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My own - AZ Mix
#1
Okay, this one feels like it's at first drat stage.

First, a disclaimer: A don't listen to rap/hip-hop on a regular basis so it's always a challenge for me to figure out how it should be treated. That means I also miss the bits of frosting the more successful groups and producers will add to a track during the mixing process. That said, I think this one is trying to come together.

I used a midi string pad to help fill things out a bit since the tune felt a bit thin. This also helped create a little more variation. I added a midi sub-kick in the chorus along with adding lowender to the bass for the duration as well. I may have a tad too much sub here but in my environment, that's hard to judge without being followed by a complaint from the apartment office building. Undecided

One thing I found really difficult was trying to get the vocals to match where they should and sound like they belonged in the same tune. For the uninformed, to my ear it sounds like there are two vocalists here. One did the second verse and the first half of the third. The other sang the first verse and the second half of the third however it appears that these were either recorded at different times (possibly with a different microphone) or with very different vocal technique since they sound quite different and that made it hard to get them to fit. Also, the guy who did the second verse seems to have better pitch control and his double matched a little too well which contributes to the blending issues.

Anyway, let me know what you think and what suggestions you might have to offer.


.mp3    My Own-mix-ltd.mp3 --  (Download: 10.93 MB)


Old West Audio
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#2
I'm not into that "always have rhymes upfront and clear" rule, but these vocals got too much of a blurry treatment methinks, especially during the choruses, when the lead synth is bullying them really bad. Could it be some EQ they're needing to stand up a little and creat some contrast with the track?

Listening on headphones, so my judgement on your subs won't have much weight but they might be too boomy. It's not inviting to move, instead it's kinda slowing it down a little, feeling more stoner than dance, if that makes any sense to you.
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#3
Hey!

You would be correct about the artists. Justin does the chorus, the first verse, and the second half of the third verse. Keith has the second verse and the first half of the third verse. Justin isn't too fond of just having one verse on a track, but didn't want to take a second without giving half of it to Keith.

When I created the beat, I was still new to composing; I was more into mixing. I'm all about melody and didn't have a clue about drums and bass, so it's very plain.

You did a great job at fattening it up. I'm digging the additions. Like the last poster, I'm currently listening to this with headphones going thru my Quantum. It sounds full, but a little muddy. Justin's voice sounds too in my face, while Keith sounds perfect. What effects are on the vocals?

Thanks for taking the time to mix it! I hope you enjoyed the challenge.
Don Perignon
Mix Engineer / Hobbyist
https://soundcloud.com/donald-holland
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#4
Deliza:

You're right about the bass. A little long attack compression and a slight reduction at 80Hz got that in shape.
Side effect of not being able to listen at the proper volume. I also agree that a little more automation on the vocals and perhaps some EQ tweaks between them and the synth would have helped with inteligibility.

Don:

The reason for the sub kick in the chorus was to add a bit of emphasis. The mud was probably coming from that.

As far as vocal treatment, it was pretty straight forward. Pitch correction, two relatively clean compressors, De-esser, and EQ. I was a bit aggressive with the compressors though and, looking at the first verse, ended up taking about 6dB off with a long attack and another 6dB of peak compression. Different compressors on the other voice but similar treatment. (That's one thing I like about the Fairchild emulators. On setting 1, on most vocals you can dig pretty deep and still not actually hear it grab or let go.) On the EQ, I high passed both of them at about 200 and did a fair cut at 250 and 500. On the first vocalist, I found that I needed to dip him at about 2.5k but then add some presence. Sounds like I may need to take that down a tad more and maybe back off the volume overall. Like I said, it was difficult for me to get those nice and even.

The chorus was a bit different. Same general treatment on the individual tracks but when I bussed them together, after a little gentle compression of 1-3dB just to keep things together, I added another deesser on the bus since when you bus multiple vocals together, that energy tends to build up again, the followed that with the waves doubler-2 to try to make them a bit thicker. Finally, I put the Ozone imager on it since it lets you control not only how wide but how much of the signal gets that treatment. I did pan them slightly (like -20% to +20%) but that didn't sound quite right.
(I also did the imager trick on the main vocal as well.

For FX, just reverb and then adding about a 270ms delay on the chorus. Obviously the extra vocal at the end got a bit different treatment and a longer delay (about double).

Oh, a brief note to you while I'm here. On your bass part here, you put together a quick little progression and then looped it. A reminder to make sure you fade your clip before setting up the loop. The abrupt transition created audible pops that needed to be edited out.

And yes, I enjoyed the song and the challenge. Thanks for providing it! Tongue
Old West Audio
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