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Stef Dam Mix
#1
Hey guys,
I've seen quite a few mixes of this one already, but I'm kinda new to this forum and I liked the song. I mixed it quickly this morning, due strict times. Hope you guys can give me advice on what I can do better. Thanks in advance for listening!


.mp3    mix.mp3 --  (Download: 7.03 MB)


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#2
Hm, StefDam,

my first impression is: the banjo gets decent prominence, but the fiddle gets a bit sidelined. Then again I listened to the soundcloud stream of your mix (and the subsequent noise) through cheap PC speakers. The way my PC is set up, I'd prefer an MP3 upload to this site (i.e. an MP3 attachment to your post), for me to download, fit into a song-specific DAW project and then listen to through decent monitors, with decent tools at hand and in context of all the other mixes.

But either way, welcome to this site, and thanks for sharing your mix :-)

Marc
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#3
Thanks for replying, I updated it now with a mp3 file. But what do you mean about the fiddle? Is it too soft?
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#4
Thanks, StefDam,

give me a couple of days to give your mix another, more in-depth listen and create another, more in-depth comment Smile With respect to my remark about the fiddle, I think the fiddle it is one of the most interesting spices in this song, at least potentially, and in your mix it is indeed too soft for my taste -- not necessarily so much in terms of level, but in terms of texture. Think eq, think delay and reverb, think saturation and distortion, think doubling, think exciting, or, if you are me, all of the above Big Grin

Regards

Marc
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#5
Finally -- someone who's taken active steps to even out the bass line. I wonder, though, whether you've homogenised the bass sound's level envelope a bit much in the process. It's almost a bit synthy as a result. I'm guessing that you've therefore tried to address it mostly with compression rather than EQ. Try a little notch at 73Hz pre-compressor and see if that allows you to hit the compressor a little less stiffly.

The kick is nice an meaty, possibly actually a bit too much so -- it's coming across a bit too hard-edged now for my taste, especially as the rest of the kit is much more recessed. You're effectively undermining the impression of the kit as a natural instrument by presenting such a skewed balance of it.

The vocals are nice and prominent, which is great, but I reckon you've set its level by the kick and bass, rather than the backing track, and so it's not framed particularly warmly by the mid-range instruments. There's a real argument here for having a listen to your balance without the bass and drums in order to get a handle on the vocal level. I think it'll become more obvious then that the vocal is too loud in that context (and, by extension, the bass and kick).
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#6
(08-02-2013, 04:56 PM)StefDam Wrote: Hey guys,
I've seen quite a few mixes of this one already, but I'm kinda new to this forum and I liked the song. I mixed it quickly this morning, due strict times. Hope you guys can give me advice on what I can do better. Thanks in advance for listening!

This is a quick mix? That explains it. It sounds like the unfinished stage of an excellent mix in progress. Wink

For one thing, it sounds like this is a preliminary mix for balance without a final stereo image in mind; everything feels collapsed towards the center. Here's some tips on how you might fix that:

First, listen to the drum overheads, try to determine where each drum is in the stereo image, then pan the positions of each of the close mics as close as you can get them to those positions; that should give you a good stereo balance on the drums.

Now look at the individual instrument tracks and imagine in your mind's eye a stage where each of those tracks represents a performer; make sure your performers are spread comfortably on your mental "stage." Wink Now, adjust the pan on each track until each instrument is in the place where you picture that performer in your mind.

Vocals, of course, will be dead center. I must say the vocals sounded beautiful already so you really don't need to do much with them, anyway, other than balancing them in the revised mix. Wink I'd bring the backing vocals up a little against the lead, though (common problem with mixes of this song).

Loved the nice full bass sound you got here and the overall balance is decent, though I'd bring up most of the instruments a few dB and that dobro is WAY too far forward; it needs to come down a good 5-6 dB.

Good art (and, make no mistake, for all the technobabble we use, us mix engineers ARE artists Big Grin) takes time. If possible, try not to mix under such intensive time pressure; give yourself the time to do it right the first time (as Mike Holmes would say). Wink
John A. Ardelli
Pedaling Prince Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/user/PedalingPrince
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