Apologies, need a sanity check...

LDS

LDS

New member
Hi everyone.

This is my first try at mid/side on acoustic guitar.

I'm not sure about the balance between the acoustic and electric guitars. Most of the acoustic tracks are doubled on electric, and the guitarist keeps wanting the acoustic turned down to where I consider it basically inaudible. What is represented here is our compromise on that.

Acoustic was tracked with a Blue Reactor for the side and an MXL992 for the mid.
Electrics were just a 57 on the speaker cab.
Bass is a Gold Tone Micro Bass Electric direct through an ART TPS.
Drums were with a CAD drum mic set with 57s on snare top and bottom and MXL 603s for overheads and the Blue Reactor along with a pair of MXL 992s for room mics with a bit of compression on the way in with a Presonus ACP88.
Vocals were the Blue Reactor through the ART TPS.

I'm fairly happy with the mix, but could definitely use more sets of ears and any advice.

Thanks!

View attachment Apologies FM001 2016-06-23.mp3
 
not a fan of the huge verb tail on the vocal, and it sits worse during the heavy part. guitars all sound really good. didn't like the hi-hat at all, but cymbals sounded great. can't hear much of the bass.
 
I think this sounds pretty epic.
I see what you're saying about the reverb tail. I can't decide whether I like it or not. I'm generally a fan of lots of reverb though. I think that's a lot of what makes this song sound epic to me.
I agree the guitars sound amazing.
I feel like maybe the guitars are a hair too loud in the quieter sections of the song. They get in the way of the vocals a bit in my opinion.
Good sound, great sounding singer and great vocal performance.
 
Very nice playing. Vocal could come up for me. It sounds like the bass is masking your vocal here and there. I'm not a fan of that wet, overdriven guitar tone. It sounds like the over-FXs preset on an amp sim or modeling amp.
 
First off, great vocal! I wish I could do half as well. The entire mix sounds just a little muffled. IMO it could use a bit of a high boost. especially the vocal to make it stand out above the instruments. By doing that it might add a little more depth over all.
Great song overall. Like I said the vocal is killer!
 
Vocal verb sounded good. I agree with others, guitars could come down a bit. I thought the hi hat would sound better if lowered. Overall, pretty nice sound/mix.
 
Hmmm... Yeah, you've got some nice tones going on here, but the mix isn't quite in the right place.

I'd take that high-hat way down. It's the second most prominent voice in the quiet part. The rest of the balance in that section seems pretty good tho.
I'd scale back the 'verb on the vox during the quiet part. It's too wet relative to everything else; it doesn't sound like the same space.
Drums and distorted guitar need to come up during the heavy part. The guitar needs to be much louder to bump up the energy in that section, and the snare especially needs to be louder to drive the song. (The kick actually sits pretty well in that section)
 
Robus said:
Very nice playing. Vocal could come up for me. It sounds like the bass is masking your vocal here and there. I'm not a fan of that wet, overdriven guitar tone. It sounds like the over-FXs preset on an amp sim or modeling amp.
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First off, thanks everyone for the feedback!

The singer is a good friend of mine, I've known him for years, but this is the first time we've been in a band together. He're really insecure about his vocals, likes them drenched in reverb and really low. I've had to fight to get him to accept as much level as it has right now, but I agree.

I think I know where you mean when you say the bass is masking the vocal. I've been on the fence about changing the bass part. What we do live isn't working well. Hmmm... I guess that wold mean it's probably not working well live either.

Yeah, both the guitarists love their multi-effects with amp modeling. For a couple of other tracks we went through just an overdrive into an old Silvertone tube amp and a Peavy Valve King. I much prefer those guitar sounds.
 
andrushkiwt said:
not a fan of the huge verb tail on the vocal, and it sits worse during the heavy part. guitars all sound really good. didn't like the hi-hat at all, but cymbals sounded great. can't hear much of the bass.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

That's actually a lot drier that the singer originally wanted.

Lots of comments on the hi-hat, definitely an area to revise. I can't recall offhand if the hi-hat mic is even in the mix.

I have a tendency to put my bass parts pretty far back.
 
moptop said:
First off, great vocal! I wish I could do half as well. The entire mix sounds just a little muffled. IMO it could use a bit of a high boost. especially the vocal to make it stand out above the instruments. By doing that it might add a little more depth over all.
Great song overall. Like I said the vocal is killer!
Click to expand...

Thank you!

I'll play around with that!
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Hmmm... Yeah, you've got some nice tones going on here, but the mix isn't quite in the right place.

I'd take that high-hat way down. It's the second most prominent voice in the quiet part. The rest of the balance in that section seems pretty good tho.
I'd scale back the 'verb on the vox during the quiet part. It's too wet relative to everything else; it doesn't sound like the same space.
Drums and distorted guitar need to come up during the heavy part. The guitar needs to be much louder to bump up the energy in that section, and the snare especially needs to be louder to drive the song. (The kick actually sits pretty well in that section)
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Like I mentioned previously, I don't think I'm even using the hi-hat mic. I dunno, maybe duck the OHs with it? I definitely need to look at that though.

I can probably get away with bringing the 'verb down during the quiet part. The singer was not happy when I brought it down to where it is now, LOL!

I agree on the heavy part. The group-think was that the mastering guy is going to be able to fix that, but I'm with you.

I appreciate all the feedback, and will use it to make some tweaks!
 
LDS said:
I agree on the heavy part. The group-think was that the mastering guy is going to be able to fix that, but I'm with you.
Click to expand...

It might accomplish the opposite, in fact! The normal trend is to reduce dynamics during mastering.
 
Generally it's nice song and a decent mix. Very nice guitar playing.

The reverb on things, to me, is way too big. The amount (wet/dry mix) was OK. But it's this great big Carnegie Hall sounding verb. To me, this is a somewhat intimate piece of music. And a medium sized room reverb would be better suited than what you have.

The acoustic guitar has a little stronger low end than I'd personally prefer. I would roll off a little (more) of the low end. Not by much, but a bit.

The high-hat is a couple of db's too loud.

I heard a lipsmack at about 2:11.

The electric guitars lack a little bit of power. I think there is a little too much gain dialed in. And not quite enough low end.

I think I'm being more critical than I should be. I think it's a decent mix.
 
F%^* those electric guitar players/divas, jk. Actually, it sounds like it's more "taking turns", with the acoustic vs electric presence debate anyway, as each takes a turn with prominence. I'm happy with the ALL guitar levels - now let's work on that snare, as it needs more "wack" in the heavy section. You could trigger a vst snare, or physically play one and merge it with the existing snare.
Great singing!
(Update - "final mix" has more snare now - but it now has too much attention, and doesn't match the over-gained guitars in the heavy section)
 
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Just as an aside, am I the only one that noticed the vocalists vibrato and the right dist guitar really fight each other...some EQ there or a different guitar tone would really work.
Final mix is REALLY solid. The bass is not too loud, but has too much ?150-180? there's a boominess to it.
This guy has no right to be shy about his voice. :)
 
I like the song a lot and singer does very well. Listening on crappy computer speakers....I agree on what most have said so far. High hat down a couple notches, distorted guitars up a little too. Sounds like vocals may have just a touch too much presence but that could just be my system. I can hear the reverb pretty clearly on the lead vocals and it sounds like a little much for my taste and could even be muddying the mix up a little.
 
That's an outstanding vocal, seems like something in the signal chain might not be doing it justice though. Maybe try a different mic or pre on the next one?

I think you might widen the acoustic image more if you wanted, it seems only about as wide as the drums right now.

Edit: Oops I didn't realize you had a more recent mix, these comments are for the mix in the first post.
 
easlern said:
That's an outstanding vocal, seems like something in the signal chain might not be doing it justice though. Maybe try a different mic or pre on the next one?

I think you might widen the acoustic image more if you wanted, it seems only about as wide as the drums right now.

Edit: Oops I didn't realize you had a more recent mix, these comments are for the mix in the first post.
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I did the same thing, eastern - It would be helpful if people put their most recent mix on the OP (use edit feature?), so that we can critique from the get-go.
 
Some of us are still used to the old system where after a couple days or a week or whatever, you couldn't edit a post. Just habit to put it in a new post lower down...I just did the same thing and am realizing I'd better go back and post the second clip in my OP. :facepalm:
 
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