would love to get some comments on my mix

Duesenberg

Duesenberg

New member
hello everyone,

i am an 50yr old fart trying to work the first time with cubase. to test everything, i did a cover of an 1976 vangelis song ("alpha" from the album albedo 0.39)

i have a pair of JBL control 1 as monitor speakers, but i am not sure if the mix is ok so far....if someone could give me some comments it would be really helpful

everything is played on the yamaha motif XS

"alpha" vangelis cover

to avoid confusion....the link above is the updated version. below is the the old mixdown, before you guys helped me out with some very useful tips:

old version

thanks in advance
 
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well for an old farts first time in cubase you're doing pretty well...


sounds like bloody vangelis unfortunately lol


great stuff...mix sounds good to me...Id have the horn part up slightly and a real guitar would have been great, as it stands it could come up a notch too imo...but the mix sounds good to me...clear and spread and nice playing to

good work :)
 
Performance is pretty good

Highs are too hot! Cutting the hi frequency percussion (above 10Khz) will give a much better balanced mix IMO.
(are the JBL tweeters at ear level?)


Ciro

* I don´t know the original
 
my biggest problem is the overall volume of the song. compared to others, it's way too low.

i have tried to run a compressor/limiter on the sum, but the result was a very bad "pumping"...

any tips here on how to get this louder while keeping the quality?

sorry for those questions, but i'm pretty new with all this recording stuff
 
Duesenberg said:
my biggest problem is the overall volume of the song. compared to others, it's way too low.
Click to expand...


It happens because a lot of energy is going to the (unnecessary) highs!
Even without remixing , try an eq ("bell") cutting 10db in 12Khz, for example
(relatively wide "Q" - try what works better) + the final limiter.

Ciro
 
maybe this is too much for an ask...but could you do me a favor and crank it up for me....i am really lacking of good monitors, so this might end up as wild guessing


i will try it anyways, but just to have something to compare (the good and the evil)

you can right click and download the mp3 in my start post
 
Still a bit for the bright side yet, but now is more a matter of taste -
new master (or is this a remix?) is light years better.Good Job!

Hey, more important: how it sounds in your system?

Ciro
 
it's a new master...but i guess i also have to do a complete remix, 'cause now i hear that it seems that every instrument is coming straight from the middle...panning ftw.

i did what u told me (still have no idea what a "bell" or a "Q" is )..i cutted down the highs drastically, than added a multiband compression and a limiter. at the end i was adding a bit of an exciter (maybe this was too much again):D

i just bought myself a pair of good monitors...so i have to get used to them first
 
Duesenberg said:
my biggest problem is the overall volume of the song. compared to others, it's way too low.

i have tried to run a compressor/limiter on the sum, but the result was a very bad "pumping"...

any tips here on how to get this louder while keeping the quality?

sorry for those questions, but i'm pretty new with all this recording stuff
Click to expand...


id start with setting up the compressor on a track like this (synth) as follows

threshold 8
ratio 4:1
attack 3ms
release .6
rate 1

then just have the limiter at a basic start level at first and see if that works


attack .10ms
release 20ms
knee 100 degrees
input &thresh 0db

from these settings Id just keep doing small adjustments until i got it to the loudness level I wanted (but Id just try increasing the gain at first)....increasing loudness isnt rocket science it just takes a bit of experimentation :)
 
Yeah that tinkly keyboard is a little ear-frying. I'd say your trouble spot is somewhere between 3500-4000hz.

On loudness... You could do a fader ride at at the beginning and then back it off when the song kicks in. Or you could to a bit of limiting. Or a little of both. But if you try to get it to modern day commercial standards it's gonna sound awful. Like modern day commercial standards. :D
 
Forget loudness until your mix is the way you like it. Gain staging is so important for getting good mixes. I always, always, always do these things:
1) High pass filter every track. There's tons of wasted energy down there that uses up headroom and muddies things up. Freq. depends on voice or instrument.
2) Turn all tracks down to mix (not with the track fader). First insert is a gain plug, followed by a meter plug. Get your tracks to peak levels around -18dbfs before hitting any plug-ins that follow. Now use the track fader to fine tune. This will eliminate clipping, intersample peaks, and generally make life much simpler, and your mixes will sound better.
3) Mix to peak level on the stereo bus to between -12 to -6 dbfs, which is what mastering engineers like. Let them worry about loudness, and leave them enough room to add EQ limiters etc.work.
4) If you are not having it mastered and want it louder, use a good limiter plug or hardware limiter after your mix is finished to get the loudness you want. Voxengo Elephant, Sonnox are good ones. Paul Frindle's new Dynamic Spectrum Mapper plug in is fantastic for many things, one of which is loudness on the mix. There's also mastering programs like Ozone to get your volume level up post mix.
5) I low pass tracks as well. A lot of the harshness of digital sound is in the high freq, so for acoustic guitar, just high pass at 7k. You don't need any of the higher stuff, etc. etc.. Bass needs nothing above around 2k. depending on how much of the slap you want to hear. Fool around with this.

Try some of this stuff and see if your mixing doesn't get a lot easier.
 
all good points.. I mix to around -14db then bounce down a stereo wave, re-import it then bring up the loudness in that seperate project..


also dumping anything under 100-200Hz outside of the bass and kick helps with clarity but that doesnt appear to be the problem in your mix
 
i made a new mix.....how does this one sound now to your pro ears?

check start post above
 
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Duesenberg said:
i made a new mix.....how does this one sound now to your pro ears?

Click to expand...

Okay... Just got done listening to the first version, and now am listening to the one you just posted..

I'm listening through grado sr-225 headphones - and the mix overall sounds much, much better than an amateur mix. Kudos, man...

The 2nd mix is better than the first by far. The low-end is a bit more present, and the high-end is tamed a bit more.

These particular headphones are quite bright to begin with. Because of this, the 1st mix was very harsh, and I couldn't listen to it unless it was turned way, way down low. The 2nd mix (the one you posted 3 minutes ago) is less harsh, but there are still some instruments which are getting way up into the 10K+ range, and it's making the song hard to listen to. Other than that, I see nothing wrong with it at all.

Great music, pretty good mix (get rid of the crazy high's), and overall much better than amateur, for sure.

Keep at it!
 
Listening to the newest mix. Nice feel to the composition. It's pretty bright though. Not too excessive in the sustaining sounds but the metallic transients that come on the downbeats starting at 1:08 are sometimes harsh. Also the bell-like keyboard at :24 but a little less so. If you like the overall brightness I'd leave it as is, just tame the tracks with those harsh transients. You might want to check your monitoring. Maybe your setup isn't revealing the highs accurately enough.
 
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