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MekaPhil - Timeless (Part 2)
#11
Added mix 1.0.

Cheers!
Just uploaded a mix/master?  Waiting for comments? Why not give back and critique a mix/master, or two!
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#12
(30-08-2021, 07:43 PM)mikej Wrote:
(28-08-2021, 11:50 PM)takka360 Wrote: Its all to over limited for me.Just sounds like a noise

That sounds like noise, Mr. Vai! And I want it Stopped! You all got detention!

Well, at least I gave 5.7 LUFS a shot all the same.  Maybe the real 5.7 LUFS was the friends I met along the way Big Grin.

Cheers!
Ha ha
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#13
(30-08-2021, 08:11 PM)Faders_up Wrote:
(28-08-2021, 06:32 PM)mikej Wrote: Hi!

Another phenomenal track from MekaPhil. 

My mix attempt.

Cheers!
Great job MikeJ. You gave it a shot. This track is a challenge for anyone. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt this was a tough one. The vocal parts are very inconsistent. Maybe different mics, pre amps, distance to the microphone on different takes. It was a battle to get any kind of consistency not to mention the tuning is pretty bad in some spots. I thought I was listening to a Mario game with those keyboard parts. But all that said, it’s a cool track, it has interesting vocal parts. It’s just amateur production. With so many home studios now, it’s to be expected. I wouldn’t want to stifle anyone’s creativity but it can be frustrating at times as a mixer. Great song, great arrangement, great performance, great recording leads to a much easier mix. Steve Lukather just posted an article that describes this pretty accurately. On well done recording, put the faders at unity and you should be 80-90% there. I think making the vocal fit into the track will help. Lower level more compression and faster attack would give this track more overall energy. Just my 2¢ Smile
Howdy friend! For what it's worth, our whole first album was about capturing the frenetic energy of the songs that we were writing. Each song was given a single week. Written, brought in. On wednesday we would write vocals, then record them. Then by the end of that wednesday, we would mix and master. On thursday, we would listen to it and on friday we would finish up with the mastering process in context of the other songs we'd already done. We used multiple mics, multiple different setups, some things were recorded by Meka or by Me in different environments and with different gear. Different songs have different guitars, different drum samples, different identities entirely. And over the course of 2 months, we finished every single song on that schedule. This was us "finding" our sound and limiting ourselves vastly until we fell into place.

Our newer album is a very different experience. The one we're working on right now has been a very very very long drawn out process of focusing on honing the focus on the details. For example, the vocal tuning is much more intricate, and in depth. Every song is being recorded with the same microphone, into the same tube preamp, running into the same optical compressor. In the box it's just soothe, and EQ, an 1176 emulation, and a limiter on the buss. Every individual track is meticulously designed, and we've finished approximately 2 songs in 5 months. Smile We've definitely found our sound and style, and are focused entirely on the details of what makes us unique. 

I hope that explains some things. I actually thought Alive was a much more difficult mix overall, because it was the first thing ever we worked on as a group, and Meka's automation on the bass was actually PRINTED when he sent the DI to me. It's little things like that which make every track unique and fun and interesting and creative. Sure, I have a studio with real gear and real processes and protocols. But this album was about taking a Zappa like approach to things. "You want this style? Absolutely! Lets experiment and just print it. Close enough? Absolutely. Weird harmonies? You got it. The impact will be there." We wanted to just show people how it feels to be there when we're playing around in the studio or live. 

Sorry about the novel. I'm just very passionate about this project and even though I'm currently going through a tough time (makes it harder to comment on things for the time being) I love hearing people's opinions about the tracks and seeing how they develop our sound through the lens of their perspective. Especially in the songs we basically started with. The memories of August to October of 2020 were tinged with a lot of things, but the fun that Meka and I had every single week will always be a huge part of that. And I hope our music exemplifies that.  If you wanna hear more stripped back tuning and more gentle touches with focus on production clarity over all, we have a song called "loss" that's extremely unique even in the context of our record. It's not on the multitrack library, but highly recommend giving it a shot. It's extremely intimate.
Thanks for hearing out my ramble, and thanks especially to Mikej who's been so awesome and dedicated to growth in mixing. I seriously appreciate it and I hope to be able to provide more unique mixing experiences for people. Wink
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