How is everything sitting in this mix?

Hey Paddy. Gave this a listen earlier and really, really liked it. Loved the way the rhythm jumps in with the unexpected melody. I found the next line unintelligible, though, as with several lines in the lower register, might want to bring those up a bit.

The backing 'aahs' sounded fake - guessing that was a stylistic choice or necessity due to the method used (sampler?). That didn't really work for me, but if that's the sound you're going for, that's cool. I loved the Scottish accent (hope I got that right!) - I find my northern English accent disappears when I record my singing and I go all plummy. I think I'm so worried about going American that I go the other way!
 
One of the Bvox is louder.
The track has a Las feel to it.
The guitar break reminded me, for some unknown reason, of Orange Juice!
Lovely song - some of the lyrics are undecipherable but that's OK by me.
I'd buy it!
 
jonny deep said:
Hey Paddy. Gave this a listen earlier and really, really liked it. Loved the way the rhythm jumps in with the unexpected melody. I found the next line unintelligible, though, as with several lines in the lower register, might want to bring those up a bit.

The backing 'aahs' sounded fake - guessing that was a stylistic choice or necessity due to the method used (sampler?). That didn't really work for me, but if that's the sound you're going for, that's cool. I loved the Scottish accent (hope I got that right!) - I find my northern English accent disappears when I record my singing and I go all plummy. I think I'm so worried about going American that I go the other way!
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Yeah the girl that wrote the song is a song-writing machine! She can definitely come up with things that are catchy!
Yes, they're Scottish also! :P
The harmonies are recorded but I used pitch correction and an ensemble/chorus plugin, might add some vibrato to it to make it sound a bit more natural and take off the ensemble effect, I see what you mean about it not really fitting in!


I'm going to re-record the vocals with a Neuman TLM 102 and a Universal Audio LA-610 next month (When I get my student loan through and can afford to spend £1500 in the one go!).

The vocals were recorded, apparently, in her shower with a cheap microphone (I was just doing the mix for her)

But the current mic is too sibilant for me to make anything out also!
 
I forgot to say that I thought the backing vocals were a bit too up front. Perhaps if you push them back with some reverb, that might help with their sound. In the past I've found that guitar parts that weren't working at all suddenly sat right (well, as right as my skill level allows) with a bit of 'verb to almost bury them a bit.
 
Good song. I liked it.

I thought the lead vocal is getting covered by the guitars and the backing vocals. Especially the backing vocals - they're louder than the lead.

The snare sound was cool enough. But I didn't think the heavily compressed, shotgun sound was right for an up-tempo pop song. I'd like to hear something that sounds more like a natural snare drum. Leave the firecrackers for the harder edge stuff. Might just be me.

There is some low frequency in the bass that's bugging my ear. It's really dominant and it's covering the kick a little bit. i'd look somewhere between 80hz and 120hz. Again, might just be me.

I thought everything else sounded good.
 
I'm gonna third that. Do you have a Transient Designer plug on that? It does sound a bit 'poppy'-for lack of a better word. Seems a bit softer snare tone would not take away from the soft character of her voice.
 
Everything does sound quite nice but I agree with the snare statement. A snare with a bit more wood too it would most likely sit better than an aggressive one. If you are using some sort of drum VSTi I assume you could do that if not i would recommend boosting the lows in the snare somewhere between 100-200.
 
PaddyGordon said:
Been working on it all day and tested it through Genelecs and KRK's and it sounds fine to me now.

Just looking for an external opinion.

Tambourine is meant to be quite loud also.


Updated mix:
Hats and Tambourines.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage
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The vocals straight away are too Sss, you should use a de-esser on these to catch the Sss that stand out too much.
Nice Mix overall. Maybe cut the highs on the vocal reverb.

Nice weedgie voice! a few parts of the vocals are out of tune, but most of it is really well sung.
Some of the vocals get drowned out so I would use volume automation to fix this.

good stuff fellow Scot!

G
 
PaddyGordon said:
I've added a compressor to the guitar part, brought up the double of the lead vocal in the chorus, took down the bvox, eq'd the bass so the kick drum will sit in at about 80hz:

Hats and Tambourines Mix 2.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

I'm also getting a Good Preamp, Compressor and Microphone next month
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You can still hear the pitch shift in the backing vocals, the change from 1 note to the next is to precise and fast, you want a more gradual change from note to note to get a more natural sound.

I would cut some out of the low mids of the bass, and add some high mids to the bass also.
At 2:13 the bass sticks out too much, the bass overall sounds muffled compressed too much. try and get some more attack in the bass using a longer attack time for the compressor and less compression and boosting the high mids.
If the bass is too dynamic with less compression then use volume automation to fix the levels throughout the song.

G
 
PaddyGordon said:
Should I just compress it a bit quicker (faster attack), or EQ it?
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Yes I would try compressing with a faster attack maybe 4ms (ish) and a higher ratio to tame that attack.

I really like the snare sound but as people have mentioned a bit softer sounding snare would suit this style better.

G
 
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