Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Patrick Talbot - Set Me Free
#11
I think Pauli gave you some great tips here.
I think you have a good overall sound. One the vocals, the sibilance is a bit too much, bit I think it's mostly coming from the reverb, a simple LPF should take care of that.
But something about the low-end seems kind of loose, pauli talked about the bass guitar feeling a bit limpy, that's also my impression.
I think if you could tighten the bass, the whole mix would get more punch and clarity overall.
Good job though. Keep it up! Smile
"Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something." - Frank Zappa

Some air moved here
Reply
#12
Thank's again for all your inputs.Smile

I found out, that the keys played the same as the Bass, so...Lo-cut keys at 128 Hz. Added a little more compression on Bass too, and some EQ too.

Vocal reverb: Now HiCut at 2,6 KHz
Vocal Delay: HiCut 1,8 KHz

Here 16 bit 44,1 KHz:

https://soundcloud.com/dytstudio/patrick...et-me-free



.mp3    PATRICK TALBOT - Set Me Free.mp3 --  (Download: 10.92 MB)


Reply
#13
I find that everything sounds pretty good, except for the bass. It is muffled and boxy. I don't know what you do, but it smears on the whole track in a bad way.
There's some resonant frequencies that muddies the low-end still. I suppose you should cut some around 200hz and add some definition above that, perhaps around 1khz or more, perhaps a little bit of saturation to add some harmonics could help as well.
As I said, the mix sounds pretty nice apart from that. Good job! Smile
"Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something." - Frank Zappa

Some air moved here
Reply
#14
Could be wrong, but it sounds to me like you may have put a bunch of holes in the bass sound by EQing it to death. That's usually not necessary, especially with virtual instruments, since the performance will usually be either programmed or tightened up afterward and thus will have pretty even dynamics. Even with live kick and bass, the better move is usually to lock the kiss and bass together by evening out the dynamics with compressors with only very gentle EQ cuts on each instrument at the opposite instrument's fundamental. As long as the dynamics are under control, you shouldn't need to carve out huge chunks on the bottom.

In this case, I still wonder if half the problem is that the bass is too low in the mix... that seems to be the cause of most boxy sounding bass guitars. A funky rhythm is going to stand or fall by the bass and drums, so you should start looking into some reference material.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
Reply
#15
Thank You Pauli.....I see what you meen, and I thing the Bass was too low and loud...so now on Bass track:

High pass :60 Hz
+ 5 dB at 80 Hz
+ 5 dB at 900 Hz
+ 5 dB at 3,4 KHz

Bass compression
Ratio 4:1, Attack 50 ms, Release 50 ms, Threshold at 4 dB

I thing the bass fit's a lot more in now !?

In 16 bit, 44,1 KHz here:
https://soundcloud.com/dytstudio/patrick...et-me-free


.mp3    PATRICK TALBOT - Set Me Free.mp3 --  (Download: 10.93 MB)


Reply
#16
Bass sounds much better to me now! Smile
The 2 solo instrumental parts now sound punchy and clear. Nice!

A few nitpicks still:
1/ I think with the bass not obscuring the low end as much anymore, the lead vocal is a tad too loud though now.
2/ The toms sound too loud vs the snare, I think you could lower their levels by a good 2-3 db.
3/ The snare could be a bit louder in the interlude section (0:22 to 0:40), I suppose the velocity is lower there than during the other instrumental sections, you could perhaps automate it to punch through more during that section.

You're definitely getting there though. I'm starting to really like it! Wink
"Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something." - Frank Zappa

Some air moved here
Reply
#17
Now I have lowered yor vocal's a little bit

Toms are now same level as snare

Snare in the interlude raised 5,8 dB

This is very learning for me, and I have really fun with itSmile

Here in Wav 16 bit 44,1 KHz
https://soundcloud.com/dytstudio/patrick...-me-free-1



.mp3    PATRICK TALBOT - Set Me Free.mp3 --  (Download: 10.93 MB)


Reply
#18
Getting better with each version jorndyt! Smile And I'm glad you're having fun, it's all about that after all! Wink
It's sounds pretty balanced to me now, good job!

Now one thing I would try to do, is put the snare in a space. It's very dry right now, and it's punchy and snappy during the solo instrumental sections (nice BTW), but I feel that a touch of reverb (a plate perhaps?) could round it up and make it more real.
It's just an impression I get, (there again for the snare, it's more obvious to me in the interlude section), that some tight ambience would help the track, perhaps a touch of room on the drums and overall...

I think your mix sounds good now, really, but at this point, now that you've got everything sounding nice tonally and in levels, I would start mess around with ambience, try to make it sound in a space, work with depth...
Of course, I would advise something very subtle, more in the line of "you don't hear it, but you miss it when it's not there" kind of ambience if you see what I mean.
"Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something." - Frank Zappa

Some air moved here
Reply
#19
I agree with Patrick-- getting the ambience right is key to making a virtual drum kit work. Plates are a good choice for drums because they consist entirely of a reverb tail and lack early reflections, so you get blend, tonal enhancement and increased sustain/body without the snare sound rattling around. If I might chime in, I think it would be best to keep dedicated snare reverb in mono to keep it locked in the center of the stereo image, and mono compatibility won't be affected. Usually this sort of effect should be less than half a second long, probably closer to 300 ms depending on the tune/tempo, or you'll struggle to get the level high enough to make the most of it without blurring the snare sound in the mix.

There are a couple other things you can do to create depth/space without some of the knock on side effects of reverb and delay. It never ceased to amaze me how much saturation can enhance almost anything in the mix... it can really open up the stereo image and almost magically creates space, depth, and warmth. Bussing your drums together and saturating the entire buss can round out and unify virtual drums in a way that reverb never seems to compete with.

Also, the use of transient modellers or fast, low ratio compressors can round out the attack of an instrument. In nature, sound sources that are further away are perceived as having less attack, so this will subtly fool the ears into perceiving a given sound deeper into the mix. This trick works great on toms or really pointy plucked bass guitars.... the more rounding off of the attack the deeper something will sound, so keep it subtle.

Finally, reducing an instrument's high frequency content relative to something you'd like more upfront in the mix will naturally create depth.

Depth in a mix is obviously an illusion, and your friend here is contrast. Applying depth techniques in equal amounts to everything in the mix won't create three dimensional depth... it'll smear the sound. Tastefully applying space and depth in small amounts on certain tracks will polish your mix and give it a more professional, coherent sound. Just don't make your primary concern until the balance is right... it should cohere fairly well without much help or the balance is likely off.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
Reply
#20
Thank You, Paili...for all your Golden Nugget's....I will keep them in mind.Big Grin

I had some Ambience on snare, but now I have added a short Plate reverb.
Ended with 0,72 s, and 18 ms predelay, to fill the space between the strikes.
I added a little on drum room, and O.H. too.
You can especially hear it, on the little, only drum clip.

Here waw 16 bit 44,1 KHz
https://soundcloud.com/dytstudio/patrick...et-me-free


.mp3    PATRICK TALBOT - Set Me Free.mp3 --  (Download: 10.93 MB)


.mp3    Drum-clip-Set Me Free.mp3 --  (Download: 1.76 MB)


Reply