07-02-2019, 03:17 PM (This post was last modified: 07-02-2019, 03:18 PM by OctopusOnFire.)
So, firstly, I don't know if my mix applies for the contest, since I was a patron when it was announced, but then I left the Patreon site altogether and deleted my account. I'd love to keep my support through alternative ways, but that's something I've already discussed with Mike.
Whether it applies or not to the contest, I'm here for the feedback, really.
Secondly, I've been waiting around for my UAD interface to get repaired, but it seems it'll take a while, so I decided to mix this with my old trusty Focusrite Scarlett. Not really a huge deal, just some plugins missing and a little change of workflow.
About the mix itself: I went for an improved version of the reference, with more weight, space and depth. I didn't use samples except for adding a little more tail to the timbale, and used the guitar DIs in the best way I could, adding a little wah-wah mojo into the song.
Other than that, I think I only used plugins from Airwindows and T-racks, apart from Clariphonic in the voice and a couple go-to things on the mix bus for character and control.
Here are some screenshots in case anyone's interested:
Every comment is welcome. Have a great rest of your day.
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.
Hi OctopusOnFire -- an interestingly ambient version this, and with an appealing wiriness to the bass tone and some cool wah tones that I'm a sucker for! Love that little suspicion of reverse-envelope effect before the guitar entry in Verse 2 as well. Not only is that a great bit of ear candy, but the trippiness of the guitar effects there in general make good sense from an arrangement perspective in terms of keeping the attention of the listener during the repeated verse texture. Nice to hear the vocal well upfront too, as you'd hope given the brief, although in light of the fairly rich high-frequency energy in general I'd probably do a bit more de-essing to prevent it feeling too fizzy. As with a number of mixes here, the 130Hz zone seems a bit too well-endowed, whereas the bass guitar could do with more real weight in the sub-80Hz zone to support the harmonies. Even though you're using the stereo image sensibly, it does feel a touch underwhelming overall, so I'd probably widen the Hammond or the odd effect return to make things a little more widescreen, as mainstream singles tend to trade heavily on their width.
The snare feels rather thinned out by comparison with the kick, and while this doesn't affect the kick+snare combined sound, it does make the kit feel bottom-heavy whenever they're not playing together, such as in the Reintro, Mid-section, and Outro. I do like the way you've incorporated the hand drums with the drum kit, although the low resonance of the main conga part does feel a touch overbearing on some hits (a small EQ notch can easily rein that in) and the editing clicks are a little distracting at times too, especially during the intro. The higher-register Hammond feels quite thin timbrally, and that undermines the arrival of the later choruses for me, because there's less textural contrast across the section boundary. Also, because there's not much low-midrange harmonic warmth left in it, the Mid-section feels rather aggressively percussion-led, rather than like an expansion on the Chorus texture. The ride and hi-hat stick transients get a little tiring on the ear as well from the Mid-section onward, so perhaps some kind of tape-emulator might be worth using to slightly smooth those off.
The delay/reverb effects use feels both sensitive and varied, which means we get some good depth. I don't get a sense of the effects adjusting themselves to changes in the arrangement, which misses a trick in terms of enhancing the long-term dynamics, but this is mitigated to an extent by the differing effects on different tracks, as these help increase the impact of arrangement variations that are already present in the raw multitrack. The vocal balancing is reasonable, but could be improved by evening out the low-frequency variability in the raw recording -- you really notice how the level ducks and dives during Chorus 2, for instance, as Hannes switches between vocal registers. The mob backing vocals in the Outro could probably come up a little more, because they feel quite distant at the moment, and I reckon they'd help contribute to a more feel-good ending if balanced more audibly.
Hope some of that makes sense and is useful -- thanks for posting!
(12-03-2019, 11:29 PM)Mike Senior Wrote: Hi OctopusOnFire -- an interestingly ambient version this, and with an appealing wiriness to the bass tone and some cool wah tones that I'm a sucker for! Love that little suspicion of reverse-envelope effect before the guitar entry in Verse 2 as well. Not only is that a great bit of ear candy, but the trippiness of the guitar effects there in general make good sense from an arrangement perspective in terms of keeping the attention of the listener during the repeated verse texture. Nice to hear the vocal well upfront too, as you'd hope given the brief, although in light of the fairly rich high-frequency energy in general I'd probably do a bit more de-essing to prevent it feeling too fizzy. As with a number of mixes here, the 130Hz zone seems a bit too well-endowed, whereas the bass guitar could do with more real weight in the sub-80Hz zone to support the harmonies. Even though you're using the stereo image sensibly, it does feel a touch underwhelming overall, so I'd probably widen the Hammond or the odd effect return to make things a little more widescreen, as mainstream singles tend to trade heavily on their width.
The snare feels rather thinned out by comparison with the kick, and while this doesn't affect the kick+snare combined sound, it does make the kit feel bottom-heavy whenever they're not playing together, such as in the Reintro, Mid-section, and Outro. I do like the way you've incorporated the hand drums with the drum kit, although the low resonance of the main conga part does feel a touch overbearing on some hits (a small EQ notch can easily rein that in) and the editing clicks are a little distracting at times too, especially during the intro. The higher-register Hammond feels quite thin timbrally, and that undermines the arrival of the later choruses for me, because there's less textural contrast across the section boundary. Also, because there's not much low-midrange harmonic warmth left in it, the Mid-section feels rather aggressively percussion-led, rather than like an expansion on the Chorus texture. The ride and hi-hat stick transients get a little tiring on the ear as well from the Mid-section onward, so perhaps some kind of tape-emulator might be worth using to slightly smooth those off.
The delay/reverb effects use feels both sensitive and varied, which means we get some good depth. I don't get a sense of the effects adjusting themselves to changes in the arrangement, which misses a trick in terms of enhancing the long-term dynamics, but this is mitigated to an extent by the differing effects on different tracks, as these help increase the impact of arrangement variations that are already present in the raw multitrack. The vocal balancing is reasonable, but could be improved by evening out the low-frequency variability in the raw recording -- you really notice how the level ducks and dives during Chorus 2, for instance, as Hannes switches between vocal registers. The mob backing vocals in the Outro could probably come up a little more, because they feel quite distant at the moment, and I reckon they'd help contribute to a more feel-good ending if balanced more audibly.
Hope some of that makes sense and is useful -- thanks for posting!
Hey Mike, just wanted to thank you for this detailed and thorough review. I missed it most likely because I went on a mixing hiatus around the time when this event happened, and now I came back and noticed that the reply was yours. In the meantime I got into record collecting (I bought a turntable and more records than I should ), so I've been listening to a lot of music on vinyl, and it shows. Best mixing course I ever did. So I listened to this mix with superfresh ears and you're totally on point.
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.