Set Me Free - HB Mix

[HbGuitar]

Another great song.....keep 'em coming

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Final version, mix_04, uploaded on page 2 - Drums levels rebalanced, reduce reverb on horns

[ptalbot]

Cool one HbGuitar!
I really like the vocal sound. And the width of the horns. The Rhodes sounds great as well. The lead guitar is nice as well, if a bit too wet, but it's probably a taste thing.
But the drums are much too compressed to my ears. The toms are hitting the limiter and ducking everything, it really pumps during the passage around 1:08 onward, also the snare has an unrealistic huge plate verb or something that is smashed by the compressor in a bad way.
So in short, good tonal elements throughout but I would really back down the compression/limiting on the drums because right now it doesn't sound good to me.

[HbGuitar]

Hey Patrick - Thanks for listening. Glad you liked some of it - sorry you didn't like the drums. Not sure what you're hearing as I haven't done anything massively out the ordinary - which is 2-3 db across the drum buss and a bit of saturation/Eq enhancement on kick and snare and certainly no crazy reverbs or anything.

That said, I was messing about trying to get a big sound so i did hit the OHs and Rooms pretty hard (for me) with about 6db. I was also test driving a new saturation plug-in so maybe i got a bit carried away (lol) and my ears got a bit drunk.

I'm away from studio for about 3 weeks at the mo so I'll have a look when i get back.

cheers

[ptalbot]

Yeah, I think you smashed the OHs and Rooms a bit too much!

[Cudjoe]

Hi hbguitar you have definitely compressed the drums too much,could be too much at the buss or at mastering ,apart from that it's not too bad,cudjoe.

[HbGuitar]

Hey cudjoe. Thx for listening. I'll take another look at the session when I'm back in the studio in a couple of weeks. Cheers.

[HbGuitar]

New version - Mix_02 - a few mods, mainly drums.

[ptalbot]

I don't know man. I don't hear much of a difference. It sounds like the OHs and Room are much too loud, and your compression is making them dominating everything. The splash cymbal (for example) sustains like crazy and is overbearing, the snare has the smack of an elephant.
I'm sorry I'm really not a fan of that.
Everything else sounds pretty good, so it's really a shame because these drums sound really off to me.

[HbGuitar]

Hey Pat....thanks for your feedback

I don't know man. I don't hear much of a difference.

In a strange way I'm pleased - because there wasn't much compression going on in the first place - and what there was I dragged out to the point of there being no compression at all. I can hear the difference....but i know what i've done so its easy

It sounds like the OHs and Room are much too loud, and your compression is making them dominating everything. The splash cymbal (for example) sustains like crazy and is overbearing, the snare has the smack of an elephant. I'm sorry I'm really not a fan of that.

This is pretty much an EQ/Level thing now - except the cymbals where i do have some slow release compression for sustain - but again i think its the level you are hearing rather than the compression (or lack thereof)

I'm not a fan of the snare sound either really but i left all EQ and levels the same just to illustrate how a pure reduction in compression sounded

Everything else sounds pretty good, so it's really a shame because these drums sound really off to me.

I'll probably have one more go at it. The compression thing worried me as its such a noob mistake so i'm glad that its not compression. EQ/Level can be seen as artistic differences rather than technical failures - lol

[ptalbot]

Good to know you know what it is. All I can say is that it sounds loud and in your face in an overbearing way, which is why I believed it was compression. I think if you reference some of the other mixes around, you will see that your drums are way over the top.
If you fix that, you should have a pretty cool mix.