It's My Right - Matt's mix

[londonmatt]

Thanks all for the comments, much appreciated. Listening back I definitely agree re the massively over-bearing cymbals. I've cleared this mix off my computer now onto a back-up drive as I was running seriously short of space and needed to make space for some recording work of the type that actually pays... but if I have time in future I'll bring it back and tweak. In the meantime I'll bear in mind comments re treble in general for future - I was certainly guilty of the 1.5dB top-end lift at "mastering" (in inverted commas as I recognise it's only a vague approximation of the professionally done process) thinking "ooh that sounds brighter! It must be better!" .... err, no. So I'll try and avoid that in future unless careful referencing / spectral analysis of other well-produced tracks suggests it would be genuinely appropriate.

Thanks again for the feedback, we're all learning eh?

[The_Metallurgist]

Matt, if you come back to this mix, i'd recommend you check out the vocal especially. i've since mixed this, so have a better comprehension of the issues, at least as i understand them to be, that is.

i believe the vocals had the wrong parameters set during tracking resulting in over/incorrect compression. i'm assuming all processing was removed, however, BEFORE this mix was uploaded to the Library? note the automation is still running on the amplitude, which makes me a little more than anxious that not all processing was removed, nor faders set back to udent! this also has issues regarding noise floor, but that's another discussion.

the sharp sibilance in the vocal wasn't your fault, at least not directly, because it's in the source and over-compression will have had a consequence on this. however, if we add yet more compression to the vocal (why should we need to do that?), it will make the vocals a lot, lot worse in all respects. indeed, even using a compressor to control the existing "apparent" variation in dynamic which is actually caused by obvious automation, will nail the [poor] dynamics even further.

there are some resonances in the vocal tracking that need containing, but wide band compression isn't the tool, and neither is static EQ. i'm finding myself abandoning broadband compression with a hell of a lot of forum mixes because of poor recordings and over compression is the biggest culprit as the "recording engineers" only hear the compressor working when it's doing too much, and/or their monitoring conditions suck and they can't hear the signal chain properly.

so, this post might best be taken in a more general sense, not only specific to this song.

go easy...
catch ya laters.
D

[pauli]

For what it's worth, I pulled the multi up and listened to the vocal once, and said NOPE.

Life's too short.

[The_Metallurgist]

For what it's worth, I pulled the multi up and listened to the vocal once, and said NOPE.

Life's too short.

i felt similarly about Wayfaring Stranger...and...and....and.....

but vocals are so difficult to track, not helped by our human response which is all too familiar with timbre and the qualities of a voice. and not everyone has a respectable signal chain, nor an appropriate one (e.g. mic, acoustics, hardware......ears...."experience" etc). vocals are so individually fussy about microphones and to the budget-strapped DIY'er, that single mic is asked to be rather too flexible on occasion. and so it is, the vocal ends up being the subject of a lot more compromise than it deserves....and for the non-vocalist person doing the recording, it's the other stuff they tend to obsess over (that "instrument-bias" thing).

it doesn't help that the main emotion for a song comes from the vocal...it's the centrepiece, the thing that gets all the attention, or most of it. no vocal no emotion, no emotion no song, no song no mix...then we're nailed even before we push a fader!

"With willing hearts and skillful hands, the difficult we do at once; the impossible takes a bit longer." actually, i will make this my forum signature for a while!

but i had some fun with this one...especially when it came to the chorus; mine had BV's!!!

cheers folks..

[pauli]

It's a good song that deserves a great mix... I've started about 50 good songs deserving great mixes that never got finished for the same reason. I'm prone to tweaking and tweaking and tweaking at the mix difficulties until I've lost objectivity entirely

And then fresh ears tell me it's time to start over!

Looking forward to hearing your version, always do.

[azwayne]

Yes, at some point, even if it's not feeling quite right, you have to decicde you're done. Good practice is to figure out about how long you're spending on an average mix, shave 10% off of that and work strictly on the clock. Get yourself used to working on a schedule (budget) and learn to focus on the most important aspects of a mix without the inevitable endless fidgeting that digital editing allows for. I'll admit that this is something that I myself need more practice at since I suffer from the same need to fiddle.