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Lyndsey Ollard - Catching Up [OoF]
#1
Great song to mix, plenty of challenges on two very different parts that vary in dynamics. It forces you to mix making compromises in order to fit the two different parts accordingly.

I went for a natural sounding mix with lush verb. This song is a great opportunity to practice using reverb, so I tried to make it contribute to the song without taking away too much attention and avoiding problems in the second part (however, I didn't use any automation to get it out of the way)

In the end I kept all the tracks, there's automation, but very, very subtle.

The main challenges were achieving a clear, beautiful voice without thinning it, and letting it go a little wild in the second part. There were also many guitars, so I spent a lot of the mix moving them around and trying to find a way to make them work together. I avoided obvious hard panning as it gave me a feeling of artificiality. Instead, I used EQ and modulation to make the illusion of separation while keeping everything either quite centered, or panned around 50-65%. The acoustic guitars are panned 100% L/R since they come up in the second part.

I barely touched the drums or bass. They practically mixed themselves.

Personally I'm very happy on how the voice turned out, but let me know what you think about the mix. Comments are always appreciated.
Quote:UPDATE V1.3
Okay, I noted and applied most of the feedback given here (Thanks!), but then I took the mix in a different direction. Take it as an alternative mix if you will. I tried to push some boundaries here. After cleaning up some of the mids in the drums, I went crazy with the low end. I wanted to make it as huge as I could, inspired by some mixes from Mike Patton's Mr. Bungle and Mondo Cane albums. I also kept working on the voice to make it shiny, upfront and silky while keeping it under control. I don't know how would it sounds in smaller speakers, but in my studio it sounds huge.
The new mix is fuller, things should be more glued and the top and low end should have more presence. I worked more on the voice to keep polishing it.
I also experimented with dithering, something I didn't really know a lot about. Apparently, you should bounce your 24bit file to 16 bit using dither, and then bounce the result to mp3 without dither.

In any case, I hope you find this new approach interesting, even if you don't agree with it. Let me know how you feel about it.


.mp3    LyndseyOllard_CatchingUp_OoF_V1.1_dith.mp3 --  (Download: 8.76 MB)


.mp3    LyndseyOllard_CatchingUp_OoF_V1.3m_Dith16ToMP3.mp3 --  (Download: 8.68 MB)


ITB Setup: Reaper, Airwindows, IK Multimedia TR5, XLN AD2 ATrigger and RC-20, Waves.
Monitoring: Dynaudio BM5 mkIII, Behritone, Sennheiser HD 650. Semi-treated room.

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#2
Hey Octo,
smooth mix you got there. Probably more musical than mine.

I would have liked more depth on the drums and less boxyness.
I didnt really like the multiple voices and once. I would have preferred a single vocal. Also the consonants poke out in the vocal verb to much.

Guitars handled very well!

Cheers,
LukasAngel
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#3
(26-11-2018, 02:50 PM)LukasL Wrote: Hey Octo,
smooth mix you got there. Probably more musical than mine.

I would have liked more depth on the drums and less boxyness.
I didnt really like the multiple voices and once. I would have preferred a single vocal. Also the consonants poke out in the vocal verb to much.

Guitars handled very well!

Cheers,
LukasAngel

Thanks for the comments Lukas.

I may go back and take a look at those drums, but the comment about the voice puzzles me. I comped one take and used that one alone. there is the tiniest amount ever of chorus in the voice, but it shouldn't sound like different voices at once Huh
ITB Setup: Reaper, Airwindows, IK Multimedia TR5, XLN AD2 ATrigger and RC-20, Waves.
Monitoring: Dynaudio BM5 mkIII, Behritone, Sennheiser HD 650. Semi-treated room.

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#4
Oh....
At 1:17 the vocals sound like a Double Track to me??
But maybe its the chorus or some Delay? I dont know man xD
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#5
The only comment I will make is that with all the guitar parts, there is too much drums and bass in your mix which puts the guitars too far in back which loses the melodic statements being made as counterpoint to the vocals. That is the musicality of the song and I think it gets lost a bit in your mix.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
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#6
Hey Octo

Sounds good man, Nice work on the balance and tone. Guitars sound great. I think the drums sound fine myself, only thing that bothered me was whatever fx you used on the vocal kinda made it sound out of place for the mood of the song. maybe just a simple lush verb and hair of delay, but that's a taste thing.

Nice Job!!

Cheers
KSmile
Gear:-Zoom R24 interface, controller - Cubase/Reaper - Assorted Waves, Airwindows suite, AKG K240 Cans, Event TR5 reference monitors.
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#7
Thanks everyone for the comments. I uploaded a new version, notes on the first post.
ITB Setup: Reaper, Airwindows, IK Multimedia TR5, XLN AD2 ATrigger and RC-20, Waves.
Monitoring: Dynaudio BM5 mkIII, Behritone, Sennheiser HD 650. Semi-treated room.

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#8
Nice Octo, The vocals sound great!!
I like how you brought out some of the guitar compliment licks, really nice!!
Great Job!!
Cheers
KSmile
Gear:-Zoom R24 interface, controller - Cubase/Reaper - Assorted Waves, Airwindows suite, AKG K240 Cans, Event TR5 reference monitors.
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