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A Place for Us mix - now with more cowbell
#1
First time posting here. Had a lot of fun mixing this song. There were lots of tracks which taxed my 48 track limit pro tools, so I had to get creative with comping. Maybe it's time to upgrade, lol.

...also jokes, I didn't add cowbell.

Edit:

As per usual, after giving my ears a night's rest, I make a few tweaks the next morning. Here's my notes:

-synth up +1.5db when first comes in during chorus (only ended up boosting +1.2db)
-fade out early the tails of the two awkward wo-ohs during breakdown before cymbal swell
-fix tune issue ~1:16 on the word "skin" between the vocal double, harmony, and electric guitar
-bring threshold slightly down on de-essers
-edit out some fricatives, sibilance, clicks and pops on vocal track





.mp3    Carlos Gonzales - A Place for Us v0.6 MASTER MIX MP3.mp3 --  (Download: 5.25 MB)


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#2
Welcome to Mixing Secrets Multitracks! Smile

OK. On the plus side I really enjoyed the nice powerful punch you got out of the drums here.

Problem is, though, that's really the only thing I really liked. Sad To be honest, while the overall balance actually sounds fairly decent, everything seems all squashed to the middle, particularly the vocals. Sounds like you centered them all. Those need to be spread across the stereo image; all on top of each other they sound like an old transistor radio to me. The piano has no sense of definition, and the strings during the quiet interlude 2/3rds in need to be much higher; without them when the backing vocals kick in they're a little startling with the big jump in level. Also sounds to me like you hammered the compression on this; that totally squashed the life out of the vocals for me.

I know that's a lot of criticism, so please understand I'm not trying to discourage you. Far from it; your overall balance, the fact that you got the vocals to shine out of all those tracks the way you did working with the limitations you mentioned (my system has trouble with anything over 48 tracks, too Blush) suggests to me that you have a talent for balance, and that's the most important skill for any mixer. I think the main thing you need to do here is spread things out more as far as stereo image goes, particularly the vocals (check out my mix for an example of what I mean), and bring out those high frequencies a lot more.

We're all here to help each other so I hope my suggestions will help you, and I welcome any suggestions you have on my work that might help me as well. Wink

Again, welcome to the forum!
John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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#3
I think you have managed to successfully create a dense, sonic landscape here - plus the vocals, although dirty sounding (which I'm sure is intentional), sit pretty clearly in the mix.

Love the sound of the drums that you get, especially when they first kick in. Not mad keen on the whoa wo's in the interlude...sounds unnatural, which again I'm sure is intentional, but IMO I think they detract from the overall mix.

On a more general point, you can probably go easy on the master volume - probably 6db too loud.

Nice Job
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#4
Hello !
I very much liked sounding of drums. I tried to make a mix of this magnificent song, and too I think that it is necessary to add distortions in a vocal))).
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