Nerve9 - Living Lie (Sonic Alchemy Lab Mix)

[motomojo]

Comments welcome

Cheers
Motomojo

[ThomasStevenson]

Hi motomojo - thanks for mixing our track ! Here are some comments as I listen through:

- creative intro! Thanks for that - really helps with the arrangement impact when the bridge kicks in
- kick is a bit high in the balance - is there reverb on it? Something a little distracting between the 2 of these aspects.
- interesting at the chorus - bass effect added? The lead vocal has a cool vibe - it is pushed back with all the reverb - more prominent?
- lead vocal a bit aggressive in the 3-5 kHz region
- the whispers and guitars in the bridge section a bit aggressive in the higher frequencies - has to turn volume down
- timing of the lead gets a bit impacted by the reverb - may be intentional
- just a touch hot in the 2-3kHz tonal balance - I had to reach for my volume a couple of times

I had fun listening to this motomojo - it's a really different mix vision for the song - so it was that creativity that I appreciated. It probably makes a few of my comments quite subjective based on where you were going, so take what you like from it. Key point from me is some of the tonal balance inconsistencies here and there - would help to even those out.

BR

Thomas

[motomojo]

Hi motomojo - thanks for mixing our track ! Here are some comments as I listen through:

- creative intro! Thanks for that - really helps with the arrangement impact when the bridge kicks in
- kick is a bit high in the balance - is there reverb on it? Something a little distracting between the 2 of these aspects.
- interesting at the chorus - bass effect added? The lead vocal has a cool vibe - it is pushed back with all the reverb - more prominent?
- lead vocal a bit aggressive in the 3-5 kHz region
- the whispers and guitars in the bridge section a bit aggressive in the higher frequencies - has to turn volume down
- timing of the lead gets a bit impacted by the reverb - may be intentional
- just a touch hot in the 2-3kHz tonal balance - I had to reach for my volume a couple of times

I had fun listening to this motomojo - it's a really different mix vision for the song - so it was that creativity that I appreciated. It probably makes a few of my comments quite subjective based on where you were going, so take what you like from it. Key point from me is some of the tonal balance inconsistencies here and there - would help to even those out.

BR

Thomas

Hey Thomas thanks for your comment.
Intro was easy as soon as I heard the whisper I knew it belonged at the start.
Kick: yes reverb a bit much maybe.
Bass effect added? I'll say much going on on the bass throughout.
Fairchild comp on the bass channel, parallel channel with a distortion stomp box set to my own preset "Bass Trash" and another chorus stomp box on the bass bus, Then a retro transformer plugin with some crazy programs using one called "psyco" automated in for the chorus and two other times.
It's a mess soloed up.
Chorus vocal: i use a main vocal dry then a parallel channel heavily compressed and very wet. During the chorus I added the delay sends to the main dry vocal with some major chorus effect and delay on the whisper.

Level seemed to be cool but I understand the too much top 30 years of live I may be a bit deficient up in the higher Freq's. At 63 I guess you lose some anyway so I will be a bit more observant of my high end levels.

Lead timing I figured you would notice I tried to get it as close to off as I could with the delay not reverb seems I succeeded thanks.

Very much enjoy mixing your tracks as they provide so much room to be creative and I appreciate your mentioning creativity as I can fix the 2 to 5k discrepancy but without creativity it wouldn't matter.

Happy you enjoyed it.
Cheers Motomojo

[motomojo]

Hi motomojo - thanks for mixing our track !  Here are some comments as I listen through:

- creative intro!  Thanks for that - really helps with the arrangement impact when the bridge kicks in
- kick is a bit high in the balance - is there reverb on it?  Something a little distracting between the 2 of these aspects.
- interesting at the chorus - bass effect added?  The lead vocal has a cool vibe - it is pushed back with all the reverb - more prominent?
- lead vocal a bit aggressive in the 3-5 kHz region
- the whispers and guitars in the bridge section a bit aggressive in the higher frequencies - has to turn volume down
- timing of the lead gets a bit impacted by the reverb - may be intentional
- just a touch hot in the 2-3kHz tonal balance - I had to reach for my volume a couple of times

I had fun listening to this motomojo - it's a really different mix vision for the song - so it was that creativity that I appreciated.  It probably makes a few of my comments quite subjective based on where you were going, so take what you like from it.  Key point from me is some of the tonal balance inconsistencies here and there - would help to even those out.

BR

Thomas

Hi Thomas 
I wanted to get back to this tune after I gained a bit more experience with this digital in the box thing and give myself time to get back into the mixing groove after 10 years away.
I tried to address the issues you raised in the first mix and hope I somewhat succeeded. 
Hope this one works a bit better for ya.

Cheers Motomojo