07-07-2014, 09:44 PM
Hey hb, good work on the revision. Less obvious compression makes it much easier to evaluate your mix as a whole. The overall tonality of the entire mix is nice for the most part, although there's some competition against the vocal in the upper mids. The backing instruments blend nicely when the vocal is absent, so perhaps some automated dips in the upper mids would allow more definition in the vocals and smooth out the overall tonality a bit more. This would have the added side effect of reducing any buss compressions reaction to those frequencies, allowing an even more transparent glueing effect with fewer tonal consequences. Not a big deal, but I think it'd be worth a try.
The kick for me is masking the bass too much. It's either a result of over-compression or reverb increasing the sustain, I think. In this mix I think you can get away with high passing the kick at 50, which would help in either case... Over-compression is an easy fix, and if reverb is the culprit, a simple high pass at 100 or higher would very easily confine the effect to the beater, which is all you really need for kick drum ambience anyhow.
Honestly I'm not a big fan of compressing individual kit components unless it's necessary for balance purposes, ie the drum sounds too thin or is to ally inconsistent. Most of the time you'll be able to get the desired blend with a combination of moderate buss compression and a reverb send, especially if you're substituting a sample or enhancing the existing component with a sample.
That was a bit wordy but these are very small tweaks to an otherwise lush and open mix. Excellent work in my opinion... This one was tricky!
The kick for me is masking the bass too much. It's either a result of over-compression or reverb increasing the sustain, I think. In this mix I think you can get away with high passing the kick at 50, which would help in either case... Over-compression is an easy fix, and if reverb is the culprit, a simple high pass at 100 or higher would very easily confine the effect to the beater, which is all you really need for kick drum ambience anyhow.
Honestly I'm not a big fan of compressing individual kit components unless it's necessary for balance purposes, ie the drum sounds too thin or is to ally inconsistent. Most of the time you'll be able to get the desired blend with a combination of moderate buss compression and a reverb send, especially if you're substituting a sample or enhancing the existing component with a sample.
That was a bit wordy but these are very small tweaks to an otherwise lush and open mix. Excellent work in my opinion... This one was tricky!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!