Nova-One Studio - Four Graham [Mix and Master by AJ]

[alexjeffriesproducer]

I really enjoyed mixing this track, but it did come with its challenges!

I'm fairly comfortable with Pop Punk and instinctively got an idea in my head of how I wanted this track to sound when pulling up the faders.

I did replace the Kick and Snare on this one simply because they weren't giving me the super energetic and aggressive sound I was after. Other than that it was rather plain sailing (for me), but I did take a fair bit of time to sculpt a vibe for the Intro section, just so that when the full band came in you really felt things step up a notch!

As ever any feedback positive or negative is 100% welcomed, I'm still relatively new to the forum and will be delving into the other posts to see what I can learn from everyone else's mixes!

Here's a little idea of how I setup my session:

Thanks for reading and listening,
Alex

Reference Track(s): State Champs - Elevated
DAW: Logic Pro X (10.4.1)
Plug-ins: Flux, Slate Digital, Slate Trigger, TSE Audio, Waves

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[Zbat]

Hey Alex,

The mix sounds awesome! I played the song and then was about to ask how you got that drum sound, but it's cool that you replaced the snare and kick, whatever gets you where you want, it's inspiring.

The guitars are thick enough but sit well in the mix, same with the vocals, can I ask how you achieved that please? Asking because in this one I was scratching my head (more like pulling my hair) because I was always ending up with thin-ish guitars, taking a lot of the bottom end out, I think it's also because the bass serves the guitars really well also in your mix.

Also personally I like when there are stereo elements to widen the mix, this may be wrong advice on this one as the "mono" sensation may be what makes your mix super impactful, but any elements that drive your left and right ears differently like panning some drum elements hard right and left (like you did) or adding a sound on just one side, splitting the guitars etc. e.g. the guitar lick could have been only on one side, if you check songs like "Take it or leave it" by the Strokes with one guitar strumming that hooky riff throughout the song, that makes it a bit hypnotic. Also I like having the sensation of people playing together in a room. It might be an old school thing as well, with hard panning only as that was the only option on the console.

I like what you did with the intro it's fun!

It's a bit difficult because I was working on it so lost my genuine ear on this a bit. But had I been a first listener I may have said that it would have been cool to play with the vocals throughout the song: the very first verse is cool and widens up after, it's more of a production thing, but I was expecting more treatment on the vocals e.g. first verse with a boxy voice, second maybe a bit wider or adding progressively some distortion, playing with reverb. This is not something I achieved btw and frustrated me, but the vocals are dry even though there's potential for a very produced song, may have been cool to push it toward the pop production type with crazy evolution on the vocals effects, playing with the backvocals etc.

I am also mixing on Logic Pro, your session looks neat! I like the fact that you're using all caps, I'll do that from now on, it's clearer to me. In my world though, drums are red and vocals are blue ahah so I was like OH MY GOD what's happening?

Did you master the song in Logic as well? Can I ask what plug ins you used on your mix bus / what you did when mastering?

Trying to get everything I can think about out anyway, it's all very subtle, your mix sounds awesome and very catchy! It sounds pretty incredible

Hope this helps

Quentin

[alexjeffriesproducer]

Hi Quentin,

Thanks for the kind words! I remember from the outset that the Intro section wasn't really working for me as it was, so I thought to go for that radio/telephone effect... think All Time Low/Neck Deep style production.

In answer to your question: YES I do master the song in Logic as well.

I'll bus everything to my mixbus and go from there, that way I can easily swap to a reference track and hear whereabouts I am along the way.

My mixbus normally looks something like this:

Waves CLA-2A / CLA-76 (Black) - no more than 2db of compression here
Slate Digital - Virtual Tape Machine - to thicken up the low end
Waves C6 - only for the low end - again 2-3db of compression and a healthy amount of makeup gain
Logic Stock EQ (sides only) - HPF around 100hz - helps the mix sound nice and wide
Waves L1 Limiter - set to -0.3 and no more than 3-4db of reduction

Hope this helps!

Let me know if you'd like to know anymore.

Alex Jeffries Producer

[Zbat]

Hey Alex,

Thanks a lot for coming back to me!

This is awesome:

Slate Digital - Virtual Tape Machine - to thicken up the low end
Logic Stock EQ (sides only) - HPF around 100hz - helps the mix sound nice and wide

Both really cool and not something I do, I will give it a try!

I usually use a multiband compressor to tame the low end. I'm still experimenting a lot and sometimes end up battling between muddiness or thinness I was really inspired by your mix so thanks again.

Quentin

[alexjeffriesproducer]

No worries Quentin!

Thanks again for checking it out and the kinds words.

If you have any more questions or would like any more specifics I'm happy to share

Alex Jeffries Producer

[Zbat]

Hey Alex,

I'll bear that in mind thanks a lot!!

Quentin

[dynamaxx]

Love the sound of the toms!

[alexjeffriesproducer]

Love the sound of the toms!

Thanks dude!

[KreuzZwerg]

Hey Alex, I like your mix, esp. the drums sound huge! In my opinion... even a bit too huge, like... to good to be true The trigger samples are fine, but they sound a bit unnatural and don´t match the live/slightly sloppy vibe of the performance that well. Maybe they need to be tucked in a bit? (I´m not sure if this is the right expression). I´m currently mixing the song, too, using only slate and pro tools stock. Do you want to share the samples you used for K,S+Toms? Are they included in the basic Trigger2 version or did you use extension packs?

But again - great overall sound!

How did you handle the vocals? Automation/Clip gain (or whatever you call it in Logic) first and then compression? I´ve never seen such dynamics in a lead vocal

Thanks for sharing!

Silvan

[alexjeffriesproducer]

Hi Silvan,

Thanks for checking out my mix and your feedback!

I remember fully replacing the Kick & Snare on this track as I really wasn't excited by the original sounds - so for sure this is why they don't sound too real... they aren't! I also tend to lean for a more "pop" sounding production for this type of track, so larger than life for sure!

I can't agree more that they could be tucked in a bit though... that's something I've been working on with my more recent mixes.

The triggers I used were all standard in Trigger 2, I tend to blend two Kick's (I like K5 & K10) and two Snares (I love S13) to give me a really "full" sound.

With the vocals I tried to control the dynamics as much I could with clip gain before even getting to compression. I remember smacking as much -6dB of compression with RVox (super underrated) on this vocal and then also blending in some parallel compression to bring it right up front!

If you have any other questions or want me to go into more specifics let me know!

Alex