Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Hi, how does this mix sound your end? First song here called Country Mile.
Thanks for listening and any advice
Thanks for listening and any advice
Last edited:
dobro
Well-known member
Earbuddery:
The lyrics drop out at certain points, like at: "...and the ability to turn back time". If you got New York compression on the vocal track, turn up the compressed track. If you don't have NY compression on the vocal, put it on. (Alternately, automate.)
The hammond is brilliant. It could hit a dB lower when it comes in - the whole thing about organ is the swell.
You've done something interesting here - without sounding like Dylan, this one reminds me of Dylan, maybe around the Nashville Skyline era or New Morning. I love those albums.
Also, I vote for another dB or two on the bass. But I *have* been drinking wine...
The lyrics drop out at certain points, like at: "...and the ability to turn back time". If you got New York compression on the vocal track, turn up the compressed track. If you don't have NY compression on the vocal, put it on. (Alternately, automate.)
The hammond is brilliant. It could hit a dB lower when it comes in - the whole thing about organ is the swell.
You've done something interesting here - without sounding like Dylan, this one reminds me of Dylan, maybe around the Nashville Skyline era or New Morning. I love those albums.
Also, I vote for another dB or two on the bass. But I *have* been drinking wine...
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
M
mcmac74
Active member
I don't have any advice in particular...mix seemed balanced enjoyed the song and production...had a listen to your other stuff too and thought it was really good..cool laid back vibe and interesting voice ?
Mark
Mark
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
No worries, thanks. I think you might have listened to another song. This one's been down a couple of days. I just mixed it again and put it back up.
Trichter
Member
Sounds good. For the snare transient peaks you showed in that picture. I wouldn't bother too much. In the end it can be squashed with a limiter. The snare hits are a very percussive sound and the transients are (by definition) short time periods, so there will be no big loss in quality for the song overall.
dobro
Well-known member
Monitorism:
Voice and bass seem right.
The snare really pops, but I don't hear much of the kick.
What happens if you don't pan the organ both left and right? What if it's just left, for instance, opposite that guitar on the right?
I've figured out something that reminds me of those Dylan albums - this tune's cheerful. Impressive.
Voice and bass seem right.
The snare really pops, but I don't hear much of the kick.
What happens if you don't pan the organ both left and right? What if it's just left, for instance, opposite that guitar on the right?
I've figured out something that reminds me of those Dylan albums - this tune's cheerful. Impressive.
R
RFR
Well-known member
Can’t critically comment on mix, but on my iPhone it sounds fine.
But I must say you have a substantial body of work ??
But I must say you have a substantial body of work ??
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Thanks. The thing is...that image was the final mixdown (of one of the earlier mixes) so the limiter had not dealt with them at all it looks like. The thing concerning me was that my idea of mixbus compression is to glue things into a cohesive unit...but with these crazy snare spikes I get the feeling the body of the song is not really even being addressed by the stereo compression...only the peaks. The makeup gain is turning up these peaks and the body of the mix/ song doesn't get glued. What I worked out is that (I use ezDrummer) the overhead channel contains 99% of the snare/ kick volume and tone. The individual snare/ kick channels could literally be muted in my DAW and nothing would change regarding the kick and snare volume and tone in the drum bus. Crazy! So I realised that my problems were not on the snare and kick channels (I spent 3 days putting every plugin known to man on the snare channel...for nil result)...but in the OH's. At that point I had options...a) turn off all bleed in EZD, lower the OH's then mixdown to audio, b) do nothing to the EZD mixer, mixdown to audio then high pass the OH channel so that it largely eliminates the kick and snare, leaving the cymbals and hihats etc.
Funny you mention the kick. The last thing I did in the mix was turn it down by about 5db because I thought it was too loud. I tell you it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll...from your spare room...alone. The organ...I didn't try that. Thought about it but decided to just leave it alone in case smoke started coming out of something and I was engulfed in flames.
Thanks man. I'm trying to get good at mixing. One thing I'm quite sure of...a bad, amateur mix can absolutely kill all the work done to write and record what should be simple 2 or 3 minute songs. I mean I'm not assembling a 40 piece band here. It's 4 or 5 tracks/ parts. Amazing how easy it is to throw the old anchor right through the middle of the deck and scuttle everything to the bottom of the sea.
dobro
Well-known member
That's what this place is for. More ears.
Well, that might happen.
The organ part is wonderful - it's a great tune that sort of spreads its wings when the organ comes in. So, whatever you do with it is gonna sound good. What caught my attention is how it spreads itself across the stereo field, unlike everything else in the mix - everything else has its own pan position, like a band on a stage.
K
K-dub
Well-known member
Kick is buried. Snare is "blunted" ... like it's under a towel. Mostly my issue is the "sound" of the drums. They're muted and sound like they're on the other side of the sound baffling.
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
I find the whole low end and I guess much of the mid range (I have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm just roughly stating frequencies) to be somewhat woolly. And when I say "somewhat", I mean "quite". The bass guitar is indistinct and kind of overblown with no articulate tonal quality...it's boomy or wooly and the drums are awash down there somewhere too. I can hear that in a laptop and on the 5 inch speakers I use in my TV room now. But in my studio headphones and monitors it didn't seem so bad at the time.
That's why I find mixing so very, very difficult. I can't rely on what I'm hearing in my studio. My mixing skills and experience are novice. The room treatment is amateur and the room is a cosy...and what I mean by "cosy" is "boxy and riddled with standing waves" 4x3m. I'm pushing something up hill. I can smell it.
K
K-dub
Well-known member
My room treatment is "bedroom decorated by my wife". The thing to learn is where each instrument's "signature frequencies" lie. By that, what I mean is what distinguishes their sound as their sound. Then accentuate that. For instance, an acoustic guitar sounds most like an acoustic guitar in and around the 3k range. It gets "boxy" in the 500 hz range. The plectrum strike is in the 100hz range - but also in the high end as well. Stuff like that.
At the start, take a bell curve eq, and hike the db. Now move it up and down the scale on a slide. You'll hear it when you hit it. Once you've done that enough, you'll know where to explore when you're looking for the right "sound" of any given instrument.
I don't even need to think about what I need to do to make my voice sound like it should. I'll boost the 250 range, cut the 600-800 freq range, boost in the 1.5k range and soften rasp in the 3.5-4k range.
The meat of a snare is in the 200hz range and the snap is in the 2-3k range - same area the snap of the beater occurs on the kick. Removing the "woof cloud" on the kick is in the 300-400hz area.
It just helps to know what area to begin to look to in order to clean the sound up, and pop what makes the instrument sound like itself.
At the start, take a bell curve eq, and hike the db. Now move it up and down the scale on a slide. You'll hear it when you hit it. Once you've done that enough, you'll know where to explore when you're looking for the right "sound" of any given instrument.
I don't even need to think about what I need to do to make my voice sound like it should. I'll boost the 250 range, cut the 600-800 freq range, boost in the 1.5k range and soften rasp in the 3.5-4k range.
The meat of a snare is in the 200hz range and the snap is in the 2-3k range - same area the snap of the beater occurs on the kick. Removing the "woof cloud" on the kick is in the 300-400hz area.
It just helps to know what area to begin to look to in order to clean the sound up, and pop what makes the instrument sound like itself.
stratmonkee
Active member
Really like the groove on this, organ sounds fantastic ,and really kicks things up a notch when it comes in, very well timed/placed in the song. Your vocal on this reminds me of Al Stewart with a nice touch of edge, Hear the Dylan vibe as well. I really enjoy your music. Well done!
Papanate
Well-known member
Good song - reasonably good mix - I agree with the Dylan reference - the mix is a bit narrow for me.