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Pedaling Prince Mix: Girls Under Glass - We Feel Alright
#1
I did a review of takka360's original mix of this song, criticizing it for excessive compression. Takka has since posted a new version which I'm going to go check out right now, but before I do takka also requested I share my mix. Smile

Here you go, takka! Let me know what you think (and anyone else who'd like to comment is, of course, welcome to as well Big Grin).


.m4a    30 We Feel Alright 3.m4a --  (Download: 12.81 MB)


John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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#2
Nice mix, I think the guitars are a bit lost in the mix.
Maybe a tad of mud on the bottom end ,not much just a tad.
nice vox sitting in the mix nice.
The guitars are real low tho apart from that its a good mix.
I also think a high shelf 2db ish at 8 k would give it a bit more sparkle
as its a little dull sounding.
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#3
Hey John, I enjoyed listening to this mix.

As I've found is generally the case, I like your spectral balance quite a bit but disagree with the levels on particular instruments, but that's entirely a matter of personal taste when we don't have the artist/producer to guide our mix decisions, of course. Just for clarity, I found the snare too loud, but again, simple personal taste on that matter.

I agree with Alan that a little more sparkle in the high end would improve the mix from a commercial perspective, but as I understand, you prefer a slightly darker tonality. Since this is a decidedly uncommercial track (at least it would be considered so here in the states) that seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable mix choice, and might even be preferable to the target audience (I'm not sure about that.)

However, I disagree with him as to the amount about the low end mud, which to my ears is excessive. All I hear from around 150 down is a lumpy blob without much definition. Unfortunately this song as recorded has some pretty severe bottom end issues and I don't think any mix I've heard so far has been entirely successful at containing it (and my mix of this song is quite awful, I must admit) so I can hardly criticize you for that. I wonder if a steep high pass filter on the side channel would be beneficial on the bass synth? The nature of the instrument unfortunately has also made the low end quite inconsistent in level, so I think if you killed the excessive bass in the side channels on that instrument (and maybe even a little low cut on the side channel of the entire mix) and used multiband compression to even out the level, you might improve the already very listenable balance.

My low end monitoring is pretty poor, as my room has some severe resonances, and I didn't use any sort of analysis tools in reviewing your mix (I prefer to use my ears, despite my low end limitations) so you're more than welcome to disregard any of my observations that you don't agree with, but I think this is a very good stab at a deceptively tricky mix, and it's certainly better than my attempt. Great work!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#4
OK. Luckily, I still have this project. So here's my attempt at a fix based on the suggestions I've gotten so far. Smile

Even I noticed the low end was a bit on the muddy side. Originally, I actually liked this sound, but over time listening to it on my iPhone I've begun to think it was a little too much bass. Actually, on the bass track I originally had a full 11.5 dB boost at 80 Hz and a 5 dB boost at 160 Hz because I liked the nice full sound I got when I did it. This was one of my earlier mixes so I didn't realize that even if it sounded great in solo that it might not fit so well with the mix as a whole. I still want to make that bass nice and full, though, so didn't take out EQ entirely; I was just a little more subtle with it. Rolleyes In this version, there's only a gentle 5 dB boost at 102 Hz and 1.5 db at 2000 Hz; I also added just a touch of 12 kHz for air.

Next, it occurred to me that some of the muddiness might be due to nearly inaudible low frequency content in some channels, so I applied a hipass filter rolled off at 150 Hz on the Snare, Synth 1, Synth 2, SFX, Piano and all Vocal tracks. Also, though I personally didn't think the snare was too loud, I still pulled it down 1 dB to see if I can strike a balance between pauli's taste and mine. Wink

Trying to bring those guitars out more in the mix was the biggest challenge. I couldn't just bring them up in level; they were nearly burying the vocals as they were (a problem I had with this mix). So, to try to get the vocals and guitars to sit together more smoothly without radically altering the mix levels (which both suggestions said were just fine the way they were) I used EQ on them instead, applying a 4.5 dB cut at 950 Hz and a 6.5 dB boost at 5.6 kHz. Unfortunately, that also drowned out the vocals a little so I compensated by applying a 4.5 dB boost on the vocal tracks at 950 Hz, mirroring the notch I carved out of the guitars at that frequency; that seemed to bring them out a little better.

Here are the results of all of these changes. It does seem brighter, that's for sure, but I'm not 100% certain of the balance between the guitars and the vocals.

Thoughts? Undecided


.m4a    We Feel AlrightA.m4a --  (Download: 12.82 MB)


John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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#5
Sounds a lot better not so muddy and dull.
The right pan guitar at 1.57 still sounds really low but sounds ok
in the rest of the mix so maybe a tad of automation would help
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#6
Big improvement in my opinion. Big Grin

The sticky issue with this one is that the bass part is so fast that most subwoofers won't be able to keep up with it, so on most full spectrum systems it'll sound somewhat behind the beat. No helping that at mixdown, really, without replacing the part like M. Senior did in his mix rescue.

The guitars don't sound too low to me, really. There are some minor performance accuracy issues on the lead part and it's also a little out of tune, but it's really hard to tell unless you bandpass it and crank it because of all the distortion... that's probably why they feel a little "pokey-outey" because it creates a bit of a balance issue. I found that issue unfixable myself :/ but your strategy with inverted EQs at 950 Hz paid the rent IMHO.

I think it sounds really good and you did an commendable job working with the parts that were supplied Big Grin Good work!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#7
OK, so I've got two responses about the right guitar. Takka360 says it's too low; pauli says it's fine.

So I figured, what the heck. Let's see what happens if I bring that right guitar up by just 1 dB. Tongue

How's this?


.m4a    We Feel AlrightB.m4a --  (Download: 12.8 MB)


John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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#8
Yes spot on.
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#9
Sounds great John ,a couple of minor things things that stand out om my monitors, is the electric playing the solo in the intro sounds soft and guitar in the verse at 1.09 sounds like it is overpowering the vocals a touch Big Grin

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#10
OK, so now takka360 thinks "spot on" and thedon thinks it's a little off.

Guess you can't please everybody. Tongue

Well, I'm pretty happy with it at this point, so I think I'll consider this my "final" version.

Thanks for the help, guys! Big Grin
John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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