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(28-02-2020, 09:49 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: I've known a few...
This was fun. The playing is a little sloppy in places but the feel is good and while I could have cleaned that up, I didn't waste the energy here.
What was odd was the lack of energy in the recorded drums which required a lot of attention in order to bring the kit up to the excitement the rest of the tracks held. The cymbals were odd and cut off at times. I did end up with a snare sound I really like.
I played around with some arrangement ideas and may still add another idea to the front of the chart. I opted for a fade on this as the ending guitar riff seemed out of character for what I was intending.
I re-amped the bass and added a distortion stomp box for some added character. The timing for this performance was not great in places.
I am expecting quite a few good takes on this track from the community and a lot have already been posted. Looking forward to hearing other takes.
Comments always appreciated...
Happy Mixing,
mITc
After listening to your mix here are my observations. I don't like your drums at all it's a matter of taste i think they aren't well glued together my advise to achieve that is to create a cohesive space. I like your vocals and keys mix I find the bass a little absent from the mix. But in general the mix is not so bad.
Mr. Loud
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(29-02-2020, 09:28 AM)The Wizzards Wrote: After listening to your mix here are my observations. I don't like your drums at all it's a matter of taste i think they aren't well glued together my advise to achieve that is to create a cohesive space. I like your vocals and keys mix I find the bass a little absent from the mix. But in general the mix is not so bad.
OUCH. Considering there is basically only kick, snare and hat, this is scathing.
 
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I have to agree with Wizzards. It lacks cohesion. That's mostly the recording's fault since it's a lot of samples and DI parts. I think the vocal gets lost at times, especially in the louder sections. The snare verb feels weird. It could work in some songs but in this arrangement it accentuates the 'fakeness' of the drums and I'm not sure this song needs the attention called to the drums. The distortion on the bass can be a detriment when the bass is more exposed. It feels a little kazoo like.
It feels like a 'mix' and not a song. If that makes sense. It's not far off but needs a little more focus.
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well this is energetic in comparison to other songs.. I like that about this mix.. as for what everyone says then I have to definitely say it must be a hard mix if the tracks are not great to begin with.
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Yeah, there's something going on here that's certainly sounding uneasy. A lack of cohesion perhaps. For me it's sounding like it's a bit squared up and rhythmically fighting it's self. At times a bit swelly and floaty with the percussive elements of the guitar parts having too much control. I wondering if it's something with the master bus processing though. Almost like the compressor bucking and fighting the rhythmic drive of the song. not sure really.
With that all said, I love whats going on here. The arrangement is good and all the elements throughout are exploited tastefully. Vocals are great, love the bass processing and the intact dynamics within the song as a whole, although the snare could come back a bit. I reckon if you can get the energy within synchronised, you could really smash this one out of the park! Last note, watch for the lower frequencies in the side channels, It may be worth filtering these out. 
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13-03-2020, 01:00 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-03-2020, 01:07 PM by Mixinthecloud.)
Folks,
I know my snare on this mix has generated a lot of passion. For me it is what Bob Ross of the Joy of Painting might call a 'happy accident'. I had been trying to get a gated snare sound to work using the PreSonus Mixverb plugin, but it just wasn't gelling so I took it out of its gate mode and pow, this is what exploded out of that change. For me it just gave me the 'crazy' character I was looking for. And while the snare may be the primary signature in this mix, well then so be it. There are plenty of iconic songs where the snare sound defines the song. For me, it just brought the rhythmic character and drive of the song into focus. Others have mentioned the 'cartoonish' bass guitar. Yes, that would be a somewhat accurate depiction of it but again for me, in the context of the song and the lyric, it made sense.
As for cohesion, the keyboard breaks are as cohesive as I could ever muster for a mix. That all hell breaks lose with the vocals, guitars and bass, then right on, baby. There were figures in the guitar line during the choruses which I bumped up significantly to bring out their melodic and rhythmic impact. I might have been a little heavy handed on those meaning I might have expressed those bumps with more alacrity, but again, in the context of the song it gets the message across.
Anyway, thank you all for your comments. Sometimes it is tough to look at mixes from the point of view of a listener who has never heard a song before when we, as mixers and critiquers, are familiar with all the oozy smells of a song. I try hard to keep a fresh perspective alive.
Happy mixing, friends.
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I usually feel most comfortable commenting or critiquing someones mix, when I'm unfamiliar with the song and it's contents. So most posts I make are in this context, either new threads I haven't explored or older ones that have faded in memory. I generally find it difficult to post a mix of a song and then comment on others. My mindset is still very much stuck with my own direction and ideals for the song in question, for better or worse. As for this song, I've only listened to a hand full of versions including the reference track in full. I'm not familiar with the elements at play, but there is quite a variety of styles and arrangements with the mixes presented, so there must be scope within.
You are sounding a little deflated and defensive Mitc, but I'm not sure why? As far as the mixes I've listen to, this would be my favourite as for the reasons fore mentioned in my previous post. I wouldn't get too worked up about the snare. If thats the sound you want, run with it. My only thought was it could come back a bit in volume as far as balance was concerned. Turning the mix right down left me hearing the snare and nothing else.
As for cohesion, I feel your thinking is on the individual elements / instruments and their passages. The issues I'm hearing is more with the short term rhythmic mash up of the song as a whole. I'm not sure what you are going with the compression and master bus processing , but it almost feels like something here is amiss. Without really knowing whats at plays though I'm purely guessing.
I not sure if you have pulled up stumps with this one, but I reckon it's worth trying to get it right. A lot of mixes I listen to, you get the feeling they have pushed it to the limits of where they are trying to go. I'm not feeling that here.
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I feel like my comments might be perceived as being overly harsh. I stand by them after listening again and could expound on them more but there's certainly nothing personal behind them. Dave has said pretty much everything I wanted too and more eloquently so there's no need to re-hash. In the end, if you feel it's what you want then great. That's all that matters. Others may hear it differently which also is great.
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