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Turn Back To Spring - 'Another Day Calling'
#1
Here's my mix. I had some problems with the kick and I'm not too satisfied with it yet.

Comments and advice will be welcomed as usual.


.mp3    Turn Back To Spring - Another Day Calling(2).mp3 --  (Download: 7.75 MB)


mixing since April 2013
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#2
The kick doesn't sound too bad to me, perhaps it could be pulled back a bit with some room verb ambience added. Overall I think you done a good job of making the tracks sit together, especially towards the end of the song when it gets very crowded. Good job I enjoyed listening to your mix !
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#3
hey thanks, Sano!!
mixing since April 2013
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#4
I love the ambience on the voice, but I'm wanting more for the piano, if nothing else to blend it in a little more.

Your eq, compression and effects are in a good place, but there's a lot of rhythmic inconsistency in the raw tracks that's holding it back. But it's not your music, you're not getting paid for it or competing, and... Life's too short to blow a weekend on timing edits.

Great stuff... You're getting dangerous with the ambience!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#5
I had to fix the timing in some parts because they were way too obvious! but as you said, I should get paid to do that Big Grin
mixing since April 2013
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#6
TBH, I spent about two hours just tightening up the drums and decided to take a pass on it for a while. I like the song so I'd love to mix it, but hours of corrective edits bum me out, especially when you know you're gonna wind up spending at least a couple hours writing automation at the end. It's too tempting to line it up on the grid, but that'd just suck the life out of this song... the only alternative unfortunately is grinding through track by track, potentially forgetting I have to be at work at 5 AM and miss a night of sleep.

You've done well on this though, and you've come a long way.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#7
Nice relaxed mix. Couple of little things I'm hearing on the vox

1. some vocal resonance needs attention in the lower register...really hear it at 0.43 "Another...."
2. first phrasing of "one step over the edge ...." is getting lost under choir.....maybe needs some automation to bring those choral elements down a smidge.

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#8
(14-05-2015, 02:05 AM)HbGuitar Wrote: Nice relaxed mix. Couple of little things I'm hearing on the vox

1. some vocal resonance needs attention in the lower register...really hear it at 0.43 "Another...."
2. first phrasing of "one step over the edge ...." is getting lost under choir.....maybe needs some automation to bring those choral elements down a smidge.
Nice version I Like ItBig Grin
I haven't downloaded the multi tracks yet sound like real good challenge !
Regarding the vocal resonances here is a good tutorial from a Pro ,i shared with Tommy on on of his James May songs recently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s3yU14xpJ8

Please Help Mike Keep This Awesome Educational Site Alive And Become A patron !
https://www.patreon.com/CambridgeMT/posts

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#9
thank you guys for your comments and for the tutorial. It sounds a very good way to get rid of some problems that are present to most vocal tracks, so I'm sure that it will come in handy!
mixing since April 2013
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#10
These are just my opinion, lots of people swear by dynamic EQs and multiband compressors for this, but I disagree mainly because of how long it takes to get it right without really damaging the vocal sound.

Sometimes something as simple as firm full band compression on a vocal track can help even out resonances, allowing you to use gentler static EQ, post-compression, to attenuate the low registers without unevenly compressing the track. I've personally found dynamic EQs or multiband compressors to be unacceptably time consuming to be transparent for this purpose unless the resonance is quite severe, in which case dynamic EQ is often the only thing that will contain it. For me the lower register of the lead instrument is too important to process severely unless you're going for an airy pop vocal, so I'd personally avoid that approach if possible.

It's also quite often in the nature of a particular singer's voice to resonate in various places, so it might not be a problem at all! You may well be blunting what could be a unique characteristic of the voice, and that'd be a bad thing in this style (again, my opinion.)

Another thing you can try is to decide which instrument in the mix is primarily living in the general region that the vocal is resonating, quite often the bass guitar or snare drum. Those instruments will also share the center of the stereo image, so in those cases the resonance will be problematic. A good strategy there is to route both through a buss and apply gentle, low ratio compression... not so much that it will affect the dynamics of either in the mix as a whole, but enough that the compressor causes vocal and instrument to react to each other dynamically. Again, unless the resonance in question is very severe, the right compressor at the right settings will in effect "glue" the two tracks together, therefore gentle EQ on the individual channels at the offending frequency will then take on a time-domain qualities relative to the buss compressor... so you get a kind of really gentle dynamic EQ on -both tracks- simultaneously, relative to one another. In the days before dynamic EQ and accurate multiband compression existed, that's probably how those time-related disagreements were resolved, since mixing on an analog console requires bussing by its very nature.

If you can get characterful aspects of multiple instruments to subtly shape one another, it's good all the way around in my opinion, because it naturally results in a more dynamic sound and will reduce the need for blending reverb and super-meticulous automation in final stages of the mix. This strategy is becoming a very important part of the way I mix, especially when it comes to getting the drums and bass guitar to work with each other constructively.

Anyway, my main point is that unless you're working on a song with a really dense arrangement or a genre where transparent vocal processing isn't necessarily best... I'm talking about chart pop, dance, electronica, urban... fiddly processing on the vocal is going to be too time consuming (and often creativity destroying) to be worth it, especially when there are much easier, gentler methods. Frequency dependent compression is really best reserved as a last resort on primary mix elements, not because it's ineffective, but because a simple combination of full band compression, EQ and creative routing on the way to the master buss will get similar results and take a lot less time... and that means you'll have more time for creative, artful mixing.

Why mangle your tracks when you can allow their inherent attributes to cooperate and positively contribute to the mix? You'll certainly stand out from the crowd. Just my two cents.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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