Crashing - alternative pop/rock

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Well, my first mix on monitors is in the books. Thanks to you guys for helping me out along the way, hopefully there's good mixes to come! I think my first result is pretty well-balanced, but I would like to know what you all think. The monitors most apparent result, in my opinion, is the balance of the frequencies and instruments. That seemed a little easier with them, compared to headphones. Of course, I still have to worry about dialing in the right guitar sound, bass sound, and choosing appropriate, nice-fitting pieces from the drums. But just getting the mix up and balanced was pretty fun and not as bothersome this time around.

I actually wrote this last week when I got the monitors. I just wanted to get a new song going where I dialed in all the tones and everything through the speakers instead of headphones. Please let me know what you think of the mix overall.



If I had a voice to state, "my head's not
thinking clearly now", along the way.
Even if I had the choice, I know my mind
can't please you all, the more you say...

Are you falling a thousand miles from me?
I've been waiting, it's all that I can be.

If I could be without the sun inside
my lonely heart, you'll never know.
I can hear you scream out loud.
Don't think (it's on me) I can't see (it's my fault)
we're sinking in down below.

I can hear, I can hear you now, it's your
whole world crashing down.
 
I'm only on laptop speakers, but the mix sounds great on these.
I'll try to get a listen on headphones later.
 
I'm only on laptop speakers, but the mix sounds great on these.
I'll try to get a listen on headphones later.

Really? That's cool - and surprising.

Lol, I can see it now. You're gonna get monitors....aiiiiin't ya? :)
 
Really? That's cool - and surprising.

Lol, I can see it now. You're gonna get monitors....aiiiiin't ya? :)

Haha, no.
I have no space, and if I did I'd still have to think long and hard -- afraid of going down the rabbit hole and tearing apart rooms.

Yeah it sounded great on the laptop. Probably tomorrow I will be back near my usual monitoring so I'll give it a listen then.
 
Sounded good. And I listened on an even lower fidelity system. ..... one speaker on a smartphone. Lol But, it was very close to similar material I heard on Spotify earlier.
I'll listen on monitors later.
:D
 
Sounded good. And I listened on an even lower fidelity system. ..... one speaker on a smartphone. Lol But, it was very close to similar material I heard on Spotify earlier.
I'll listen on monitors later.
:D

Thank you, RFR. Being close to similar material is obviously the goal (to fit in well among the genre), so thanks for mentioning that part. Yes, please do let me know about monitors. thnx man
 
Haha, no.
I have no space, and if I did I'd still have to think long and hard -- afraid of going down the rabbit hole and tearing apart rooms.

Yeah it sounded great on the laptop. Probably tomorrow I will be back near my usual monitoring so I'll give it a listen then.

It's mostly the low end that I'm having trouble hearing with them in an untreated room. Really, the mids and up are pretty clear. Much better than headphones, especially for blending instruments together and getting a level balance among everything. The bass I play around with until it sounds good in the car. But I think it's worth it, even with the room being not so good.

Oh, and they really don't take that much space. It's more tall than wide...so as long as you have vertical space, you'll be fine.
 
Ok had a good intensive listen on Ns10s, Eguator D5s, and KRK VXTs.

Overall pretty good. :thumbs up:

Now what bugged me a bit is panning and drums.
Drums sound really 'canned' and the snare isn't cutting through. Kick is a bit 'cardboard' sounding. ( for my taste anyways)
Bass is not bad but could get a bit more definition,

On the panning it seems like there is a hole in the middle. Its lacking fullness. The wide panning of the cymbals is too much.


I think if the drum kit was 'center stage', the snare came up a bit, and the bass and kick were adressed, It would be much much better.

Guitars and vocals are killer.
:D
 
Ok had a good intensive listen on Ns10s, Eguator D5s, and KRK VXTs.

Overall pretty good. :thumbs up:

Now what bugged me a bit is panning and drums.
Drums sound really 'canned' and the snare isn't cutting through. Kick is a bit 'cardboard' sounding. ( for my taste anyways)
Bass is not bad but could get a bit more definition,

On the panning it seems like there is a hole in the middle. Its lacking fullness. The wide panning of the cymbals is too much.


I think if the drum kit was 'center stage', the snare came up a bit, and the bass and kick were adressed, It would be much much better.

Guitars and vocals are killer.
:D

Someone else told me, in a PM, that the center was not complete. That the snare was coming in too much on the OH's...but I couldn't figure this out. The snare mics are C within Superior Drummer, and when I soloed the OH's, there wasn't much snare in them at all. If anything, the snare's crisp top end was abundant in the OH's, and I'm using a higher tuned reverb, so maybe the top end was coming through the sides on the OH reverb? I just don't know. It's all dead middle, as far as snare. I did have to turn it down because it was cranking the limiter. I couldn't hold it in place with compression, with 3-4dbGR, so I had to turn it down a bit until it only triggering the limiter 2-3db. I think the snare is too crispy and bright.

The cymbals, again, are default in SD. The OH stereo channel is L + R, and then I just replace cymbals as I like. All I can do to combat that is bring in the stereo OH's some, instead of 100 L+R. If a cymbal was recorded as being far L, and I choose that cymbal, I cannot move it to another position...it's stuck there and there only. Again, unless I bring in the entire OH stereo channel. But not sure that's a good idea since the entire OH channel has a lot of information, and I'd be squeezing it in. If it were as simple as bringing one cymbal in a bit, or placing it there to begin with, I would do it...unfortunately, it's not.
 
From memory, in SD you can control the amount of "bleed", too, so maybe check if the snare isn't bleeding too much into other mics to give an illusion of being off center.
 
The guits, bass, and vox sound good. Possibly too good in the case of the guits. I think you might have focused on them a bit much and lost the drums.

The guitar build for the first 14 seconds sounds great, but the big crash right after ends up feeling a little squashed and mid-rangey.

Bass is pretty-much perfect relative to what the guits are doing. It's just defined enough that you don't really notice it if you aren't listening for it; it supports the low-end of the rhythm and it pops out when it needs to.
 
The guits, bass, and vox sound good. Possibly too good in the case of the guits. I think you might have focused on them a bit much and lost the drums.

Weird, I actually thought the drums sounded best, as far as anything I've recorded. To me, they sound big and punchy. I'll give it a rest for awhile and come back to this song next week with fresh ears. Stinks I'm not hearing what you are.
 
Do you have some kind of widening plug in? Just asking cause I collapsed it to mono and it sounded a little wierd.

I dont know SP drummer at all. ( nor any other) but I'm suprised you can't position things more.

Again, overall it sounds great and translates to various listening devices well.
:D
 
Do you have some kind of widening plug in? Just asking cause I collapsed it to mono and it sounded a little wierd.

I dont know SP drummer at all. ( nor any other) but I'm suprised you can't position things more.

Again, overall it sounds great and translates to various listening devices well.
:D

Nope. Default SD panning, then hi-hat moved in, and I switched cymbals out. But I didn't move any cymbals, just replaced them. If it is recorded far left, like a china, I can't move it anywhere else...that's where that cymbals stays. Unless, again, I collapse the OH stereo channel inwards, from far L and R. I don't think I should do that though. Not every cymbal, for the record, is 100% to the side. Some are positioned, by default, at 50 or 25. The only thing I change is WHAT cymbals are used, since some are more crashy or harsh than others.

edit: Forgot to mention, I cut all ambient mics. There's minimal bleed or room sound. They are all dry except for: plate verb to both snare mics and toms bus. Reverb channel send on drum bus.
 
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Hey man, finally got a chance to listen on headphones just now, and it's good, but noticing a few things. The vocal sounds a bit behind the band in terms of distance/space. Not far off at all maybe just a db or so. The low end is on the cusp of being too much. Probably a judgment call or preference on that. The vocal at 1:28 should be automated lower when the band isn't going. It stands out as too loud. The cymbals didn't bother me at all. Sounds natural and how a kit should/would sound if in a room.
 
Ok thanks. I'm confused on the kit comments, trying to make sense of it. I got lazy for the vocals and I didn't manually adjust gain this song. I usually spend a day or so manually editing every line's volume, but I couldn't do it this time... I need an assistant! lol. jk, of course. I brought down a few lines of the chorus, anything that seemed close to maxed out, and yes I know the lines where the music stops were louder, and I swear I did give those a nudge too, maybe not enough. I wasn't meticulous about it this time around, but I moved some lines for sure. I agree with you totally.

And I was having a hard time adjusting the balance between dry/verb/delay on the vocals. Monitor thing. Getting used to them. I should have done that part in headphones, as I think I usually do a good job on space/distance with sound through the headphones. If I nudged the delay up a lot, I couldn't really tell a difference in the dense mix, with these monitors. On headphones, I could clearly tell between 10% wet and 20% wet in regards to verb and delay. So, yeah, this vocal has a touch of delay (1/2 on L, 1/4 on R), a splash of the verb send (bright studio w 50ms pre-d), and that's it.

Judging space and distance is going to take some time on these new things. thnx
 
Wanted to ask you all, since I'm also asking a buddy of mine: who are some current/modern bands I should be checking out, production-wise/mixing-wise? Similar genre, I suppose. Alternative/hard rock/pop stuff. I don't listen to the radio anymore, and I haven't heard a new band in quite awhile. Any recommendations?
 
Interesting. I just listened on some earbuds, some headphones and it sounds great through them.
On monitors, going through 3 different pairs center stage is weak.

I think its just a matter of learning your new monitors to get the soundstage right.

But then again, who nowadays sits down in the middle of two speakers to actually 'listen' to and 'enjoy' music.

Most everyone listens on earbuds, and probably the 'best' stereo system they use is in the car.


Anyway. I've spent waay too much time on this song and thread. I'm out.
Peace.
:D
 
On headphones here the intro guitars sound great. When it all crashes in there's a volume dip, sounds like it's hitting a grabby bus compressor. Drums sound solid and punchy. Real nice job on vocals. I'm not a fan of the washy cymbals in the chorus, they're clouding the landscape and raining on the guitars. I heard a ride in there briefly - it would be interesting to hear the chorus with a heavy ride instead of the crashes
 
sounds like it's hitting a grabby bus compressor. ....I'm not a fan of the washy cymbals in the chorus, they're clouding the landscape and raining on the guitars.

Yes indeed. One compressor is acting quickly, about 40ms (1.4:1) and the second is much slower (300ms) for just volume leverage. The limiter is really only reacting to the snare, nothing else touches it (always happens with my mixes). But, the compressors never take it down more than 3db...that's the max. I'll adjust levels until it touches 3db only.

But I do hear it too. It's a quick smack right when everything comes in, and a fairly quick ducking, but I couldn't pinpoint any single compressor that went too far there, so I left it as is. Good ear though.

I was hoping the cymbals weren't washy. I EQ'd them for that, which was easier on monitors than headphones, both within SD and then on the drum bus itself AND the master EQ (a few things built up around 8khz). Maybe SC made it worse, not sure.

Thank you for checking it out and commenting.

---------- Update ----------

Anyway. I've spent waay too much time on this song and thread. I'm out.
Peace.
:D

Oh come on...what else do you have to do? :)
 
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