Black Mirrors - alternative

[andrushkiwt]

Second mix with monitors, think I'm getting more used to them. I listened to the SC link and I think I hear a little cymbal wash that isn't really in the original .wav. Oh well. I'd appreciate any thoughts on the mix.





Everywhere you look,
every heart you feel,
the flowers you dispose,
tell you what is real.

When she follows the winding road,
I'll trace her steps to find our field
of black mirrors and things we know,
then our hearts can begin to heal,
we'll have it all.

This place is desperately
trapping all we have -
the space that's in between
our tired, breaking hands...

Alone you save the night,
it seemed so long ago.
Now, everything's all right..
I thought it all worked out,
I never wanted it this way.

Your picture's on the door,
I thought it all worked out,
I never wanted it this way.

 

[TripleM]

The guitars sound very nice. Nice parts and nice tone.

The string pads don't sound bad.

I thought the vocal was a bit thin sounding and very dry. In spots it's a bit behind the guitars.

Love the bass sound. Maybe nudge it down just a db or so.

Drums sound pretty good. A bit too much reverb on the snare for me. The drums kind of fade to the back of the mix in the chorus. Cymbal swish was practically non-existent. Just a crash or two.

 

[andrushkiwt]

Cymbal swish was practically non-existent. Just a crash or two.

Really? Cool! I did hear it in my car while playing the SC version though. Just a touch. Yes, I def did increase the verb on the drums. I also added an ambient mic to the drum kit, which I normally mute in my songs.

I wanted to match the verbs for drums and vox, but it sounds like I missed the mark on the vocals for ya. They have a ton of reverb send though... like -2 to the channel, which is 100% wet and a -8 verb level. Plus a delay. Hmm...that's something I'll examine on my next track. Thanks man

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Listening at work, so can't hear things as clearly as they should be.

The pads might be a bit much in the beginning. It's very CCM sounding.

I'm hearing some harshness in the sibilants, but I think that's my phones.

Otherwise, it seems as solid a mix as ever.

 

[TripleM]

I'll give the cymbals a critical re-listen tonight if I get the chance. But I think the SC swishiness is definitely reduced in this mix.

 

[andrushkiwt]

I'll give the cymbals a critical re-listen tonight if I get the chance. But I think the SC swishiness is definitely reduced in this mix.

Maybe. I mean, the monitors are definitely better for the high end as opposed to head phones. So maybe I adjusted enough. But weird cause this is the one song I put a high shelf boost on... 1.25db at 4khz. I did make some cuts within that boost though, around 12khz for cymbals at 1db. So maybe that helped.

 

[andrushkiwt]

Listening at work, so can't hear things as clearly as they should be.

The pads might be a bit much in the beginning. It's very CCM sounding.

I'm hearing some harshness in the sibilants, but I think that's my phones.

Otherwise, it seems as solid a mix as ever.

No, I think that sibilance is there. I had a tough time with the esses on this one for some reason. Two of the vocal channels were "verse vox" and "chorus vox" (aside from their respective doubles and other vocal tracks). And they both fed into a vocal bus that had a de-esser. Since the verse vocals were so much quieter than the chorus vocals, the de-ess on the bus wasn't catching the verses' esses, so had to put a de-esser on the verse vocal channels. That didn't work enough, so then I went in and did manual adjustments for every "ess" and even some "eff's". But the degree of density between each ess was so varied, in that some needed a -8db cut while others only a -2db cut, that I got lazy due to the damn repetitiveness of manually adjusting those things. It takes forever.

Hence the reason I'm looking into a new mic. Although my room and mic technique are equally important, if not more so probably. Thanks Steve, glad it sounded solid. I spent extra time on this one.

 

[Nola]

Clean guitars sound good. I'd say that's your best clean amp sim yet. When the kick comes in the mix muddies up, so I'd take another look at the mud region on kick. Volume/presence of the kick sounds too much, too -- almost sounds in front of the vocal at times. I'd notch about 3db out of the sibilant/nasal frequencies on the vox. These are all pretty small fixes, and rest sounds good to go.

 

[easlern]

Good song Taras! I think the vocal might be a bit loud in the intro. The bass seems a bit wooly in the 200-400hz area. I like that snap on the kick.

 

[andrushkiwt]

Clean guitars sound good. I'd say that's your best clean amp sim yet. When the kick comes in the mix muddies up, so I'd take another look at the mud region on kick. Volume/presence of the kick sounds too much, too -- almost sounds in front of the vocal at times. I'd notch about 3db out of the sibilant/nasal frequencies on the vox. These are all pretty small fixes, and rest sounds good to go.

Cool thanks. I used cabinets called "Pulse", by Rosen Digital with Amplitube Marshall amps. Basically, I muted the amplitube cabs and used an IR cab. I've done that on random guitars on the last few songs. Sometimes they sound better than Amplitube and sometimes its not the sound I have in mind. Glad you liked it.

 

[andrushkiwt]

Good song Taras! I think the vocal might be a bit loud in the intro. The bass seems a bit wooly in the 200-400hz area. I like that snap on the kick.

Honest to God, there's like nothing in the 300hz area of the bass. It's almost completely empty there on the EQ. I have a biiiiig scoop from 180hz-400hz. I think the muddy stuff is lower, like 150hz or so, if we're hearing the same thing. But yeah the eq after the first eq shows like nothing there at all based on the previous cut.

 

[Nola]

Nice. Yeah, Rosen makes the best impulses I've ever come across. I have a bunch of those and when I use IR they are the go-to.
Check out LePou Guitar plugins. I like them better than Amplitube, and they're free.

Honest to God, there's like nothing in the 300hz area of the bass. It's almost completely empty there on the EQ. I have a biiiiig scoop from 180hz-400hz. I think the muddy stuff is lower, like 150hz or so, if we're hearing the same thing. But yeah the eq after the first eq shows like nothing there at all based on the previous cut.

It sounded like the muddy stuff was in the 300hz range on the kick not the bass. Bass sounded scooped out to me!

 

[TaylorDuke]

Taras- just sent you the PM saying I was going to check out your soundcloud and then came across this.

Very, very cool man. Right down my alley. Love the guitar tone. I see what you mean about DAW being the way to go! :O

 

[andrushkiwt]

Nice. Yeah, Rosen makes the best impulses I've ever come across. I have a bunch of those and when I use IR they are the go-to.
Check out LePou Guitar plugins. I like them better than Amplitube, and they're free.



It sounded like the muddy stuff was in the 300hz range on the kick not the bass. Bass sounded scooped out to me!

I also have LePou. Basically, I load up Amp, LePou, and Rosen, and I switch back and forth until I find what I think I'm looking for. The longer I do this, mixing, the more accurate that choice becomes in the long-term. When I listen to older recordings, the guitar sound isn't there. When I listen to newer ones, it's pretty close.

But - all 3 are resource hogs! Sons a -

---------- Update ----------

Taras- just sent you the PM saying I was going to check out your soundcloud and then came across this.

Very, very cool man. Right down my alley. Love the guitar tone. I see what you mean about DAW being the way to go! :O

Cool thanks. PM'd you back.

 

[Manslick]

I think is sounds very fine. The only thing I stopped for is the stattaco section at 320. I listened to this like 10 times. It sounds like a slight delay between the left and right sides. Like the track is copied and then slightly behind the original or double tracked with slightly off tempo picking and a third additional track having a slightly different tone. It doesn't sounds bad or wrong, it just made me go -what?
(and i thought this was going to be about the tv show )

 

[Robus]

Sounds good.

 

[andrushkiwt]

I think is sounds very fine. The only thing I stopped for is the stattaco section at 320. I listened to this like 10 times. It sounds like a slight delay between the left and right sides. Like the track is copied and then slightly behind the original or double tracked with slightly off tempo picking and a third additional track having a slightly different tone. It doesn't sounds bad or wrong, it just made me go -what?
(and i thought this was going to be about the tv show )

Ah, nope I don't double any instruments. My DAW has been recording things ahead of time recently. As in, I'll play in time but it's written earlier than played. Like it automatically nudges it up. I guess it's a known problem with some Studio One versions.

Anyhow, I know exactly what you're talking about but I chose to leave it. I considered moving them into time together but then thought it sounded pretty cool as is. I did manually adjust the other sections of the song, particularly the intro guitars, back into time. Good ears.

Any yeah, actually, it is referring to the show, but in a more personal way.

---------- Update ----------

Sounds good.

Is there a TL;DR?

 

[andrushkiwt]

The intro guitars seem out of time to me. Maybe grid them and see if that helps.

When the chorus comes in, the song really sounds good! If I had the $, I would resurrect my record label and sign you in a hearbeat! ... bring in someone like Michael Brauer to produce and get your songs maximally awesomized!!

The intro guitars cound't be more in time. I manually moved everything and adjusted them. The bridge guitars are audibly and intentionally out of time.

And thanks, I suppose. I have zero interest in performing, never have. Producing and mixing is where the fun is, for me. And writing. Wish I could just write some melodies with chord structures and pass them off to someone else. That would be a great job.

 

[sparky123]

well done , you keep churning new songs out at an unbelievable pace. this mix is fantastic!. did the studio monitors help?

 

[andrushkiwt]

well done , you keep churning new songs out at an unbelievable pace. this mix is fantastic!. did the studio monitors help?

Well, thanks. I appreciate that. Most of the time, I think I'm wasting energy and time on something that doesn't matter. So it's nice to get some positive feedback like that. Thanks man. Yeah I think the monitors are helping me shape tones and all the sounds, in general. The stereo image is certainly more precise. The levels among the instruments are easier to judge too. The lower end, lower than 150hz, is tough to determine, but I'll still bounce it out to mp3 and check in the car. I believe it was worth it, getting the monitors.