NL5
Unpossible!
Any/all comments and critiques welcome. I posted a rough version of this a while back....
Thanks!
Thanks!
greyharmonix
*....*
i liked this very much. good stuff
M
Marcadiablo
Still a newbie
Very good! I could add a couple of things. I find the drums a little off sometimes and in some fills and stuff. Also I could use the snare a little more up front with less reverb. The second voice collides too much with the main vocals. Maybe adding a little verb and panning it could take care of that. I really dig the mix otherwise. Its really very very well recorded. Love your sound, man.
D
dodgeaspen
New member
Man this is really good. I think the cymbals need to be more bright. I also think the complete mix is a little flat. I think in the beginning the vocals clip for a second.
NL5
Unpossible!
Thanks!
Thanks! The drums are completely hacked up, except for some of the fills. I didn't want to try and deconstruct the fills. I picked the best ones, and made the best I could with them, and was hoping they weren't too bad. A couple still bug me, but I ran out of time and just got too frustrated with editing the drums.
Thanks! They vocals don't clip, but I know what you're hearing. I thought I got it nearly inaudible, but after the master, it is a bit too noticeable.
What do you mean by "the mix is flat"?
Chili
Site Moderator
Yeah, a nice song. I really like the bass instrument in the intro. What is it and what did you do for eq'ing it?
I agree with the comment about the 2nd voice part. It should not share center pan with the lead vocal. And I think you've got room for creativity with that part. You can have each response coming from different 'angles' or something like that to add more to the song.
Cool man.
I agree with the comment about the 2nd voice part. It should not share center pan with the lead vocal. And I think you've got room for creativity with that part. You can have each response coming from different 'angles' or something like that to add more to the song.
Cool man.
NL5
Unpossible!
The intro has two synth parts, a bass guitar part, an 808, and piano. I assume you mean the low synth part. It's from Reason. Not sure of the name of it - but I can check if that is the part you are talking about. I didn't eq it at all, but it is running thru a reverb send pretty hot (pre-fader) with the fader pulled all the way down IIRC.
D
dodgeaspen
New member
Thanks!
Thanks! The drums are completely hacked up, except for some of the fills. I didn't want to try and deconstruct the fills. I picked the best ones, and made the best I could with them, and was hoping they weren't too bad. A couple still bug me, but I ran out of time and just got too frustrated with editing the drums.
Thanks! They vocals don't clip, but I know what you're hearing. I thought I got it nearly inaudible, but after the master, it is a bit too noticeable.
By flat I just mean that I would add some eq to the highs.
T
TheStickman
Member
Vocals came thru nicely. Drums, especially the cymbals sounded very muddy to me. I would put some reverb on the 2nd vocal at the end but that's a personal preference kind of thing.
Overall the mix needs a touch more bottom end and a touch more highs to make my ears happy campers.
Overall the mix needs a touch more bottom end and a touch more highs to make my ears happy campers.
K
Kainz
New member
Yup, mix is quite nice but it is indeed a bit "flat". Bit like a house wich has its roof only half made, this is quite obivous if you listen it on the sweet spot in a good room. Sounds somehow like something would be in front of your tweeters 
Vocal is bit unclear too, though it is hard to say what happens if you tweak the highs at the masterting stage thought - it might pop perfectly. I'd throw some nice shelf or baxandall up there to help with the overall air/sparkle and maby bit clarity/presence around 3.5-5.5k to pop the singer throught a tad better. The vox has a good 3d positioning.
On the other hand you might achieve it more naturally by clearing some room for the vocals. Guitar and drumroom/OH mask the singer a bit. Overall he could use some clearing at low mids: bit room for him to sing around ~1.25k-1.5k and ~280-380, and maby the ~3.5-5.5k boost to pop him throught if still needed. You might want to play around with it bit more to get him really show up loud and clear.
I like the overall panning and reverb usage, nice depth. I'm not big fan of the 2nd vox though, it is sitting exactly at the same frequency, dynamic and depth range as the main singer and they do overlap a lot and it is kinda disturbing at least for me - dunno if this is intentional? I would those add vocals back with high and low cut + some verb.
Bit too much critit really heh.. actually, apart from the high end, it is actually very solid mix, good job
P.S.
Hope you don't mind: Song77
Vocal is bit unclear too, though it is hard to say what happens if you tweak the highs at the masterting stage thought - it might pop perfectly. I'd throw some nice shelf or baxandall up there to help with the overall air/sparkle and maby bit clarity/presence around 3.5-5.5k to pop the singer throught a tad better. The vox has a good 3d positioning.
On the other hand you might achieve it more naturally by clearing some room for the vocals. Guitar and drumroom/OH mask the singer a bit. Overall he could use some clearing at low mids: bit room for him to sing around ~1.25k-1.5k and ~280-380, and maby the ~3.5-5.5k boost to pop him throught if still needed. You might want to play around with it bit more to get him really show up loud and clear.
I like the overall panning and reverb usage, nice depth. I'm not big fan of the 2nd vox though, it is sitting exactly at the same frequency, dynamic and depth range as the main singer and they do overlap a lot and it is kinda disturbing at least for me - dunno if this is intentional? I would those add vocals back with high and low cut + some verb.
Bit too much critit really heh.. actually, apart from the high end, it is actually very solid mix, good job
P.S.
Hope you don't mind: Song77
Last edited:
rayc
retroreprobate
Nice work mate!
It may need just a little top end - but it's probably my h/phones.
There's a little Buffalo Tom in the arrangement - particularly the guitars in the chorus.
It may need just a little top end - but it's probably my h/phones.
There's a little Buffalo Tom in the arrangement - particularly the guitars in the chorus.
NL5
Unpossible!
Thanks guys.
The song has been mastered - and the funny (or not so funny) thing is, this is after I twisted his arm to make it brighter, and after I brought the level up. He made it too dark, and way too quiet.
Kainz - yeah, you actually did a better job than the guy we paid to do it....
Lesson learned (again) - I'll just stick to mastering stuff myself......
The song has been mastered - and the funny (or not so funny) thing is, this is after I twisted his arm to make it brighter, and after I brought the level up. He made it too dark, and way too quiet.
Kainz - yeah, you actually did a better job than the guy we paid to do it....
Lesson learned (again) - I'll just stick to mastering stuff myself......
X
XLR
______
Nice work on the mix NL5.
And good balance on your master, Kainz.
And good balance on your master, Kainz.
K
Kainz
New member
Thanks guys.
The song has been mastered - and the funny (or not so funny) thing is, this is after I twisted his arm to make it brighter, and after I brought the level up. He made it too dark, and way too quiet.
Kainz - yeah, you actually did a better job than the guy we paid to do it....
Lesson learned (again) - I'll just stick to mastering stuff myself......
Ah thats too bad.. imho that was rather lousy mastering you had there
Guess the mastering engineer had a bad day or something (or then he might not be exactly "master grade" enough
). But oh well.. you can always do it yourself better. Some money wasted though.. What I did took about 1-2 minutes: I loaded the track into Reaper and used the stock ReaEQ and boosted few spots and cut the mud away around ~285hz or so. The intention was just to test out if my ears were telling me the right things. And the EQ is all I did; I think 3 or 4 bands of parametric EQ aimed approximately at the ballpark, nothing else.
On the other hand I'd fix all those things inside the mix and the result would be much better than trying to do it at the mastering stage
NL5
Unpossible!
Ah thats too bad.. imho that was rather lousy mastering you had there
Guess the mastering engineer had a bad day or something (or then he might not be exactly "master grade" enough
What I did took about 1-2 minutes: I loaded the track into Reaper and used the stock ReaEQ and boosted few spots and cut the mud away around ~285hz or so. The intention was just to test out if my ears were telling me the right things. And the EQ is all I did; I think 3 or 4 bands of parametric EQ aimed approximately at the ballpark, nothing else.
On the other hand I'd fix all those things inside the mix and the result would be much better than trying to do it at the mastering stage
Hmmmm. I'll have to take a look when we do the album version. I'm not sure where the mud is coming from - most everything is hi-passed at 300hz, and whats left got scooped at ~300 - save for the vocal. That's the only real place it could be coming from - or the piano I guess........they are the only two things that could be causing it.
Seafroggys
Well-known member
Bass rumbles my subs! Pretty insane. Vocals seem a bit flat, and fairly typical modern rock fare.
K
Kainz
New member
It is a bit hard to point out exactly what is stepping over the vocals, but I'd say it is the bass. Though, it might be just some build up from piano+bass together. Nevertheless, at least to my ear, it masks the vocal bit too much - robbing the clarity from it.
Here is a version with and without the cut, listen the clarity of the vocals. Small cut, big difference (at least for me heh).
And this is what I did to it: (found the thing from Reaper's backups hehe)
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/kainz/77.jpg (showing the cut "tab")
NL5
Unpossible!
Ya know - I actually like the "no-cut" version better. There is not enough meat in the vocal with the cut. After listening to those though, I think it's just a bit of mud in the piano and maybe bass (although the bass has a pretty hefty cut right in that area)
I also think Seafroggies is right, the sub bass is a bit much. I had to crank this out due to a deadline, and spent so many hours getting the drums anywhere close to being in time, that I really missed a few things that I thought would be pretty simple to fix in mastering. (really just a bit of under 60 hz rumble, and putting some sparkle in the highs). This is going on a compilation as is, but the album version is going to be cleaned up a bit, and the back vocals at the end will be replaced by a gal hopefully.....
K
Kainz
New member
Ye, the slight mud is definately coming from the piano. I don't know why I didn't nail it immediately. You'll hear it easily at the intro when there is only a piano playing. And yup, that cut was kind of a fast compromise - the best approach would be of course to fix it in the mix and cut a tad from the piano and thus save the meat in the vox.
Your ideas for the future of it sound nice. Big thumbs up for the baground vocal plans, creates some nice textural movement too. Good luck with it =)
LeeRosario
New member
good track. Very counting crows...
I think the drums have come up a bit. Strictly talking about the mix...
The drums seem to loose umf in places where the song feels like it's climbing. Possibly more in the areas of timing, compression and eq. The overheads and toms seem to bring out that loss.
Perhaps "bigger" eq and compression (less boxy) on the toms and harder compression on the overheads to pull them back in the mix...creating a less small room feel.
The snare could use more snap, but I think it's a matter of taste. A little more focused.
Great tones.
I think the drums have come up a bit. Strictly talking about the mix...
The drums seem to loose umf in places where the song feels like it's climbing. Possibly more in the areas of timing, compression and eq. The overheads and toms seem to bring out that loss.
Perhaps "bigger" eq and compression (less boxy) on the toms and harder compression on the overheads to pull them back in the mix...creating a less small room feel.
The snare could use more snap, but I think it's a matter of taste. A little more focused.
Great tones.