04-11-2014, 04:16 AM
Yeah, I agree... The drums have a lot of weird resonances, especially the kick that almost sounds like a bass synth, and once you notch them out you've got nothing left, while the weird resonances remain on the overheads... I've started over about 5 times because I believe in the song and I'm committed to getting a good sound for it.
Quick tip for anyone who's interested: I've found that when you use the midi data Patrick provided for us, there are a few interesting possibilities. For one, the bass sound is good but it's hard to keep the level of the sub content pinned down, especially if you're wanting the mix to translate well in phones or speakers, so you can high pass the bass and use the midi data to trigger a triangle synth, low passed, to provide a steady sub level... Just keep it down to where you feel it more than hear it. Another little trick I'm finding useful is to trigger a pad with lots of high airy content with the Rhodes/vibraphone midi data. Band pass that channels output so that only the upper registers are sounding and fade that in until you feel the track brighten up a bit. For me this serves two purposes: it brightens the overall tonality of the mix, which is very focused in the mids without a lot of help... Also, this frees you up to use the Rhodes or vibraphone more like instruments than pads, and helps blend any added high end content into the production without having to resort to heroic amounts of reverb. It's giving my current effort a lot more stereo width at no cost whatsoever... Highly recommend looking into that possibility.
Quick tip for anyone who's interested: I've found that when you use the midi data Patrick provided for us, there are a few interesting possibilities. For one, the bass sound is good but it's hard to keep the level of the sub content pinned down, especially if you're wanting the mix to translate well in phones or speakers, so you can high pass the bass and use the midi data to trigger a triangle synth, low passed, to provide a steady sub level... Just keep it down to where you feel it more than hear it. Another little trick I'm finding useful is to trigger a pad with lots of high airy content with the Rhodes/vibraphone midi data. Band pass that channels output so that only the upper registers are sounding and fade that in until you feel the track brighten up a bit. For me this serves two purposes: it brightens the overall tonality of the mix, which is very focused in the mids without a lot of help... Also, this frees you up to use the Rhodes or vibraphone more like instruments than pads, and helps blend any added high end content into the production without having to resort to heroic amounts of reverb. It's giving my current effort a lot more stereo width at no cost whatsoever... Highly recommend looking into that possibility.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!