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Tears in the rain (Sano mix)
#1
My mix of tears in the rain


.m4a    Tears in the rain (Sano mix).m4a --  (Download: 6.76 MB)


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#2
Hey Sano, a quick few comments...

Personally I think the steel string acoustics are way too forward and dominant in this mix. They, along with the bass, are pretty much biting big chunks of spectral data from almost every track except the tambourine. The bass is masking the kick, so the kick could come up a bit, or some ninja sidechaining would work, too. It also sounds like the bass is hitting the limiter pretty hard.. my headphones are revealing a good bit of distortion. Some people like that sound, though, so don't let me discourage you if that was intentional. The acoustic guitars would probably let the lead guitars (nylon and electric) rise to the front of the mix if they were spread out and the lead instruments were panned more centrally... it sounds like you developed some really beautiful tone in the lead guitars, too, but there's a lot of "now you see it, now you don't" because the rhythm guitars are taking up so much space, especially right in the center.

I'd suggest a quick re-visit of the panning... bringing the lead guitars to the center and spreading the rhythm guitars out to the sides, and clearing some of the low middle warmth out of the rhythm guitars to allow more warmth in the leads and a more intimate presentation of the melody. That along with clearing up some space for the kick in the bottom end would really let your mixing skills (which I admire) to shine.

Having said all that, this is a really deceptively difficult song to mix... when I heard the preview I thought "PSSSSH, I got this!"... and I've revisited it about 6 times, but I just can't seem to get a mix that stands up to scrutiny. It either gets harsh when turned up, sounds boxy, or the compression eats it alive no matter how I try, so don't take my comments as criticisms. There's just so much to look out for in this one that remaining objective is almost impossible. Sparse instrumentation, typical small studio comb filtering artifacts (which are really hard to remedy on an acoustic instrument!), and a very beautiful yet puzzlingly inconsistent electric guitar sound.... every bit of processing is so hard to keep transparent. I must say, you've dealt with the weird tonality in the acoustic better than any mix I've heard so far, and there are really beautiful tones in the lead instrument, so you've done good work here in my opinion.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#3
Interesting mix...definitely grows on me the more i listen.... i think you've managed to blend the tone of all the different instruments together well. Have you added a synth to harmonise with nylon or is it an effect? very creative.

Have to agree with pauli...imo the AcuGtr is a bit dominant in parts....i think it works well in the context of your arrangement up until the Nylon comes in at 1.00 but sort of think the melody is being lost during that middle period....and from about 3.10 i think its works too...maybe a bit of automation every 4 or 8 bars would help keep it fresh



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#4
(09-07-2014, 10:06 PM)pauli Wrote: Hey Sano, a quick few comments...

Personally I think the steel string acoustics are way too forward and dominant in this mix. They, along with the bass, are pretty much biting big chunks of spectral data from almost every track except the tambourine. The bass is masking the kick, so the kick could come up a bit, or some ninja sidechaining would work, too. It also sounds like the bass is hitting the limiter pretty hard.. my headphones are revealing a good bit of distortion. Some people like that sound, though, so don't let me discourage you if that was intentional. The acoustic guitars would probably let the lead guitars (nylon and electric) rise to the front of the mix if they were spread out and the lead instruments were panned more centrally... it sounds like you developed some really beautiful tone in the lead guitars, too, but there's a lot of "now you see it, now you don't" because the rhythm guitars are taking up so much space, especially right in the center.

I'd suggest a quick re-visit of the panning... bringing the lead guitars to the center and spreading the rhythm guitars out to the sides, and clearing some of the low middle warmth out of the rhythm guitars to allow more warmth in the leads and a more intimate presentation of the melody. That along with clearing up some space for the kick in the bottom end would really let your mixing skills (which I admire) to shine.

Having said all that, this is a really deceptively difficult song to mix... when I heard the preview I thought "PSSSSH, I got this!"... and I've revisited it about 6 times, but I just can't seem to get a mix that stands up to scrutiny. It either gets harsh when turned up, sounds boxy, or the compression eats it alive no matter how I try, so don't take my comments as criticisms. There's just so much to look out for in this one that remaining objective is almost impossible. Sparse instrumentation, typical small studio comb filtering artifacts (which are really hard to remedy on an acoustic instrument!), and a very beautiful yet puzzlingly inconsistent electric guitar sound.... every bit of processing is so hard to keep transparent. I must say, you've dealt with the weird tonality in the acoustic better than any mix I've heard so far, and there are really beautiful tones in the lead instrument, so you've done good work here in my opinion.

Thanks pauli for your comments. I did originally have the acoustics panned hard LR but felt there was a hole in the centre of my mix which was not quite being filled by the rest of the instruments so I panned them halfway towards center. I also wanted to keep them fuller sounding as they dominate my mix so I guess this is whats causing them to walk over the rest of instruments. So I guess a better balance can be found.

I'm a little surprised you are hearing distortion as I went easy with the limiter on this one to suit the style of music, but it's something I gonna look at.
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#5
(10-07-2014, 01:33 AM)HbGuitar Wrote: Interesting mix...definitely grows on me the more i listen.... i think you've managed to blend the tone of all the different instruments together well. Have you added a synth to harmonise with nylon or is it an effect? very creative.

Have to agree with pauli...imo the AcuGtr is a bit dominant in parts....i think it works well in the context of your arrangement up until the Nylon comes in at 1.00 but sort of think the melody is being lost during that middle period....and from about 3.10 i think its works too...maybe a bit of automation every 4 or 8 bars would help keep it fresh

Hey, Thanks for the suggestions The nylon guitar was near enough the same trick I used on my we'll talk about it all tonight mix, pitching up, adding reverb and adding it back to the original. Dave Pensado does it in one of his into the lair's.
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#6
if it's any help, I felt that the rhythm guitars were eating up a ton of room in the low mids before mixing... like a proximity boost, maybe, and continued to be too strong all the way up into 1000 Hz and further.

It's tempting to mix those guitars first because they occupy more time in the mix than anything else, but the more I think about it, the more I think they ought to be mixed in LAST, because everything else has important data spanning almost the entire frequency spectrum.

This might just be my opinion, but panning acoustic guitars hard left and right probably isn't a good idea... they'd probably disappear completely outside the sweet spot and it'd be really uncomfortable listening on headphones. Anything with really sharp transients on the sides is a little too distracting for me...
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#7
I started to address some of the issues with my mix and one thing lead to another and I decided to start from scratch again.


.m4a    Tears 2 (Sano mix).m4a --  (Download: 6.79 MB)


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#8
Hey Sano. The bass sounds great, but is it maybe masking the kick? The pad you added is nice but could use a slight roll off in trebs.

I like a lot of your ideas here quite a bit, but it still feels a bit congested/muddy to me, and the leads still feel a bit overpowered by the rhythm section. I wonder if maybe you're mixing them in too early? Or maybe it's a personal taste thing for me, as I know some people prefer a lot more low mid content than I do.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
Reply