12-01-2013, 07:25 PM (This post was last modified: 15-01-2013, 09:52 AM by Lammy.)
Dear all,
please find my attempt and approach on the fabulous recording session. It's work in progress and any artist's interaction and feedback would be great to improve my work. Thanks in advance, Wes, in case.
Approach from raw listening
- There's a very beautiful "airyness" in the take with percussion nuances and ambient and room mics I would keep.
- The prominence would be in the narrating (singing) voice
- I noticed each instrument has at least a point where it should stand out (a riff, an answer to the voice...) I should keep this in mind in further balancing.
So I set up the PT session with the first round of balancing and cleaning (even if I'm constantly reminding myself not to polish too much in order to keep the feeling).
- Drums and percussion sound and feeling changes enormously by selecting or de-selecting one or more of the room takes.
- Not yet fully convinced by the kick and the snare sound. Especially the snare, with the room tracks is challenging me.
- The piano and the dobro fight a lot in the same freq space.
- Voice is at the moment (maybe too) prominent on purpose.
- Some reverbs added so far but just a touch.
14-01-2013, 11:33 PM (This post was last modified: 15-01-2013, 09:52 AM by Lammy.)
OK further work done. I hope this is going in the right direction. I will put the song in the decanter for a few days since ears are getting too accustomed.
This is going on with PT10 and Waves (if not previously specified)
- Cuts of some offending frequencies for kick and bass
- I got rid of the stereo room take of the drums
- Some re-balancing of volumes but I'm not completely sure since headset and speakers are giving slightly different impression.
Still no automation (except source clip gains).
Pre-mastering levels (or slightly more):
Max Peak -3.8 dB
Max RMS -15.4 dB
16-01-2013, 01:40 AM (This post was last modified: 16-01-2013, 01:41 AM by electricladyLAN.)
Hi Lammy. This is like you have commented on my thread, a different approach.
Generally I find this an impressive mix, as there is no squashing, and lots of wide dynamics. If we are having a contest you beat me by about 2 dB : ) Maybe some of the transient shaping on drums is too aggressive, but I prefer your mix in this respect to the preview mix which I think is too hot (on the drums)
The main thing I miss in your mix is the natural ambience of the room stereo track. Really as good as your artificial reverb is, it can't beat that room and those mics. Just listen to the exposed drum roll at around 0:28, your ambience and reverb are not as enveloping as the preview mix or mine.
So, for me I am getting the reverse of what you found with my mix, for me yours sounds too narrow, although your balance is excellent.
(16-01-2013, 01:40 AM)electricladyLAN Wrote: Generally I find this an impressive mix, as there is no squashing, and lots of wide dynamics. If we are having a contest you beat me by about 2 dB : ) Maybe some of the transient shaping on drums is too aggressive, but I prefer your mix in this respect to the preview mix which I think is too hot (on the drums)
The main thing I miss in your mix is the natural ambience of the room stereo track. Really as good as your artificial reverb is, it can't beat that room and those mics. Just listen to the exposed drum roll at around 0:28, your ambience and reverb are not as enveloping as the preview mix or mine.
So, for me I am getting the reverse of what you found with my mix, for me yours sounds too narrow, although your balance is excellent.
Thanks for the nice and useful comments. Hey, it's not a competition, just a way to grow in the art of mixing and enjoying music "our own way". Comparisons will always be done from me in good faith and with the attempt to be constructive and learn more. And with the same spirit I'm reading yours and everybody else's.
Drum transients too harsh: yes you're right, good point.
Artificial reverb/ambience: well yes also agreed. Compromise of artificial to gain more control and (easier) fine tuning, against the "truensess" of the real takes.
I also noticed a gating on overhead that's too much noticeable on headphones.
I'm also not satisfied by the piano sound that I can't treat well (A/B ing with some reference recording that would be my piano target for this type of music).
I'll be for sure reviewing the mix, in a few days.
cheers
I agree with electricLan's comments about the ambience. The room ambience from the mic's sounds pretty awesome in the reference mix. One thing you might want to try with the piano is to give it more of an upright, honky tonk sound. That was the original idea plus it should open up those frequencies for other instruments.
I would also feature the instruments more in between the vocals. The most obvious is the guitar solo which can be super up-front.
Finally the vocals get a little buried later in the mix.
