Angels in Amplifiers

[sonicenergystudio]

Sonic,
After reading through your posts and Shul's responses, I wanted to add my two bits to the mix.

First I get the impression you are a small club musician with a lot of experience and maybe a club mixer too. You had made a very good point of trying to capture the energy of a live song which I totally agree with. With that in mind, let me ask this. What is your thinking with the level of the acoustic guitar in the intro to the song? I ask because I don't understand your choice here. Considering there is a heavy electric band delivering a very fat and powerful rhythm section for this song, does the loudness of the acoustic make sense in that context? For me it seems out of kilter and a bit forced and would not make sense in a live sound environment. I struggled with this balance myself because the acoustic, especially with some nice verb on it, sounds really good. Ultimately though, I had to temper my decision based on the realities of the power of the instruments in the mix and could not justify having the acoustic so hot. That is the kind of decision making needed throughout a song in order to capture either a sense of reality, or in total contrast, a very false reality. Deciding which way to go in a song is a big decision and determines the entire character of a mix. I'm not sure I heard a commitment from you in your mix. If I can use a golf analogy, you've got to commit to a shot in order to hit it. Failing to do so will ultimately put you off target.

Certainly, you have shown extraordinary growth in your mixing. My suggestion is to listen carefully to what you've been given and pick a direction you feel for a song and go after it. Listen to mixes which might be similar. For this song, Santana comes to mind. You are not going to hit the fairway with every shot you take. It took me 18 mixes of this song before I got anywhere close to where I wanted it to be. If this was a paying gig, I'd have gotten fired but thankfully here, it is for fun and education. Keep up the good work.

Greetings,

Here is my thinking:

Without the luxury of talking with the artists I had to take a stab at what I felt they were after. Listening to the Acoustic Track along with the Percussion Track it seemed to me that they were after a blend of the Spanish Gypsy music culture and the Electric Rock music Culture--which is why I chose this song in the first place as I really like both styles.

In the live scene there is not much cat gut acoustic as the feedback issues and such are a real PITA--most guys don't have the right gear or backline disipline to pull this off. So not much experience with them.

Most probably I went a little bit much towards the Spanish Gypsy but I found that going a little much on the Electric Rock smothered the other.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Mike

Exactly. A Spanish guitar at that level against a heavy electric rhythm section it is just not a realistic expectation. I don't think I heard an ensemble of conga and percussion and Spanish guitar with a subtle backing of electric rhythm section in your mix, but I will listen again.

Bingo. Twas the one advantage that in the box has over live. Probably should have automated the percussion to bring it up more when the spanish acoustic was up front.