07-03-2014, 11:58 PM
Thanks for listening and commenting, Olli! And thanks for the kind words 
I think I may have gotten lucky :S because I committed a mixing sin and didn't reference anything at all other than vaults and vaults of memories. I grew up a generation after this music had fallen out of prominence, but I also grew up listening to 30 year old vinyls that I have since inherited... so maybe a little of that mojo pushed me in the right direction and prevented anything egregious undermining the mix. Having said that... lots of breaks for coffee and walking the pooch might have helped, too.
If it's of any value to the group, I had the albums "layla and other assorted love songs," "highway 61 revisited," and "eat a peach" in mind when mixing various elements.
I got the dueling guitars idea from Clapton's work with Dwayne Allman in the dominoes days. It's especially prominent on Layla, where it feels like an onslaught of blues-pain coming from everywhere. That comp took as much time as mixing the entire track
First real comp I've ever done so there are no good habits to build on yet.
I'll give that opening lick another look. As it stands I left the licks along other than cutting them up and distributing them from track to track, but no detailed slicing or moving them in time, so maybe I could try some detailed slicing and crossfades to tighten it up? There are some hiccups in many of the licks that some might call "flaws" but I tend to like those sorts of musical anomalies, especially in blues rock... gives it soul for me, so I bet I lost objectivity and overlooked it. This was another all nighter
Agreed about the shaker. I think the best automation in this case might be occasional mutes now that I'm having a second listen. Letting it go the whole track gets kind of annoying and fatiguing, huh?
By the mud area, you're talking about low mids, right (some people call it the warmth area hahaha)? I kinda struggled with that in this tune and it's been a sticking point for me in almost every rock mix I've tried. Obviously the area right around 300 is where a distorted electric guitar lives and breathes, but it seems like almost EVERY instrument in rock music has important frequency information between 300 and 800. I always feel like there's too much cluttering everything up. Perhaps that's why it's often said "get the low mids right and everything falls into place." Very difficult to get separation because the wavelengths are too long for the sort of surgical EQ I use to get the higher pitches to jive. I hear what you're talking about though and I totally agree.. sounds thin! So that warrants some pretty serious experimentation and practice. Thanks for pointing that out! The retro feel is cool, but most modern listeners prefer more in this region.
I think I may have gotten lucky :S because I committed a mixing sin and didn't reference anything at all other than vaults and vaults of memories. I grew up a generation after this music had fallen out of prominence, but I also grew up listening to 30 year old vinyls that I have since inherited... so maybe a little of that mojo pushed me in the right direction and prevented anything egregious undermining the mix. Having said that... lots of breaks for coffee and walking the pooch might have helped, too.
If it's of any value to the group, I had the albums "layla and other assorted love songs," "highway 61 revisited," and "eat a peach" in mind when mixing various elements.
I got the dueling guitars idea from Clapton's work with Dwayne Allman in the dominoes days. It's especially prominent on Layla, where it feels like an onslaught of blues-pain coming from everywhere. That comp took as much time as mixing the entire track
First real comp I've ever done so there are no good habits to build on yet.I'll give that opening lick another look. As it stands I left the licks along other than cutting them up and distributing them from track to track, but no detailed slicing or moving them in time, so maybe I could try some detailed slicing and crossfades to tighten it up? There are some hiccups in many of the licks that some might call "flaws" but I tend to like those sorts of musical anomalies, especially in blues rock... gives it soul for me, so I bet I lost objectivity and overlooked it. This was another all nighter
Agreed about the shaker. I think the best automation in this case might be occasional mutes now that I'm having a second listen. Letting it go the whole track gets kind of annoying and fatiguing, huh?
By the mud area, you're talking about low mids, right (some people call it the warmth area hahaha)? I kinda struggled with that in this tune and it's been a sticking point for me in almost every rock mix I've tried. Obviously the area right around 300 is where a distorted electric guitar lives and breathes, but it seems like almost EVERY instrument in rock music has important frequency information between 300 and 800. I always feel like there's too much cluttering everything up. Perhaps that's why it's often said "get the low mids right and everything falls into place." Very difficult to get separation because the wavelengths are too long for the sort of surgical EQ I use to get the higher pitches to jive. I hear what you're talking about though and I totally agree.. sounds thin! So that warrants some pretty serious experimentation and practice. Thanks for pointing that out! The retro feel is cool, but most modern listeners prefer more in this region.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!