Anything Funk I love!!! And so, here is my mix. Had a blast mixing this one. I watched the video of them doing this song in the Telefunken studio....cool! Hope ya'll like it.
Later..........
Tom
-------------UPDATE
As per MikeJ's suggestions, I went back into this mix and revamped a lot of things.....even stuff that he didn't mention. I think I got closer to what would be considered a good mix this time....see the second file upload, version 8M. Thanks. Tom
-------------ANOTHER UPDATE.....LOL
OK, I went back in and did this again....latest version 12M. This is the version I'm sticking with. LOL! I put a lot of time into this one. Peace everyone. Hope you like it. Keeping the other ones there, as Mike Senior always suggests, for learning purposes, comparison, etc.
Tom
Hi,
Yeah it's light in the low end and and low mids and a bit strong in that 4k region for me. It feels like there is maybe some sort of weird dynamics processing going on or some odd multiband processing thing perhaps? Overall it sounds a bit kind of too plasticy and artificial to me. I don't think the distorted synth bass sound is helping matters either - it sounds a bit kind of too thin and is making the whole mix sound more distorted than it perhaps should.
Certainly there is something going on in there that is making this quite a difficult listen for me, especially if I turn it up a bit. There are couple of harsh resonances in the full mix - one around 4.3k mark and another between the 1-2k area - around 1.350 that I don't think is helping matters. Pulling these out, rolling off a little top and and adding 2 or 3 db low shelf around 200 and below helps things a little.
Each to their own of course, just my thoughts. I just feel this mix should somehow be sounding better than it does.
Cheers!
I listend to both but mostly focused on the second mix. I will agree the moog(?) in the first version bothered me and it feels a bit more natural in the second version. It might be a bit loud in the solo and outro. I don't know if the volume changes at all or if it's just me but it jumped out at me more then. I don't know if there is more low end in the second version or not bit I think it balances out the upper mids of the overall mix. I think it feels good. I suppose my only issue is with the snare it feels like it might have just a hair to much attack or high end but it just seems to distract me. It very well be me because I seem to be sensitive to snares lately. Maybe less horn? I dunno. I generally like louder horns so I'm not sure.
Overall, it works.
Hi!
2nd mix is much better balanced frequency wise for me. I agree that the lows and upper mids are more balanced now. Not sure if the kick and snare are kind of vying for the same dynamic space as the vocal and could be brought back a hair - as the vocal is quite punchy/dynamic too in this track. I suspect that might just be me though!
Anyway, mix 2 much better for me than mix 1 - there was just something about that mix seemed to be bothering me a bit hence digging in to it a bit.
Cheers!
Interesting comments there. Regarding the sax tone - I'm not sure, but I think some of the mix resonances might have come from the sax so might be worth checking that track. This session does feel a little kind of edgy to me anyway I think. Maybe it's the room or something?
Yeah - I find getting the drum balance right tricky and perhaps mix them back a bit too. I do feel balancing the drums with just the vocal helps. Then bringing everything else up around them. I have all my busses linked to VCA's at the start of my template so I can easily play around with the mix balance.
Cheers!
It's certainly something worth trying. As with everything you've kind of got to figure out what works for you - I'm sure there's loads of different strategies.
For me - when I listen to the preview I just make a note of what I think are the most important elements and go from there. In this case it's probably the drums, bass and vocal.
Yeah if you are wanting the beater sound or whatever from the kick, then you might want to listen to that to make sure you don't mask it as you bring in the bass. For me it's that low end of the kick I listen out for. I used to kind of over use eq boosts to get these things to poke out but I find you can get a long way just with balance.
There's a mixer, Derek Ali (MixedByAli) who I think goes round the mix soloing two different elements to make sure everything is all still working well together as he goes. Got to be quite disciplined for that I think.
A tip I saw recently on Youtube from Mr C (The Shamen) plays the mix back at a really low level so you can just hear it and makes sure the main mix elements are poking through. You also need to check at louder volumes too, which is the bit I usually forget, as I mix at quite low volume.
Oh, another thing that sometimes works is to just bring up everything and mix with all faders up always and just keep going at it.
I found for me the most important thing is to start the mix with plenty of headroom. I can always over limit it and ruin it at the end
.
Cheers!