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Colour Me Red - Nate
#1
Hi Everybody!

I just want to say it has been really great to find this community. I'm a newbie to mixing and recording. I've been a musician for 30 years but this is my first time on this side of the "console". I hope that you enjoy my take on this song. Let me know what I can do to improve!

Thank you Mike for the contest and thank you Diesel13 for allowing me to butcher your song =)

Thanks,

nate!

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UPDATE: 3rd version posted on second page.


.mp3    Colour Me Red - Nate.mp3 --  (Download: 6.07 MB)


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#2
Hi Nate and welcome here Smile

You probably did it on purpose but why is your snare on the left side ? It's not bad at all, but pretty disturbing actually.
The overall balance is pretty good. Drums are a bit too much in front to me. You also should compress the vocals much more, we can barely hear some words.

Keep it up Smile
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#3
(02-11-2016, 02:59 PM)Mandubien Wrote: Hi Nate and welcome here Smile

You probably did it on purpose but why is your snare on the left side ? It's not bad at all, but pretty disturbing actually.
The overall balance is pretty good. Drums are a bit too much in front to me. You also should compress the vocals much more, we can barely hear some words.

Keep it up Smile

Hi Mandubien!

I did do it on purpose as I wanted to separate the drums from the drummer's perspective, but I hear what you're saying. The mix is left side heavy. I will adjust that and bring the snare to the center. I did pretty minimal compression on the vocals, i'll adjust that too.

Thanks

nate!
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#4
Thanks Roy!

It does make sense. I agree with the snare saying "look over here". I do find my left ear getting a bit fatigued by the end of the song. I'll center the snare for my next try. I'm sorta torn however because I do like the toms being panned L/R. but I want to see what it sounds like with less panning and dead center. I do agree it'll probably change how that sits in the mix - I had some real issues getting the drums to play nice as I found they were either too loud or too quiet as I was adjusting the mix.

I'm glad you noticed the delayed strum of the guitar in the bridges. That's the guitarist in me saying "ok... I know what to do with this part at least". I'll play with the EQ on the right side delay to see if I can reduce some of that metallic tone.

Bass... bass bass bass. I struggled with this instrument too. Unprocessed it felt thin, but admittedly did sit well in the mix. I tried to leave it alone as much as possible. I'm just using some saturation, EQ, and light compression to fatten it up a little but keep it smooth. I do want to run it through a SansAmp or something similar so i'll give that a try and see if that extra grit helps.

With panning the BGV's, it jumped out at me immediately to set them up in a 'call and response' scenario. I'll bring them a little bit more centered. I think they're 70% L/R in this mix. With the drums being more centered (as I plan to do) it may make the BGV's panning sit a little bit better.

I really appreciate your input. I've been obsessing over this song from the first day of the contest (my wife is sick of me talking about it). I'll play around with this tonight some more and post another edit.

Thanks

nate!
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#5
(02-11-2016, 04:13 PM)RoyMatthews Wrote: I listened to the multitrack again and notice that that metallic tone is in the right side acoustic guitar itself and not an effect you added. I think the delay accentuates it. You could probably notch it out in the track itself and it wouldn't be as apparent in the delay.

Ah - and I mis-read your original post. Yea, I do need to adjust the EQ on the acoustic some. I can hear it too.

Thanks

nate!
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#6
Nice work - however.... There is something wrong with your edit on the first drum 'hit' - it sounds cut off and clipped - this immediately distracts me from enjoying the first few bars! I can't help but feel the under-snare mic is too loud and panned oddly. The music all needs to come up in volume with the exception of the main electric guitar. The vocal is a little swamped. I can't really hear the bass guitar - it's in their but not contributing it's power! The pitched guitar resonances are out of control and need some serious attention (the attached screengrab might help). Could really do with a few simple panning and volume adjustments, some master-bus compression to glue things together...


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#7
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I've made some adjustments and feel they've improved the areas specified. I do want to work more on the drum track - now that the bass is beefier the drums feel a little weak in comparison.

Joelonsdale - your dropbox link doesn't work. [I've just replaced it with an attachment -- Mike S.] Also - I couldn't pinpoint the first drum hit issue. the drum track is unedited in that manner. maybe it's just an artifact of some of the issues I had going on in the first mix? Listen to this updated mix and let me know if you still hear it - unfortunately I cannot.

Issues addressed are:
-bass is boosted (used soundtoys decapitator).
-snare panned center. Under snare mic was also panned left and too high in the mix. I'm impressed that a few of you were able to pick up not only the panning but the under snare mic being too forward. Either you have really good ears, really good monitors - or both!
-Acoustic mix buss re-eq'd. small notch around 2k to remove some tinniness. Also removed the delay which was adding to that problem. Added some very light reverb to fill out the sound a tad.
-Added more compression to the main vox. I feel it's much more forward now and consistent across the mix.
-Added master limiter after mixdown.

I think that's it. Like I said, there are a few things, after hearing this new mix, that I want to adjust some such as the drums and the electric guitars - but I am pretty happy with this so far. Let me know what you all think!

Thanks again for taking the time to listen and respond!


.mp3    Colour Me Red - Nate2.mp3 --  (Download: 6.07 MB)



nate!
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#8
hi Nate !

Did you forget the kick track ? It's almost inaudible. The reverb on the vocals is a bit disturbing.
During the choruses, you should automate the panning of some instruments to leave some space to the kick, snare, bass and lead vocals.

Your bass has some resonating frequencies, it keeps our attention away from the rest.

Keep it up man Smile
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#9
Yeah. The kick is buried. I'll have a new mix this weekend. Thanks!!

nate!
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#10
Here's a new mix. I took some time away to re-think my approach on this one. I've listened to it through various sources and speakers and it is quite amazing how each portrays the song a little differently.

I've brought the kick back up, added some compression to the snare (to me these are a bit forward but I like how they sit with the rest of the tracks), more compression to the vocals so they sit up front more consistently, among other tweaks - mainly being conscious of my levels and peaks (previous mixes I was running things a little too hot through to mastering).

Thanks everyone for listening!


.mp3    Colour Me Red - Nate3.mp3 --  (Download: 6.07 MB)



nate!
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