10-09-2016, 09:56 AM
hi Don,
the timbre between the lead vox and the choir sound the wrong way round? i'd expect the lead to be marginally brighter and a touch louder in contrast with the intro voices because of proximity to the listener - assuming she's stood more forward to the rest of the gang, that is, but it's vision dependant. and to be mindful that doubling a vocal contributes more SPL in relative terms too....so this loudness thing needs to be taken in perspective. as it is, the choir sounds overly quite bright and somewhat harsh. this tends to give a subjective impression that the room is hard and highly reflective (which in reality it is), but i think we need to try and tame this otherwise it ends up giving a cold, stark delivery while exaggerating the reflections. the reflections can be tamed by balancing the spot/close mics in with the main mic (try warming the main mic up). i found it advantageous to ditch a few tracks which tended to be superfluous to the image yet added even more ambiance in the wrong ratio while contributing yet more boom in the low end. maybe you can find some mileage in that...if it helps.
i found the bass was highly variable between each track pretty much (i.e. the frequency of the boom wasn't consistent...mic placements, room modes etc etc), and benefited from selective processing but keeping mindful of the overall impact is crucial, especially in the stereo domain...if this helps! :/
i keep going back to the lead vox....i found the frequency response of the tracking to be, ummm.... 'weird'? there's a massive bump at about 250Hz, IIRC, and then it drops off a cliff. i think you did a good job recovering from the drama though.
i gave up on the c4 many years ago because i found it wasn't transparent (it added colouration just sitting there). is it better in this respect these days?
can i recommend you don't limit to 0dB....the encoder needs headroom otherwise things don't turn out so well. -3dB max into the encoder, then after you can turn it up to -1dB. if you go hotter than this after the encoding process, it will distort on most consumer DAC's. it's great researching, especially for insomniacs!
0dB came about because of the loudness war, where every ounce of loudness was required.....and benefited from intentional distortion because of it's subjective effect on perceived loudness.
this loudness and distortion business is one of THE main reasons vinyl is gaining in popularity, if you didn't already know. it's got nothing to do with holding the sleeve in some perverse nostalgic manner, as some empty headed journalists have suggested! though that's not to say some don't derive pleasure from caressing the sleeve! lol. it's just a shame that vinyl is scrap after 30 plays - the stylus erodes the groove with each play. but i digress!! 
the timbre between the lead vox and the choir sound the wrong way round? i'd expect the lead to be marginally brighter and a touch louder in contrast with the intro voices because of proximity to the listener - assuming she's stood more forward to the rest of the gang, that is, but it's vision dependant. and to be mindful that doubling a vocal contributes more SPL in relative terms too....so this loudness thing needs to be taken in perspective. as it is, the choir sounds overly quite bright and somewhat harsh. this tends to give a subjective impression that the room is hard and highly reflective (which in reality it is), but i think we need to try and tame this otherwise it ends up giving a cold, stark delivery while exaggerating the reflections. the reflections can be tamed by balancing the spot/close mics in with the main mic (try warming the main mic up). i found it advantageous to ditch a few tracks which tended to be superfluous to the image yet added even more ambiance in the wrong ratio while contributing yet more boom in the low end. maybe you can find some mileage in that...if it helps.
i found the bass was highly variable between each track pretty much (i.e. the frequency of the boom wasn't consistent...mic placements, room modes etc etc), and benefited from selective processing but keeping mindful of the overall impact is crucial, especially in the stereo domain...if this helps! :/
i keep going back to the lead vox....i found the frequency response of the tracking to be, ummm.... 'weird'? there's a massive bump at about 250Hz, IIRC, and then it drops off a cliff. i think you did a good job recovering from the drama though.
i gave up on the c4 many years ago because i found it wasn't transparent (it added colouration just sitting there). is it better in this respect these days?
can i recommend you don't limit to 0dB....the encoder needs headroom otherwise things don't turn out so well. -3dB max into the encoder, then after you can turn it up to -1dB. if you go hotter than this after the encoding process, it will distort on most consumer DAC's. it's great researching, especially for insomniacs!
0dB came about because of the loudness war, where every ounce of loudness was required.....and benefited from intentional distortion because of it's subjective effect on perceived loudness.
this loudness and distortion business is one of THE main reasons vinyl is gaining in popularity, if you didn't already know. it's got nothing to do with holding the sleeve in some perverse nostalgic manner, as some empty headed journalists have suggested! though that's not to say some don't derive pleasure from caressing the sleeve! lol. it's just a shame that vinyl is scrap after 30 plays - the stylus erodes the groove with each play. but i digress!!
Beware...........Cognitive Dissonance!