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!!!NEW - mITc's Me and My Crew, Take 5 !!!
#1
This is a fun one from the Telefunken archives.

The vocal performance is excellent and a difficult part to perform. This song just makes me want to shake something and smile. With that in mind I undertook this mix. Bouncy and fun and made to make you listen hard. I hope you find it enjoyable to listen to.

Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 1

Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 2
I took more cues from the room mic to beef up the snare and add character to the guitar, sax and drums.
I hope you find the differences in this mix refreshing. Still trying to amplify the bounce.

Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 3
Well my first two masters I found to be badly distorted. Had I not put my headphones on I might never have heard it. That concerns me. Anyway, this is basically Take 2 cleaned up.

Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 4
One last sweep to finish this off. A little more buss compression to tighten things up and to clarify environmentals.

Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 5
So with an ear to the suggestions offered by other talented mixers and a desire to continue to clarify my vision, I offer up Take 5.
I modified some gain staging and increased various buss compression to bring up the environment more and to help place things in it better while still trying to maintain and enhance the bounce of the performance.

I would enjoy knowing what you think of this last iteration.

Thanks and Happy Mixing,
mITc


.mp3    Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 3.mp3 --  (Download: 8.72 MB)


.mp3    Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 4.mp3 --  (Download: 8.76 MB)


.mp3    Will Evans - Me and My Crew - Take 5.mp3 --  (Download: 8.7 MB)


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#2
Hey mITc,

this is certainly fun and bouncy I laughed out loud when that chorusy vocal effect came in.
I think the snare could use more bottom end, it sounded a bit tinny to me. That said, overall a very solid and cohesive mix.

Cheers,
Lukas Angel
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#3
(23-08-2021, 01:01 PM)LukasL Wrote: Hey mITc,

this is certainly fun and bouncy I laughed out loud when that chorusy vocal effect came in.
I think the snare could use more bottom end, it sounded a bit tinny to me. That said, overall a very solid and cohesive mix.

Cheers,
Lukas Angel
Thanks, Lukas. I did kind of struggle with the snare. In my previous mixes the snare had much more bottom on it but I found that it stepped on the vocals too much. What I really wanted was a cracking snare but it wasn't there in the recording and I did not feel like substituting with a sample.
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#4
I'm finding this fatiguing. You need to be able to hear the treble because to me it's out of kilter and is over-exposed.

The sub bass is problematic, but I accept their distortion processing (especially with how it's been applied post recording) necessitates considerable attention when mixing it. However, as is, it muddies up the misery range low mids. 

The song feels quite mono, offering a benefit of some phase management in the stereo domain?

The ambiance sounds a little too ambiguous for me, with big empty hard space signatures (eg sax/keys) and on other instruments, no spatial signature at all – the Telefunken challenge due to the close mikes and lack of spill and the sense of natural dimension this would ordinarily bring. I'd aim for creating an illusion of space rather than ear candy that risks not making sense. And in this regard also, I'd lose the vocal modulations as they serve no contextural or emotional validity (for me, I hasten to add) and distract rather than help engagement. If you are encouraging as wide an audience as possible, you'd be wise to keep it simple perhaps. The ultimate decision for that pearl of wisdom rests with the artist, of course; I see you nodding in agreement Wink I respect your courage in exploration though.

The intro gtr has a resonance I dislike for it's unbalanced honk.

I'm finding the sax fighting with the vocal over my speaker

The intro is peaking at -3dBFS which means there's a lack of headroom for the instruments when the band comes in without causing distortion? Limiting as you are, will increase the treble issues I've noted as well as low end problems while bringing unpleasant non-linear artifacts. It is also costing you lost bounce and valuable dynamic energy simply to make it louder.  Personally, I'd advise not mastering it (or posting the mix version as well for comparisons and analysis?).  Really, you need to be seeking loudness from within the mix itself rather than trying to find it at the mastering stage through limiting, which I'm sensing here.

There might be some benefit worth pursuing detail wise, in automating the relationship between the interplay of the instruments which occurs during some choice moments?  Currently, there feels like competing exchanges which demands this particular listener to multitask, and that too, makes it hard to follow if one needs to give it attention.  I can appreciate the time angle and the cost/benefit herein of circumnavigating this finer detail though.

Nevertheless, an interesting perspective overall...
"Nearly half of all teenagers and young adults (12-35 years old) in middle- and high-income countries are exposed to unsafe levels of sound from the use of personal  audio  devices": https://tinyurl.com/6xeeahc5 Read my bio.
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#5
I am curious, how loud do you think this is? It is mastered at -13.5 LUFS. Loud? hardly. Limited? Maybe 3 db at the highest peaks only to bring the unmastered level from -16.5 LUFS up to a nominal -13.5. One thing I will agree with is the sax level. It could be laid back a touch and be deeper in the environment. For me this is not a song that calls for dimension and space. It is a funky, hip-hoppy bounce which I tried hard to enhance. It is a straight-forward song with little to hide and limited nuance. Me thinks you are looking way to hard at this. The mastering process added volume and limiting with only a tiny bit of mid and high end notches.
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#6
I like it. The vocal effects are cool. I'll agree with Lukas about the snare, it does feel a bit thin. The main guitar could maybe comeback a hair. It feels like it fights with the vocal.
And yeah the horn could come back some too.

Cheers,
Roy
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#7
(01-09-2021, 11:21 PM)Omnishambles Wrote: I like it. The vocal effects are cool. I'll agree with Lukas about the snare, it does feel a bit thin. The main guitar could maybe comeback a hair. It feels like it fights with the vocal.
And yeah the horn could come back some too.

Cheers,
Roy
I agree although I am on the fence with the snare.

Thanks for your observations.
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#8
Starting with the intro, the only elements here are the gtr and vox, already peaking at -3dBFS (around the 10 second marker)! You have a brickwall limiter set at -0.8dBFS which leaves headroom of a mere -2.2dBFS in which to fit drums, the bass gtr, sax, vocals, egtr, and keys!!!!  When the song kicks in at 15seconds, it sounds completely flat and lifeless musically from then on. This is also having consequences on the level of artifacts.

What are you using for monitoring? Knowing this might help me to better understand your situation because the judgements you are making suggest it's leading you astray (I speak from the frustrations of experience!). Headphones will do that and earbuds are just as pathetic at assessing dynamic and pretty much anything else, which might go some way to explaining why previous posters herein have missed the benefits of being able to assess dynamics and frequency response. The matter of the narrow stereo field is also a factor because of the exaggerated 180 degree spread, which I've also commented.  But you'd be wrong to think that just because these critically important points weren't mentioned by others that it's not a problem. It simply means feedback has shortcomings and you will be damned if you ignore the right one for the wrong reasons. Wink

I have auditioned a few of your mixmasters over the passage of time. Irrespective of genre, I've always found there to be contradictions and ambiguities in the performance space. It doesn't take much to confuse a brain, especially one like mine Wink

While you mentioned Program Loudness, I would propose that it's of no value on it's own and actually doesn't say anything about anything per se, as the subject is far more complicated. If you tend to rely on eyes as a crutch as you are implying, rather than what your brain is interpreting from the information supplied by a pair of fully functional ears unimpaired by Noise Induced Hearing Loss and/or a poor monitoring environment, you will slip up. I think this is a case in point and offers an opportunity to do something about it going forwards. Alternatively, you can keep doing what you are doing and let's be honest, life is way to short to be chasing one's tail, especially after 140 threads plus whatever services you might be subscribing to with your hard earned money.......

But it's your choice, of course, but if this were my band.........you'd be in trouble  Tongue
"Nearly half of all teenagers and young adults (12-35 years old) in middle- and high-income countries are exposed to unsafe levels of sound from the use of personal  audio  devices": https://tinyurl.com/6xeeahc5 Read my bio.
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#9
(06-09-2021, 11:53 AM)Monk Wrote: Tongue
I tried to correct for better dynamics in Take 2.  Any improvement?
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#10
I think the problem with the snare is that you have very litle lowend info in it.
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