The popular Upper Hand

[Dangerous]

Great mix. Personally I would enjoy the vocals just a touch louder. The voice sounds great and it is not quite aggressive enough for my taste. Other than that every single instruments sounds awesome. The spaces are great and work very well together. Fat and happy!

Thanks, Yeah, I have had a listened since on a few additional sources and I'm sometimes thinking the same especially the bgvs.

[The_Metallurgist]

Ah yes, v2 is bobbing along with more gusto, well done! I really do like the way you've EQ'd this and shaped the general tone of the song (perhaps just a touch on the bright side...but that's going to be playback device dependant), especially the vocal which was challenging. Some of it's sibilance is coming through; coupled with it's reverb it's making the treble stack up a bit, but a quick filter on the way into the reverb and a tweak on the de-esser would nail that.

The piano/rhodes gig at 1:28 was really difficult to sort out, I was hoping you might have had a go at spanking the piano to bring it's attack out. The song puts them in the spotlight, so [I think] they need to have a larger prominence. The trouble is, they didn't want to cooperate without a fight. It's tricky. None of my NI Kontakt libraries were loaded (long story) so I didn't have a chance to exploit the MIDI which Patrick has included....I think the piano would have been easier to work with a different patch.

Perhaps bringing the UFO out a touch more at 2:57 by a smidgen might help lead the transition into the chorus, a nudge on the BV's fader...but I'm fishing for tweaks now!

Nice mix...even if you were cautious with the horns on the outro (that's probably a good health and safety practise!)

I'm glad you had a real bash with a v2 in the end.
Looking forward to the next project,,

[Dangerous]

Ah yes, v2 is bobbing along with more gusto, well done! I really do like the way you've EQ'd this and shaped the general tone of the song (perhaps just a touch on the bright side...but that's going to be playback device dependant), especially the vocal which was challenging. Some of it's sibilance is coming through; coupled with it's reverb it's making the treble stack up a bit, but a quick filter on the way into the reverb and a tweak on the de-esser would nail that.

The piano/rhodes gig at 1:28 was really difficult to sort out, I was hoping you might have had a go at spanking the piano to bring it's attack out. The song puts them in the spotlight, so [I think] they need to have a larger prominence. The trouble is, they didn't want to cooperate without a fight. It's tricky. None of my NI Kontakt libraries were loaded (long story) so I didn't have a chance to exploit the MIDI which Patrick has included....I think the piano would have been easier to work with a different patch.

Perhaps bringing the UFO out a touch more at 2:57 by a smidgen might help lead the transition into the chorus, a nudge on the BV's fader...but I'm fishing for tweaks now!

Nice mix...even if you were cautious with the horns on the outro (that's probably a good health and safety practise!)

I'm glad you had a real bash with a v2 in the end.
Looking forward to the next project,,

Thanks Dave for the kind words and encouragement. I'm slowly gaining more confidence as I go and really starting to enjoy working with these dynamic rich tracks.

[FytaKyte]

Hi Dave, I'm listening to the 2nd mix.... Very nicely put together - lovely full and smooth sound - very tasteful mix.

It's very good as is. The only thing I sense is a very slight "tubbiness" in the low mids - maybe somewhere around the 300hz mark - probably a little tweak on the master buss eq would nix it. If I had to guess, I might suggest looking at the reverbs as being the culprit in causing buildup there - sometimes eq'ing the low mid component of the reverb can help to create more of an overall sense of clarity in a production like this. A little more sparkle and "air" wouldn't be out of place either IMO, but that might be a matter of personal taste.

Around the 3 minute mark, the vocals start to really experience some competition from the generally more full sounding backing, and in particular the single-strum clean electric guitar parts. Some automation there might just lift the vocals up so that the backing doesn't seem overly intrusive.

One aspect of the mix I noticed you retained well was the grace-notes/stick-drags on the snare. These are a particularly important aspect to the groove of the softer verse parts. I think you could even go a tad further in making these more audible without it sounding unnatural.

Top job on the mix!

[Dangerous]

Hi Dave, I'm listening to the 2nd mix.... Very nicely put together - lovely full and smooth sound - very tasteful mix.

Thanks for the comments fHumbles, I have received a lot of quality comments with this track which have been extremely encouraging and helpful. I have been glancing over Patrick's songs for awhile now and finally thought it was time to try one.

It's very good as is. The only thing I sense is a very slight "tubbiness" in the low mids - maybe somewhere around the 300hz mark - probably a little tweak on the master buss eq would nix it. If I had to guess, I might suggest looking at the reverbs as being the culprit in causing buildup there - sometimes eq'ing the low mid component of the reverb can help to create more of an overall sense of clarity in a production like this. A little more sparkle and "air" wouldn't be out of place either IMO, but that might be a matter of personal taste.

I definitely have a weakness with my monitoring in this area not to mention my listening skills to compensate. I believe I high passed the reverb @ around 600Hz. Maybe it's a build up from the acoustics which I tended to leave fairly full. Air is another thing I training my ears with to hear accurately.

Thanks again, for your skilled input. it's super helpful. I'm certainly hooked on this mixing game. What started as a leisurely Sunday afternoon activity for fun, has started to consume all my spare time of late. I am also starting to take my mixing more seriously as my knowledge and ear for it develops.

Dave.

[The_Metallurgist]

The only thing I sense is a very slight "tubbiness" in the low mids - maybe somewhere around the 300hz mark - probably a little tweak on the master buss eq would nix it.

a nix on the master buss will take out some warmth and give a sense of a brighter top end - adjusting one part of a spectrum affects another somewhere else, kind of thing, as happens when messing with the master buss.

could you be more specific regarding "when" the tubbiness is being experienced, because this will define the necessary corrective actions? it could be an accumulative effect of certain instruments at that point....and this also brings in the question of whether dipping the master buss would be best served on the mid or side channel. but hitting ~300 is going to affect the vocal if the EQ is simply a stereo job, and the vocal is king here...Dave's done a nice job fixing this quite problematic 'instrument', hey. fixing one problem can and will often create another somewhere else when tweaking the master buss. such are the joys of Mastering

could the problem be better served with dynamic EQ...or static, for example?

these specifics are important. fully agree that reverbs are a common problem because they hang around longer than the note....and create build ups especially when two or more instruments are playing in close spectral proximity.... fundamental-wise, or within the early harmonics.

this also raises a little question....as to whether you've spotted the tubbiness in a spectral analyser....or your listening environment. if the latter, how well controlled is your room?

now the fun starts

[FytaKyte]

I believe I high passed the reverb @ around 600Hz. Maybe it's a build up from the acoustics which I tended to leave fairly full. Air is another thing I training my ears with to hear accurately.

Ah, that makes sense - then the guitars are probably the most likely source. As I said, it wasn't a huge issue, just something that I thought may improve things ever-so-slightly...

Your comment about the guitars got me curious, so I opened my project of the mix to see if I did anything regarding them. It seems I pulled out almost 2dB @ around 317hz on each acoustic guitar. (I say "around" because apparently the eq I'm using emulates the hardware it was modelled after and as such, the numbers on the dial don't necessarily reflect a completely pinpoint accurate description of the frequency being adjusted).

I'm certainly hooked on this mixing game. What started as a leisurely Sunday afternoon activity for fun, has started to consume all my spare time of late. I am also starting to take my mixing more seriously as my knowledge and ear for it develops.

That's cool - Glad you're enjoying it so much! Recording and mixing is definitely an ongoing quest for me too - There is always more to learn.

[Dangerous]

I believe I high passed the reverb @ around 600Hz. Maybe it's a build up from the acoustics which I tended to leave fairly full. Air is another thing I training my ears with to hear accurately.

Ah, that makes sense - then the guitars are probably the most likely source. As I said, it wasn't a huge issue, just something that I thought may improve things ever-so-slightly...

Your comment about the guitars got me curious, so I opened my project of the mix to see if I did anything regarding them. It seems I pulled out almost 2dB @ around 317hz on each acoustic guitar. (I say "around" because apparently the eq I'm using emulates the hardware it was modelled after and as such, the numbers on the dial don't necessarily reflect a completely pinpoint accurate description of the frequency being adjusted).

Yeah, I reckon thats what you might be hearing. I'm pretty sure I just high passed these with no other low mid cuts (ReaEQ). I was that impressed with Patricks acoustic sound I was loathed to play with it too much. My room and in particular my listening position within is somewhat compromised with an anti node that seems to affect 300-600hz range. Nothing major, but it does cloud my judgement in this area. I find I need to leave my mixes sounding a little woofy when they leave the studio. This is something that I'm starting to to fine tune though.

Thanks fHumble fHingaz

Dave.

[thetanks]

Very nice sounding mix. I love the overall balance. One thing that distracted me was the shaker. I feel that it is a bit too loud, or maybe it has too much high frequencies? I feel as if its in front of all the instruments.

[Dangerous]

Very nice sounding mix. I love the overall balance. One thing that distracted me was the shaker. I feel that it is a bit too loud, or maybe it has too much high frequencies? I feel as if its in front of all the instruments.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and thanks for the advise. I will check it out. I reckon i'm almost ready for a 3rd version to make some tweaks. I want to address the under whelming backing vox and the intensity of the horns also.

Dave.