Justin Myles - Shortened arrangement (mix now posted)

[The_Metallurgist]

Mixed, not mastered.

I didn't think I was going to mix this, but simply get as far as the outline sketch of a shortened version of the song ready for mixing, and leave it at that. But here it is. I had a vision, and despite the issues in the tracking as mentioned in the original preamble (and some which weren't)...ended up caving into the desire to pursue the vision.

One of the main challenges I found was balancing the song's overall loudness throughout. The outro section wanted to be manically hot relative to the earlier sections, but working with this over-compressed area wasn't a joy because some emotional energy gets lost and the song gets compromised (but not by the mixing engineer!). The only way to retain it, is to keep the loudness intact, but that fights the other areas of the mix and the levels end up being totally disproportional. And i won't even mention the mess it makes of the integrated loudness and especially the momentary loudness levels! Very tricky.

I found the e-gtr and the acoustic gtrs were difficult to differentiate in the song, even with EQ, so I ended up re-amping which I felt gave a gentle colouration change but hopefully not enough to sound out-of-context. Lots of mutes going on here too. The reversed guitar part is ducked by the acoustic gtr to create some interplay between the textures. Actually, I counted 7 sidechains running in the end, which surprised me. The snare in the tracking sounded totally out of context with the concept, so that was shaped (it had been clipped in the original tracking, intentionally or otherwise). The kick's fundamental was really low, so I pulled it up more, and so on and so forth. There's an instrumental section which was crying out for something different beyond what was threatening to be monotony from the acoustic and electrics even in the cut-down version.....my ears were seeking something to offer contrast, but which gave context, so out came the orchestra to help drive the emotional element called for in the song (he says, subjectively!).

I make no apologies for the sound bite, by the way; I've earned my right to put it here...and this is my mix so don't moan about it.

I had great fun exploring.....thanks again for making it available, and thanks to those who take a listen.....and especially those who give some [useful] feedback beyond simply expressing that they don't like strawberry ripple ice cream on their hotdogs...or try to criticise an apple because it doesn't look or taste like an orange, to put it metaphorically. Let's keep things objective please and personal tastes which are subjective, out of it. Thanks in advance.

Looking forward to hearing and reviewing other threads of this song in due course.

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Mixed using only sustainable energy....sun, wind, chocolate, beer and love.

[Dangerous]

I've been waiting for this, even warmed up the tubes in the lounge room for the experience. So much texture and contrast though out with every sound having it's own purpose and excitement. Beautiful vocal treatment, I think the bass is devine, snare shaping though the song works really well. I love the guitar tones and your somewhat forceful use of them through out. Have I missed anything? Probably! Will have to have many more listens to absorb.

Way out there, Dave!

Well Done.

[mick2015]

Big Dave, kudos on on the work you have put in here, it's genuinely admirable. The arrangement is first class and drew out every ounce of emotion throughout the entire length of the song. It was engaging, interesting and played out like a story. The overall song length is also ideal and comfortably fits into the 'radio mix' category, in my opinion. No doubt you have put some serious hours into this and that's what it takes to craft a quality mix. Congrats.

Now for some technical nitty gritty. As always, there is a subjective element and some of my suggestions may well be preference-based, however to my ears they are still fundamental concerns that my ears are picking up:

- there appears to be some frequency overlap between the beater of the kick and the guitars starting around 0.35 seconds which is causing the kick to get a bit lost (the guitar tone is very nice, by the way and I particularly like what you have done with the midrange here).
- the pre-delay on the reverb for the rimshot/sidestick seems too long and seems rhythmically a bit out of place.
- there is an overall brittle tone to the lead vocal which to my ears sounds like it might be caused by a modulation/doubling effect? I would like to hear a more natural, thicker tone.
- the choice of reverb for the LV sounds a bit 'cheap-and-nasty' to my ears (apologies for the crude description, I don't know how else to describe it!), this may also be contributing to the brittle tone. To me, it sounds like one of those stock DAW reverbs which are quite often harsh and digital sounding. A good work-around if you are limited with reverb selections could be to EQ the return and pull out some of the harsh frequencies. In an ideal world, a nice Lexicon 224 plate from UAD would be lovely.

Thanks for providing us with an inspired mix, very refreshing indeed.

Cheers,
Mick

[Digitaldruglord]

This poster is my favorite "decision maker" in the forum.. on this song, I considered working on it and determined it would need a major revamp/arrangement for me to feel comfortable with it's outcome.. If it was presented as it is here, I would have likely considered maybe doing the Melodyne work the vocals need.. and to do the Melodyne work, I would have to bring in my keyboard buddy to go in note-for-note and for a educational gig, there's just simply no time..

My old mentor shocked me when he revealed how many of the hit songs he was the mixer of should have also included a production credit with all of the silent production moves he did to the songs to make them hit.. This song IMO needs that kind of extended work.

So far my most prefered version handling the song mood and drum parts that sticks out for me as the challenge to find consistency. More so additional production than just "mixing"

[The_Metallurgist]

Now for some technical nitty gritty.

Mick, thanks for that....the reply is going to be somewhat arduous but hopefully enlightening I'll get to it shortly and I'll also return the complement in due course.

Meanwhile, have a funky weekend.
Laters,,

[The_Metallurgist]

I've been waiting for this, even warmed up the tubes in the lounge room for the experience. So much texture and contrast though out with every sound having it's own purpose and excitement. Beautiful vocal treatment, I think the bass is devine, snare shaping though the song works really well. I love the guitar tones and your somewhat forceful use of them through out. Have I missed anything? Probably! Will have to have many more listens to absorb.

Way out there, Dave!

Well Done.

Thanks for the listen and comments (I'm still blushing!)....and for the tubes, we got a minor heat wave up here in Euro-land; I think you might have given us an early Spring

Catch you laters on the circuit,,
D

[mick2015]

Now for some technical nitty gritty.

Mick, thanks for that....the reply is going to be somewhat arduous but hopefully enlightening I'll get to it shortly and I'll also return the complement in due course.

Meanwhile, have a funky weekend.
Laters,,

All good, cheers Dave

[Mixinthecloud]

[Edited by me. Unnecessarily confrontational -- Mike S.]

Creative, but the PT samples and late '70s keyboard don't work for me. Rearrangement is choppy and loses the emotional nature of the performance. Technical mastery, but doesn't appeal to me artistically.