I first started working this tune back around April but didn't like the results. Last night I revisited the mix, cleared the prior settings and started over. This time I think I did it justice and bounced it. Thoughts and comments are appreciated.
Peace,
Dave
Mid 2019 Mac Pro; Focusrite Scarlet 18i20 USB2 audio interface; Logic Pro X; FabFilter C2, DS, L1, Q3, R, Saturn2, Timeless2 ; Native Instruments Komplete 13; Waves 12 Gold; Rokit 6 G3 monitors; AKG K240 MKII and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro cans.
OK. So you have the same problem I think many mixers have with this piece. What to do with the kick. I'm not crazy about the boxiness of the kick you are presenting. It thuds and does not blend well with the bass. That then leads to doing lots of high passing and soon you've got no viable low end. It happened in my mix too. I was so freaked out about the bleed I didn't listen to the instruments buried in it. There's a room in there too.
There has been a discussion about phase in context to this recording. For me that only became an issue when I tried to do to much to control the bleed instead of incorporating it better into the mix and adapting panning to placement of instruments in the room you can hear in every mic. When I began to play around with that, things began to focus and the bleed became more of an asset and less of a liability.
The drummer and the nature and genre of this song dictates a very light touch on the instruments. What happens when there is a soft mallet struck softly on a jazz kick? You can get a ton of bottom. Find that big low end tone and bring it up. Then re-examine the bass guitar. Find more tone from the unique players and instruments in this recording. For me, that's when the mix begn to take shape.
Having said all that, I can only really find minor fault two things in your mix because it is not bad at all. Besides the kick I feel the vocals, which are really the focus here, is a bit squashed. She does need compression to handle the broad dynamics in her performance but I am hearing her voice get muffled by it and losing its vibrancy. Let her breathe a little more.
(06-09-2018, 03:12 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: OK. So you have the same problem I think many mixers have with this piece. What to do with the kick. I'm not crazy about the boxiness of the kick you are presenting. It thuds and does not blend well with the bass. That then leads to doing lots of high passing and soon you've got no viable low end. It happened in my mix too. I was so freaked out about the bleed I didn't listen to the instruments buried in it. There's a room in there too.
There has been a discussion about phase in context to this recording. For me that only became an issue when I tried to do to much to control the bleed instead of incorporating it better into the mix and adapting panning to placement of instruments in the room you can hear in every mic. When I began to play around with that, things began to focus and the bleed became more of an asset and less of a liability.
The drummer and the nature and genre of this song dictates a very light touch on the instruments. What happens when there is a soft mallet struck softly on a jazz kick? You can get a ton of bottom. Find that big low end tone and bring it up. Then re-examine the bass guitar. Find more tone from the unique players and instruments in this recording. For me, that's when the mix begn to take shape.
Having said all that, I can only really find minor fault two things in your mix because it is not bad at all. Besides the kick I feel the vocals, which are really the focus here, is a bit squashed. She does need compression to handle the broad dynamics in her performance but I am hearing her voice get muffled by it and losing its vibrancy. Let her breathe a little more.
Good points, especially with the vocal, which was challenging. I'm not in front of Logic now, but I'm pretty certain I used VC2A on the vocal, and I recall turning down the input/threshold to try and keep the GR less than -5dB. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Peace,
Dave
Mid 2019 Mac Pro; Focusrite Scarlet 18i20 USB2 audio interface; Logic Pro X; FabFilter C2, DS, L1, Q3, R, Saturn2, Timeless2 ; Native Instruments Komplete 13; Waves 12 Gold; Rokit 6 G3 monitors; AKG K240 MKII and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro cans.
