This was a great tune to mix! The drums and bass really drive this song so I spent extra time massaging them and got great results. I also wanted the lead vocal very up front in the mix because this song gets busy in there with all the synth and guitars going on, etc. Kept the overall reverb on a short string because too much of it would just mush up this song. Overall, the mix is clear and punchy without being squashed in any way. Used a ping pong delay on the guitar note ringing out right before the crash "on one" as the lead vocal begins. This song was truncated (shortened) by the artist as the preview mix included with the tracks was indeed much shorter. Since they did that, I assumed they wanted to cut out that extended instrumental section in the beginning. Did some cross fading and got a good result and a similar song in the end. :-) I hope you like it.
Comments are always welcomed.
Peace,
Tom
Hi Tjm,
I like how you brought out the drums compared to the reference mix. I don't think you need that much (deep) low end in the kick, and the compression in the drums shows a little more than I wished. The voice masks the other instruments at some points, specifically in the mid range frequencies (500Hz ish). I like the overall balance, these synths are hard to place in the mix and you made very sensible choices.
(27-06-2020, 01:19 PM)tjmtruth Wrote: [ -> ] (27-06-2020, 01:06 PM)OctopusOnFire Wrote: [ -> ]Hi Tjm,
I like how you brought out the drums compared to the reference mix. I don't think you need that much (deep) low end in the kick, and the compression in the drums shows a little more than I wished. The voice masks the other instruments at some points, specifically in the mid range frequencies (500Hz ish). I like the overall balance, these synths are hard to place in the mix and you made very sensible choices.
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Oct....
Thanks for your input and positive analysis....much appreciated. Yeah, I want to go back into this mix and mess with it some more. I'm thinking of doing some ducking techniques during vocals for the instrument masking problem you pointed out, plus I'd like to reduce the 2nd and 3rd lead vocal dup tracks some more because I think there is too much lead vocal doubling with the three tracks mixed as I did. I sound-replaced the kick and tom 2 so they would stand out better. I like a nice clean kick track. However, I might try to use the original kick track/s and try some other techniques for the bleed issues on that/those kick tracks. There is also more scooping of frequencies in the other instruments that will help. I spent so much time on this mix that I might as well spend ever more and get it better. :-)
Peace,
Tom (P.S. The way you worded some of your comments......are YOU the artist for this song?.....just curious).
No, I'm not. I have a song in this library, though. It's easy to find since... well, I am the author, so just look for Octopusonfire. Can't guarantee you'll like it, though.
Here's something I've been doing lately to avoid 100% sample replacement. I have XLN's Addictive Trigger, a plugin that detects and replaces elements of a drum kit. It's quite good at identifying the actual kick or snare among the bleed. Then I'll print a track with the sample only, and use it as an aux track that feeds the detector of a gate plugin placed in the original raw track. This way you get a very natural gate. If I still had problems with, say, the hihat spill on some kick hits, I would filter that out and add a sample only for the top end of the kick, preserving most of the original sound.