin the meters but make a huge diffrence to my ears. Also tape emulators are very handy often
Cheers !
Old ears, old gear, little boy inside love music and sounds and my wife, not necessarily in that order
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