"Cool" - original song - comments welcome!

The Niz

The Niz

New member
Hi,

My band's newest song is called "Cool".
It's recorded on a Tascam MS16 analog sixteentrack taperecorder and mixed to stereo on HD via an E-MU 1820m A/D convertor set to max resolution (24bit/192kHz).



All comments and feedback are welcome!

Greetings,
The Niz
Basic Idea
 
Some more tech info

Gear used:

Guitar parts are done using a Chevy stratocaster through a Marshall JMP 50W combo, then into a Marshall SE100 Speaker Emulation ==> Topaz Project 8 desk ==> tape.
FX used: Ibanez MS10 Metal Charger for all distortion parts, old Vox Wah for solo 1, Digitech Whammy II + Ibanez PT909 Phaser + Ibanez SC10 Chorus + Boss DD5 Delay for solo 2.

Bass is DI'd straight into desk and to tape.
Drums are a Roland TD-K6 drumkit.
All synth parts are done with a Korg Polysix (a real one, no softsynth).
Vocals and tambourine are performed through a Studio Projects C1.

All comments on mix or song are welcome.

Greetz,
Dominique
 
A nice song !

The mix sucks :-)

Its way too overcompressed, Max RMS-level=8 avarage=8.5, try to keep it around 14-10.
The lowend is a mess, its masking a lot of the songs feeling and this is the reason for the muddy sound !
Cut the 50-100Hz area and some around 300Hz that might help a bit.

Did you overuse a limiter on the master bus ?
Most of the stuff sits well in the mix, but as I said its
WAY TOO OVERCOMPRESSED

Dirk
 
Cool! (sorry, it had to be done)

Holy master bus limiter, Batman! Decent mix otherwise, a tiny bit of reverb on the vocals might help it sit better in the mix. I agree with Vaquero about the low end. The limiter is pumping like crazy in the low end, which is distorting it even more. The level relationships are good though, nothing is overpowering. Good performance, especially in the synth work. I need to get my hand on one of those Polysixes. There's actually a Japanese band called Polysics who are completely amazing and I assume they get their name from this synth. But I digress. Raise the threshold on that limiter a bit, and the bass will sound better. Key the bass to the kick drum and that might clear up some of that low end gunk.

I really dig the song, and this type of music should be compressed quite a bit, but you really have to know EXACTLY what you're doing with the compressor to get a good final volume.
 
You know what: you're right!

Thanks to Dirk and IronFlippy for taking the time to comment!
You are so right!

This is what happened: once mixed to 2-tracks, I've normalized the volume of the resulting wav to come to the same "loudness" of my other tracks and I have overdone it here. When clipping occurs during this normalization, there is dynamic compression applied. And quite some got applied I'm affraid...

I thought it souded kinda okay at first, but the last weeks I've had an overkill of listening to this song, I couldn't judge it objectively anymore (if that is possible with your own songs at all - but you know what I mean) - I should have waited a couple of weeks before doing this, to have a clear head and fresh ears. That's the advantage of hiring a producer I suppose :-)

When listening now, I totally agree with you guys. I will try to fix the original mixdown (before normalizing - I save everything at every step of the process :-)) and try to fix this the digital way, because I think that the mix itself and the balance between the different tracks is quit good.

About the reverb on the lead vox: there is reverb applied, but indeed, no longer audible in this rather busy mix. I'm thinking about EQ the mids a tad so the vox are lowered in volume and will sit better in the mix. I'l try this first, if all things fail and I need to redo the mixdown I will put a very short delay on the vocal to make it stand out more.

I'll keep you updated on any changes/progress. Further comments welcome!

Greetings,
The Niz
 
Last edited:
I agree with the above comments, the tune came on blaring compared to the previous tracks I listened. Nothing wrong with getting a quieter mix that's better (although I'm always guilty of this anyway) Anyway, nothing to add on top of the above advice, just wanted to say I think the tune kicks ass. Fun catchy tune with good writing, especially like the synth tone and lines. The lead guitar tone/effects in the solos rock too. Just fix up that mix some, cause you have the tune down fine! :D
 
New improved version online!!!

Hi all,

I've just redone the mastering part and you can find the result here:


Comments? Better like this?
Thanks in advance guys!

Greetz,
The Niz
BASIC IDEA
 
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