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Living In The City - first mix for years... (and what a great track!)
#1
Love this song, and really enjoyed mixing it. Such a good band - especially the drums and the vocals are so good.

I wanted to try and get a pretty full and punchy sound, while keeping the live feel. Aiming for slightly vintage sound, but not lo-fi. There's a fair bit of automation in here, and I spent a bit of time tidying up the plosives and esses in the lead vocal a bit. It was well recorded though, so didn't need a huge amount doing to it, in my opinion.

Interested to know what you think, and where there's room for improvement!

Cheers,
Laurie

Edit: 2nd version has guitars up, a bit more mid on the bass, and a couple of HF notches in the lead vocal EQ. Sounding much better now, I think.


.mp3    Living In The City - Laurie Harrison Mix.mp3 --  (Download: 8.04 MB)


.mp3    Living In The City - Laurie Harrison Mix 2.mp3 --  (Download: 8.04 MB)


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#2
My favourite drumkit sound on this tune at the moment, especially snare and toms, they have tons of character and just sound album like! Organ fits perfectly, as well as bass thou it might do with some more mids definition but it works beautifully as it is anyway. Very well placed vocal too, even if that slap delay might be a little too posh (mostly because of it being stereo). I'd say punchy this mix definitely is!

Full, well maybe not so much, thou. Main guitar is pretty low, making the choruses kinda shy. I almost can imagine the drummer feeling a little lonely without that street riot backing him, when the guitar player lets loose. Give that sweet axe some dBs up and you can drop the mic! This mix deserves that final push.



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#3
overall, pretty good mix - drums and bass work well together. The keys and BGVs also seem well placed and fit nicely.

The guitars seem a bit all over the place level wise. The 2nd guitar is almost inaudible and the main guitar comes and goes a little too aggressively ....very quiet most of the time and then boom...guitar solo and then back to virtually nothing.

The main vox sits nicely and commands the song. There is a harshness (from the mic i think), around 2-5Khz would be my guess, that to me needs taming but maybe you like it.

There also seems to be some weird pumping in the final vamp....there's a compressor working over time somewhere that needs looking at.

Cheers
Be fierce in your encouragement, kind in your criticism and try and remember that the art of a good critique is not to make someone else's mix sound like yours...but to help the mixer realize their own vision.

https://soundcloud.com/hbguitar
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#4
(05-01-2019, 02:12 AM)Deliza Wrote: My favourite drumkit sound on this tune at the moment, especially snare and toms, they have tons of character and just sound album like! Organ fits perfectly, as well as bass thou it might do with some more mids definition but it works beautifully as it is anyway. Very well placed vocal too, even if that slap delay might be a little too posh (mostly because of it being stereo). I'd say punchy this mix definitely is!

Full, well maybe not so much, thou. Main guitar is pretty low, making the choruses kinda shy. I almost can imagine the drummer feeling a little lonely without that street riot backing him, when the guitar player lets loose. Give that sweet axe some dBs up and you can drop the mic! This mix deserves that final push.

Cheers for the feedback! Yeah, you're right about the guitars - I was fiddling with the their levels right to the end, and ended up leaving them too low due to my love of the drums!

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#5
(06-01-2019, 06:00 AM)HbGuitar Wrote: overall, pretty good mix - drums and bass work well together. The keys and BGVs also seem well placed and fit nicely.

The guitars seem a bit all over the place level wise. The 2nd guitar is almost inaudible and the main guitar comes and goes a little too aggressively ....very quiet most of the time and then boom...guitar solo and then back to virtually nothing.

The main vox sits nicely and commands the song. There is a harshness (from the mic i think), around 2-5Khz would be my guess, that to me needs taming but maybe you like it.

There also seems to be some weird pumping in the final vamp....there's a compressor working over time somewhere that needs looking at.

Cheers

Thanks! All good points. I had another listen to the vox, and you're right - there is a nasty frequency in there that could do with taming.

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#6
Hey. I just gave this a quick listen. My immediate thoughts besides what others may have mentioned is that to me the kick feels a little...artificial? Is it a sample or heavily gated or just too scooped or something. I'm not sure. It does jump out at me at that very first kick that's by itself and kinda lays out the sound for the rest of the tune.
That and the guitar automation in the first verse might be too noticeable. I guess that's been mentioned though now that I look. Oh well. Overall a good job.
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#7
(16-02-2019, 06:04 PM)RoyMatthews Wrote: Hey. I just gave this a quick listen. My immediate thoughts besides what others may have mentioned is that to me the kick feels a little...artificial? Is it a sample or heavily gated or just too scooped or something. I'm not sure. It does jump out at me at that very first kick that's by itself and kinda lays out the sound for the rest of the tune.
That and the guitar automation in the first verse might be too noticeable. I guess that's been mentioned though now that I look. Oh well. Overall a good job.

Cheers Roy. And well spotted - there is a kick sample in there! I thought I’d kept it pretty subtle...
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#8
(20-02-2019, 10:02 PM)laurieharrison Wrote:
(16-02-2019, 06:04 PM)RoyMatthews Wrote: Hey. I just gave this a quick listen. My immediate thoughts besides what others may have mentioned is that to me the kick feels a little...artificial? Is it a sample or heavily gated or just too scooped or something. I'm not sure. It does jump out at me at that very first kick that's by itself and kinda lays out the sound for the rest of the tune.
That and the guitar automation in the first verse might be too noticeable. I guess that's been mentioned though now that I look. Oh well. Overall a good job.

Cheers Roy. And well spotted - there is a kick sample in there! I thought I’d kept it pretty subtle...
Fair enough. Samples are fine. It does stick out for a few reasons. Mainly, being a live recorded track cleaner sounds and samples, etc, are more stark in contrast. What really caught my ear was the naked upbeat kick going into the song. It just stands out and becomes more obvious and sets the stage from then on.

It reminds me of an article I read ages ago. There was this one song that had synth horns (80s quality) throughout the whole song that felt artificial. Someone knew a sax player and had them play some riffs just at the top of the song and that created a sonic illusion from then on. The opposite happens in this instance. That sample (or even if it isn't a sample - sound) describes the sonic path for the rest of the song. That initial opening impression calibrates the listener in a way.

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