Enjoyed the arrangement and the instrumentation with "Kaathaadi" and found it a challenged to mix, I hope you give it a listen. Reading Mike's mix rescue prior to mixing this one really helped, thanks Mike.
I feel that mixing different styles of music is important to me. Tell me what you think or feel about this mix, any feedback is welcome. Cheers!
First things first -- your mix has alerted me to the fact that the additional viola overdubs in the raw multitrack files aren't properly in sync with the rest of the tracks. I've just zipped and uploaded a revised version of the multitrack to correct this. Glad that you found the Mix Rescue write-up handy too! Anyway, with that out of the way...
Overall there's some nice ambient effects going on here, which helps give the whole thing quite a cinematic feel, and I like the way you've given the synth tracks a bit more focus than I did in the Mix Rescue -- I do like a lot of the sounds that Sambasevam chose, so it's nice to hear them more clearly here!
My biggest concern from a mix perspective is that the balance feels like it lacks both 'control' and 'glue'. In the first instance, the overall tonality seems quite unstable, with rather a lot of low end and low midrange at some points, and apparently not enough at others. In terms of overall balance, it sounds as if you've not quite made up your mind what's actually musically important at any given moment in the time-line. I found it rather disconcerting, too, that the female backing vocals were so close, whereas the male lead was rather distant, and in general the effects use, interesting as it is, seems nonetheless a bit haphazard.
To be fair, however, it has to be said that this really isn't the easiest of multitracks to handle, because of its combination of sonic trouble-shooting, arrangement, and long-term dynamics issues. Fundamentally, I don't personally think it's possible to create a successful mix of it without taking quite an assertive attitude to the material as far as editing and/or adding things is concerned. At the moment, it feels to me that you've perhaps taken the raw tracks a little too much at face value, whereas I think you could make the music's overall structure (and indeed the subsequent mix process) seem more coherent and logical if you treated the raw material with less 'respect' and played as much the part of producer as mix engineer.
Mike,
I agree with your assessment, which begs the question; At what point do we as mix engineers start making that leap.
Some Mix Engineers are very heavy-hamded with their choices, while others are very "true" to the material. And while I often second guess what's on the track, I try top respect that artist's vision as much as I can.
I'd like to get your thoughts on how you make that call.
(10-05-2012, 01:49 PM)Godawg1023 Wrote: I try to respect that artist's vision as much as I can.
That really hits the nail on the head, really, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were aware of what they needed to provide so that I could deliver them a final product that matched their inner vision. Of course it's a judgement call, and I don't by any means always get it right first time. My approach is always to be upfront about the fact that I might have taken some liberties with the submitted tracks, but that I'm not the artist and so I'll defer to the artist completely if they think my changes/additions are rubbish! In my experience, though, most clients/artists are more than willing to hear some new ideas if I have them, especially if they help solve arrangement problems that they themselves struggled with.
Vinnie,
I don't mean to hijack your thread. You did a nice job on a difficult to mix project. I'm not confident enough yet to try something this tough, so kudos! I look foward to hearing how we help one another improve.
(10-05-2012, 08:37 PM)Godawg1023 Wrote: Vinnie,
I don't mean to hijack your thread. You did a nice job on a difficult to mix project. I'm not confident enough yet to try something this tough, so kudos! I look foward to hearing how we help one another improve.
Hi Godawg,
No problem you can jump in on my threads when ever you want, I value your opinion and have been listening to your uploads on your post and your work is awesome. . Thanks for the Kudos i will fix this one up, learn from it then move on. Wearing an Engineers hat or Producers hat may sometimes be the only answer as a lot artist/singer/songwriters do everything themselves nowadays and something has to give. I try to do my best with the raw tracks they give me. I would only think and hope that the artist would be open to suggestion from the mix engineer of adding/removing parts if it would enhance the mix. One thing I would do first is get the artist permission, I wouldn't want to do a lot of unnecessary work if all for nothing.
Thank you again for your accurate assessment. I remixed this song and tried to address the tonality and low end issues as well as balancing out some parts, also used the new viola parts. Still having difficulty getting the reverbs right but I did some tweaking there as well. All in all I must say this one was hard work, but I am a lot more happy with it now and it's taught me allot. I would definitely approach a song this differently the next time, had to undue allot of mistakes, but it was all worth it.
Not bad for a first attempt but there's a few problems that i picked up on. In the intro the strings/pads lacked that warm emotional feeling...it's the intro so the listner should be engaged from that point onwards. The drums need to cut through a bit more to lend that support to the bass. (Just my 2 cents)
In my experience, though, most clients/artists are more than willing to hear some new ideas if I have them, especially if they help solve arrangement problems that they themselves struggled with.
if all for nothing.