kangaro Bitch is paranoid

[phil_basement]

Hi there,
here is my try.
Thank you for your listening and comments.
Phil

[phil_basement]

[quote pid='108301' dateline='1618707202']
New try.
Phil
[/quote]

[mikej]

Hi!

Just had a quick listen -

For me I feel the vocals and especially the vocal reverb is masking the rest of the track so we are losing a lot of the bass, etc, making the rest of track feel quite small I think. You might wish to consider dialling back the vocal reverb a fair bit, and maybe check the balance of the vocal, how it sits with the rest of the track?

Maybe try listening to how the bass is relative to the vocal in the library mix and go on from there perhaps?

Just my initial thoughts that I think may help a little? This is quite a big mix, and not an easy one to balance.

Cheers!

[phil_basement]

Hi!

Just had a quick listen -

For me I feel the vocals and especially the vocal reverb is masking the rest of the track so we are losing a lot of the bass, etc, making the rest of track feel quite small I think.  You might wish to consider dialling back the vocal reverb a fair bit, and maybe check the balance of the vocal, how it sits with the rest of the track?

Maybe try listening to how the bass is relative to the vocal in the library mix and go on from there perhaps?

Just my initial thoughts that I think may help a little? This is quite a big mix, and not an easy one to balance.

Cheers!

Thank you Mike,
I will try to follow your suggestions. If I can ask, do you think I should reduce the rev both on back vocals and on lead vocals? I put different rev type and quantity on them.
I'm quite a novice, and yes, there is a lot going on in this mix.

Ty again for your time,
Phil

[mikej]

Hi,

The way I would approach it would be to familiarise myself with the balance of the library mix first. I would then try to get a ballpark balance of the mix without any reverbs or effects on any of the vocals. At this point I would then start to blend in the reverb whilst playing back the whole track. The problem with reverb is that it is very easy to over do it. To start off with I would try blending it in until you can just hear it, then dial it back a hair.

It took me a couple of years to really figure this out, but for me getting the initial balance as good as you can is the key I feel, along with leaving a good amount of mix headroom. You might also hear the relative balance change section to section too, this is where volume automation, etc comes in. It is quite surprising how far you can get with a mix just with concentrating on getting a good balance, and a bit of high and low passing, before really getting stuck in with eq and effects, etc.

My thinking is that I get the feeling you are using the reverb to help the vocals stand out. Reverb actually pushes things back in the mix, hence suggesting getting the balance right first.

Yeah this is a tough mix and it really does take quite some time to get anywhere with it I think. I didn't do such a great job of it really, I need to give it another go sometime.

Hope that helps a little?

Cheers!

[phil_basement]

I modified the balance, mostly regarding vocals against the remaining, let  pass some more low end, and reduced (and changed a bit) the rev on vocals.
It sounds better I think, but not yet good enough 
Thank you
Bye,
Phil

[mikej]

Hi!

Yeah thats a whole lot better. A very respectable improvement over the previous versions. Good effort there. Quite a punchy mix too!

A minor thing - I notice there's some clicky transient thing that comes in around the 58 second mark that could maybe do with dialling back a touch, or having the high end rolled off a bit.

With regard to reverbs I found it well worth spending a couple of evenings going through different reverbs and finding out what really works and what doesn't, and sorting out a small selection of go to presets. A few plates for vocals, rooms, snare/drum room verbs, etc. Really saves time when you have a shortlist of a few favourites to go through and audition I think and it also helps to keep you in the mixing zone. It's also worth trying a few different reverbs on things too, as I find that one will seem to work a lot better on a particular source than the others.

Anyway hope that's of some use there.

Cheers!

[phil_basement]

Last try for now

[mikej]

Hi!

Better. The balance is pretty good now.

The reverb is still a little bit of an issue for me though to be honest. eg at 0:22, 1:20,2:02 etc the tail bloom of the reverb/delay is a little distracting I think. It really needs to be tucked in to the mix a bit more for this track - so you can’t really hear it as such. Needs to sound a little bit less like the vocals are in a tunnel. The vocal needs to be bit drier sounding, it will push them forward in the mix, and the tail won't mask the music. Hear how the reverb sounds in the library mix. Hope this makes sense! Do let me know if you need further explanations of course. It's a difficult thing to get right. Finding the right reverb sound helps a lot too. It's something that is well worth spending some time on I think.

Cheers!

[phil_basement]

Hi!

Better.  The balance is pretty good now. 

The reverb is still a little bit of an issue for me though to be honest. eg at 0:22, 1:20,2:02 etc the tail bloom of the reverb/delay is a little distracting I think.  It really needs to be tucked in to the mix a bit more for this track - so you can’t really hear it as such.  Needs to sound a little bit less like the vocals are in a tunnel.  The vocal needs to be bit drier sounding, it will push them forward in the mix, and the tail won't mask the music.  Hear how the reverb sounds in the library mix.  Hope this makes sense! Do let me know if you need further explanations of course.  It's a difficult thing to get right.  Finding the right reverb sound helps a lot too.  It's something that is well worth spending some time on I think.

Cheers!

Hello mikej, 
thank you very much for your feedback, it makes sense at all! I tried to make a better balance, and I'm glad you noticed  

I did change also some settings in the reverbs, but still I'm not happy with that, and with vocals overall. I mean, slightly better, but not good. When I'll got some more spare time I will be back on this.

Thanks again

Cheers!