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Easy Tiger
#11
Here's another go at it, addressing a few issues, possibly creating a few more in the process.

Just to give you an idea what I changed, I applied stricter dynamic control to the vocals to bring them further forward and make them a bit more intelligible. That might have hurt the timbric consistency a bit, but I tried for a compromise. Probably could do more de-essing, but the sibilants seem a little crucial to understanding the lyrics.

Also, I tried to re-balance the sub region to favor the kick... lowered the sub bass synth in level and highpassed the main bass synth at 50. Also took some more of the bass out of the sides to allow a better mono presentation and hopefully better translation to other systems. I'm wondering if I pushed it too far with the bass this time, though?

And took the opportunity to make it a little hotter in mastering.

Do you guys feel like this is an improvement?


.mp3    Easy Tiger Master 2.mp3 --  (Download: 9.8 MB)


I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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#12
Sounds cool I like deep bass could be a little too deep ,maybe a touch more upper mids on the vocals or even the entire mix but this is a personal taste thing on my monitors Big Grin !

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#13
oh, this bass Big Grin You have the space here, so why not?

i understand your dilemma with the vocals and the clarity thing. would a shelf somewhere around the 3kHz work to help give them more presence overall...accepting the fact that it will make the sibilance thing even more of a challenge? while the sibilance is an issue, it's highly variable and volatile and sometimes it's ok, other times it hurts. if it's a group with stacked vocals, perhaps you could try hitting the sibilance harder on each one so the overall contribution is somewhat tamed - if you go for a plug, it might need automation on the bypass to clear it during the solos? dunno without being familiar with the tracking, so i'm a bit useless here really Sad

my approach might be a radical one....hit the vocal during the verse with a high-pass quite high up and also see how it sounds with different types of distortion. if something sucks quality wise, sometimes it helps to disguise it in some way rather than draw attention to it. so, rather than have the vision of getting all the vocals as clear and balanced tonally as possible, you let your hair down now and again in the mix and do something "interesting". just an idea Wink

of the 2 mixes, i'd go for v2 because you've got better clarity here.
Beware...........Cognitive Dissonance!
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#14
Listening last version.
Only thing comes to my annoyance is till:56 some of the vocals stick out a bit.
Also a couple o places later vocal lvl drop a bit.
Very clear and punchy version. I like
Great kick !
Old ears, old gear, little boy inside love music and sounds and my wife, not necessarily in that order
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#15
Thanks for feedback guys! You are fine gentlemen, but you know this.

Dave, I think you're right about the shelf.... but I think I'd probably place that after the de-esser in the chain? Usually I like the de-esser very last, but this is a tricky case. Automation is going to be necessary to really clear it up... I had a similar issue on my recent mix of Celebrate, and it's a female vocal with a beautiful breathiness. Couldn't get the sibilants right without sacrificing everything I loved about her performance.

Funny thing is, a couple of the vocals already have a little distortion similar to what you've described. It's tube distortion at the mo because that usually helps a vocal cut, but I'm wondering if something smoother like saturation might iron the sibilants out a little more evenly/less distractingly? Even a little white noise layered beneath and properly EQ'd might help.

Niells, thanks for kind words. It's really a trick to keep the vocal levels consistent! There are so many tracks of them. I need to be a bit more aggressive with automation.. I don't use much at all with the exception of multing and sometimes ducking background stuff in the verses.

Thanks again guys... I'd encourage you to give this one a try if for nothing else that the lyrics made me blush and laugh. "Have a little chat about the way I'm hung" makes me giggle every time, even though I know it's coming.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
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