Mixed this song for a friend...need help

[zed32]

i'm doing a mixdown of a song my friend recorded of the band at his church. it's a live recording, with 8 tracks and i think he recorded it thru an Alesis firewire thing. it's a Christian song, and really not my type of music AT ALL, but i'll mix anything someone gives me, haha.

anyway, i need some opinions from the golden ears out there, and give it to me straight. what needs to be fixed, what sounds OK, what would you do differently? i'm not used to doing the softer stuff, so i need some serious help on this one...plus i think it needs to be ready by friday night. thanks for checking it out!


http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=7629


i think the recording itself is pretty decent for a 1-take live setup. theres a couple parts where the vocal clips, but other than that i guess it's not half bad.

[zed32]

is it that bad? just don't listen to the lyrics then, i just want to know if the mix is OK. is it too boomy in the lows?

[NL5]

It's boomy, and all I can hear clearly is the Toms.........

[zed32]

Originally Posted by NL5

It's boomy, and all I can hear clearly is the Toms.........

geee thanks...


so what do i do?

please help, i suck.

i have 8 tracks...one kick, one snare (open snare), one mono overhead, one rhythm guitar, one lead guitar, vocal, keyboard and bass.

is it just the bass guitar that is boomy? i put a HPF on the guitars and vocals, because before i got it it was even boomier...

[zed32]

nevermind, i'm just frustrated and acting stupid. having another stupid shitty day at work.


i'll fix it when i get home, i'll figure it out.

[Freudian Slip]

Take it easy on your self

Vocals sound pretty good.

I'd start buy backing of the verb some on the drums. You might try setting a low roll off insanely hi on the toms. I have had very good success with that in the past. Try putting it around 125hz or so and then boosting a few db's at around 850hz and 4500hz with a medium Q say 5 or so. you'll have to bring the gain down on them. I only say back the verb off because it may be lending to the boominess. I don't mind the size of the verb so much and you may find it's just fine when the toms get a bit thinner.

Anyways, aren't drums fun I think you'll have a easier time with the mix once the drums sit better.

All this is of course imho.

Good luck!

F.S.

[zed32]

thanks for the idears FS. there's a ton of bleed from the toms on the kick track, as well as on the snare. i HPF'd the snare really high, and the overhead moderately high. i might do some cuts on the kick track as well. then maybe try taking off some of the really low freqs on the bass track. i don't think the verd is really adding to the boom, because i cut off the low frequencies from the reverb...i think? gotta check that. i kinda like that reverb though, it has an 80's tom sound to it haha.

maybe getting rid of the boom will make the vox cut through a little better without having to add volume....
i'm afraid the band might probably want more reverb on the vocals...which i will refuse to do. i'll just tell them i did for placebo effect...

i hate having to be at work when i have something fun i'd rather be doing.

[Freudian Slip]

I was wondering if you had filtered the verb.
I have had to go through entire songs and edit out toms from the kick and snare tracks. It's soooo much fun but it works. I have even replaced hits with toms behind them with clean hits I makes my keybord and mouse fingers ache just thinking about it.

I agree on the vox. You'll just have to see when you get there.


Later

F.S.

[zed32]

i tried sampling the kick track, but there's just too much bleed, and too many subtle kick hits, really hard to dissect this one. but i'm not too concerned about the drum bleed on this one, since it's live anyway. i can always use "hey this was recorded right of the stage OK" as an excuse.

[BushmasterM4]

I think its fine. I just reduced the bass on my speakers and its fine. Do you use any typle of mastering plugin on the final mix?

[zed32]

Originally Posted by BushmasterM4

I think its fine. I just reduced the bass on my speakers and its fine. Do you use any typle of mastering plugin on the final mix?

yeah i did a little bit of EQ, some limiting, and a little bit of reverb on the master after bouncing the mixdown to a stereo track.


here's a new version with some tweaks to the vocals and drums.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=7630

better?

[Dogman]

I've listened to both versions...don't think it sounds too bad for a live type tune. Not sure exactly what I might do to it...it might use some polishing here and there, to bring out the vocals a slight bit brighter or something...not sure how to explain it.

I'll mess with it a bit, and see if I can be any more specific as to what I mean. But not bad at all.

[Freudian Slip]

Not on my monitors now, but on my little walkman headhones the first mix does sound pretty decent (it did not on my monitors). The 2nd sounds better. I am wondering if there was some low end in the 1st mix that wasn't showing up that strong on your monitors.?.?

I'll take a listen tommorow on my monitors to the second mix.


F.S.

[Dogman]

I messed with this a bit, trying to bring out a bit of what I might want to hear. It might not be right for you, but this is one idea I had.

Zed's Song

[zed32]

Originally Posted by Freudian Slip

Not on my monitors now, but on my little walkman headhones the first mix does sound pretty decent (it did not on my monitors). The 2nd sounds better. I am wondering if there was some low end in the 1st mix that wasn't showing up that strong on your monitors.?.?

I'll take a listen tommorow on my monitors to the second mix.


F.S.

yeah there was low end that was there, i just wasn't paying attention to it. when i A/B'd the two tracks, i dunno what i was thinking on that 1st mix...the boom was kinda outta control. here's one more revision, tweaked the vocals, did some splicing to get rid of the parts where the mic distorted..

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=7635


sorry NL5 for loading so many versions of the same song on your site...

[zed32]

Originally Posted by Dogman

I messed with this a bit, trying to bring out a bit of what I might want to hear. It might not be right for you, but this is one idea I had.

Zed's Song

i see where you're going with this one, but i dunno if i want to boost the highs too much more, just to keep the extra noise to a minimum. to me, this song kinda calls for a more mellow sound, warmer without too much air, but that's just me

like i said, i've never done a song like this before, a buddy of mine sent me these tracks from his church in NY, so i'm doing a cross-country mix here.

[NL5]

Originally Posted by zed32

sorry NL5 for loading so many versions of the same song on your site...

No problem - that's what's it's there for!

[Freudian Slip]

Wow! that sounds way better! Great job!

The vocals are a bit burried yet and have a nasaly honk to them in places.
I have no idea what you have done to them so far.. sooooo.

Sounds like a bit too much around 200 to 250 but I'm not sure.
Not bad though. Main thing is she's just buried in places.

Everything I hear about the vocals is only in places so that makes it fun

Sounds damn nice for live now!


F.S.

[Nightfire]

I hope they dont take credit for this song
I like it considering its a cover tune, they have some nice arragengements that differ from the original, and I like the mix considering its live.


Mike