Joe's Bar - roy Mix

[Roy]

Minor update to op
(page 2 snipe)

[SonicTramp]

I'm listening to mix03d. I like how the snare is pushing the song forward. I think the bass is not articulating the groove enough. I can hear it but hard to make out the notes. The bass line is awesome, we should hear it in its entirety, right? A little subby on the kick-out to my taste, too pounding (aggressive) for this type of music, but to each his own. The mix also can use a bit of midrange, maybe give it a little bounce. There is something going on from the lo mid down, sounds a bit hollow, pumpy, wavy...sounds like the symptoms of phase issues but it's just my guessing. Cheers!

[Roy]

I'm listening to mix03d. I like how the snare is pushing the song forward. I think the bass is not articulating the groove enough. I can hear it but hard to make out the notes. The bass line is awesome, we should hear it in its entirety, right? A little subby on the kick-out to my taste, too pounding (aggressive) for this type of music, but to each his own. The mix also can use a bit of midrange, maybe give it a little bounce. There is something going on from the lo mid down, sounds a bit hollow, pumpy, wavy...sounds like the symptoms of phase issues but it's just my guessing. Cheers!

Thanks for listening. I'm not at a place where I can look at the session to see what I've done at the time but I did listen to the mix I uploaded here. I do feel like I can hear the bass guitar notes. I can think of two possible reasons:

I've worked on the track enough that I'm familiar with the part that I hear it even if I didn't mix it to be heard well enough. It's very possible. I have this happen with vocals where if I know the lyrics I can hear the part even if they're buried in the track.

or

There's a lot of low end in the bass part that is creating mud that I can't hear but isn't an issue in the listening environment at the moment.

Both are likely. It's probably a combo of both.

The kick is probably all just samples. I wasn't fond of either the kick options presented. They were either samples or weirdly edited. I did try to go for something I was never really happy with and I'm sure there could be some extra sub in the samples that didn't work.

I also was on the fence with the midrange. I think I was probably too aggressive with 'cleaning up' tracks and may have tried to cut too much of what I perceived as 'mud' and flew too close to the sun.

I can't speak to the "hollow, pumpy, wavy...sounds". I can't say I notice it on a casual listen back and I don't know if I did anything that would cause any phase issues. It could be pumpy form some over zealous use of compression. I use a lot of compression. It's a character flaw. Maybe the organ? I may have used some 'rotor' effect to try to accentuate the spin of a leslie. I'm not sure about the 'hollow'ness. Maybe again that is from cutting too much lows/mids from some of the guitar parts.

Anyway, it's hard to say what the deal is without being able to dive into the track at the moment. I can't say I've ever been particularly happy with my mix of this one but I can say that about every mix. I doubt I'll take another quality try at this song again but I will take your notes to heart and try to keep them in mind for future mixes.

Ta,
r

[SonicTramp]

It's just something I hear, and you know how it is. I can't even trust myself. It's always good to double check. No, I like the way you use your compressor, quite aggressive, but produces good drum sound and very modern sounding mix. Yeah, I was thinking about maybe the pumping could come from the compressor too, but pumping I can still hear the sound bounce. The bottom end in your mix didn't give me the bounce I expected, so I listened to your bass and noticed some notes kinda went away, harder to pick out and I heard mostly the sub from your kick out with no true body to it. Same with your guitars; they have the top end loud enough but not the body. Those were the leading indicators for me to suspect phase issues. But I can always, and have been, be wrong.

[Roy]

Yeah, I'm not saying you're hearing something wrong or isn't there. You could be totally right. I've never been happy with the low end on this one. My guess is that in that particular mix I may have cut too much 'body' from the guitars. It's certainly possible and something I was cognizant of and may have gone too far. I don't know if there would have been any phase issues, at least, in stereo, that would cause any cancelation that would cause any hollowness or lack of body.