Faint Aroma - Pygmy Beat Extended with Supercreep & Greg_L

rayc

retroreprobate
Hopefully this is the penultimate mix of this recent track with Supercreep on vocals, melody writing & lyric tweaking, Greg L on drums and Thunderous guitars with me on the rhythm guitars and bass.
Copyright Wells/Loyacano/Cochrane

Same track from an MP3 upload rather than a .wav file just in case that makes any difference.
 
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I don't really do mix critiques from my laptop because it has a Beats soundcard which makes everything sound super hyped, and I liked the last version well enough - so what have you done this time around ray?

It's a cracking tune, and the little string squeak (or whatever it is) just before you (sadly edited out of this mix) smashed your Tele (or whatever) stock-first into your cabinet just tops it off for mine... :thumbs up::thumbs up::spank:

Two thumbs up and a spanky from me, Margaret... (lost on our largely non-Australian audience, no doubt...:D) and if Guy has done this on Saturday night over in Vienna he would have won the damn contest (I'm on a roll... :laughings:)

Now over to everyone else for actual, constructive criticism....



Oh, and go the Maroons...:thumbs up:
 
David,
I'll try to reinstate the squeak for ya!
Thanks mate.
Did you watch Guy? I didn't as I get all the hill song I need from Sound of Music..
 
Great collab - everything seems pretty balanced to me. I like (what I would call) the Phil Spector effect on guitars. Bass is good - definition plus which I can rarely get. :) Drums are tight and great as usual - and like Rami and Greg said in the mixing forum, they mix themselves I'm sure. Vocal I heard before but this sounds "better" in some way?
 
Crash seems pretty far back. Snare maybe a tad bit more prominent, since this is such a hard driver.

Mix was good and clean from what I could hear.

From a production standpoint, it had a punk sound to it and seemed like it should be more low-fi. Almost too good. Not sure if that makes sense, but that is all I have.
 
I remember this tune. I really love it.

Performances are great.

Everything has great tone.

The only thing I'd recommend is there is a guitar on the left that does some fills every now and then. A couple of them are a little low in volume. You might nudge them up.

Other than that, I thought it sounded great.

OK right at the end the lead-ish guitar goes from the left to the middle in mid-riff. That was a little weird. I'd just leave it to the left.
 
basically good mix as has been stated, but for some reason I can't pinpoint, i still get a feeling like the whole mix is being 'held back.'
 
I think the drums could come up just a bit.
For some reason, the vocals don't sit quite right to me - I assume everyone did their recording in their own space, so maybe that's it - the vocals don't sound in the same room.
 
"Penultimate" actually means second to last... You're sure you wanted to do exactly one more mix? :D

I didn't hear any of the previous mixes. Not sure how I feel about this one. The cymbals are kind of a background wash; it's pretty distracting.
The vocals seem to get louder (and stay louder for a while) on "star-crossed lovers". Obviously, you're projecting more on that line, but it kind of feels like you might have gotten closer to the mic on that line
I'm digging the bass tone though; it blends well with the guitar tone.

What does Crystal meth sound like.
 
Sadly this has been a headphone mix for me - my little music space was flooded almost three weeks ago and I haven't managed to move gear back in yet - still drying the place. This latest link is to soundcloud's compression of a wav file. I probably should have compressed it before uploading but didn't. Believe me when I say the cymbals don't sound washy in the wav. I'll try to pop up a pre-compressed version sometime soon.
ido1957,
Thanks mate. The bass is just the usual DI through a Behringer BDI21 with light compression & a small peak at 3Khz - I only popped that one when I added the extra pair of guitars. The vocal is the same recording but with a tweak or two in the levels of the Bvox and such.
DM60,
Too clean to be punk! Well, it's punky but probably more New Wave so clean fits into that genre a bit better. There is some amp buzz in there to dirty things up. Thanks for the kind words.
TripleM,
That's why this is, hopefully the penultimate mix - I should have a final one sorted from the reccos in here. I think I agree re the centred tail. I've kept the "fills" mellow for the intro so that my poor excuse for a lead intro isn't embarrassed and runs away.
sammydix,
Perhaps it's my reserved nature - this is pretty much OTT in terms of aggression and passion for my songwriting/performance. That said, I'm DoublePLUShappy that Greg & Casey turned up the chromakey on the emotional pallet. I'm glad I make it to 1st basic!
mjbphotos,
yep, recorded in North America and SE Australia - three different rooms and sets of gear. The vox may benefit from a little something on the mix buss or from mastering. Me, I can't hear detail that well.
VHS,
Is it a touch too much hubris to hope I'm one mix away from a finished song? It was my mix decision to lift the vox for a bit to add some dynamics to what could've been a 12 cylinder, top gear, pedal to the metal song has some flow within its 2 minutes. I'm not wedded to that decision though. I don't know what Meth sounds like but the lyrical reference is faint aroma of... so I can get away with not having the breadth of experience for this one. The bass worked pretty well. I didn't have a chance to mic up my Superbass MkII amp so did the DI as mentioned above. Thanks for you generosity and reflections.
Faint Aroma (still an interim title)
Got my knapsack packed
No oversight
It’s not for staying
Overnight
Scar crossed lovers
A bloodletting rite

Chorus
Steady recall
Every word
Each a bullet
Hit when heard
Take exception
She’s taking notes

The even footsteps
Every steady breath
The faint aroma
Of crystal meth
The tattooed patterns
Every line a death
Chorus
Scar crossed lovers
In bedrooms dark
Each search reaction
Each leaves a mark
He’s keeping tally
When it’s all she wrote
 
Hm. I think the bass is a little loud, maybe could use a little more presence and definition too. Right now the whole thing is a little plodding and murky.
Vocals sound a little thin, they're kind of struggling under this bombastic bass cloud, kick and snare getting buried under that too.

But the biggest issue for me is that, for a rocker, which I assume is what you're going for, there's just kind of an overall lack of OOMPH. Maybe a little more high end clarity would help the accents to pop, or maybe it's a compositional thing.. But it kind of just starts, chugs along a bit, and peters out, despite technically perfect performances by everyone involved.
 
I really like this song, and I think this mix is a definite step in the right direction compared to the previous posting.

Right now, it is very, very dense. If you want that, you have achieved a great mix that is very, very full. There is room for some slight tweaking to open up the clarity while maintaining the "richness" that you have in the recorded tones.

To me, in my space, the mp3 upload sounds way better than the wav upload. There is more detail, more dimension, more depth and more articulation in the various instruments. It's not even close. It is especially noticeable in the highs and lows. Listen for the difference in the definition of the bass and the difference in the cymbal sustain. Soundcloud is a butcher. I would never let it control the compression applied to my audio. I don't use it, but what does it apply? 192? 256? Personally, if I was going to use Soundcloud, I would encode it to whatever rate it uses myself and have a listen through before uploading it to make sure it sounds satisfactory, and then take another listen once it's up there. Hopefully, if it is already at the rate they require, they leave it completely as is.

This mix sounds very close to finished to my ears. If this was sitting on my desk right now, I would consider experimenting with (keep in mind that I am thinking of *very* subtle mix moves at this stage of the mix, the equivalent of maybe 1dB moves at the most):

- Low shelf on the guitars starting at about the 160Hz mark and experimenting from there. There is a lot of low end content in the guitars, and it is making them seem just a touch too dominant, which on one hand is awesome because they do sound great, but they are also taking up some space (and clarity) in the bottom of the mix. I think that you would find that if you shelf them just a little bit, you would not hurt the tone and you would open the bottom up a bit.
- I think the drums should come up and play a more prominent role this tune. There is room for it. The hats/ride/cymbals are pretty close, but the other kit pieces could come up.
- The end of the mix is cut off rather than allowing it to trail out to nothing, so I'd extend the render a bit.
- Vocals are a *little* harsh at 3kHz.

Love the song. Even more so each time I hear it. Great job.
 
My experience with compressing a master file to upload to SC has not been good - SC's compression on top of the original has not resulted in good sound. Now I just bump up the volume with a limiter to -0.3dB max, and the sound seems to translate better to SC. I don't know what SC's algorithm is, it might be multi-band compression for all I know.
 
Ray, after not hearing it for several days, I agree with some of the comments - it's a little murky. The drums and bass are sort of clouded in some darkness. I think the vocals and guitars have enough clarity, just get the drums and bass to shine a little more. Bring the snare up a little.
 
Hi, Ray - as good as this song is, I have to agree that the mix is a bit too thick and bassy. The power and clarity that I've come to expect from Greg's drums and guitars are overwhelmed somewhat by the bottom end. The live drums and extra guitars are just what the song needed, though. Just the mix needs tweaking. :)
 
Bass is too beefy, to the detriment of the kick being drowned out in the same low end frequency spectrum. The snare feels far away (I keep expecting it to be a nice crisp, pungent snare hit)... however the cymbals are probably okay. The vocals sound like an afterthought, in that, they just kind of feel like they are sitting on top of a music bed - I think some reverb would really help overcome that. Just my two cents.

Overall nicely done.
 
It's a tad murky. I can hear well recorded drums that are punchy but there is a cloud on them and I wonder if it's the guitars. They seem really loud and big and sound good in their own right but I'd turn 'em down.
 
fat_fleet,
Thanks for the detailed response. Murky - got it - mainly the older rhythm guitars & bass.
High end clarity - yep. Bass - yeah, working on that as above. Peters out, hmm, I disagree but that's ok, I'm biased.
kindafishy,
Thank you. Lots of details which I'll consider as I tweak.
mjbphotos,
Ta mate -yeah, I forgot to convert when downstairs & the new machine upstairs still doesn't have a converter on board. The MP3 based cloud version sounds better.
Bubba po,
Thanks for the generous words. I'm working on the density issue in the low end & will repost when I've reached the ultimate for my abilities.
TheLurker,
Fangs! Interestingly the bass wasn't an issue in the earlier mixes - I've not added anything to it but it seems, in concert with the changes and additions, it's contributing above its pay rate.
Schwarzenyaeger,
Thank you sir. Sadly I'm restricted to headphones for this mix due to a flood a couple or three weeks back. Things sound clean & clear in the cans but I'm addressing the issues. The drums are, indeed, superb beneath the blanket.
 
I love collabs! I need to do some more.... Ugh... Only 24 hours in a day makes it difficult right now.

Drums sound good, but I think the snare needs to shine some more. I like the cymbals where they are. Not too prominent to get in the way, but providing all the proper effect. The mix seems to be in the middle of grungy punk, and clear pop-rock. I'd say, either go clear and get rid of the mud, or make it more grungy. I'd need to listen more to see how I'd go about doing that. Great mix, though, man.
 
This mix immediately made me think of some older rock mixes from the 70's. I think it's pretty good but does not sound modern to me.

But I really think that's OK! I think it fits the song so the mix is near perfect to my ears.
 
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