Too Bright

[pauli]

Okay, for the most part my biggest issue is with the vox. In the verse you've got an almost intimate/telephone vocal and then in the chorus you've got this really dark and almost foreboding thing going on with it. Why not try switching that dynamic around? It might work better for ya.

I really liked the drums in the verse. The snare is perhaps a bit "bodyless" but it has a nice snap. Kick has some nice weight and the hats sound nice and crisp.

Other than the vox I really don't feel there is much to comment on that is a major issue honestly. You pretty much got the big stuff good to go.

There is one thing I would like to comment on in particular.

Space. You don't hear a sound without a room sound to it to some degree. Now, this can be used for effect on certain instruments in certain situations. However, those are not all that common so it makes sense to give things ample space. You don't necessarily have to out right hear it, but feeling it is plenty good. In the context of a mix it can be very handy to manipulate this space as well to create a more engaging sound.

A decent take on this track. The hardest part with this is by far the vox. Honestly switch the tone between the chorus and verse and I think you'd have an interesting little dynamic at play.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. The vocal processing is really severe... I think sometimes we hear those nasty frequencies and we want to smooth them out, but then it's as though you can't get them out of your ears and keep smoothing even though the problem is well past being fixed. At one point I considered doing a distorted telephonic effect a la Dan Auerbach for the choruses, but you're right... the verse tone is too bright and the chorus tone is too dull.


The space/ambience, you're right to flag that up. There's sort of a "paint by numbers" reverb/delay approach here... kind of lazy, but I was ready to post it and be done with it for a while.

I'd really like to know how you got the bass synth so huge on your version. In Massey's "Behind The Glass" there's a great interview with Nile Rogers where he mentions how small the instrumentation is one the records he produced for Madonna, but that was also how get got the huge sound, by deliberately not layering. Apart from the vocal that's where I think my mix falls short... the choruses are loud but they still sound small.

I think I'm going to finish up what I'm working on right now and give this one another stab with your comments in mind. Thanks for taking the time and encouraging remarks

[APZX]

I understand going overboard on doing something. The thing you have to learn, or at least I had to learn, was to figure out how to back off and learn how to split your hearing up from subjective and objective. Learning to do that can help you to balance what kind of processing you have to do versus what is too much processing.

Space is one of those things that I cannot put into words on how to accomplish at all. You just have to fiddle with it and get better at recognizing it. But definitely something to start working on now because it will be something that will separate mixes about is how the utilization of space comes into place.

I'd really like to know how you got the bass synth so huge on your version.

O rly? Ignoring the volume of the signal the first thing I did was to HPF it with a gentle 6dB/Oct filter at about 50Hz. For a good chunk of the mix this is how I was listening to it. Then at a point I felt it needed a more aggressive feeling. So, I dialed up a compressor with very aggressive set of timings and quite a bit of GR (~10dB). Then I applied the age old Pultec EQ trick on the low end. I also added a very generous amount of high shelving with the pultec as well. This really helped it come out and be "big" sounding. Other than that I've got the sidechain and a HPF for the one section in the track where I filtered it out. Not complicated.

[pauli]

O rly? Ignoring the volume of the signal the first thing I did was to HPF it with a gentle 6dB/Oct filter at about 50Hz. For a good chunk of the mix this is how I was listening to it. Then at a point I felt it needed a more aggressive feeling. So, I dialed up a compressor with very aggressive set of timings and quite a bit of GR (~10dB). Then I applied the age old Pultec EQ trick on the low end. I also added a very generous amount of high shelving with the pultec as well. This really helped it come out and be "big" sounding. Other than that I've got the sidechain and a HPF for the one section in the track where I filtered it out. Not complicated.

Yeah, not complicated at all... I rather overcomplicated it here. I was trying to fill out the stereo image with more than just the vocals, so I duplicated the bass twice and highpassed really aggressively... panned the duplicates to either side and pitch shifted in opposite directions. That probably limited how high I could bring the level up, but I didn't compress it at all, either. So it filled out the stereo at the expense of sounding small

[APZX]

See, now I thought about doing something similar. In fact at one point I had this complicated chain that alternated a LPF and HPF versions of the signal (keeping the low end in strictly in the middle though) that were hard panned and was controlled by the kick in that when the kick hit it switched them. I chose not to stick with it as it was too confusing and instead just panned the hats. So, about 45 min of work thrown out in favor of a simple LFO lol. I still stand by the fact that I think people were way over complicating the chorus verse dynamic. I subscribe to the K.I.S.S principle or Keep It Simple Stupid. Has worked quite well for me.

Want to know something else? How about the plug-ins used? In order of their use; Nomad Factory NEQ-1972, The Glue, Nomad Factory PulseTec EQ, The Glue (sidechain), and ReaEQ (HPF effect automated in & out due to the resonant peak I used). Not complicated at all.