Beatles Cover - Come Together ... check the mix?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jndietz
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Personally, I could use some bass guitar highs (if that makes sense :)) but the way it is now sounds good still. Everything else seems to be nicely mixed. This is a killer version - kudos to all the players for a kickass performance....:cool:
 
Hi...
Robust arrangement and ballsy, powerful vocals. The good news is that the vox and guitars sound great, the guitars are crunchy and mesmerizing, and have sort of an LA satin finish to them. Vocally, I hate that you can hit that high D. :)

The bad news? The drums and bass are squashed by compression and limiting so severely that all signs of life have left them. The kick is nonexistent, the snare sounds like you're hitting a stack of magazines, the cymbaks are just a wash of phasey generation-lossy sounding artifact. I can't feel the bass guitar at all, though I can hear that it's there, sort of. This is a wonderful performance, mushed into nonexistence by a mixing/mastering engineer who I suspect may be a guitarist with a grudge against drummers and bass players. :)
 
Llarion said:
Hi...
Robust arrangement and ballsy, powerful vocals. The good news is that the vox and guitars sound great, the guitars are crunchy and mesmerizing, and have sort of an LA satin finish to them. Vocally, I hate that you can hit that high D. :)

The bad news? The drums and bass are squashed by compression and limiting so severely that all signs of life have left them. The kick is nonexistent, the snare sounds like you're hitting a stack of magazines, the cymbaks are just a wash of phasey generation-lossy sounding artifact. I can't feel the bass guitar at all, though I can hear that it's there, sort of. This is a wonderful performance, mushed into nonexistence by a mixing/mastering engineer who I suspect may be a guitarist with a grudge against drummers and bass players. :)
Click to expand...

That is interesting about the drums. There is no compression being applied really anywhere except on the kick and the snare (which is readily apparent with the snap it makes). There is nothing on the drum bus (no transient plugin, limiter, compressor).

So I should take the rhythm section down a bit, yeah? I put a hi-pass on the bass because I was getting lots of low-end problems (<38Hz). I might not make that so extreme so that you can "feel" the bass instead of only hearing it.

Thanks for the important input!
 
Llarion said:
The bad news? The drums and bass are squashed by compression and limiting so severely that all signs of life have left them. The kick is nonexistent, the snare sounds like you're hitting a stack of magazines, the cymbaks are just a wash of phasey generation-lossy sounding artifact.
Click to expand...

It is a good performance.....But, man, those drums sound like a typewriter. You might have only compressed the kik and snare, but you could have severely over did it. Either that, or you EQ'd the life out of them. The cymbals/hi-hat are exactly as Llarion described them.

Not trying to come down hard on you, but the drums are really holding this back from being a really good cover of a great tune.

How did you mic the drums?
 
Typewriter Snare....yeah, agree

Everything else sounds great though!

My only gripe with this type of arrangement is that the chorus has no extra oomph when there's always guitars churning. In the original the chorus had extra oomph because the drums and guitar kick in.
 
Miked the kic, snare top, two OH in XY, two room, and four spot mikes for toms.

I turned the room up and it sounded a little better, but still kind of phasey on the OH. I wonder if the OH and the room are causing this phasiness. I did kind of EQ the snare a lot. But didn't do a whole lot to the kick drum...mostly booster the beater frequencies and didn't touch anything else. Compressed the hell out of the snare, really, but I didn't really think so much on the kick drum.
 
On a side note...does anyone know how to license cover songs? We'd like to play this on a local radio station at noon when all they play is covers. However, we need to get the legalities of the matter figured out first.

Any tips or guidance? I looked into HFA to get a mechanical license, but is that all we need? Do we need to have the Beatles publisher give us permission?

Thanks
 
if the radio station has an ASCAP or BMI license, you're good to go.
 
Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure with the Harry Fox lisence, you can even sell a pre-determined amount legally.
 
jndietz said:
Hi everyone...was wondering if you guys could check the mix on this recording. Hope you guys enjoy it too :)

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=20305
Click to expand...
Ok, for starters that was pretty cool! One of, if not the first cover of this song I have heard somebody do that didn't just sound like the original with somebody elses voice tacked on it. I really liked it. There are a few things I could recommend. First off, the vocals are too dry for my taste. I think it would benefit a lot from a little subtle stereo delay. During the break where you are doing the whole Steven Tyler thing, I think you could have some heavier delay (as apposed to the subtle delay on the rest of the mix that I suggested), and the on the words "Over me" double track it, and add a sustained delay on a quarter beat on the word me. On the very end of the song where you repeat come together, add some heavy echo to give it some space, and maybe if you wanted, add some strange washy sliding guitars or something. This is not really mix advice, beacuse the mix is perfect as is. These are just personal tastes that I would like to hear done if you ever felt like playin around. Great job by the way! :D

-Adam.
 
first of all, this is a really cool version...kind of a Soundgarden covers Beatles.

i'm not crazy with the sound of the drums. i'm not all super familiar with this type of music, but they sound like little tiny pops as opposed to loud-in-your-face-rock-drums. maybe it's my headphones, but I'd love to hear them sound more like drums than someone throwing snap-pops in rhythm on the ground. the symbols sound like they're all panned to one side which i thought was a little odd.

the bass also seems like someone rolled off all the the lows.

anyhoo...don't take me the wrong way, this is sweet as hell, i'm just not crazy with the drum sound and it seems like it's lacking a lot of balls below 200hz
 
jndietz said:
Miked the kic, snare top, two OH in XY, two room, and four spot mikes for toms.

I turned the room up and it sounded a little better, but still kind of phasey on the OH. I wonder if the OH and the room are causing this phasiness. I did kind of EQ the snare a lot. But didn't do a whole lot to the kick drum...mostly booster the beater frequencies and didn't touch anything else. Compressed the hell out of the snare, really, but I didn't really think so much on the kick drum.
Click to expand...

Yes, your room and OH are fighting, that's the cymbal problem then. If you didn't compress, then like Rami intimated, you EQed, or the spot and OH are fighting phase.
 
Well, first off: kick ass performance. definitely love where you took this song.

Yeah, like everyone is saying, there's major problems with the kick and bass. My sub-woofer should be thumping, but it's not doing anything. I think you've got mostly beater click and no ooomph.

vocals don't sit well with the rest of the mix. That might be resolved once you get your low end squared away.

good job, look forward to a remix!!!
 
Great version. The vocals and guitars make the performance. You're the guitarist right? Very nice.

jndietz said:
I looked into HFA to get a mechanical license, but is that all we need? Do we need to have the Beatles publisher give us permission?

Thanks
Click to expand...
The mechanical license is for distribution of copies of the recording, not live performance. If you do the mech licence through HFA you don't have any dealings with the copyright holder directly. That was my experience with them. And IME, live performance and airplay copyright issues have always been the responsibility of the presenter, not the performer.
 
Here's the remixed version. Tried adding a little more body to the snare, turned the overheads way down, and actually turned the room up a little bit. Boosted the kick frequencies at 60Hz and now have a nice thump going. Play a little bit with the bass guitar by adding more lows to it and I think I might have turned it up a bit too. Guitars weren't really touched except for the volume.

Let me know...thanks everyone :)

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=20325
 
jndietz said:
Here's the remixed version. Tried adding a little more body to the snare, turned the overheads way down, and actually turned the room up a little bit. Boosted the kick frequencies at 60Hz and now have a nice thump going. Play a little bit with the bass guitar by adding more lows to it and I think I might have turned it up a bit too. Guitars weren't really touched except for the volume.

Let me know...thanks everyone :)

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=20325
Click to expand...
Very nice. It sounds like you took a bit of my advice, because the Vox doesn't sound near as dry. It sits very well, and the song has a lot more bite! Very good! Two thumbs up!

-Adam.
 
Very cool remake! The drums still sound a little strange. But all in all the mix is much better then the first. Excellent job.
 
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