Jazz- "You must take the A-train" - mixing/mastering suggestions

[freeztar]

First of all, how is the mix?
This is for a friend of mine that plays bass in a jazz band. He wants me to mix a cd from some live recordings another friend did. Supposedly, this guy is becoming renowned for his live audio abilities (in Atlanta). But, I think that some parts are recorded poorly. I tried to compensate during mixing, but there's certain things you can't fix once it's recorded. This is four track (so the drum set is all on one track ).

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/5/ke...mmonsmusic.htm

If you have a song for review and I haven't listened to it yet, please let me know.

[gmiller1122]

Cool! It's nice to hear something other than classic/hard rock. Just what I needed on a friggin' cold Saturday morning.

I think the bass is too quiet. The sax is killer, but the bass gets drowned out. I like bass, so I'm biased. Also, the bass could have more punch to it. It sounds a bit muddy. I don't think it's the playing, either. Otherwise, this was a lot of fun.

G


Since you offered....

http://www.geocities.com/gmiller1122/EverythingisBeautiful_mixdown02.mp3

[Massive Master]

I revert to my suggestion on another thread - Please post a 44.1 so we can hear what's in there. Pretty hard to reach a conclusion on the 22.050 that's there now...

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com

[freeztar]

Thanks for the notice! The song is updated now. Any suggestions on mixing?

[H2oskiphil]

I agree with whoever said to bring the bass up...it disappears.

The sax player rocks. In fact, musically, the whole thing rocks.

Good spacing of the different instruments in the soundstage, but having the sax full left and the piano full right is almost distracting...

Great stuff!

[Massive Master]

Thoughts...

First, much better on the new file...

Agreed on the imaging - Panning is a bit extreme...

Sounds are pretty decent though...

A bit brighter all around would be pretty cool.

I don't recommend it much, but just a whisker of verb across the whole thing would help put it all "in the same room" together.

Do these guys do Caravan?

John -

[Village Idiot]

This was real enjoyable.

Having not heard the initial mix, I will say that the mix I heard was quite good.

The Bass is now almost too prominent in the mix, but still sits nice.
I liked the piano work...Very creative and intuative in it's fills.

The drummer did a fine job as well.

The sax player is really good! Nice chops.

I have no real criticisms of the mix.
Sounds like a nice clasic Jazz mix to me.

Very nice job.


VI

[The Ghost of FM]

freeztar,

Very nice performance and recording/mixing!

I am getting only the slightest hint of a little too much overall emphasis around the 2Khz mark on the overall mix. Perhaps a cut of 2 db in that area might help this smooth this gem into the Hope diamond?

A nice diversion and enjoyable listen.

Cheers!

[freeztar]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I tried the 2khz cut and it really smoothed things out with a 1.2 Db cut. I plan on experimenting with this a lot (maybe 2.5khz would make a better cut,etc.). I brought the bass up a teeny bit (0.4 Db). I'm still messing with the panning though. As soon as I bring the keys and sax closer to the middle, I start hearing the drums duck under the mix and things just sound muddier. I do understand what ya'll are saying, I just don't know how to go about fixing it. What do ya'll think about doubling the drum track and panning it extreme left and right and then putting the bass righ up the middle and panning the keys and sax at about 10 and 2? It sounds pretty good to me, but not quite as clear. Unfortunately, I don't have a nice reverb unit (only plugins), so I'll try your idea John and add a dash of reverb over the whole thing. I've heard a couple people discourage such an act, but I see your point and it might work. I'm updating the file after this post, so if ya'll don't mind giving it another listen, I would appreciate it.

John, They do caravan, and it is HOT! Unfortunately, I don't have a recording of that

[Massive Master]

I've got a feeling on this... I think you've got dual signals going somewhere - Could be the verb - If you're using an aux, make sure the verb is 100% wet. If it's across the main buss, not sure what's going on. Weird phase thing happening.

Other than that, the verb is way too long - Some small room maybe .75 or.8 seconds or something...

But for sure try to find the weird phase thing - Can't put my finger on it - Might only be the drums, but I remember that you mentioned that they were only on one track... Gotta be an aux send or something like that...

John -

[freeztar]

Yeah, I heard it too. I shifted the second drum track a little to get it out of phase. I think this does it
I brought the sax up a little also. It sounds much thicker and involved now. There might be a few problem spots still, but overall, I think this sounds good 8-)
-Keith