Thread Rating:
  • 7 Vote(s) - 2.43 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Dragme Down (FINAL MIX UPDATE) Fun song!
#11
It’s a tricky arrangement.

Cutting to the chase, the choruses especially are suffering from poor audio quality. I think that being aware of the consequences of having so many tracks playing at the same time would be advisable. This is a very dense arrangement, too dense given we are useless as a species at multitasking? If you want power, authority and loudness, I'd suggest removing elements which aren't necessarily contributing, to find the headroom in this song. Less is more and all that.

But I don’t agree with making one guitar louder than hell, yet the guitar that’s playing the melody, as weak as the melody line is, seems all but absent in it’s balance and placement. Other’s seem to have done this too, but I can sympathise with the temptation to give that one guitar all the sound stage though. There’s also a significant amount of masking throughout the mix from your instrumental bias; the synths are particularly losing a lot of notes.

I also think the vocals could be tonally more in-keeping with the instruments; they sound a little congested in the lower mids, no doubt from the room’s contribution. More presence in the upper mids would help with clarity and definition too, but cutting the mud might automatically benefit them sufficiently? More voices means more room effect in the problem area from the build up, so it gets worse with more vocal tracks, in other words.

As a "listener", must say I’m highly critical of your approach on the intro. Firstly it’s mono (985 posts? Come on fella). Secondly, the radioed effect is just a little too cheesy and cliché these days from over use. As an effect somewhere in the mix to bring some contrast, perhaps, or during a transition, but I think it’s fatal at such a critical place where it’s essential to engage an audience, especially those who’ve been around a while. Also, because it’s in the 1-5kHz range, it doesn’t respond as well to louder listening levels (you can blame Fletcher and Munson for this Big Grin) which might also reduce potential impact?

If you don’t already know, one of the features of headphones is they are utterly, totally and completely crap at enabling accurate or even reliable assessment of dynamics because of poor excursion and single transducer issues, so this is acting against you and will bring addtional compromises to your work.

Listened to DragmeDownShulFINAL only.
Auditioned this time with Focal CMS50’s, midfield.

"Nearly half of all teenagers and young adults (12-35 years old) in middle- and high-income countries are exposed to unsafe levels of sound from the use of personal  audio  devices": https://tinyurl.com/6xeeahc5 Read my bio.
Reply
#12
Thanks for the input on my mix

(14-12-2018, 11:50 AM)Monk Wrote: But I don’t agree with making one guitar louder than hell, yet the guitar that’s playing the melody, as weak as the melody line is, seems all but absent in it’s balance and placement. There’s also a significant amount of masking throughout the mix from your instrumental bias; the synths are particularly losing a lot of notes.

Yes the truth is if it's gonna classify as a post hardcore song or a modern metalcore song those guitars need to be present. The idea here was to have that rhythm guitar drive that section along with the back vocals. Everything else, in this case the lead guitars and the synths are just support to that core arrangement. In my head that's why i did it like that anyways. Perhaps if you mix this song I can check it out to get more audible tips as I do from everyone else Smile


(14-12-2018, 11:50 AM)Monk Wrote: I also think the vocals could be tonally more in-keeping with the instruments; they sound a little congested in the lower mids, no doubt from the room’s contribution. More presence in the upper mids would help with clarity and definition too, but cutting the mud might automatically benefit them sufficiently? More voices means more room effect in the problem area from the build up, so it gets worse with more vocal tracks, in other words.

Yes I suppose you are right. I'm not one to pay super close attention to detail when it comes down to sonic texture of a sound. In my mind it was simply "let's keep those lyrics afloat" and in my opinion I achieved that with that radio like voice... The rest of the vocals were just supposed to fill in and make a wall of sound. the three tracks I wanted to be heard were Rhythm Gtrs, Main lyrics voice, kick and snare. Everything else was supposed to support that. And of course you can argue that it's muddy or foggy but as long as you can hear that then I pretty much did what I intended to do. Having said that I don't deny the problems you mention. Simply explaining why I did what I did.

(14-12-2018, 11:50 AM)Monk Wrote: As a "listener", must say I’m highly critical of your approach on the intro. Firstly it’s mono (985 posts? Come on fella). Secondly, the radioed effect is just a little too cheesy and cliché these days from over use. As an effect somewhere in the mix to bring some contrast, perhaps, or during a transition, but I think it’s fatal at such a critical place where it’s essential to engage an audience, especially those who’ve been around a while. Also, because it’s in the 1-5kHz range, it doesn’t respond as well to louder listening levels (you can blame Fletcher and Munson for this Big Grin) which might also reduce potential impact?

Noted. Reason for that was because I wanted the rest of the instrumentation to have an bigger impact once it would it that stereo field but it's fair enough that you didn't like it. Most of what we do is overused. There is hardly anything original the industry being what it is. But i supposed I should resort to that when I don't got another option.

Not sure what you mean about the amount of posts I have here. What does that have to do with this?

(14-12-2018, 11:50 AM)Monk Wrote: If you don’t already know, one of the features of headphones is they are utterly, totally and completely crap at enabling accurate or even reliable assessment of dynamics because of poor excursion and single transducer issues, so this is acting against you and will bring addtional compromises to your work.

I'm aware of that. I live in apartments and don't have the luxury to listen to loud sounds. Also I don't have my speakers anymore and on top of that my room is not treated for mixing with monitors. Same difference but I agree I can asses with better accuracy on the dynamics.

Perhaps you would have liked my MIX1 better than my final.
Thanks for the input though I appreciate it.

Reply
#13
Like the intro sound filtered sound. Nice fade of the GT leading into the 1st verse I'm getting a little bit of sub build up think it might be the bass. Personal taste, but the piano feels like
it could have played more of a role and some more upper mids added. The kic at 2.21 maybe just automate it not sure just feels like it doesn't
flow when everything comes back in in that section? Overall very good mixes hope this helps.

Jerze
Reply
#14
(28-12-2018, 02:53 PM)jerze Wrote: Like the intro sound filtered sound. Nice fade of the GT leading into the 1st verse I'm getting a little bit of sub build up think it might be the bass. Personal taste, but the piano feels like
it could have played more of a role and some more upper mids added. The kic at 2.21 maybe just automate it not sure just feels like it doesn't
flow when everything comes back in in that section? Overall very good mixes hope this helps.

Jerze

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I agree that low end is quite strong. I should have checked the low end of the bass better. I usually have problems in this area as I don't really have a sub to be more accurate on my bass. I do get what you mean.. maybe I can make the kick less clicky to have less of an in your face feel.

thanks for feedback!
Reply
#15
Good job!
Reply
#16
Thanks frank.. I'll see if I can get some chance to fix some small details... thanks for listening.
Reply
#17
Vox are very clear over the rest of the mix. I think you balanced the background vocals well, also. I like the feeling of the kick, it fits under the whole song and doesn't get drowned out. The balance of the kick and bass is good. Did you use a filter in the intro?
Reply
#18
(30-12-2018, 03:57 AM)Shul Wrote: Thanks frank.. I'll see if I can get some chance to fix some small details... thanks for listening.

listen my mix.

http://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/showt...?tid=25517
Reply
#19
Voice needs to be compressed, because it's not even throughout the mix. The mix is too accentuated in the 500 to 6000 Hz, which sounds really harsh. Sub needs to be mono-ed otherwise it sounds wobbly and phasey. Also, you shouldn't put a maximizer/limiter on a mix and run the mix up to 0db, there should be some headroom for mastering. Drums are hidden in the mix, especially in choruses. Some elements can't be heard well enough in the mix. Vocals have poor stereo image. Intro sounds, too, lack stereo image.
Reply