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Colour Me Red @ The Wild-Eyed Sinner's Ball
#1
So,
Listening to the posted mix of this it was apparent the thickness of the voicings for the guitars and backng vocals were going to be a challenge. Many reviewed these parts as having a nasty resonance. What I heard was the throbbing and pumping of the inventive and original ensemble character of this piece. The trick for me was to find the right panning and voicings of the multiple guitars, (acoustic and electric) without dashing the throbbing cadence of the work.

Surprisingly I did very little in the way of EQ and compression on these tracks. For the most part everything was left flat beyond some minor tweaks of kick, bass and electric guitar buss. Most of the work I did was in the editing of the arrangement. The intro is a case and point as is the fade at the end.

The tracks of this piece were very well recorded which made this much easier to mix. The amount of individual tracks made for a lot of subbing for control during the mix. I hope you like the result. Whatever the outcome, it was a lot of fun to do.

The track just below was recently re-uploaded to echo the proper artist name (Oops). This original mix was basically unmastered, so please turn it up on playback to get the full impact of it.
There is a new mix below which was a remaster of the original mix but scrunched for loudness. Please listen to that mix at normal playback levels.

Thanks, and Enjoy!

Version 2
Scrunched Colour Me Red

Version 3
Unleashed Colour Me Red
(Associated mix file removed due to system limits)

Version 4
Unleashed Again - Colour Me Red (Contest submission)
This version was adjusted for lead guitar riff content and mastering was altered to ensure least pumping with volume.

Version 5 (Post Submission)
With kudos to Mike Senior and so many other great voices who have made suggestions, I am offering up this post contest submission version where I hope I have addressed the common threads heard from most listeners. All great advice. Thank you so much. This has been a great learning and listening experience. Looking forward to the contest results. I do not envy poor Mike on that score.

Version 6 - Final
OK. This is it. The final mix. I mean it this time. What? You don't believe me? Did you hear? The last, terminal and definitive mix (until next time) of this song.

Thanks ALL for a great time with it.


.mp3    Diesel13 - Colour Me Red.mp3 --  (Download: 8.81 MB)


.mp3    Diesel13 - Colour Me Red - Final.mp3 --  (Download: 7.9 MB)


.mp3    Diesel13 - Scrunched Colour Me Red.mp3 --  (Download: 8.86 MB)


.mp3    Diesel13 - Colour Me Red - Unleased Again.mp3 --  (Download: 8.86 MB)


.mp3    Diesel13 - Colour Me Red - Post Submission.mp3 --  (Download: 8.86 MB)


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#2
Thanks for feedback! Listening on my system there seems to be some build up in the lower middle area. Maybe some DIY premastering with maul-the-band compressor to suppress the lower mids could do the trick? The balance between instruments feels right, and the drums are punching nicely. The outro idea is just genious! Wish I had thought of that. Good work! ^_^
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#3
Hi.
I like your ideas of the intro and outro, the electric guitar and the banjo and banjo could come down a touch or a touch more compression to tame some plucking and strumming transients.

Cheers Big Grin

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#4
(04-11-2016, 11:11 AM)thedon Wrote: Hi.
I like your ideas of the intro and outro, the electric guitar and the banjo and banjo could come down a touch or a touch more compression to tame some plucking and strumming transients.

Cheers Big Grin

Thanks for the reply. In this case it was not my intention to hide the transients you speak of, but to enhance them to retain the live and dynamic feel of the playing.
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#5
(04-11-2016, 12:51 AM)kapu Wrote: Thanks for feedback! Listening on my system there seems to be some build up in the lower middle area. Maybe some DIY premastering with maul-the-band compressor to suppress the lower mids could do the trick? The balance between instruments feels right, and the drums are punching nicely. The outro idea is just genious! Wish I had thought of that. Good work! ^_^

Kapu, thanks for the reply. The low mid resonances you speak of, were for me, a part of the thick voicings of the song and I purposefully maintained their presence in the mix to enhance the throbbing groove of the song. I did take out about 2.4 dB at 128 Hz to lessen it some and I also had just a smidge of multi-band compression on the master. Again though, it was my intent to leave that throbbing low mid for the value I perceived it was adding to the song.
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#6
For review

This second mastering of the original mix has been mastered for loudness and scrunched. Please listen at normal playback level.

Mix 2
See above for the Scrunched version
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#7
Hello,

I listened to the "scrunched" version Smile

I'd back off the slapback on vocals, I agree they need to be beefed up but it sounds too processed to me.
I agree on the mids being a bit loud/resonant.

Probably a matter of taste, but I'd lower the volume of the organ too.

Great idea at the end ! Careful, there are some glitches, you can remove them by applying some fades.

Cheers,

Moussa


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#8
(11-11-2016, 08:42 AM)moussasfeir Wrote: Hello,

I listened to the "scrunched" version Smile

I'd back off the slapback on vocals, I agree they need to be beefed up but it sounds too processed to me.
I agree on the mids being a bit loud/resonant.

Probably a matter of taste, but I'd lower the volume of the organ too.

Great idea at the end ! Careful, there are some glitches, you can remove them by applying some fades.

Cheers,

Moussa

Hey Moussa,
Thanks for the listen and comment. All valid points.
I will note that the vocal double was an attempt to emulate a Mick Jagger/Rolling Stones quality. It may have been a bit over done.
I do have a penchant for mixing with as much presence as possible. I think that's a hold over from my live mixing days and I've trying to evolve that into a more studio/home listening slant.
Thanks for your comment on the out. I got a bit lazy on the edit there and should have really spent more time on honing my blade on that one.
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#9
(04-11-2016, 08:07 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: This second mastering of the original mix has been mastered for loudness and scrunched. Please listen at normal playback level.

Quite like the different interpretation you've made to the song. Interesting use of effects; both on the intro and the vocal treatment.

On the vocal slapback: you may want to EQ that heavily and run it through a tape modulation effect, tube distortion (or both!). That should get it closer to the effect mentioned from a number of famous 60s and 70s recordings. (BTW; I think it's more the fact that the slapback sounds similar to the lead vocal, rather than the level, that makes it distracting in the mix.)

Agree with another comment on the Rhodes being maybe a tad high in the mix.

Felt the drums lacked a little bit of weight also.

Hope these comments help! Cheers, Jeff
All sound is a distortion of silence / soundcloud.com/jeffd42
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#10
(11-11-2016, 05:54 PM)jeffd42 Wrote:
(04-11-2016, 08:07 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: This second mastering of the original mix has been mastered for loudness and scrunched. Please listen at normal playback level.

Quite like the different interpretation you've made to the song. Interesting use of effects; both on the intro and the vocal treatment.

On the vocal slapback: you may want to EQ that heavily and run it through a tape modulation effect, tube distortion (or both!). That should get it closer to the effect mentioned from a number of famous 60s and 70s recordings. (BTW; I think it's more the fact that the slapback sounds similar to the lead vocal, rather than the level, that makes it distracting in the mix.)

Agree with another comment on the Rhodes being maybe a tad high in the mix.

Felt the drums lacked a little bit of weight also.

Hope these comments help! Cheers, Jeff

Jeff,
Thanks for your input. I just want to be sure that it is understood the vocal effect is a single voice double with a longish delay to emulate a slap, but it's not really a slap. However, the point is taken. I can play with the mix and content of the doubled voice however, I'm not sure to what effect. A saturated or distorted slap would not seem to make sense in the context of this song, but it may be worth a listen. The doubling was used more for environment than for echo. Will be interesting to try especially since I've just cracked some of the internal insert patch/pathing/splitting options within an insert chain offered by Studio One. So much control, so little processor power. As for the Rhodes, I was fighting for distinction on that one and went with power not finesse. I will re-examine it. Drum weight is a careful balance between tonal content and space for the content of the ensemble instruments. Possibly some more definition of the kick would help.

Again, thanks for your listen and comments.
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