A Different Kind of Mix Contest II

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I listened to some of the mixes, and they all sound really good. Nice song to start with. I just may give this a try.
Bob
 
Thanks to all who have been working so diligently. I'm very pleased with how these mixes are coming along. Thanks to Bruce (and others) for the comment on my voice. I'm sure you'll make it sound extra-nice. :)

I am far too close to this song to give any serious mix feedback (plus I monitor on computer speakers :eek: ), but I will mention a few things that stood out to me.

Ocnor - One of the best so far, imo (though you did mix your own excellent parts a little loud, as expected :D ). I thought the vox sounded too dry at the beginning, but no other complaints.

Dogman - The second mix is definitely better. I'm not overly fond of the vocal effect, but if that's what you heard, that's cool.

BentRabbit - I'm amazed you got them all in there (the guitars, that is)! Kind of dark and murky at times, but probably close to what I would have done.

Briefcasemanx - I love how you did the "kick in" at ~0:43. Totally rocked. Where's the rest of the guitar solo, though?

Rokket - Like Rabbit's, it is close to what I would do, but muddy at times due to all the guitar-warfare. Bet you didn't expect it to end up like this when you wrote it, eh?

NL5 - A pleasant textural surprise. Sort of a trashy modern sound (especially the drum mix). The panning of the guitars is quite cool.

Overall, I noticed that Purge's guitar tracks (except the raging solo) are either so buried, or not there at all, in several of these mixes. :(

As for the "contest" part of things, I don't really know. I'm sure we'll all have our favorites. Hmmmm...I'll think of something.

Keep them coming!
 
scrubs said:
Rokket - Like Rabbit's, it is close to what I would do, but muddy at times due to all the guitar-warfare. Bet you didn't expect it to end up like this when you wrote it, eh?

Overall, I noticed that Purge's guitar tracks (except the raging solo) are either so buried, or not there at all, in several of these mixes. :(
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I didn't expect this at all! :D But that's the beauty of it. It is so far removed from my original scratch, but it's improved 1000%. Nice work, all of you!

Purge's guitar track is so close in frequency to oncor's that it was hard to get the delayed part to stand out. When I put some compression on it, I couldn't get it to sit well in the mix.
I think some trickery in editing can get them in there, but I didn't have time. I can only come in here sparingly thoughout the day, in between appointments. I am hanging in by a thread (no pun intended).
 
scrubs said:
Briefcasemanx - I love how you did the "kick in" at ~0:43. Totally rocked. Where's the rest of the guitar solo, though?
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The track with the guitar solo only had about 10 seconds of music on it when i downloaded it.....is the rest of the guitar solo on one of the other tracks I didn't use?
 
BRIEFCASEMANX said:
The track with the guitar solo only had about 10 seconds of music on it when i downloaded it.....is the rest of the guitar solo on one of the other tracks I didn't use?
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There should have been a track called "solo" that had a full solo on it (about 20 seconds long, I think ~2:35-2:55). Sounds like you left it out.
 
scrubs said:
There should have been a track called "solo" that had a full solo on it (about 20 seconds long, I think ~2:35-2:55). Sounds like you left it out.
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I think you're right, he did leave that track out. I've heard it in the other mixes. It sounds like the part that is in there is just the harmony part at the end of the solo.
 
scrubs said:
There should have been a track called "solo" that had a full solo on it (about 20 seconds long, I think ~2:35-2:55). Sounds like you left it out.
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I listened to it. I'm not a huge fan of solos anyway so I'm gonna leave the arrangement as-is. I like how powerful and driving that part sounds with all 4 of the guitar parts I used and the bass in unison without the solo taking away from that. Anyways, how is the mix other than that? What is wrong with it and what steps could I possibly take to fix the things that don't sound good? I am new to this.
 
scrubs said:
NL5 - A pleasant textural surprise. Sort of a trashy modern sound (especially the drum mix). The panning of the guitars is quite cool.
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Well, patched up a few of the problems with my mix - pretty happy with it now - a few minor things I'd like to automate.



edited for bad mp3 encoding......
 
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BRIEFCASEMANX said:
I listened to it. I'm not a huge fan of solos anyway so I'm gonna leave the arrangement as-is. I like how powerful and driving that part sounds with all 4 of the guitar parts I used and the bass in unison without the solo taking away from that. Anyways, how is the mix other than that? What is wrong with it and what steps could I possibly take to fix the things that don't sound good? I am new to this.
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Well, it's impossible for me to give unbiased advice, but I'll offer my thoughts. I like the power of your mix. However, alot of the texture of the various parts get lost. You obviously made a conscious decision to focus on certain guitar parts, which is fine. I personally liked some of the more subtle textures that were available, but that's just me.

When all the guitars kick in, I cannot make out the vocal very well (which is common to several of the mixes). Not sure how to fix that, other than with compression and possibly some fader riding/automation. I'm not sure what I think of the delay on the vox. The EQ on the hat/tambourine was a little too bright for my taste. That's about all I noticed.

Thanks for taking the time to mix our song. It is greatly appreciated.
 
Here's my take on it..... I used most of the tracks at various points in and out of the mix -- and yes, I purposely only let the backgrounds poke through as colour/texture, rather than as distinct elements in favour of a punchier, less vocal-oriented mix. There's a lot going on and there isn't room for everything! I did approach it with the idea of going for thicker beds, rather than distinct elements.

Very cool tune -- it really screams for some real drums but I really like what everyone came up with... great work to all who were involved in its composition!! And man - great vocals!!!!

 
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Blue Bear Sound said:
Here's my take on it..... I used most of the tracks at various points in and out of the mix -- and yes, I purposely only let the backgrounds poke through as colour/texture, rather than as distinct elements in favour of a punchier, less vocal-oriented mix. There's a lot going on and there isn't room for everything!

Very cool tune -- it really screams for some real drums but I really like what everyone came up with... great work to all who were involved in its composition!! And man - great vocals!!!!

Click to expand...

OK - I think you by far fit all the guitar parts together, however, I still think it still sounds way too crowded (as you already said). You really did some cool stuff with all the guitar parts.

Can you explain what you did with the bass? I think I really need a sub on my monitors, as I can't really get the high and low parts of the bass part to balance (since I can't hear the bottom too well). Anyway, the bass sounds by far the best on your mix.

Finally, I totally agree about the drums - great performance, but the sound is severely lacking. (the original drummer was the exact opposite - dammit! :D )
 
NL5 said:
Well, patched up a few of the problems with my mix - pretty happy with it now - a few minor things I'd like to automate.

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Gunnar,

My comments were intended as a compliment, not a criticism, so I hope you took them the that way. The drums just sounded so different compared with the other mixes.

Anyway, I like the second mix, too.

And thanks again for the bandwidth. :)
 
NL5 said:
OK - I think you by far fit all the guitar parts together, however, I still think it still sounds way too crowded (as you already said). You really did some cool stuff with all the guitar parts.

Can you explain what you did with the bass? I think I really need a sub on my monitors, as I can't really get the high and low parts of the bass part to balance (since I can't hear the bottom too well). Anyway, the bass sounds by far the best on your mix.

Finally, I totally agree about the drums - great performance, but the sound is severely lacking. (the original drummer was the exact opposite - dammit! :D )
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I think we can lay to rest the criticism certain individuals have of Bruce's abilities. To me, and in my humble opinion, this far exceeds what I've heard so far. In fact, I want to download this for my CD.

Bruce, can you give me a 320 mp3 that I can download?

And I want to know what you did to the bass too!
 
scrubs said:
Gunnar,

My comments were intended as a compliment, not a criticism, so I hope you took them the that way. The drums just sounded so different compared with the other mixes.

Anyway, I like the second mix, too.

And thanks again for the bandwidth. :)
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Sorry, I guess the quote made it look like I was referring to the changes as per your review. However, in my first post, I had said there were a few issues to clean up - mainly the intro. So, I changed the intro, lowered the solo a bit, lowered the snare a bit, and made a slight adjustment to the guitar panning.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments :D

I know my mix is quite different than everyone elses, but I liked the "stripped" original sound best. I can't seem to fit all the guitars in without it sounding crowded - same with the back vox parts. I hope I didn't offend anyone leaving parts out - I really look forward to doing this again. Maybe even have a couple drummers, couple bass players, etc, - then everyone could mix and match parts and really have some diffrent sounding tracks.

This has really been a lot of fun!
 
Fuck, this is cool!!!! To everybody that's getting involved in this, I've got to offer a sincere "thank you". Stuff like this is the whole reason I wanted to get involved in music in the first place--lots of contributions, great constructive criticism, and a finished product that is definitely the sum of its parts. Nice work everybody (and thanks for putting up with the orphaned guitar solo!) And it can't be overstated enough--NL5 went WAY beyond coolness with everything he's done here.

I'm gonna go grab all the mixes now and have myself a good evening at work.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Here's my take on it..... I used most of the tracks at various points in and out of the mix -- and yes, I purposely only let the backgrounds poke through as colour/texture, rather than as distinct elements in favour of a punchier, less vocal-oriented mix. There's a lot going on and there isn't room for everything! I did approach it with the idea of going for thicker beds, rather than distinct elements.

Very cool tune -- it really screams for some real drums but I really like what everyone came up with... great work to all who were involved in its composition!! And man - great vocals!!!!

Click to expand...

Very nice work here, Bruce. Stands up well to repeated listens. Crowded, but not muddy. Everything seems to fit very well.

Do tell what your "special sauce" is for the bass. Don't tell me that shiny new board has a "sauce" dispenser. How about a beer tap? Also, please don't tell me that you reamped through an ART Tube MP :eek: ! That would be funny.
 
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Just listened to everybody's mixes and I'm digging this like a little kid. So far, the only thing I haven't liked is the egregious timing fuckup in the middle of my solo! (hey, it seemed to work with the scratch tracks :eek: ) Scrubs, your vocals are ridiculously good--any kudos coming to you are well-deserved. And ocnor, that was really cool harmonizing on the solo--I feel like we should be doing some Iron Maiden covers!
 
Hope this isn't too late. Here is my rendition of this way cool song.


Thanks for giving me the chance to take something like this on. It was fun. I've never worked with that much music!! 6 tracks max before. And the other mixes have been too cool.

Thanx to geet73 for hosting this for me. I wasn't sure where I was going to put it,(in my ass maybe?) but he solved that.

Bob
 
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