Do I have what it takes?

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RawDepth

RawDepth

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I posted this before but someone said the song link was bad. I'll try again.

This is the first studio mix I've ever done.

I have no gear yet except a multitrack program and a $99 pair of studio headphones. Of course, I plan to buy gear. In the mean time, someone gave me a CD full of wave files to practice on. Not samples but real studio tracks. He wanted to see what I could do with them. Each file was a single instrument track to a song which he had abandoned a few years ago. All I had to do was to import them into my software and line them up. But alas, they were badly clipped.

At first I thought my headphones were breaking up, but then a zoom in the edit window showed some severe square waves on every last file. Wow! My first audio job ever was to repair badly damaged tracks. What a pisser!

Anyway, I worked on them diligently until I had them as clean as I could get them. I went on to mix the song and this is the result.

How did I do??? Or better yet, should I still pursue that career in audio engineering?

 
it sounded good man. Like I said in my other post, I didint have the finished sample to listen to along with the original, but regardless it sounded nice. If you had done alot of eq'ing and came up with this, I'd say you did a pretty fine job. But we must remember, the most important thing is still the way it was recorded, and since you didnt play a role in that, I dont know how much credit I can give you judging by the finished sample. One again, regardless, this is a cool tune. A future in audio engineering... I have no idea, I know very little about this. Maybe asked Blue Bear, he seems to know a thing or two haha. Or possibly more than all of us put together (someone please tell me to 'speak for myself' now haha)
 
Thanks Packrat. There is no original. As I understand it, I am the only one to ever mix it down. They tracked it, then apparently moved on to bigger and better things and forgot about this one.

What! Nobody else has anything to say about it? Does it suck that bad that you are all afraid to tell me?

Come on...I'm tough. I can take it.
 
Hey, good link this time. That's a very lush sound. You did a good job mixing these tracks. I don't know if you have what it takes to be a pro, but if this is your first mix, go for it.

Something you might want to try with these tracks is to re-mix and start small and then build as the song moves along. What I mean is let the song start with just the aouctic and the vocals, let it go for a verse or 2 and then start adding instruments one by one to build it up, kind of like Bolero. Just a thought, since you've got some great sounding tracks to play with.
 
It would be hard to judge your talent, without hearing what you had to begin with. The song sounds good though. :cool:
 
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yup i agree with the above posts. Mixing is just one part of the big picture. Recording,tracking is a huge part as well. with that in mind i would definately say go for it if you like doing it. You can only get better. If you enjoy tinkering with music than you will be driven to learn more.
 
Hi Rawdepth,
I like the song. Nice sounds in there ...I just felt that the overall mix was a bit unbalanced from the panning point of view. In the first part of the song you have very little happening on the left side of the image, and it sort of annoys and drags your head to the right side when you listen...but overall it's a good job:)
you've got the goods I think...good luck
 
RawDepth said:
Thanks Packrat. There is no original. As I understand it, I am the only one to ever mix it down. They tracked it, then apparently moved on to bigger and better things and forgot about this one.

What! Nobody else has anything to say about it? Does it suck that bad that you are all afraid to tell me?

Come on...I'm tough. I can take it.
Click to expand...

Well if this is your first time mixing, you sure did a HELL of alot better that I have in the past. The more you mess around with it, the more you will begin to develop a keener sense of a soundstage you are presenting, making things even on both sides. Think of it as a 3D box, and imagine where you want certain instruments to be placed. Since this was most likely recorded well over time, this should become easier and easier. Trying mixing these same files a few times, and comparing them to your earlier mixes, you will be surprised when you come up with different sounds just by adjusting where the instrument is in the mix. Good job though.
 
Ive been digging through through files for an hour tonight and i finally found something i feel like commenting on.

Definately not bad for your first, but theres a few things that i recommend.

The first thing i noticed was the panning. It just seems you have things in places where they seem really distracting. It will help alot to put the rythms farther left and right then the melodic stuff. It just doesnt feel right to have that jumping out at me so loud. It also makes it feel a little unbalanced in the left ear. I would definately take the acoustic guitar out of the center range of it all and put it probably put it where that piano is. Keep the piano and violins at around 2 and 4 o clock. Let the percusion kinda surprise you when they come in. That shaker could go with the rythm panned opposite to the acoustic guitar to balance it out a bit more. How many tracks do those strings consist of anyway? It would make sense to my ears to have them spread apart more sense orchestras are normally are pretty wide. Theres a woodblock in there around 30 seconds. If you have that on individual track i think it would be good to bring that out a little more and have a nice round lush reverb on it. The snare on the drum set sounds a little to the right of the mix.

So ultimately, it just seems you could work a little better with sonic spacing.

The arrangement of the song is beautfiful in my opnion, but it sounds like the way you have it mixed makes the vocals sound a little barried. I think the panning tips would help out a bit with that but i think overall the vocals should be brought out a little bit more. Try and get the same effect with the reverb without muddying it up that much. Try putting a pre-delay on the reverb if the unit you have has that option. Put it around 60-80 milliseconds. This could really help clear up the vocals.

In my head i hear something that should be happening in the bass that isnt quite there. Normally when i hear a bass for this style of music its compressed so much that it kinda pumps and swells a little bit. Its one of the very few styles of music that you can do that kind of thing and i really think this song is calling for that kind of effect. Seems it would be dun with a fast attack and long release although ive never tried this myself.

Overall it all sounds a little too compressed i think. It might be that clipping that you were talking about but it doesnt really sound like that. This song is begging for dynamics and it would really help to go ahead and mix some variations here and there with the faders even. Infact, if your using compression on this at all right now i would take them completely off. Maybe keep a little on the rythm acoustic guitar to keep things sounding consistent. At 3:30 the song needs to get louder in general. Or at least needs to have some dynamic contrast there because its arranged that way, and its just not having the full effect.

I dont know what all you have to work with on the tracks so i dont know what all you can do. But really the only problem is spacing. The stereo spread and depth of the song could be alot larger.

Do you have what it takes to be pro? Not yet. And like mentioned above mixing is only part of it. Infact mixing probably falls around the 30% area. The other parts are tracking and business sense. Business skills is something that people around here tend to look over around here. Pro is a totally different ball game and shouldnt even be compared to the casual home recorder. All that big expensive gear isnt just ways to get good sounds, but ways to get new customers.

Danny
 
Alright i just relistened to this on the Motu 2408 and the monitors and i have a few different opinions about. Guess i shouldnt have given an opinion last night with 20 dollar headphones out of the motherboard audio :D. The vocals sit in this mix alot better then i remember. I still think panning needs work but the mix sounds better then last night.

Danny
 
Say, thanks a million Danny. It seems everyone is suggesting that I work on imaging, placement, balance, and separation.

I agree. I would love to learn the art of spatial placement. I enjoy most those songs that have good depth and dimension. Just like in the visual world, 3D rendering can be a powerful element. It can make a good song become great. I will consider everyone’s advice and experiment more with this one.

Some of the tracks were recorded in stereo from keyboards. In the interest of saving a lot of work in repairing tracks, I used only one side and centered them somewhat. That might explain why they sound a little out of kilter. I suppose I ruined the “built-in” stereo imaging that those tracks already had. Also, I was experimenting with the auto panning feature on the percussion track, making stuff fly back and forth. I suppose I got a little carried away.

At any rate, I’ll work on it. I just won’t have much time in the next few weeks due to other commitments. When I have something finished, I will upload it.

Thanks again folks.
 
Thats a great way to look at it all. Visually. Infact there have been times when i am doing a type of music i have never done before, and i have actually drawn a map to how things will sound in the final mix. Map out the width hight and depth of each instrument before hand. This way you can also tell what your going to need to record in stereo and what needs to be mono.

Youll also be surprised on how much a db can really make a difference. It doesnt take much for something to sound out of place in a mix.

The problem with the auto panning like that is it makes things stand out a little too much. It starts to drive your attention all over the place. Dont forget that anything besides the vocals or solo instrument should be accompianament (or however you spell it).

You will also find that there are sometimes better ways to center attention at something without raising the volume.

I find it works best if you have the constant rythm instruments panned out far left and right. This normally do not change much. Things like the acoustic guitars thats only playing 3 chord progressions and strumming. Then you can place the more melodic more attentative things in the middle. Cool panning stuff can work really good here if it doesnt completely distract you from the vocal.

Guess this is really what mixing is all about and its trial and error. Something im sure i have along way to go also.

If you can. Get those stereo tracks in there and spread them out a little. Put a section of the orchestra with the left side panned down the middle and the right panned at around 3 oclock to hard right. Then try and find something there to fit into the opposite space. If you cant find anything. Spread the orchestra part out farther on the left side. Thats the great thing about doing it in stereo is its alot easier to manipulate the space. But try not to make things sound too big ;).

Danny
 
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