Adam Buckley - Drag Me Down

[mikej]

Hi,

Thought I'd give this one a go.

Cheers!

Update: Added mix 1.1 - Hopefully a little more polished.  Thanks for the critiques!
Update: Added mix 3.0 - New (slightly experimental) mix.
Update: Added mix 5.0 - Yet another try at this one.

[401kBC]

Hi,

Thought I'd give this one a go.

Cheers!

Nice mix! I really like the emphasis on the bass and your use of the delay effects on the vocals! really makes the song groove an extra touch. Great kick and snare tone too. I think your mix in general is slightly loud around 300hz and around 2.2k. Its sounds like possibly the instruments are slightly too closely mixed in these areas. I pushed those frequencies down on your mix with an EQ about 3db and it immediately makes your mix sound bigger. Something to note. Anyways, good mix to listen too

[Blackcapaudio]

Hey great mix!

Very aggressive snare, sounds gnarly! I feel like the drum mix is all shells and very little cymbals, push them up to add drama and push to the chorus!

Also you could lower the low vocal harmony on the verse as it feels like something goes missing when the chorus comes in because the vocals go thinner.

I like your focus on the bass and rhythm guitars as well, I did similar - it’s a good tone and gives the song more “widescreen” feel.

Really enjoyed!

[mikej]

Nice mix! I really like the emphasis on the bass and your use of the delay effects on the vocals! really makes the song groove an extra touch. Great kick and snare tone too. I think your mix in general is slightly loud around 300hz and around 2.2k. Its sounds like possibly the instruments are slightly too closely mixed in these areas. I pushed those frequencies down on your mix with an EQ about 3db and it immediately makes your mix sound bigger. Something to note. Anyways, good mix to listen too

Hi!

Thanks for checking it out!

I tried some Ampeg bass amp sim I picked up as freebie some time back, and also another distortion type plugin on those other bass channels. Maybe why I have the bass is bit loud in the mix. The vocal delays are kind of as per the ref mix really.  I only added the delays when I realised I had missed them out - so can't really take credit for that idea sadly.

Not sure about the 300hz area yet, but thanks - yeah - I do agree with you about the 2.2k area. I thought it was ok when I did some referencing the other day, but referencing against the same tracks today I think you are right that it is a bit too edgy.  I think a lot of it might be coming from the vocal and maybe the distorted guitar.  I'll have to go back and try tweaking it a bit.  I was trying out a few different ideas and things. It also turned out a bit loud too. 

I don't think I did anything much to the kicks - just a big dip at around 500Hz or so and an 1176 style comp.  Snare was a little eq, 1176, a bit of SPL mo-verb and a bit of distortion. I think I only added reverb to the rooms this time.

I'll be sure to check out your mix properly in the next couple of days too by way of return.

Cheers!

[mikej]

Hey great mix!

Very aggressive snare, sounds gnarly! I feel like the drum mix is all shells and very little cymbals, push them up to add drama and push to the chorus!

Also you could lower the low vocal harmony on the verse as it feels like something goes missing when the chorus comes in because the vocals go thinner.

I like your focus on the bass and rhythm guitars as well, I did similar - it’s a good tone and gives the song more “widescreen” feel.

Really enjoyed!

Funny, I was listening back to the mix on earbuds earlier and realised I'd kind of buried/forgotten about the cymbals! Good catch.

Not sure whether to lower that harmony vocal or do some automation to get the chorus to appear a bit bigger. You might be right that I need to lower the volume of it a bit. Those two parts do seem to work really well together. I do agree it needs something doing though as the energy is kind of the same throughout the mix. I did put a bit of a delay and some extra width on that chorus vocal to get it to pop a bit more, but that doesn't really come across as well as it might.

I guess the original idea was likely to highlight those lead guitar figures, and also the texture of those acoustics towards the end. But yeah - I too quite liked the tone of those guitar chords with the bass and ended up kind of just poking the other guitars out the sides.

Thanks for giving it a listen and taking the time to comment, much appreciated. I'll do my best to check out your mix tomorrow too.

Cheers!

[mikej]

Added mix 1.1

Cheers!

[mikej]

Added mix 3.0 (new, slightly experimental mix).

Cheers!

[mikej]

Added mix 5.0 - Yet another try at this one....