My Siren-mix (with retriggered drums and 37(!) plugins)

[sgtpetter]

After discovering Pensado's Place AND this great site, I wanted to try some new ways of mixing.

If you enjoy it, let me know.
If you don't, tell me so I can improve :-)

So I had a great time and learned a lot while mixing in Pro Tools 11 with these (mostly demo-) plugins:
UAD EMT 140
UAD EMT 240
UAD Maag Eq4
UAD UA 1176 Rev A (Blue stripe)
UAD RealVerb
UAD Ocean Way Studios
UAD Fairchild 670 Legacy
Fxpansion D CAM Free comp
Air Multi Delay
Air Distortion
Air Spring Reverb
Air Chorus
Air Phaser
Air Mod Delay 3
Air Maxim
Mathew Lane DrMS v4
Slate Digital Trigger 2
Brainworx Stereomaker
Waves Mondo Mod
Waves Renaissance DeEsser
Waves Renaissance Channel
Waves Renaissance Axx
Waves Renaissance Bass
Waves Renaissance Compressor (extensively)
Waves Renaissance Eq
Waves V-comp
Waves Vitamin
Waves Limiter
Waves C1 gate
Waves C6 w/Sidechain
Waves H-Delay
Waves Manny Marroquin Reverb

I mastered using these Plugins:
UAD Fairchild 670 (New version)
UAD Neve 1073
UAD Manley Massive Passive Mastering edition
UAD Maag Eq4
Waves L3 Multimaximizer

[Bereket]

Lovely Mix, if you have a time try to bring those guitar and play with them. they will give your mix another level vibe. and the chorus vocal effect try to put it in a minimal way not to dominate in the middle after all it is not a lead just an effect dub. give it a space so that it can compliment the unprocessed vocal.
Lovely mix. Keep up the good work Pal.

[sgtpetter]

Thank you for listening and commenting, Bereket!

[takka360]

Hi nice sounding mix, think the bass is a bit too dominant .
Nice vox fx but I agree with above a bit over used maybe.
Balance sounds pretty good so overall great work.

[sgtpetter]

Thanks for great input, takka360!

[mixingonamission]

its a nice mix, really like the box delay+reverb and the level you have it at in the chorus cause it it's not really a solo 'upfront' type delivery. As Takka pointed out the bass is a touch too overbearing and the vox is maybe a little 'sssy'.

It's a long track so have a look at creating some movement in the parts (guitars are a good start point) to create a bit of variation in the stereo image and also some different eq/level settings for the same mid range instruments in the sections to create a more dynamic mix

[thedon]

Hi Sgt Petter
I really like you mix ,it has inspired to do a remix !
As the others have mentioned the bottom end sounds boosted around 50hz and just needs to be reduced

[sgtpetter]

Hi Sgt Petter
I really like you mix ,it has inspired to do a remix !
As the others have mentioned the bottom end sounds boosted around 50hz and just needs to be reduced

Wow, that's really awsome to hear, thedon! Please let me know when you post your new mix :-) And thanks for telling me your honest opinion about that bass :-)

I'm not sure I'll be able to reduce that bass, since many of the plugs were trials and have expired, but the synonymous "lower that bass"-feedback has made me curious. So I wanted to see how my the spectrum of my mix compared to well known songs.

So I did a spectrum analysis with Har-Bal 3 (known to many SOS readers), showing the average (green) and peak (yellow) power plot.

Since Dave Pensado has got me really inspired the last weeks, I analysed both Trick Daddys "I'm a Thug", Ne-Yos "Miss independent", and The Roots "Sacrifice", all being used as reference by Mr. Pensado when he's mixing (not neccessarily in the same style as "Siren" or for that matter used by Pensado for perfect bass level reasons, but anyway ... http://www.pensadosplace.tv/2014/01/02/a...e-lair-93/)

I also analysed Daft Punks immaculate "Get Lucky" and Robyns "Dancing on my own" just because I like the songs.

I don't want to start a discussion about whether this or that bass-level is "right" for "Siren" - that's of course a matter of taste. I just thought it would be interesting for us all to see the spectrum-plots for all these famous mixes. And if you have a mix you want me to analyze with Har-Bal, let me know :-)

Anyway, here 's what I found:

[sgtpetter]

Here is the last attachment (the forum had a limit of five, it seems)

[JaDiuS]

Impressive! The frequency spectrum representation here is really well done. Thanks for the inspiration!!