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First attempt at a remix uplaod
#1
Hey folks, this is my first attempt at uploading a remix.
Please bear in mind that this one was done entirely on headphones using Waves NX due to late night mixing after the kids went to bed, so I am expecting comments about the spectral balance.

I look forward to your critique.

Thanks for the opportunity, Mike



.mp3    Color Me Red.mp3 --  (Download: 7.84 MB)


.mp3    Color Me Red V2.mp3 --  (Download: 7.84 MB)


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#2
Hi,
Listening to your mix on Hd600 with NX windows 3D witch I like a lot .
But I Find the NX needs a lot of referencing with hi quality cd's to calibrate my ears !
Your Mix Sounds bass light and boosted in the upper mids and treble area on headphones and also monitors.
Maybe touch more bottom end on the vocals ,less double effects and more de-essing .

Cheers Big Grin

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#3
Thanks, I still lack bass confidence with my MDR-V6. Sadly, in my house I don't have a permanent set up for my monitors so I can't always take the time to check a mix. This is the first time I mixed entirely on phones, AND using NX and I think that threw my balance out a little.
I didn't do a whole lot of boosting across the mix, but I did use a "bright" preset in ozone to lift the lower mids out of the mud, maybe that's where some of the bass went.
Listening again after your comments, I did notice the need for less ess, but I kind of liked the vocal effect. I will roll it back a bit for v2 to see how it sounds.
I appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment.
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#4
V2 is up after listening to some great feedback from thedon
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#5
Ahm, did you switch the Waves Nx plugin off when exporting your mix?
Sorry mate, you definitely need to reference more to pro mixes. ThereĀ“s way too much energy in the mids/lowmids in the range between 150 and 500 Hz.
Or, if you put it the other way, the mix completely lacks low and high frequencies below and above that region (Version 2).
I would also recommend you use a spectral analyzer too compare your mixes to other mixes in a similar genre and you will instantly see what i mean.
Hope that helps,
Herb
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#6
(13-11-2016, 06:45 AM)Activesense Wrote: Hey folks, this is my first attempt at uploading a remix...
I look forward to your critique.

I listened to the second version. Two things:

1) I think the instrument balance is reasonable. Vocal sounds quite distant though. There may be a few other points ... but, first ...

2) I would second the comments on the EQ. Probably needs attention at the individual track level, as it would be hard to correct entirely on the mix-bus. Attached is a match-EQ picture. This compares your mix with mine. (You can substitute other mixes that are closer to the tonality you're aiming for).

I use LPX, but most DAWs have a similar tool. Match-EQs definitely no substitute for your ears, but in this case it does serve to illustrate why the kick is sounding weak (60Hz), the buildup of upper mids (around 500Hz) and the lack of clarity in the presence region (3K-7K) -- which others have mentioned.

Hope this helps! Cheers, Jeff




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#7
(16-11-2016, 11:53 AM)Herb Felho Wrote: Ahm, did you switch the Waves Nx plugin off when exporting your mix?

I'd second this query -- it sounds to me a bit like NX may still be active on this mix. Can you double-check it for me?

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#8
Thanks for spotting that, I was in a hurry to get it up in time for Mike to make an appraisal and totally forgot to bypass NX.

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#9
Thanks for the comments regarding leaving NX on, this is the corrected version. I have not had time to revisit the issues brought up by Jeff and Herb regarding EQ, but will take a look at that this coming weekend. Does anyone have a suggestion for a reference track since this is a completely new genre for me?



.mp3    Color Me Red V3.mp3 --  (Download: 7.84 MB)


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#10
Ah -- that version three mix is better! Smile Glad I wasn't going crazy about NX being switched in. I've not used that specific system, but I've heard similar ones, and thought I recognised the artefacts. Anyway, now that's sorted, I'd agree with you that it sounds like you've been fighting to make sense of what you're hearing through NX and the headphones, because the overall tonality of the mix is very middly, with the region from 100Hz to about 1kHz dominating over the rest for the most part. That said, there also seems to be quite a lot of energy in the top octave -- on the vocals sibilants and snare in particular -- and the 2kHz zone seems a bit recessed. No panics, though. I've had this kind of thing when recording on headphones (or when dealing unfamiliar speakers and acoustics) on location, so I know how easy it for this to happen, and I know that it's possible to tackle. The main thing is (as you've already surmised) to give enough time to the mix-referencing process, as that'll make any spectral biases of the monitoring more obvious to you as you work.

As for specific suggestions for references, this contest mix was tricky in that respect because Diesel left the field wide open for new interpretations, rather than dictating the sound he was after, so it puts the responsibility back onto each mix engineer to decide what sound they're aiming for, at which point they need to find specific references to support that. In acknowledgement of that I personally threw my net fairly wide when selecting things for comparison while doing these critiquess. For instance, I referred to a couple of dozen things out of my own personal reference collection (though most frequently to Paolo Nutini's 'New Shoes' and James Morrison's 'One Last Chance') and then worked through about 20 likely-looking tracks I'd recently come across in my work for The Mix Review column, ending up with a shortlist of James Bay's 'Hold Back The River', Chris Stapleton's 'Traveller', Alabama Shakes 'Don't Wanna Fight', and The Steeldrivers' 'Hanging Around' so that I had plenty of bases covered. Of course, if I were mixing this myself, I'd probably shortlist a little more stringently, in order to decide for myself what the most relevant tracks were to my own choice of vision for the mix. It's a bit of a pain in the neck, but what I can definitely say without reservation is that it's worth the effort!

It's a bit tricky to comment about more subtle balance issues in you mix in the light of the tonality concerns, but I suspect you've got your heart in the right place, as many of the levels do nonetheless seem instinctively pretty sensible. I suspect you could, like many others, benefit from more low-end on the bass guitar, and some de-essing on the backing vocals would make sense, even with less HF fizz, as the consonants are pulling those singers too far forward for me. A bit of extra stereo width in the riff and verse sections would probably help give more of a sense of openness to the mix too, once the overall spectrum's more balanced.

Hope some of that's useful -- and thanks for sorting out the updated upload so quickly, too!
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