Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Purple Hat Mob - Access Denied [OoF]
#1
Here's my take on this song. Not easy to mix. Good song, rough arrangement, many instruments in the same range, etc. 
This time I used a sample to complement the kick's top end. Other than that, no mastering, no reamp, no sampling.
The reference mix is quite bloated, but I tried to clean it up and keep the energy as much as I could. Let me know what you think!


[EDIT] Some considerations after listening to other mixes:

- My mix is peaking around -3db and still seems to be 15dB below other mixes. I won't judge that decision, but if I may, I'd recommend you guys to stop "mastering" your mixes. It won't help you spotting and improving on your mistakes and bad habits, but mask the former and foment the later. Anyway, please match the loudness when comparing before making a judgement.
- Seems that everyone went for a lower end heavily dominated by the kick (can't blame you, the reference mix does too), but I think it's a mistake in this particular song. The kick is hitting syncopated, not on the beat. To my taste, it needs to be nimble and not heavy, or it will drag down the energy and the forward movement of the song. Additionally, there's very little going for the low end in terms of melodic textures. If you submit the bass under the kick, you're accentuating that problem even more, especially when the chorus hits. You need that bass to balance out the huge amount of textures suddenly coming up in the high mid frequencies with all the synths and guitars. I even used a pitch shifter to add a little of a lower octave to the bass in order to address this issue.


.mp3    PurpleHatMob_AccessDenied_OoF_M2-001.mp3 --  (Download: 8.22 MB)


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.

Reply
#2
Hi,

Nice mix!

I recall the raw tracks presented quite some challenges from memory (the 'merits' of my mix aside of course heh).

I am hearing some distortion on the siren at the 3 second mark? Not sure if it is on the original recording or not (haven't checked yet). Can't hear it on my mix anyway... Maybe intentional?

Balance and panning choices are generally really good too.

Couple of minor things that came to mind -

I am not sure about the level of the guitar that comes in at at the 57s mark. I think if it was a touch lower, it might improve the impact of the synth that comes in for the chorus in the next section? I feel it needs to kind of bridge the energy level between the intro and the chorus and I am not sure it is quite doing that at the moment perhaps?

Likewise, the lead synth that kicks in for the chorus - it gives impact, but might be touch too much (loud) and pushes the vocal back a touch? Not sure.

It is tough to be critical with this though - as you say it's difficult to make it work because of the arrangement and there is a lot sharing the same frequency range. These are the only things I noticed, so the rest is all good.

Yeah, good comment regarding matching loudness for comparison. I always try and do this when referencing, etc.

Regarding 'mastering', etc -

Yeah,of course from personal experience it is really easy to go too far with limiting etc, when the mix is maybe what needs the work. I think crushing things terribly with a multiband limiter is an essential part of learning experience though Smile.

Cheers!
Just uploaded a mix/master?  Waiting for comments? Why not give back and critique a mix/master, or two!
Reply
#3
(27-06-2020, 07:01 PM)mikej Wrote: Hi,

Nice mix! 

I recall the raw tracks presented quite some challenges from memory (the 'merits' of my mix aside of course heh). 

I am hearing some distortion on the siren at the 3 second mark?  Not sure if it is on the original recording or not (haven't checked yet).  Can't hear it on my mix anyway... Maybe intentional?

Balance and panning choices are generally really good too. 

Couple of minor things that came to mind -

I am not sure about the level of the guitar that comes in at at the 57s mark.  I think if it was a touch lower, it might improve the impact of the synth that comes in for the chorus in the next section?  I feel it needs to kind of bridge the energy level between the intro and the chorus and I am not sure it is quite doing that at the moment perhaps?

Likewise, the lead synth that kicks in for the chorus - it gives impact, but might be touch too much (loud) and pushes the vocal back a touch?  Not sure.

It is tough to be critical with this though - as you say it's difficult to make it work because of the arrangement and there is a lot sharing the same frequency range.  These are the only things I noticed, so the rest is all good.

Yeah, good comment regarding matching loudness for comparison.  I always try and do this when referencing, etc. 

Regarding 'mastering', etc -

Yeah,of course  from personal experience it is really easy to go too far with limiting etc, when the mix is maybe what needs the work.  I think crushing things terribly with a multiband limiter is an essential part of  learning experience though Smile.

Cheers!


Hi, Mikej. Thanks for the feedback!

Regarding your comments:

- Yeah, there's some distortion on that siren. My bad, should be some plugin acting up up the chain, I dunno why would I put distortion on that Big Grin . About the guitar, I see what you mean, but I think it's fine the way it is.  Angel

- The fact that most things live in the same freq range forces you to take decisions about volume, panning, etc... I wanted to feature the chorus synth over the lead guitar, and in some way, the voice. For songs such as this one, I've been trying to integrate the voice with the rest of the band. Just make it stand out the minimum amount needed to understand the words. It's something I've been noticing on many songs with busy arrangements and I want to be able to do that, so I'm still adjusting to it. 

- About "mastering", yeah... I say what I say because I've been there. You try to bury your cake in sugary topping, but if the problem is in the dough, you're not fixing it, just masking it. Then, it is very tempting to start your next mix with that mindset. You also start just applying "mixing tricks" without even thinking about what you want to address, just because some "mixing guru" talked about it in some video, but never try to dig deep into the nitty-gritty of being mindful of each and every mixing decision you make. I guess it's all part of the process.  Smile
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.

Reply