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Sea Of Leaves - 1st pass
#11
The last mix is greatly improved! I could stand a de-esser on the vocals, and maybe some more higher mids in the guitars, not much, just a little bit. They feel a little too relaxed to match what the singer is saying. Just looking for a little more energy on the guitars during the chorus I guess. I like the feel at the beginning, where it is calmed, but I want to hear some more grit. But not too much. Just a kiss of some sort of distortion, whether it be a parallel channel with an analogue simulator tucked behind the original guitars, or a distortedly compressed guitar aux. Something to bring just a touch more energy.

tl;dr
Good job, de-ess vox, maybe gits thrashier during chorus?

Draper
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#12
Thanks so much for the responses guys!
Man, that was quick!

I really appreciate all the help.
I so glad the response is positive.

ff, thanks for the headphone recommendation. those look lovely.

So...

right after I posted that I went back and as a test I made a new version sorta "took the gloves off" so-to speak and experimented with kinda pushing it as far as it would go.
I also made a few quick changes, taking a bit of the edge off the vocal and snare, and a little more presence to the guitars. basically, I just tried to warm everything as much as it would go.

I have to say, when the dust settled, I thought it sounded pretty good in my crappy cans - but I can't tell if this is really cool, or gunna blow somone's subwoofer.

I'm also trying to train my ear - so this is a test to see if this is a good direction - I'm wondering if you guys think this is powerful and cool, or way too heavy and crappy.

If this works, It might also address some of Draper's notes as well.

anyway, I'm curious to hear what you guys think.
Thanks again, this help in invaluable!

J






.mp3    Sea of Leaves v4.1-test.mp3 --  (Download: 7.33 MB)


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#13
Yes, this is much better.

EX29s are isolation headphones, and my experience is that isolation is usually inversely proportional with accuracy. The more isolation you get, the more hyped the bass tends to be, and like fhumble fhingaz mentioned, a rolled off low end (to protect your hearing.) Hearing is an important consideration here, too, because mixing in isolation phones can have you deafer than beethoven if you aren't careful... the tendency to keep turning it up is always a problem with phones, but on isolation phones that sound had nowhere to go but right in your ears.

I wouldn't worry about the Apogee too much as long as you're not looking to get really, really high impedance headphones like HD600s. I have a pair of AKG k240s for late night mixing, you can usually find them on sweetwater for about a hundred bucks, and they're quite accurate for the price... highly recommend.

Keep up the good work!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#14
Having a listen on my studio speakers - sounding good.

However, I can hear the sub low end in the mix now (I have a subwoofer in my system). I would suggest less sub lows in the kick drum some, as it is a bit out of proportion with the rest of the mix. On a spectrum analyser, you'll see the sub in the kick really poking out around 40-50hz. For as track of this type, with this tempo, there is probably not enough space for that much sub in the mix - it will rob you of headroom, and it actually leeches energy from the song.

Perhaps try filtering out some low end - say below about 60hz from the kick drum, or maybe pull down the outside kick mic compared to the inside.
All 10 FytaKyte Multi-Tracks available for you to mix with purchase of Album here: https://fytakyte.bandcamp.com/releases
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#15
Usually for a rock mix I wind up highpassing the whole thing around 50 Hz at mastering anyhow... not much need for sub in this genre. Tempo is a good point, too... sub waves take a long time to propagate because of their size, and that can give a sense of "drag" to the tempo. Low end monitoring is really, really hard on headphones, or in any untreated space, so download Voxengo SPAN or something similar. SPAN has a high resolution low frequency inspection preset that can give you a really good idea what's happening.

Try Room EQ wizard if you get some monitors, too. Corrective EQ only works well if you've already applied as much acoustic treatment as you can tolerate (cost, space, etc), so I'd just focus on grabbing a measurement mic and getting a waterfall plot so you can see how your room is messing with what you're hearing. Lots of times there's plenty of bass in the mix, but you can't hear it because the decay time of bass frequencies in your room is so long that it's phase cancelling itself before you ever wind up hearing it. If you have any control over this, try firing your monitors down the longest wall of the room, and sit about 38 percent from the front wall, centered from left to right. Sounds obsessive, but supposedly that's where room modes in the bass are going to have the least impact.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#16
Hey guys.

Thanks again for all the great notes on the last pass.
I incorporated all your notes and I think this pass is really coming along.

I think I've "fixed" the low-end as you all suggest.
And I mixed in a little distorted guitars on a separate track as Draper suggested.
It's subtle, but it helps fill them out a bit. thanks!
And thanks for all the gear recommendations - clearly I'm gunna need some upgrades soon.

Thanks for the support everyone, this is really helpful and I feel like I'm improving (one step at a time Wink.

Love to hear what you all think.

Best,
J



.mp3    Sea of Leaves v4.4.mp3 --  (Download: 7.33 MB)


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#17
Definitely more balance in the low end of the kick now. The kick has some boxiness around 400hz that will clean it up some if it is taken out. It could also do with just a touch more high end to match the attack of the snare when the snare gets loud...

Speaking of which - there is a fair bit of dynamic variation between the way the drummer hits the snare in the chorus & verse sections - He hits pretty softly during the verse, but really lays into it during the chorus. If you listen to the snare in your mix, you'll hear a really wide variation in the snare both tonally and volume-wise between the softer & heavier parts of the song. During the verse, the snare doesn't really pop out & drive the song's "forward movement" as much as it should, whereas during the louder bits, the snare "pops out" of the mix just a bit too much - to the point where it sounds a little bit "disconnected" from the rest of the drum kit.

To get a result that approaches a pro mix, this needs to be managed with eq, compression & possibly automation so that it remains more consistent in sound throughout the song, but still reflects the lift in energy for the heavier parts.

Nice going so far!
All 10 FytaKyte Multi-Tracks available for you to mix with purchase of Album here: https://fytakyte.bandcamp.com/releases
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