Pedaling Prince Mix: Motor Tapes - Shore

[Pedaling Prince]

I think the bass has too dominant role in your mix and somehow "boxy" sound. It blend better in the mix during chorus.

The full bass you're hearing is, in fact, the sound I was going for, in part because I personally prefer a nice full low end, but also because I feel I have something to prove about digital sound in general.

One of the most common complaints I've heard made about digital sound by those who swear by analog technology is the "brittleness" and "sharpness" of digital sound, which they find objectionable.

IMHO, a lot of that excessive brightness came about in the early days of digital sound because many engineers of the time were used to applying a slight boost to the high end during recording to compensate for the natural high frequency rolloff of magnetic tape; the idea was to achieve a flatter, more balanced frequency response in the final recording. Trouble is, digital media has no such rolloff; its frequency response is ruler flat. So what happened? Some of these early engineers, not fully understanding the properties of this brand new medium (and one could hardly blame them for that) just recorded with it using the same techniques they used on analog recording, including the high frequency boost, except now since the recording medium has no high frequency rolloff that boost actually creates a DEPARTURE from flat response in the recording, creating an overly shrill sound.

In short, analog engineers EXPECTING the recorded sound to be a little different from the input were used to shaping sound based both on the sound they wanted AND the limitations of analog media, limitations that simply did not exist in digital. Unfortunately, as this was a mistake often made even by respected engineers, authorities in their field, some people mistakenly started to believe that this shrill sound was just the way digital sounded. In the end, even new engineers coming into the field tended to imitate this sound, honestly believing this is "that digital sound." Further adding to the confusion, analog recordings transcribed to digital often sounded better than recordings made in digital from scratch. This wasn't because of some inherent superiority of analog media but because the analog recordings were made by engineers who knew exactly how to get the most out of the medium; digital recordings made by the same engineers, in turn, didn't sound as good because of their LACK of experience with the NEW medium.

The worst example I heard of this phenomenon was Chris de Burgh's 1984 album Man on the Line which was the first album de Burgh recorded entirely with digital techniques. It sounds much brighter than any of his other albums before or since, analog or digital. I mean it's not distorted or anything; the sound is nice and clean but I almost feel like I'm listening to a record without RIAA equalization it's that bright at times. I've always thought of Man on the Line as Exhibit A of the mistakes made in early attempts to record entirely with digital media but still using analog techniques out of force of habit.

Digital sound is NOT bright and brittle by nature. Digital sound is, and always has been, fully capable of producing sound just as full and rich as any analog source, only with less noise and virtually no distortion at all.

The key to good digital sound is to always bear in mind that the medium will always replicate the frequency content of the sound you created EXACTLY. There's no need to think ahead to how the recording medium will color the sound; it doesn't. The sound you create in the studio will be EXACTLY the sound that will go on the recording.

Not saying you're wrong; just saying I think this is more a matter of taste, and I had very specific reasons for doing that particular part the way I did.

The drums sound distant which I think is good for this song but maybe they could be a little louder.

There I think you might have a point. In my early mixing attempts drums were my Achilles Heel/Arch Nemesis; I always had trouble balancing them.

The bvox have space and I think the lead voc could have a little bit more without losing the n:o 1 place in the mix. In chorus I think you need to adjust the lead voc s-limiter a bit. (if any?)

No; I didn't use any.

That build up before the guitar solo could be bigger and the solo also and have more similar sound to other guitar tracks. Maybe try to think it as a new intro. Growing from small to this epic guitar solo. And yes I didn't do that in my mix, but I think it would fit to your mix.

Hm. I wish I still had this mix project. That actually sounds like a pretty good idea I wish I could try out.