Wicked - EKN Mix

[EKN]

Here's my take on Leaf's Wicked.
Let me know how it sounds to your ears.

Happy listening,
Erick

[takka360]

Nice sounding mix Erick, great balance and the drums sound great.
Real good work.

[EKN]

Nice sounding mix Erick, great balance and the drums sound great.
Real good work.

Thanks Alan !
Your (first) mix of this song served me as a guide for the punchiness of the rythm section.

[Pedaling Prince]

Hey, nice! Love the nice stereo spread you got on the backing vocals! How'd you do that? It almost sounds like each of the mono elements is double-tracked, one track on the left and one on the right. I also love what you did with that otherwise annoying synth sound at 2:21. I just applied guitar distortion to it and made it sound like another guitar but bouncing it back and forth across the stereo image was just as effective a treatment. That sounded cool!

My only quibbles here is I'd like to hear the kick drum a little thicker, maybe a little boost at 80 Hz, and the snare's a little snappy on the ears. I suggest bringing down the top mic down and leaving the bottom mic level where it is; I found, while working with these tracks, that the snare sounds better when the bottom mic is emphasized more.

[takka360]

To my ears that snare is spot on,and to much bottom on a kick can start to lose the clarity in the bottom end,maybe cut some top,lp etc.

[EKN]

Hey, nice! Love the nice stereo spread you got on the backing vocals! How'd you do that? It almost sounds like each of the mono elements is double-tracked, one track on the left and one on the right.

Hey John, thanks for the nice words and feedback.
Indeed, both BV tracks have been kind of double-tracked. I switched each mono track to stereo and added on each an instance of P&M Dimension 3D plugin (which is a kind of stereo chorus without the LFO modulation), which in essence acts the same as duplicating the mono track, panning tracks L and R, delaying and detuning one of them, but in a more convenient way.

I also love what you did with that otherwise annoying synth sound at 2:21. I just applied guitar distortion to it and made it sound like another guitar but bouncing it back and forth across the stereo image was just as effective a treatment. That sounded cool!

That particular synth sound was not the most annoying to me. The one I really didn't know how to deal with was the growling sound at 1:27, and that's where I first applied the stereo panning tremolo effect. But then, while listening to the one you mentioned, I thought it was a good candidate for that same effect.

My only quibbles here is I'd like to hear the kick drum a little thicker, maybe a little boost at 80 Hz, and the snare's a little snappy on the ears. I suggest bringing down the top mic down and leaving the bottom mic level where it is; I found, while working with these tracks, that the snare sounds better when the bottom mic is emphasized more.

Well, I'm a sucker for tight and punchy rythm section, so my processing was as follow :
- lower or eliminate all sources of resonances of the kick (in OH, room and snare rattles)
- EQ kick and bass so that they find their own space and avoid too much boominess
- parallel compress both kick and snare (top)
(I tried to send the bottom snare to the parallel comp bus, but it just created a long trail of resonances, so I left it alone)

As you suggested, I tried to boost the kick around 80Hz, but since it's where I alloted space for the bass, my subwoofer started to rumble dangerously But in the next version of my mix I will try EQing out some of the beater frequencies which may make the kick sound thinner than it is.

As for the snare, I tend to like them sounding warm without too much of the rattles' high frequencies, but I will try your suggestion by adding back some of the bottom mic while maybe EQing out the annoying kick resonance from it.

Thanks again for the constructive feedback. Will post a new version soon.
Erick

[takka360]

Get rid of the kick, its the main problem find a good sample.

[EKN]

Get rid of the kick, its the main problem find a good sample.

It's already a sample. I replaced the kick when I first listened to it and noticed that the stem had guitars mixed in at the end of the track.

[takka360]

Oh lol sorry

[EKN]

No problem