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Colour Me Red - Exciting Layered Mix
#1
I was very excited to mix this music as it's very rich and recorded well. This is the first mix I've done where I've really focused on EQ cutting rather than boosting.

Areas of Focus

* Rhodes - Gave it a little more of an organ flair. I find it helps this instrument not to get lost in both mid sections.
* Electric Guitar 4 Accent - Wanted this unique sound to be uniquely localized in binaural. Please listen on headphones.
* Electric Guitar 1 - I use a decent amount of automation on the lead guitar. While I keep it forward, I also wanted the other instruments to shine too at various parts.
* Lead Vocal - I don't think it ever gets lost in the mix... went for an 80's sounding reverb and delay. Eighties music is back, yeah?
* Background Vocals - It was easy for these voices to sound 'heavy'. I worked hard to keep clarity for these very low male vocals.

Let me know your thoughts? What's good? What's less good? Smile

--FINAL3 has been uploaded in a later post.--


.mp3    ColourMeRed_FINAL1.mp3 --  (Download: 5.48 MB)


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#2
It's not bad. A few things jump out at me.

The electric guitar is a bit loud. At least when it's not automated back in the mix. It might just be the tone. You might be able to notch some where in the mids and free up some room and it might fit a little better in the mix.
The bass guitar feels light. I think it could support the low end of the mix better.

The bgvs sound good. There's a lot of different ways they could be dealt with but this is the most I've heard them sounding like individual voices as opposed to a group.

Overall it feels a restrained. It can gel a bit more. I know I'm being vague. It feels like a bunch of parts as opposed to one mix with the parts working together.

There's no problems with the mix. It's a good start but I think there's definitely room to grow. Isn't there always?
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#3
So that's what life is like inside a snare drum! Thankfully it's a really nice snare drum.
Pretty cool mix, but I think you're not done yet. Not sure I get the Rhodes turned into an organ thing. The staccato punch, especially in the voicings and key for this song, don't quite translate into an organ for me in the context I understood from this song. However, your use of it that was successful in your mix. I heard it distinctly out of the wall of crunch this song is.

Overall, very listenable and exciting.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
[email protected]
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#4
Nice mix, Now the trick it taking it up to the next level without breaking it. Nice tones main thing is the local and ld gtr relationship to each other and with the music foundation. The automating each section to flow from intro to outro.
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#5
Thanks RoyMatthews, Mixinthecloud, Imagine Mix Studio,

Thanks for your feedback! I'm going to do some adjustments, though I have some followup questions... Trying to take the song to the next level.

- - - - - - - - - - -

RoyMatthews,

Yeah, I think I'll lower the lead guitar a bit, and raise the bass guitar a little bit too. Regarding feeling "restrained"... Restrained regarding dynamic range? Restrained via frequency range? Help me understand this more, is there a mix of this song that you feel isn't "restrained"?


Imagine Mix Studio,
Do you feel that my lead guitar relationship with the rest of the song is off?
Are you saying I could improve my automation for more differentiation between sections?


Thanks, I hope to have a second version soon,
Michael
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#6
Listening back, I'll walk back saying it's restrained. Probably not the best term in retrospect. Maybe static? I do think it could do more dynamically. I think the electric guitar volume might be leveling things out a bit. I know I'm probably being vague but it's more of a feeling than something technical.

The snare level doesn't bother me. It may have too much reverb. At least going my the intro.

Also, the lead vocal pops out at certain points. Such as on the word "bright" at :37 Or "everything" in the chorus.
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#7
I've made FINAL2... I made several small tweaks.


* Lead Guitar - Automation increased, and overall volume lowered.
* Acoustic Guitars - Overall volume increased, and subtle spatial position changes.
* Overheads & Toms - Increased volume.
* Snare - Lowered a little
* Backing Vocals - Increased volume.
* Bass - I significantly changed the way I'm working with the 3 bass guitar tracks. I'm trying to ensure the bass is still powerful on small speakers.

I feel this second mix feels beefier and is more exciting. Thanks for the feedback and continued feedback.


.mp3    ColourMeRed_FINAL2.mp3 --  (Download: 5.61 MB)


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#8
Comment based on Final2

*The placement of the acoustic guitar on the left leaves this hole on the right. On the right I can even hear reverb of snare if I pay close attention. This is not bad however the mix being heavier on the left is ear fatiguing especially if people listen to it on headphones.
*Snare is sounding good, I like the texture of it Smile however.. there is a leak.. like a delay on the snare on the left. Like snare sound it's leaking from the toms.. or it could be a reverb panned to the left and it has this odd sensation of delay on the left. So you got the snare center and this tail that follows on the left. it adds more to the heavy sensation on the left. (you can hear it better in the intro)
*I like how solid the bass sounds too.. a bit over-compressed but it gets the job done.

Overall the balance on volume works good but it's the separation on the stereo spectrum that has a downside to the mix.
Keep that in check and you got yourself a good mix Smile

keep it up!
Saludos.
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#9
Thanks Shul,

I'm back from Thanksgiving activities.

* The introduction with the strong panned acoustic guitar is +53 on Logic Pro X (thus 84% pan). It is indeed strong, but since it's not a hard 100% pan, to my ears it doesn't sound uncomfortable on headphones to me. I may pull it back a bit, especially considering your second comment.

* Interesting… there is no panned reverb or delay on the snare. The only effects are the compressor and centered reverb. However, during the intro I may hear what you’re describing. There are 2 possibilities: A) the strongly panned acoustic is creating a psychoacoustic trick in this case, B) the DrumsRoom track is causing what you describe. Yeah, I may reduce the strongly panned acoustic guitar, and/or lower the DrumsRoom track.

* Thanks for your bass guitar comment… I don’t feel skilled at mixing bass guitar well yet. I actually did a lot of research for this mix on how to work with the 3 bass guitar tracks they gave us.



Question) You said the the stereo spectrum may be a downside. Too much stereo spread? Too little? Is there an instrument in particular that you mean?



Thanks for commenting,
Michael

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#10
The drum room track is definitely skewed to the left. That's just how it is on the recording. You can try filtering it making it mono or dropping it altogether. The acoustic does reinforce it leaning left though. I suppose you could always try panning the acoustic to the other side to balance out the drum room.

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