Two Minutes To The Funk House

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PeteHughes

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Since posting, the thing I'm most concerned about is whether I've rolled-off too much of the low-mid & bass, and therefore removed "the body" of the overall sound?
 
Nice grooves in this track. Good keyboard playing especially. I wasn't totally convinced by that synth sound that comes in on the left--vintage, but maybe a tiny bit cheesy. Especially as the organ sounds so good. I do think the mix is top heavy. The rides are nice, but thought I heard a strange effect on the stick attack--phase problems, or maybe some kind of compression or gating artifact? Dunno. For a funk tune, I would like to hear more of the bass guitar. Something I am struggling with in my own mixing is how to make the bass guitar feel present without cluttering up the midrange and eating up the feeling of space and separation. I tend to err too much on the side of less bass in the mix, and you might be doing the same here.
 
The basis of the drums is a Superior Drummer funk groove, with a few extra bits I've added around the edges. I played/programmed in my own originally, but I guess you just can't beat a human drummer on this kind of stuff!

The phasing on the cymbals might be a high-cut EQ filter with a 12db slope at 14K. I've dropped the cut to 6DB and moved the freq up to 28K for e gentler cut-off. I've also removed the gate that was being a bit eager!

The synth sound I'll have to do some thinking on. Not sure how to improve that right now.

I don't have an organ sound as such. There's the Lounge Lizard (Rhodes) solo line, and a Clav part that comes in at 1:31?

I'm going to try bringing back some of the low-mid, and see who that helps.

Thanks :)
 
There is an overall brightness to the mix. That might be a result of cutting low mids. But I think that's only part of the cause.

I'm not sure where you cut the low mids, but that "lead synth" sounds like it's lacking in low mids. To an extent, the bass does too. The bass is a bit loud too. That is a cool bass part. There are a whole bunch of synth parts, so it's hard to point out which ones I'm talking about - but some of those synth sounds are a bit on the harsh side - in the 2400hz-3000hz range.

I think you could pull back the cymbals. They're a bit harsh. I think if you just pull them down a bit you'd be in better shape.

There is a synth on the left - it comes in for the first time at about 1:17 that is very cool sounding.
 
I'd be surprised if there is anything as high as 28k for that filter to cut. Might as well kill it.
 
Rides/overheads = added a gentle 1:3 compressor. Lowered in the mix slightly. Lowered low & high-cut EQ to allow more body and reduce harshness.

Master bus =reduced the cut around 350Hz to bring back more overall body.(See attachment)

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Kick = Added a gate to trim off some of the flabbiness, cut some more of the high freq, and then a vol boost to add more thump into the low-mid region of the overall mix.

Lead Synth = Added gentle high cut to make it sound less harsh. Lowered low-freq cut and dropped curves to 6DB (instead of 12DB) for a more natural & gradual reduction to the cut, and to retain a little more body.

Arpeggio synths = Generally lowered EQ cut ranges to remove more highs and reinstate mids. Switched from 12DB to 6DB curves for more natural EQ cuts. Reduced volume to long reverb sends that were a bit overpowering.

Wind arpeggio = Added a narrow auto-pan to give movement and add interest.

Bass = Not changed this yet. Want to see what the other changes add up to first. Do you still think it's too loud?

Here's the resulting mix no 2

https://soundcloud.com/peter-hughes-36/two-minutes-to-the-funk-house-mix-2
 
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I could tell from the downbeat that this is big improvement. The bass guitar is much more happening. The synths are working together in the mix. I like the song. This could use vocals!
 
The synths sound better to me. Not ear-grating anymore.

When I read you put a compressor on the the cymbals, I was thinking "oh no" - but it didn't turn out bad. I would still say you could do without a compressor on the. But they sound OK.

The only think I can say to tackle is the bass. It's a little rumbly. I would maybe roll off some of the very low end. Like a high pass up to 60hz or so. Then maybe a notch out somewhere in the 300hz-400hz range. Just guesses.
 
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