r2….
(auditioned using small mono cube, bass-retarded consumer thing)
It’s the same problem I’m experiencing with all auditions – vocal placement vs the harp. Many/most/all have also taken the route of hard panning. It only works for musicians; it is spatially surreal, brings excessive focus and fails miserably to translate but more on this below:
Firstly, you have 2x Mikaelas. One is in my face. The other, playing the harp, appears hard panned left. Detached. Not a good idea for a harpist/vocalist or fans who know her work. So there are Rules, contrary to what one chap mentions irresponsibly in this sub!!
The stick, especially during the first minute, can be irritating if it’s not balanced wrt amplitude and frequency response (FR). FR is amplitude because of the non-linear behaviour of the ear. Importantly, it depends on the playout system and it’s FR as to whether parts of the spectrum appear subjectively emphasised more or less so. And it’s also a matter of the degree of hearing impairment/hearing bias on the part of the mixer and indeed the listener, as to how it’s FR is perceived. Increase the auditioning level (fletcher-munson non-linearities), and things can, and do, become very irritating! But this is irritating even at a very low level, which is a concern.
The drums would contribute more to the rhythm if brought forwards subjectively.
Do you really need to include the stick counts for the listener?
The vocal is sibilant. I also find the gasping breathers she takes to be excessive and therefore distracting. Your processing also tends to emphasise this feature. She’s not a trained vocalist(?). Irrespective, we surely need to help her. Yes? No?
The bv’s would benefit from more inclusion and participation. In mono they are lost for most of the time, and near impossible to define for the rest without effort.
The low end is muddy, boomy, and ill defined from serious masking issues. Note the harp and bgtr sustains in this region are inherently problematic; an arrangement issue which necessitates….. “Fixing in the mix”. But how do we make the harp clear across it’s range without interfering with that super bgtr double-note style which brings a nice groove you’ve not highlighted? And do so without introducing more mud and smear?
And what do you plan to do about the printed automation the telefunkers’ have included in their infinite wisdom?
This mixmaster doesn’t translate and mono playback shows up the issues and shortcomings of stereo mixing and hard panning. Since 2016, there are over 100 million more people listening in mono. Ignore them at your peril. Hard panning gives a false sense of separation and clarity which gets blown out the window in mono! All side elements end up inclusive in a mono downmix! Clutter, major congestion, really bad separation, bass/low end boom, etc etc etc. It might sound awesome on headphones (you mixed it this way…yes?), but everywhere else it will be, and is, a train smash.
The mixmaster is missing macro dynamic energy – i.e. E M O T I O N. Furthermore, having all elements wanging around all the time (4 strings bringing long sustains and slow decay and a tonne of masking), risks losing listener interest and it gives you nowhere to go during the chorus other than louder (i.e. more unpleasant distortion artifacts, less dynamic range, lost emotions). And loud only works for about 5 seconds anyway, once the brain re-calibrates.
Adding reverb emu’s will, and does here, contribute to yet more masking. Mono is good at testing for that
The pedal steel during it’s spotlight eg 02:00, sounds lost [in mono], which loses impact from it’s potential emotional contribution. That’s what happens with hard panning too. The wash/blanket of cymbal accompaniment sounds like static hiss.
I’d suggest looking into muting for clarity, definition, and to help engagement by bringing interest and to help the emotional connection by variety (how about downward expansion – multiband, to help deal with sustains?). I managed to mute rather a lot in my draft-concept (thanks to the lack of cross feeds), if we ignore the harp poking out during the first verse! It DOES mute in it’s totality in my v2 work-in-progress, and perhaps importantly, there’s subjectively only 1x Mikaela! Simply having mono tracks panned doesn’t make them interesting. There needs to be specialist stereo enhancement rather than mere panning with a reverb slapped on top. My v2 explores this and I must say initial work suggests a tremendous improvement in emotional delivery and added interest and engagement for listeners – me especially! And it works in mono
