Knockout master

[kjell159]

Hey,
it has been a while since I last uploaded a mix here on the forums.
I had to restart this project for a third time because I lost the first and second (On the 2nd I didn't worked much so that wasn't really a 'loss'.)
However, a started mix needs to be finished.


MIX

I did some basic levelling of the big track count.
Also I tried to do some panning.
I panned the piano (but not fully) to the left and some synths 'against' each other (So to say, if one track is 20 L than the other is 20 R.) and the tuba-track more to the right and the horns more to the left.
The lead vocals where kept in the center and the backing vocals fullly to the rights and lefts.

I routed the drums.
A highpass-filter on most of the tracks except for the smaller ones.
The highpass on the piano was automated so that it isn't active in the intro.
I went far enough on the bass with the highpass so I could preserve the lowest bass for the kick drum.
On some tracks also a lowpass.
E.Q. on the drums.
Also I mixed slightly overcompressed parallel drums in with the other drums.
A second bass track with a distortion on to make it more prominent (on smaller speakers) and distortion on the first two kick drums on doubled tracks.
I even went so far and doubled the first kick drum another time but I made this track a little more resonant to emphasize the (sub)bassiness. (My CPU wasn't that happy.)
Some more drastic E.Q. on the lead vocals.
I found that there was sibilance to get worked out a bit and some 'honkyiness'.
Compression on the drums.
Now I'm finding out I didn't compress the bass.
However, the bass already looked quite compressed enough as a raw track.
As some fun effect I put a filter on a synth-track and automated that so it drew the attention to itself and away from the vocals for a short amount of time. (And I was just feeling a little creative.)
I also automated the highpass filter on one of the lead vocals to give some kind of 'getting higher' effect to finally end up 'kicking' in your face with more bass in his voice.
I also automated some 'dirty' and bad lead words.
Like.......

No reverb or delay!
Should I have been using some?
Please tell me.

MASTERING

E.Q. of course,
again a highpass and a lowpass.
Got rid of some mud and still existing honkyness...
With multiband compression I made the high frequencies more prominent and compressed the bass to make it a little more 'cohesive'.
A 'boost'

(As it is called in the mastering software I tried out for the first time, it is called JAMin (No advertising because it is free and open-source software. But you need to have the JACK server to get it running and I don't know if it is avaible outside Linux as a binary program. Unless you can compile software on Windows or OS X. )

for some slight saturation and loudness.
I used only around 2 (Which I quess is in dB.)
I kept the bassband untouched but I widened the mids slightly and brought the highs a little more to the center and the 'upfront' with stereo processing.
Then finally a limiter to make it slightly louder with the 'limit' (ceiling) at -0,2 dB and the release at 18,89 ms.

I am glad to be posting something again.

[thedon]

Having a little listen on my monitors and sounds good I like it !
The Kick sounds nice and punchy ,it has a lot of energy somewhere between 125-200 hz maybe a little loud compared to bass .
The Panned Tuba sounds great just a little upfront and the vocals especially the rap sound a little soft.
the cymbals and vocals sound a little bright above 8k !

Thanks
Don

[kjell159]

Thanks for the comment,
I will try to soften the bass a little bit.

[kjell159]

Hey I relooked at some E.Q. and lowered some of the boosted bass you mentioned.
I also lowered the makeup gain of the bass-band really slightly.
No serious changes.

[muro382]

Yo, like the second mix you did better than the first no doubt. The instrumental work is pretty drop,I just feel balance is a lgood though a little off at times. Would i be wrong in saying the area you focused on (wanted to be the focal point of the track ) was the beat especially the kick and the melody from the tuba? If my guess is right then I hope you forgive me for saying that I think a bit more focus on the vocals would have been more fitting. For axample verse 2 is way too low, i couldnt hear the rapper at all over the slamming kick. The eq thinned out the rap way too much, the rappers need more guts to make em own the track. (thats just what i think). I think you just need to rebalance your faders and maybe just do some gain staging to find an improved balanced. especially on the vocals of the verses.

Positives, the energy that you were hoping the track to have really does come through. I like that, espcially on the hook. The bv's on the hook are well hidden though still do their job. The kick treatment is pretty good, love the beef in the kick, it just needs to be balanced with vocals by that i mean the vocals (verses) need to come up in the mx.

Last tips.

Use a reference track bro, just to keep your mind thinking of where things should sit in relation to one another.
When i mix hip hop tracks, I can just have the kick hats , snare and bass playing with the bass and rap vocal alone. Thats where i start my balance because those elements are really the focal point of a hip hop mix (imho) but overall, I like what you have done so far.

Happy mixing