AHAH moment in mixing

[banjo71]

I learned something from listening to some of my favorite bluegrass acoustic music. Probably everyone knows how to do this except me. Now I do, though. I noticed the higher frequency instruments were compressed differently than the vocals and differently from the bass. I used to compress the whole mix without separating the bands. What I got was the bass bringing everything down with it, and a muddy 300Hz.

I kept listening and the bass rolled along smoothly while the banjo, mandolin, guitar seemed on a different compression level. And the vocals had their own sound too.

So I combined the vocals into one auxiliary channel, the banjo, mandolin and guitar into another, and the bass was by itself. Wala, I think I'm getting somewhere now. Much dryer mix without the smooshy lows.

Once I built my template mixer for this set up, which takes longer than anything!! I finally took 2 hrs and tracked the instruments and sang the vocals. Another 2 hrs later I came up with this.

Any comments welcome. I'm just learning this stuff. I appreciate you guys listening to it.
Back to the Cross - Banjo Hangout Jukebox

 

[Big Thier]

To me, the picky banjo is too loud, as well as the vocals. I like the vocal melody.

 

[JimmyS1969]

To me, the picky banjo is too loud, as well as the vocals. I like the vocal melody.

Agreed. The acoustic solo is also quiet. Sounds really good as far as performance. I have not heard your previous versions but it does seem you are getting close.

 

[Robus]

Also agreed. The acoustic guitar level is all over the place. Sometimes it steps on the vocal, other times it is too soft. Good playing. If all the treble instruments are on one compressor bus, check to see if compression is causing the guitar to pop in and out.