South of The Water - mix by Silona

[silona]

first print.. there might be more to come.

[thedon]

Hi Silona,
Good Job with the guitars !
I recall remixing this back in 2016 and due for a remix .
I lost the last project which is probably a good thing and had to download the files again .
Some thoughts that come to mind while listening
The Vocal recording on this track is a challange as it dynanic in level and needs to be compressed to sit in the mix , but the breaths into the mic are quite loud and need to be tamed manually or with a De-breath pluginn or they will be enhanced by the compression.
The snare could come down a touch maybe reducing  around 600-800hz area  on the Snare and tom track but may have been enhanced if the overheads were out of phase. 
The overheads mic are out of phase with the snare Mic and Toms flipping the overheads Phase should give the snare some more body and punch .
Maybe the bass guitar could cut through more about 5-6 db in the mid bass area and a kick sample with more beater to be audible on small monitors and phones.

Cheers

[silona]

Hey! thank you for the feedback

I'll try to fix the breathing issue by cutting them. I don't use any plugin for that, just by doing so manually. I remember doing that on some locations in the mix, though perhaps not enough.
Regarding phasing - I am so new at this, I still haven't figured it out fully to understand how cancel phasing issues.. I did go over kicks and snare to make sure the waveforms of the track were close. There are options of revert phasing, but sound wise still unsure of the doing of so I haven't been applying that. I am not sure exactly what to look for in the sound when needing to flip it? Would really appreciate if you have any vids or articles to read that refer to this so I can broaden my knowledge.
Thanks for listening!

[OctopusOnFire]

Hi Silona, welcome to the very rewarding and not-frustrating-at-all world of mixing

In order to tackle the voice, I'd recommend doing some adjustments even before getting it through a compressor. Do the edits you need to do, like removing or manually turning down the breaths. Then, get a dynamic equalizer (Tokyo Dawn Records Nova is an excellent and FREE example) and start looking for the frequencies that stand out the most and use the dyn EQ to even it out (don't go overkill or you'll mess the tone and texture of the voice). Then, the compressor will work better and you'll be able to be more gentle using it.

About phase... Don't get too caught up on the subtleties. Noticing phase issues is like noticing if a wine is better or worse, you'll have to do a couple dozen mixes until you clearly start noticing them (and like wine, you'll need to let some time pass between bottles ). For now, just be aware that any audio that comes up from different tracks at once (For example, a kick that comes out of its own track and also shows up on the overheads, or when you copy a voice track and apply effects like distortion or compression on the duplicated track) may bring up phase issues. Phase issues may be bad, but also beneficial or even desired, depending on the instrument and what you're going for. That said, as a rule of thumb you want to minimize phase issues on the drums. A kick or a snare will sound more hollow and undefined the more they're out of phase. The best thing you can do is downloading multitracks that feature real drums recorded with several mics, then solo the snare and overheads and see how they interact together, flipping the phase on one of them, putting effects on one of them, and so on.
Another thing you can do is zooming in until you see the initial waves of a snare transient and then nudge one of the items forward very, very slightly so they don't line up perfectly. Check out how the sound of the snare keeps changing every time you move it..
Being constantly mindful of phase while mixing is one of the most important things IMO. It will save you so many hours of chasing your own tail with EQs and compressors, wondering what the hell is going on and ending up frustrated.

[silona]

Hi Silona, welcome to the very rewarding and not-frustrating-at-all world of mixing

In order to tackle the voice, I'd recommend doing some adjustments even before getting it through a compressor. Do the edits you need to do, like removing or manually turning down the breaths. Then, get a dynamic equalizer (Tokyo Dawn Records Nova is an excellent and FREE example) and start looking for the frequencies that stand out the most and use the dyn EQ to even it out (don't go overkill or you'll mess the tone and texture of the voice). Then, the compressor will work better and you'll be able to be more gentle using it.

About phase... Don't get too caught up on the subtleties. Noticing phase issues is like noticing if a wine is better or worse, you'll have to do a couple dozen mixes until you clearly start noticing them (and like wine, you'll need to let some time pass between bottles ). For now, just be aware that any audio that comes up from different tracks at once (For example, a kick that comes out of its own track and also shows up on the overheads, or when you copy a voice track and apply effects like distortion or compression on the duplicated track) may bring up phase issues. Phase issues may be bad, but also beneficial or even desired, depending on the instrument and what you're going for. That said, as a rule of thumb you want to minimize phase issues on the drums. A kick or a snare will sound more hollow and undefined the more they're out of phase. The best thing you can do is downloading multitracks that feature real drums recorded with several mics, then solo the snare and overheads and see how they interact together, flipping the phase on one of them, putting effects on one of them, and so on.
Another thing you can do is zooming in until you see the initial waves of a snare transient and then nudge one of the items forward very, very slightly so they don't line up perfectly. Check out how the sound of the snare keeps changing every time you move it..
Being constantly mindful of phase while mixing is one of the most important things IMO. It will save you so many hours of chasing your own tail with EQs and compressors, wondering what the hell is going on and ending up frustrated.

So many useful tips! thank you so much! Question though - when I zoom in to the wave form and align the transients, are they supposed to hit at the exactly same place? That's how I usually treat these things. If I invert phase, I probably won't see it in the wave form though..

[Shul]

needs more bass.. and kick needs to be replaced with a sample. It's a great try though!

[OctopusOnFire]

Hi Silona, welcome to the very rewarding and not-frustrating-at-all world of mixing ...

So many useful tips! thank you so much! Question though - when I zoom in to the wave form and align the transients, are they supposed to hit at the exactly same place? That's how I usually treat these things. If I invert phase, I probably won't see it in the wave form though..

Yes, but for example, it doesn't make a lot of sense to align the kick with the overheads or the room. The hit is supposed to reach the microphones at slightly different times. Also, as soon as you put Fx on a track, or as you say, flip the phase, you won't have any visual reference since the waveforms don't show it in real time. That's why you must always use your ears.