All The Gin Is Gone - Olli H

[Olli H]

For some reason I got a feeling that this band can play.

As I was after Christian McBride sound, it was natural to keep the bass quite loud.

EDIT: Latest mix in post #8

[juanjose1967]

Hi, Olli!

Around 1:40 when the sax and the piano are playing, they are both on the same side, so there's an area that feels "empty".

I also think that the bass should have slightly more lows than it actually does.

But other than that, I love the orchestra ambience and width! and the balance is outstanding! well done!

[Dangerous]

I lovely Big modern sounding mix Olli, You have brought out the energy and more importantly the "swing" in a nice way. Well Done.

Dave

[Olli H]

THanks all!
New version with small changes:
- less room in piano
- more low end with bass
- panning automation to horns
- some automation to drums

EDIT: Wrong version in this post (= the first post). Right one in post #8

[dcp10200]

Overall Olli the mix does have a good sound, the thing I notice is that everything seems to be really upfront at all times, there's really not a moment where thing duck down. I guess it's a characteristic of the Christian McBride sound, I'm not really familiar with his work as I mostly listen to older jazz stuff from the 50's and 60's, so take this with a grain of salt.

The reverb is a nice touch, although I think it could be abit lower in the mix as now the ends of the notes are being blurred together, it's starting to sound like one continuous sound. It also seem like there's a lot of compression going on over the whole mix which is exaggerating the tails of your reverb, it also gives a harsh quality to the sound.

Again I'm not totally familiar with Christian McBride but I think the things I did point out are characteristics of his sound, if they are congrats, youve nailed that style of mix!

Cheers,
Dcp

[Olli H]

THanks, good points.
I'm testing quite heavily delays in this mix. That might cause the "being blurred together". (Delays have probably nothing to do with McBride. His recordings were just check point for the sound and balance of instruments.) But for some reason I like to have distance to horns, ie. i like to hear them from distance and singing in space. So these dry horns were a testbed for me, I tried to create pulsing room sound, where room participates in the groove.

I used very little compression. ALthough I always do quite loud mixes, still I'm using quite conservative amounts of compression (2-4 dB), at least I think so.

Could you please specify some spots in this song where things should duck down more? I know very little jazz and it quite often sounds like hasty speed competition to me

[dcp10200]

THanks, good points.
I'm testing quite heavily delays in this mix. That might cause the "being blurred together". (Delays have probably nothing to do with McBride. His recordings were just check point for the sound and balance of instruments.) But for some reason I like to have distance to horns, ie. i like to hear them from distance and singing in space. So these dry horns were a testbed for me, I tried to create pulsing room sound, where room participates in the groove.

I used very little compression. ALthough I always do quite loud mixes, still I'm using quite conservative amounts of compression (2-4 dB), at least I think so.

Could you please specify some spots in this song where things should duck down more? I know very little jazz and it quite often sounds like hasty speed competition to me

I would try automating the drums down in the solo sections with the horns and piano and during the drum fills towards the end automate the drums up louder to make them stand out more.

As for mixing Jazz, I find it in an odd way like mixing Death Metal and Grindcore ambiance wise. Death Metal and Grindcore are both genres that really are known for being very dry sounding, most of this comes from the speed and ferociousness of the music and the fact that any big ambiance is going to muddy up the drums and guitars and just kill the mix (Also alot of these bands couldn't afford to record in awesome studios and were rather DIY). Jazz, specifically stuff from the 50's and 60's, featured lots of fast, rhyhmically complex soloing and playing. With jazz of this style I fins using a short reverb that emulates more of a room sound brought up enough to add some air and a little bit of space works best. I'm more of a Rock and Metal mixer myself but what I find helps is mixing in the reverse of what you would do for rock. Focus more on the bass, piano, and horns, the drums are more or less the background instrument in Jazz (Unless you're talking Gene Kruppa and Buddy Rich ) but do have a solo from time to time.

Hope this helps, and cheers,
Dcp

[Olli H]

By accident I had sent twice the first mix. Here's the corrected version I mentioned at previous post

[Olli H]

I would try automating the drums down in the solo sections with the horns and piano and during the drum fills towards the end automate the drums up louder to make them stand out more.

Thanks for the tip, I might try that if I come back to this song.

Focus more on the bass, piano, and horns, the drums are more or less the background instrument in Jazz (Unless you're talking Gene Kruppa and Buddy Rich ) but do have a solo from time to time.

I think that drums are THE groove instrument in jazz, and those nuances should be clearly audible in background. On the other hand, jazz is not my music, so my knowledge is based on couple hastily analyzed references.

[loupi]

great mix! if im being nitpicky: the compression is choking the piano and the low-cut kind of taking away some of its power and natural sound. the reverb sounds a little too present on the trumpet. drums sound great! (pretty loud but then again he is the bandleader so...)