Critique my Competition Mix!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Auralaxiom
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That sounded huge through my dinky little computer speakers. Can I download somewhere? I'd love to hear it through my monitors. As far as composition, I wouldn't change a thing.
 
Sounds awesome on my DT990s, don't think I would change anything. The only thing that can make it better is if you had a live orchestra, but it already sounds pretty damn convincing. Awesome work! Sounds like it could be the opening sequence for a sweet BBC documentary!
 
Very Filmic and grand and uplifting. I can see sweeping aerial pans of wildlife and ancient landscapes. Leave it as it is :)
 
Is it supposed to sound like the Lion King? Everything was perfect, I could see this in something that was intended for background music. IF that is the goal, then you have a real nice piece here.

If you were hoping for something a bit more unique, it missed it. I'm not trying to be an a-hole and there is nothing wrong with the music or the mix. At the level you are at (and it is a high level), the music doesn't stand out. (Trying to act like one of the judges for feedback) Hope you get the point of the feedback.

I wish I were at your level, but your competitors are.
 
I think it's great, it sounds amazing through my HD280 pro headphones but I'll need to listen on the neumann monitors to truly know, or should I say 'the microscopes'
 
This sounds great! I'd love to hear some details about your process. How do you get the orchestral sounds you managed to get on that track? Any favorite sample libraries or tips/tricks you could share?

Good stuff!

Dave DeWhitt
 
dewhitt said:
This sounds great! I'd love to hear some details about your process. How do you get the orchestral sounds you managed to get on that track? Any favorite sample libraries or tips/tricks you could share?

Good stuff!

Dave DeWhitt
Click to expand...

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I use East West and Native Instruments libraries almost exclusively. This past summer, I bit the bullet and bought Complete Ultimate 9 (comes with dozens of sample libraries, including one of the best percussion libraries on the market--Damage) and East West CCC2 Pro, which comes with Hollywood Strings, Brass, Woodwinds (all diamond) and some other great libraries.

The whistles and shaker were live. Before I got into composition, I made my living as a woodwind session player. Everything else was fake (except Han Zimmer's vocal stem--we had to use at least one to qualify for the competition).

As for the process...send strings, perc, brass, woodwinds, and synths to their own busses (as in, bus output, not stereo out). Send the busses to their own verb busses. Run an instance of Ozone before the verb in the verb bus and EQ to taste (I use East West Space exclusively for my verb, northwest orchestral hall 2.6). For the strings and synths, I use front room mics (for the verb). For the horns and woodwinds, I use rear room mics.

Alot of the "mixing" with these sample libraries is in how you manipulate the continuous controller data (CC). Usually, with my strings there are 3-4 layers of data, depending on the patch: velocity, overall volume, expression, and vibrato. Occasionally I have to mess with the legato transition times (pain in the butt, but you don't want big, thick legato trans in a fast moving line!).

For mastering, I do...alot of stuff. Compress, Narrow the stereo image in the fundamental frequency band, broaden it above (this removes any phase issues 99% of the time). Brighten on the sides with mid-side EQ, fatten in the middle. Multi-band compressor, limiter, yada yada. Not in that order of course, but I was just typing as I thought ;-)

I'm sure I do some things wrong. I've had some formal training in mixing/mastering, but not much. Most of what I know is trial-and-error. Let me know if you have any more questions!
 
Btyre2013 said:
I think it's great, it sounds amazing through my HD280 pro headphones but I'll need to listen on the neumann monitors to truly know, or should I say 'the microscopes'
Click to expand...

YES! That would be great. My mixing/mastering environment sucks (I'm working with KRK 5's at the moment...yeah, I know :facepalm:)

Let me know what you hear.
 
Thanks, that's fantastic info. I'm sure it's going to take me a couple times reading through to digest all that, but I will definitely check out the EW and Native stuff and also the mixing tips. I'm not trained in composition, so that's probably the place I should really start :o, but I do like to work on orchestral pieces occasionally, so it's awesome to get that advice!
 
Holy crap, am I jealous of your sample library, man.. Those sounds are incredible. I listened to the piece 4 times, twice through Adams A7X monitors, and twice through Grado SR-225' headphones. Very tight mix, man. Very, very well done.

After the 6th listen (two more times during writing), I started noticing things I would change if I were at the console for this one. (so, so nitpicky it's not even funny. It's practically perfect as-is)

From :21 to :28 , the little chimey ding sounds "dinga-dum dinga-dum" that repeat could probably be like 1db louder, but not too much. Probably make them sparkle just a bit more on the high end (like 4K-12K) (just during that part)

The singing part coming in at :51 seems dry... I can just imagine the entrance of this singing part kind of coming in and going out of an amazing wide reverb, adding body to her voice, but not during the whole part. Just kind of as an effect of widening that part to fill a bit more of the 3D spectrum.

Cymbal swell at 1:48 seems a bit cut-off decay-wise... Let that swell decay about twice (or three times) as long, as the other parts are coming in.

As I mentioned, it's perfect as-is, but maybe those suggestions are worth trying. Amazed at that sound. Very scenic, epic, and panoramic. Well done.
 
That's pretty impressive. Sounds like an over-the-top film preview score.

I can't really offer any real feedback since this is pretty out of my league. The only nitpick I can think of is that during the loud parts, there seems to be a LOT of low-end. I guess that's to make the theater rumble? Just listening, that could get fatiguing though. On the other hand, I could just be talking out my a** in an effort to provide some kind of criticism.
 
o.k I've now listened through the neumann monitors, the quality is very good, the only criticism there is the sub bass is boomy on that orchestral bass drum, so you could use EQ to notch out the problem frequency or a low shelving type which to my ears sounds better than high pass filters quite often, you don't want to remove all the bass, just make it sound more controlled and tighter. I think then it would be pretty much perfect, because everything else is fine and sounds great to me. Also be careful not to boost the treble any further, it's very well balanced in that area and sounds smooth to me.
 
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