New Building Pyramids mix (funk, indie, very original sound)

K

ksawaia

New member
Hey guys.

I have a new mix I need some notes on. I'm doing a mix for a band called Building Pyramids. They have an amazing singer, killer bassist, and a really different style. Tons of vocal layers, tons of percussion layers. A real challenge to mix. The song lacks a real lead vocal so it was tough to come up with a way to make the background vocals and chants stand out AS leads in the absence of the classic "lead" vocal.

Building Pyramids - Head Home - mix 01
View attachment BP-HeadHome-Final-001.mp3
 
Key ksawaia - I like it, the band has a pretty cool sound.

Mix-wise, I felt like there were too many items panned out wide left and right that were competing for attention, so it was getting jammed up pretty badly out there on the ends. There are at least two different guitar parts that were both very busy, noodling, both out wide, and then tons of BGVs panned out on top of them - and they were very busy as well, almost going throughout the entire song. Even those two things were a little overwhelming for me, but I think there was also percussion out there. I feel your pain on this one, because the best solution (IMHO) would simply be to have the band apply some discipline to their arrangement and learn how to not step all over each other through the whole song. As a mixer, you are pretty limited if you are being asked to jam all that business into the mix, all at the same time.

My ears wanted to hear this with less extreme panning, and that's where I'd make changes...I wouldn't put everything out wide or dead-center...use the other parts of the stereo field to try and get things out from under each other. I'd also like to hear the lead vocal more than the BGVs. I get that maybe they are going for a different sound with that, but to me, it's just another thing that is making it very difficult for the listener to figure out where to focus. It's fine to have complexity and layers and lots of things to add interest, but I think there still need to be focal points. Just my $0.02.

Oh, by the way, I was listening in headphones, so the panning stuff might have been exacerbated by that fact (but hey, a lot of people will be listening in headphones :))

Very Best,
 
literally a perfect response. I will definitely adjust the panning. when i got the mix it had hand claps, snaps, bongos, djembe, viola, saxophone, and a shaker as auxilary. overwhelming to say the least. haha. also about 20 vocal tracks.

but yes. maybe adjusting the panning will def help the coherency. really really appreciate the feedback.
 
Good singing and I liked the harmonies. Very smooth.

This seemed like a mix where every track is fighting to be the top dog. It ends up with everything stepping on everything else. Everything sounds heavily compressed too. It gets fatiguing on the ear after a while.

I had trouble making out the words. As I said I like the singing. But but could barely make out a word. There is some strange reverb on teh vocal that is clouding them up too I think. and the guitars are covering them up.
 
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