The_Metallurgist mixes Enda Reillys Cur An Long Ag Seol

[The_Metallurgist]

You have very nicely tamed the bass, but it doesn't sound like a double bass to me anymore. In this song I would prefer an unbalanced natural bass sound over a balanced but unnatural sound.

thanks for coming in Olli, your perspective is important.

the bass was a compromise, sadly. Pauli found the lumpiness a distraction, which is yet another view. already there are contrasting thoughts about what should be present and what should be dealt with. i think this only illustrates further the challenges with the tracking. had i removed the lumpiness (let's call it dynamic, eh?), i'd have really lost the instrument and added to the low-end congestion. there were certain frequencies which the room was over emphasising which i had to nail. but let me say this...there's nothing natural about a room that contributes modal issues in the tracking. if you're playing a live gig, the people act as bass absorbers, so the thing doesn't get up to mischief. but in this setting, no audience....no bass absorbers....not a good outcome. it's my argument that we shouldn't be trying to fix such issues in recordings. the more we try and fix a mess, the less motivation the musician has in doing the right thing. critically and crucially, we can't fix it in the mix...that's the point and that's what the musicians need to understand.

Similarly the string instruments have no harshness anywhere, but on the other hand they lack all the sparkle altogether. So which one should one choose: dull mandolin and guitar without comb filtering effect, or sparkling mandolin and guitar with some comb filtering effect?

i listened to your mix, which i presume you were happy with in that regard? personally, it offended my ears. that's NOT a criticism of your mix because i understand the constraints, but it does reflect the differences in your approach to the task of mixing, and mine. and i'm sure the fact that you play acoustic had some sway in your approach. my bias was towards listenability and comfort; but that's 4 decades of audiophile speaking. but in a normal situation, we wouldn't be having this discussion....because the tacking would be "Fit for purpose" and neither of us would need to make compromises.

to be clear, we can't filter out odd harmonics (distortion) from the consequences of cheap condenser microphones with presence peak intact(!) without there being repercussions. my decision was to give priority to the listener and make it comfortable to listen to. your mix wasn't comfortable for me and on occasion i had brief moments of pain in my HD560 headphones. and playing over my notebook speakers? let's not go there, it was horrible.

and that's the difference between our mixing approaches. yeah, i could have brought some harmonics in, but they weren't natural harmonics. and we can't take out the unnatural harmonics and leave only the good ones that are pleasing to the ear. i'm still waiting for that plug-in!

So, I think something is lacking. I'm saying this for I know that you can do much more pleasant sound that this. Maybe you have concentrated too much just to eliminate the negative things, and in the process forgot to make the positive things shine.

the thing that's lacking here is decent tracking with appropriate mikes and a good room. without these, how can you find the shine? and this is why your mix is difficult for me to engage in...but at least i can listen to mine without suddenly feeling a need to jump out of the nearest window. most mixes of this song had me wanting. i took a fresh approach which hopefully would please a wider audience.

we were confronted with some difficult and interesting challenges. no outcome would be ideal........because we can't fix it in the mix. but at least we can have some fun trying! But give me a warm mix as opposed to harsh, brittle audio any day of the week, yeah?

cheers Olli