22-04-2014, 06:38 PM
Hey John, I enjoyed listening to this mix.
As I've found is generally the case, I like your spectral balance quite a bit but disagree with the levels on particular instruments, but that's entirely a matter of personal taste when we don't have the artist/producer to guide our mix decisions, of course. Just for clarity, I found the snare too loud, but again, simple personal taste on that matter.
I agree with Alan that a little more sparkle in the high end would improve the mix from a commercial perspective, but as I understand, you prefer a slightly darker tonality. Since this is a decidedly uncommercial track (at least it would be considered so here in the states) that seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable mix choice, and might even be preferable to the target audience (I'm not sure about that.)
However, I disagree with him as to the amount about the low end mud, which to my ears is excessive. All I hear from around 150 down is a lumpy blob without much definition. Unfortunately this song as recorded has some pretty severe bottom end issues and I don't think any mix I've heard so far has been entirely successful at containing it (and my mix of this song is quite awful, I must admit) so I can hardly criticize you for that. I wonder if a steep high pass filter on the side channel would be beneficial on the bass synth? The nature of the instrument unfortunately has also made the low end quite inconsistent in level, so I think if you killed the excessive bass in the side channels on that instrument (and maybe even a little low cut on the side channel of the entire mix) and used multiband compression to even out the level, you might improve the already very listenable balance.
My low end monitoring is pretty poor, as my room has some severe resonances, and I didn't use any sort of analysis tools in reviewing your mix (I prefer to use my ears, despite my low end limitations) so you're more than welcome to disregard any of my observations that you don't agree with, but I think this is a very good stab at a deceptively tricky mix, and it's certainly better than my attempt. Great work!
As I've found is generally the case, I like your spectral balance quite a bit but disagree with the levels on particular instruments, but that's entirely a matter of personal taste when we don't have the artist/producer to guide our mix decisions, of course. Just for clarity, I found the snare too loud, but again, simple personal taste on that matter.
I agree with Alan that a little more sparkle in the high end would improve the mix from a commercial perspective, but as I understand, you prefer a slightly darker tonality. Since this is a decidedly uncommercial track (at least it would be considered so here in the states) that seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable mix choice, and might even be preferable to the target audience (I'm not sure about that.)
However, I disagree with him as to the amount about the low end mud, which to my ears is excessive. All I hear from around 150 down is a lumpy blob without much definition. Unfortunately this song as recorded has some pretty severe bottom end issues and I don't think any mix I've heard so far has been entirely successful at containing it (and my mix of this song is quite awful, I must admit) so I can hardly criticize you for that. I wonder if a steep high pass filter on the side channel would be beneficial on the bass synth? The nature of the instrument unfortunately has also made the low end quite inconsistent in level, so I think if you killed the excessive bass in the side channels on that instrument (and maybe even a little low cut on the side channel of the entire mix) and used multiband compression to even out the level, you might improve the already very listenable balance.
My low end monitoring is pretty poor, as my room has some severe resonances, and I didn't use any sort of analysis tools in reviewing your mix (I prefer to use my ears, despite my low end limitations) so you're more than welcome to disregard any of my observations that you don't agree with, but I think this is a very good stab at a deceptively tricky mix, and it's certainly better than my attempt. Great work!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!