The Traveler

mjbphotos

mjbphotos

Moderator
New edit - see post #12

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Been struggling with this mix a bit, but have been changing/adding parts over the last couple of weeks too.

Would love some good ears on it. The lead vocal is what it is (they don't offer throat transplants yet)!

 
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mjbphotos said:
Bueller? Anyone?
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LOL sorry dude. It's been a little slow lately. :)

I've been listening a bunch of times tonight and the mix is strange sounding to me.

The performances are much tighter than the last track of yours I heard somewhat recently, so good job on that.

To me, everything sounds heavily processed, like drastically EQ'd. I think there's a problem with mud especially when the drums and other instruments kick in. The acoustic guitar sounds ok, and the lead vocal could sound better I think with a little less low end boom to it, but then when everything kicks in, there's no kick to it, you know? The drums are just sort of squashed and quiet and the cymbals sound weird to me.

I dunno. Like I said, I've listened a bunch of times (maybe 6 or 7) trying to pinpoint what is going on, but it's tough. I think there's some good tracks in there, but they sound too heavily processed and mashed together, plus I think there's a build up of mud. I'd be curious to hear whats it sounds like sans EQ, comp, etc...
 
Pretty much that ^^^

I did find the mix difficult to listen to, but it was hard to figure out what.

So . . . having a look at the various elements.

Acoustic guitar: this has a fairly strong mid-range presence, but that's not necessarily a bad thing . . it's just a different sound. The guitar itself sounds clean and I don't think is a problem

Lead vocal: The lead gets better as the song goes on. First verse sounds a bit shakey, but second is fine. The vocal should sound as if it is in the same space at the guitar, so have a look at the reverb settings. I think you could give the vocal a bit of air. To me it sounds a bit dull.

Harmonies: these are causing me some concern. The performance is fine, but they do seem to lack definition. They remind me of the sound I used to get with backing vocals when I was using 4-track cassette and having to bounce several times to get more tracks in.

Bass: Is maybe a bit busy for my taste (which is not necessarily a good indicator), but doesn't have a huge amount of bottom end to it.

Synths: these are fairly dense pads, so they can easily overwhlem other elements, so i'd ease off on them and let them sit more in the back ground.

Kit: Kit is probably ok . . . but it has been kind of shoved into the background, and doesn't have a lot of bite.

I'm not sure what you're method of mixing is, but I kind of like the idea of taking off the EQ, comp, etc like HM says, and starting again. Maybe work on bass and drums first, then vox, then other stuff
 
Thanks for the suggestions, like I said this has been tough. The only compression is on the vox and the master track. Maybe it is those synth tracks messing up the chorus sections' sound. I can't figure out what's going on with the lead vocal, I've messed with the EQ too much, may just need to retrack and start again from scratch.
 
I have a head cold, so this may not be right, but to me it lacked some brightness. As everyone stated, tight, nothing sounding out of place, but was just dull sounding (the mix).

I could be my ears are plugged up.
 
Agree with above...your vocal delivery sounds good to me, just gets lost in the track when all the other instruments are there too. Drums need more energy in my opinion. Good song.
 
I think that you could ease up on the high and/or mid-hi frequencies on the acoustic, maybe that'll let the cymbals/overheads shine through a bit more when things get compressed during the busy parts. Then the overheads could come down just a bit relative to the rest of the kit.

Love the snare sound, I could use just a bit more of it in the mix. I don't hear a kick in there.

I'd be curious to hear this without EQ on the tracks, to see how the instruments sound. Sometimes less is more.

I really like the song, it's quintessential 70's English folk.
 
Tadpui said:
I think that you could ease up on the high and/or mid-hi frequencies on the acoustic, maybe that'll let the cymbals/overheads shine through a bit more when things get compressed during the busy parts. Then the overheads could come down just a bit relative to the rest of the kit.

Love the snare sound, I could use just a bit more of it in the mix. I don't hear a kick in there.

I'd be curious to hear this without EQ on the tracks, to see how the instruments sound. Sometimes less is more.

I really like the song, it's quintessential 70's English folk.
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"70s English Folk" - I like that! The only EQ I've got going on this is the lead vocals, that may be part of the problem, need to carve out some space for stuff. I retracked the lead vocal yesterday using two mics together to see if I capture it any better.
The acoustic is a Taylor, tends to be bright - recorded with AKG P220 at about 12".

I'll work on this some more and repost it when I get something better.
 
The kit sounds like it's pumping even if you say you're not using any compression. Or maybe it's just really far back. The hi-hats sound fizzy.

The mix is cloudy during the chorus.
 
The levels on the acoustic seem to go up and down - are you automating when the vocals come in?
It sounds like things drop on the chorus - is there some kind of compression on the main bus triggering this?
The snare is audible but is kind of thumpy...can you eq some snap in there?
I listened a few times and really the level changes and the snare are the only things I can spot.
The vocals are fine - don't sweat em. The song is cool and I like your choices for the arrangement re instrumentation.
 
I think I had way too much going on the lead vocal - "you can't polish a turd" - I had preamp, EQ, ReaTune, compression.
Retracked vocal sounds so much better, just applied a little EQ to it.
Changed some of the automation a little, but a big factor on this: after rendering to 24 bit stereo, I took off the Density compressor, just leaving the limiter in place. Think that really made a difference as there's a lot of dynamic range in this.

 
The vocals do sound much nicer on the second version. They are less engulfing to the mind, but let me say this. I felt like the drum sounds were cheesy and to some extent the keyboard sounds as well. I'd dig this song 30% more if the drums and keyboard were dropped, it would work awesome as a folk-style acoustic piece. Or get a more woody-sounding kit in there, and a more organ-sounding keyboard sound there if not a real hammond
 
I'm surprised to hear that you don't have much EQ going on. I looked at the frequency chart for the P220, I see a bump around 8-10k. Maybe that's what I'm hearing? It might be worth putting about -3dB in that range on the guitar, just as an experiment. Who knows, it might just make it sound too dead.

I actually like the drum sound here, in the 2nd version as well. Still maybe a touch too much hihat or overheads. If you're using EZD, I found that they really like their 5KHz presence bumps on those kits. I usually ended up putting about -3 or -5dB around 5KHz on the kick, snare, and overheads to flatten it out a bit.

I used that same kjearhaus limiter for years, so I'm used to the way that it sounds. It sounds like home :)
 
I did add a little EQ on the guitar on the last mix. I've been tweaking the velocities hihat and OH on EZD2 on this song like crazy, very fine line between 'too much' and 'not enough' but maybe some EQ would solve it, thanks for the idea.
 
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