Milk Cow Blues

[kjell159]

Hey, I mixed and mastered Milk Cow Blues but I like the mix somehow more than the master because it has a lot more dynamics and actually sounds more 'like a whole' than the master.
Maybe I compressed it somewhere to hard or just totally wrong, maybe I limited it wrong...
If anybody can tell me I would greatly apreciate it!

MIX:
I panned the piano 30 to the left and the fiddle 30 to the right.
I put only one automation just to get rid of one pretty hard tom part.
I E.Q.'d and compressed all the tracks.
On most I used some reverb.
I also used a delay on the vocal track to make it sound like a 'backing vocal' coming at you from the right.
And I used a de-esser on the vocal track, I don't know if it really was that necessary although.

MASTER:
I used a lot of E.Q. actually,
I boosted a lot, most of the time not really noticeable but to my ears it sounded good.
Some bad frequencies I dropped down.
And a high and low shelf to get rid of unnecessary sub-bass and high frequencies above +-16kHz.
I used a tape saturator to make it a little tougher and louder. (below 1dB)
A normal (one band) compressor to make the mix more like 'one' and also a three band-compressor.
Also I used (sorry for all the 'I' and 'used' ) a stereo expander to get the more midrangy stuff out of the middle (like the vocal, if that was a bad idea, please tell me!).
Finally I used a limiter, here I have to notice something: the kind of limiter I normally would use made my mix only sound worse (normally it would take the clipping and stuff away) so I used the 'Classic Master Limiter' by Kjaerhus which has only a treshold option to tweak.

[takka360]

The whole mix sounds very distant to me and to be honest i think you have gone far over with comp and eq etc.
If you done a quick mix and used no comp or eq at all i think you would be suprised at how good it sounded.
As this track is so well recorded i feel it only needs slight comp here and there a bits of eq i think its that
if it aint broken dont try to fix it .

[kjell159]

Hey,
I did some retweaks.
I only changed the master and didn't go back to the mixing stage because I found my mix good to my ears.
I lowered down some maybe too high boosted frequencies.
The stereo field was maybe too bright and big (I like it somehow, to have a 'wide' mix or master.).
I removed the multi(three)band-compressor because this song just doesn't need this kind of compression.
I do kept the (one band) compressor to keep the mix like one 'whole' but I lowered down the ratio so actually the 'power' of the compressor.
By lowering the compressor and removing the multi-band I got the oppurtunity to make it a little tougher without losing the dynamics and without actually distorting it.
I also could raise the fader of my mix-buss.
So by just removing one compressor and retweaking another I got a lot more clarity and dynamics (I could see it on my VU-meters, there where a lot more changes whilst with my first master they stayed like on the same level.)
Thanks for helping me out a bit,
I thought it was the compressor but I wasn't sure, now I am.

[takka360]

The mix is like listening to the song in another room or sort of outside of a bar.you have it so wide it just has no bottom and is lifeless.
It really needs bringing forward,dont mean to be rude about your mix but maybe you should listen to Angelas version,as this style of music needs to sound right.Have another go from scratch its all good practice.

[kjell159]

I will redo it hopefully one of the next days.
Thanks again for taking your time to listen.

[kjell159]

[I've merged this with your previous thread to keep all the related feedback in one place and so that people can follow the progression, which is the usual convention here. Mike S.]

This is my final attempt.
MIXING
I (re)mixed everything from scratch (so from raw multi-tracks).
I still E.Q.-ed everything but I didn't compress everything.
I used a buss compression (I only used the Classic Compressor in this mix by the way.) for the drums (so the first 4 tracks) because in my first mix and first two masters the drums sounded not thight and together (it's like the kick is on 100BPM while the cymbals are on 214BPM or something ).
I also used a compressor on the bass to make it a lot tighter, I love bass
and 'tough' basses.
On acoustic guitar to make it a little louder in the mix without having to distort it or something.
And also one on the vocals to make it stand out a little more,
the vocalist is in my opinion a woman that knows what she is doing and not someone insecure or something.
Reverb only on the dobro because I like the resonance going through a hall or something like that.
Probably this was a big mistake in my first mix,
I am starting to get a little bit handier in reverb (step by step). (I also love the Classic Reverb, it's a little easier to use in my opinion than the Ambience one I used more prominently before.)
Again a delay (guess, guess, ... Classic Delay), I wanted to keep the 'background vocal' coming at you from the right.
And finally a chorus effect (Classic Chorus!) because the electric guitar really fits with that.
When I got the idea of using an 'effect' (no E.Q., compression, ect.) on the electric guitar I was like: 'Yeah, that would sound awesome.'

MASTERING
For mastering I tried to not overdo stuff.
I used a low and high pass, cut some and boosted some. (like around 120Hz, I love that lower 'bassy' region, it's usually the place where earphone speakers start to jump in, so the bass gets a lot clearer (for my ears ) on 'smaller' sytems.
No multi-band, only a 'single-band' compressor to make the mix a little thighter and make it sit together a little more.
A saturator (around 0,7 dB), I got used to using it.
A stereo-expander, I tried to hold myself and not overdo it, referenced on both my monitors and headphones to be a little more sure.
Of course a limiter on the end. (I don't know if I am doing it right although, but it doesn't clip after I E.Q.-ed and saturated it and stuff so that's good.)

[kjell159]

I forgot to mention,
I panned the kick 17 to the left and the snare drum 17 to the right.
The acoustic guitar 69 to the left, the fiddle 36 to the right and the piano 36 to the left.