Let's see what you do with this original rock song, 10 tracks

Johngalt1977

New member
Hey everyone. I've been enjoying mixing the things you all had up and thought I'd throw something out there. Open to any slicing/dicing/arrangement/effects/etc that you are feeling. I've included where I landed on the mix as well, because it seems to be standard practice. I'd be interested in any commentary you feel would help me to learn.

Thanks!

Zip file :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8uU8sOmGDoIXzhQT0NZMmxrRG8/view?usp=sharing

My mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8uU8sOmGDoIeWF5bDhiWkxTWnM/view?usp=sharing
 
Laughter? I think not. I heard the first one you put up as well. I appreciate the effort. Drums are a little to crisp for my taste, but I love what you did with the guitar and the synth in this version.

The last one was too delay-ey on the vox... and this one doesn't have that effect as much. It's a nice mix. I just wish that the mando had been recorded better to get a little more taste of that in there, but I understand that limitation. Thank you!
 
Sounds like there is a rhythm guitar part that is bleeding into the first few measures of the mandolin track, but there's no rhythm guitar track in the package... am I missing something? Would be nice to play with that if there was a rhythm guitar track available.
 
Here's my first attempt...

This is my first submission in mix-this. I've not listened to any of the other mixes of this song to avoid coloring my path. I don't think I'm done with it yet, but here's a stab.

View attachment VacancySign-JohanTuxMix.mp3


Edit: After listening to the other tracks, it seems that I emphasized the mandolin more than most.

And thought I'd describe what I mixed - keep in mind that I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this (but trying to improve):
Mixed in Reaper 4 on a 2006 Mac Pro - I don't have studio monitors so I used a pair of Logitech speakers tuned as neutral as I can get em.

Bass:
Panned Center, mixed at -7dB
Cockos ReaEQ 100Hz +5dB, 300Hz -.8dB, 1kHz -5dB, 5.7kHz -6.5dB
Cockos ReaXcomp, compressed the low end up to 100 Hz
Routed to an FX track and used it to mix in a mild flange effect increasing throughout the track to about 50% wet at the end.

Drums:
Put all the drums in a parent folder mixed at -7.3dB
All Panned Center except OH's which I panned hard left and right.
Kick: (-8dB)
bass boost and a lowpass rolling off everything over 120Hz
Toms: (Low tom -4dB, mid tom -2db)
kept dry
Snare: (-3dB)
Apple AUDynamics processor to gate out @ < -10db. to remove some of the bleedover from the kick
Compressed it hard
Ran through a highpass filter rolling off below 380Hz
Stereo Widening
RealEQ to boost at 400Hz, deep cut at 1kHz, mild boost over 6Khz
Overheads: (both mixed at 0dB)
long tail reverb with a 50% wet mix.

Lead Guitar:
Generally mixed at -4.5dB but boosted up to +1dB during some periods.
quarter note delay, usually buried in the mix, but at 50% wet at times (namely beginning and end)

Synth:
Generally mixed at -3 dB but boosted in places like the lead guitar. Dry as tracked.

Vocal:
split into 2 tracks, panned soft L&R
Vocal 2 delayed 10ms for a slight widening effect
Vocal 1 Compression only and mixed at -.5db
Vocal 2 Compressed and reverb with a medium tail

Mandolin
split into 3 tracks.
Tracks 1 and 2 panned hard L&R
Track 3 panned soft Right and only heard during the first 4 measures
Track 1: highpass to roll off everything under 800Hz
Track 2: High Shelf filter to roll off at around 15kHz
Track 3: EQ to cut everything under 1kHz and boost everything over that mixed at +5db

This was to give a bit of lo-fi rhythm guitar effect to the intro

Mixed it down to a stereo 24bit 44.1kHz stereo track for "mastering" - as much as someone with NO training can master his own mix.
Mastered on a Windows 7 laptop with Reaper. I switched to Windows because I couldn't find a tape saturation simulator for free for a Mac.
Compressed, and tape saturation for the master.

Comments and critiques are very welcome.
 
Last edited:
Hi, thanks for uploading. I had a quick play with this earlier on. I didn't do much in the way of automation effects etc... Mainly just got the drums beating a little harder. I felt the mandolin was the driving force in the song so made that quite obvious.. I think?! Anyway have a listen and see what you think... Soundcloud though I'm afraid! https://soundcloud.com/ltfprivate/vacancy-sign
 
My modern mix (with an 80's flare)

Thought I would give your song a quick mix. I gave myself 45 min and then I was done. Please let me know what you think. This is a very different style compared to what I'm used to, but I tend to approach things with a more modern sound (but with a little bit of 80's flare on this track). Hopefully you will like it. I just started a website to do just this, so if you have other tracks you might want mixed or mastered let me know - I would love to help!

Looking forward to your comments.

Bobby
Raytown Productions
www.raytownproductions.com
 

Attachments

  • Raytown Productions Mix Master - Vacancy Sign 01 VBR.mp3
    7.2 MB · Views: 55
Hey!

This is a great song, so I wanted to give it a go too. I don't know if the OP is still around, but I hope you'll give it a listen.

Added a guitar solo to the song, hope you don't mind, nothing fancy, was just having some fun :)

Vacancy Sign :)
 
I'm way late to this. But I wanted to give it a shot. I tried to keep it fairly natural.

This was a great track to practice on because it had a lot of problems ... I mean no offence by that. Home recording can be really challenging, and in this one everything was bleeding into everything else. It was crazy! I had to watch how much gating I did because some of the atmosphere would get totally lost.

I did use reverb ... I think it worked? I tried to keep it roomy and not too bright. I may have the drums too loud still, not sure. My ears are shot tonight.

This was a quick mix. But I hope you like it!
 

Attachments

  • Vacancy Sign www.levityproject.com mix v2.mp3
    6.2 MB · Views: 27
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