Thanks for the feedback, Kirk.
What my EQ matching told me though is that there was still a lot of work to be done. I kept going back to this song for an hour here and there over the last week. I lot of EQing was done across many of the tracks. What didn't need EQ could be assigned a different compressor, like the lead and backup vocals, and then re-balanced. The Waves C4 is fast becoming my best tool in the box. Almost all of the EQing done on vocals could be tossed away, allowing the C4 to do the work, and making the vocals more present. When I was finally satisfied with the overall levels and tones, I made some headroom for parallel compression; one bus for drums and percussion and another for all other instruments and vocals.
For a sanity check, I kept going back to the preview and comparing. Lastly, I did an EQ match of my bounced MP3 versus the preview. There are far less radical differences across the spectrum - the 12dB boost of the low end in mix 2 was down to 3dB.
Did anyone else catch the little bit of effects used in the preview, around 2:24 in, during a two beat pause in the music, that is not included in the stems? I went searching for it a couple of times, introducing tracks one at a time and came up empty. What I did find was a softer bass accent and a rhythm guitar bit that I emphasized.
I purposefully kept the output at LUFS -10.7dB versus the preview's -9.1dB level. Here's the end result. Thoughts are appreciated.
What my EQ matching told me though is that there was still a lot of work to be done. I kept going back to this song for an hour here and there over the last week. I lot of EQing was done across many of the tracks. What didn't need EQ could be assigned a different compressor, like the lead and backup vocals, and then re-balanced. The Waves C4 is fast becoming my best tool in the box. Almost all of the EQing done on vocals could be tossed away, allowing the C4 to do the work, and making the vocals more present. When I was finally satisfied with the overall levels and tones, I made some headroom for parallel compression; one bus for drums and percussion and another for all other instruments and vocals.
For a sanity check, I kept going back to the preview and comparing. Lastly, I did an EQ match of my bounced MP3 versus the preview. There are far less radical differences across the spectrum - the 12dB boost of the low end in mix 2 was down to 3dB.
Did anyone else catch the little bit of effects used in the preview, around 2:24 in, during a two beat pause in the music, that is not included in the stems? I went searching for it a couple of times, introducing tracks one at a time and came up empty. What I did find was a softer bass accent and a rhythm guitar bit that I emphasized.
I purposefully kept the output at LUFS -10.7dB versus the preview's -9.1dB level. Here's the end result. Thoughts are appreciated.
Peace,
Dave
Mid 2019 Mac Pro; Focusrite Scarlet 18i20 USB2 audio interface; Logic Pro X; FabFilter C2, DS, L1, Q3, R, Saturn2, Timeless2 ; Native Instruments Komplete 13; Waves 12 Gold; Rokit 6 G3 monitors; AKG K240 MKII and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro cans.
Dave
Mid 2019 Mac Pro; Focusrite Scarlet 18i20 USB2 audio interface; Logic Pro X; FabFilter C2, DS, L1, Q3, R, Saturn2, Timeless2 ; Native Instruments Komplete 13; Waves 12 Gold; Rokit 6 G3 monitors; AKG K240 MKII and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro cans.