Steenamaroo
...
Here, when did I become the resident critic?
Armistice! Get your ears sorted and get back here!!!
Armistice! Get your ears sorted and get back here!!!
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
When I was adding highs to the kick, because it sounds a little muffled, I found that there was too much "air" or background noise. So much so it was resembling that white static on old TV sets. It would have been disguised once the electric guitars and bass came in, but I didn't like it in the first 10 seconds.
Yes, you're right about the vocals. The distortion you're hearing is probably my use of the Kramer Tape. I was sort of going for that squashed sound. But maybe I can ease off on one off my three compressors
Yes, you're right about the vocals. The distortion you're hearing is probably my use of the Kramer Tape. I was sort of going for that squashed sound. But maybe I can ease off on one off my three compressors
Steenamaroo
...
LOL. Makes sense.
Maybe I just got away with the kick thing because it's never exposed in my mix.
Hadn't thought of that.
The gate helped but when you solo my kick there's a definitely white noise morse code going on.
Maybe I just got away with the kick thing because it's never exposed in my mix.
Hadn't thought of that.
The gate helped but when you solo my kick there's a definitely white noise morse code going on.
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
LOL, yeah you kinda cut the drums until everything came in. You clever bastard you. 
Should I give my whole mixing technique for the song? Or should I wait till everyone is finished with theirs?
Should I give my whole mixing technique for the song? Or should I wait till everyone is finished with theirs?
Steenamaroo
...
Up to yourself man.
I think people do their own thing anyway, so it'll do no harm.
I think people do their own thing anyway, so it'll do no harm.
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
Oh I realize that, but I'll probably learn quite a bit in this. I was pondering at your EQ technique.
Eh. I'll just give it.
I mixed in Reason 6.
Main vocals - I first ran it through my DBX 160A compressor. No compressing going on (or was there!), it just colors very slightly. I then took the vocals outside of Reason (because of no external plugins) and mixed in another DAW. I then put a ThrillSeekerLA on the vocals, then the Kramer Master Tape. This gave it a modern and squashed and somewhat distorted sound. My blunder probably came when I put Reason's compressor on top of the rest I put on. I can take it off no problem though.
Snare - Nothing much to the drums except the snare. For the snare I added my usual compression. For the EQ, I heavily bumped the lows. You can definitely hear it in my mix, especially when compared to Steen's cracky snare. I got the idea to boost the lows after hearing Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young for ideas.
Guitars - I duplicated the lead guitar track. Re amped them (one different from the other of course) and panned them left and right. The wah guitar I reamped as well. This led me to the aggressive mix. It really starts to become in your face with just a slight amount of distortion. The acoustic guitars - I panned the mic tracks slight left and slight right, and the pickup tracks harder left and right.
The backing vocals - I decided not to emphasize the backing too much, as I wanted to let people hear my overly squashed main vocal. But in seriousness, all I did was compress each one slightly, no EQ and panned them left and right accordingly.
Bass - I reamped the bass too. I wanted to give it a phat sound. A really thick Paul McCartney Hofner sound.
I feel my mix has that 60's vibe with the snare. The snare really adds to the feeling you get I've noticed.
Eh. I'll just give it.
I mixed in Reason 6.
Main vocals - I first ran it through my DBX 160A compressor. No compressing going on (or was there!), it just colors very slightly. I then took the vocals outside of Reason (because of no external plugins) and mixed in another DAW. I then put a ThrillSeekerLA on the vocals, then the Kramer Master Tape. This gave it a modern and squashed and somewhat distorted sound. My blunder probably came when I put Reason's compressor on top of the rest I put on. I can take it off no problem though.
Snare - Nothing much to the drums except the snare. For the snare I added my usual compression. For the EQ, I heavily bumped the lows. You can definitely hear it in my mix, especially when compared to Steen's cracky snare. I got the idea to boost the lows after hearing Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young for ideas.
Guitars - I duplicated the lead guitar track. Re amped them (one different from the other of course) and panned them left and right. The wah guitar I reamped as well. This led me to the aggressive mix. It really starts to become in your face with just a slight amount of distortion. The acoustic guitars - I panned the mic tracks slight left and slight right, and the pickup tracks harder left and right.
The backing vocals - I decided not to emphasize the backing too much, as I wanted to let people hear my overly squashed main vocal.
But in seriousness, all I did was compress each one slightly, no EQ and panned them left and right accordingly.Bass - I reamped the bass too. I wanted to give it a phat sound. A really thick Paul McCartney Hofner sound.
I feel my mix has that 60's vibe with the snare. The snare really adds to the feeling you get I've noticed.
Steenamaroo
...
Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Everything you're describing certainly comes across.
What were you pondering? The kick eq that I already mentioned, or the rest of the mix?
I'd happily post up a similar description if anyone wants it.
I think that snare stands out as one of the main differences between our mixes.
I almost always air on the side of crack rather than thud.
If I'm honest though, it's partly because I never get a bassier snare to sound right.
Everything you're describing certainly comes across.
What were you pondering? The kick eq that I already mentioned, or the rest of the mix?
I'd happily post up a similar description if anyone wants it.
I think that snare stands out as one of the main differences between our mixes.
I almost always air on the side of crack rather than thud.
If I'm honest though, it's partly because I never get a bassier snare to sound right.
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
Yeah, the kick EQ. Yeah man! That would be awesome. I think I could really learn stuff hearing everyone's different approach!
Steenamaroo
...
No sweat.
I'm doing a bit around the house here, but I'll certainly post up later on today.
I'm doing a bit around the house here, but I'll certainly post up later on today.
Steenamaroo
...
Ok, here goes.
I haven't done much extraordinary, but here it is.
You saw my treatment of the kick. It goes straight to master.
The rest of the drums are bussed to waves IR-l. 0.6s, 7% wet hall.
The snare is down 6db @ 185hz, and rolled off at 120. There's a 4db very wide Q boost at 4k
Hats just got slammed and blended in to taste, partly because I forgot about them and introduced them at the last minute.
They worked like that, so they got left in.
The bass got fairly drastic treatment too. The eq shows -12 @ 180hz and -8 @ 400.
They have wide enough Q that the full effect ranges from 60hz to 1k.
I wanted the bass to sound full, but mid scooped, like I recorded it with a d112. I think I got pretty close.
"David acoustic mic" got wide panned, heavily compressed, and quite heavy reverb.
I wanted to create a wide bed/pad sound with this.
It got two very wide Q eq boosts at about 500hz and 2k.
They are about 3db and 5 db respectively.
The other acoustic track (mic and pickup) got panned apart from each other about 40%.
Nothing special here. Just a little high end boost to taste, and a bass rolloff around 150hz.
The vocals got a little bit of tuning on the powerful high notes. You can hear an undesirable auto tune phase-wobble once or twice that I just couldn't get around.
Nothing special here; High pass at about 135. 2db cut at around 230hz. Same reverb that the drums got.
I only used one of the available vocal tracks.
I chose to use one of the high harmony parts too, but I retuned a few passages to avoid unison.
I kept them pretty subtle but I like it there.
I don't 'notice' it, but I'd miss it.
And the little secrets? I used a stereo widener (subtly) on the master to widen out the solo and the outro.
I've automated this so it returns to normal for any vocal sections.
Now that you know, you'll probably find it off-putting. I do! but I just took a bit of faith with it.
Although it's not a good thing to do at master stage, I increased the pitch of the track by 1 semi tone, and increased the pace by a good few bpm.
Again, now that you know it'll jump off the page, but I really felt it helped to move things a long a little.
I think that covers it. Hope I didn't bore anyone too much.
Also, I know I'm listing frequencies and volumes by number, but I don't mix that way.
Some of those number were as surprising to me as they were to you!
I haven't done much extraordinary, but here it is.
You saw my treatment of the kick. It goes straight to master.
The rest of the drums are bussed to waves IR-l. 0.6s, 7% wet hall.
The snare is down 6db @ 185hz, and rolled off at 120. There's a 4db very wide Q boost at 4k
Hats just got slammed and blended in to taste, partly because I forgot about them and introduced them at the last minute.
They worked like that, so they got left in.
The bass got fairly drastic treatment too. The eq shows -12 @ 180hz and -8 @ 400.
They have wide enough Q that the full effect ranges from 60hz to 1k.
I wanted the bass to sound full, but mid scooped, like I recorded it with a d112. I think I got pretty close.
"David acoustic mic" got wide panned, heavily compressed, and quite heavy reverb.
I wanted to create a wide bed/pad sound with this.
It got two very wide Q eq boosts at about 500hz and 2k.
They are about 3db and 5 db respectively.
The other acoustic track (mic and pickup) got panned apart from each other about 40%.
Nothing special here. Just a little high end boost to taste, and a bass rolloff around 150hz.
The vocals got a little bit of tuning on the powerful high notes. You can hear an undesirable auto tune phase-wobble once or twice that I just couldn't get around.
Nothing special here; High pass at about 135. 2db cut at around 230hz. Same reverb that the drums got.
I only used one of the available vocal tracks.
I chose to use one of the high harmony parts too, but I retuned a few passages to avoid unison.
I kept them pretty subtle but I like it there.
I don't 'notice' it, but I'd miss it.
And the little secrets? I used a stereo widener (subtly) on the master to widen out the solo and the outro.
I've automated this so it returns to normal for any vocal sections.
Now that you know, you'll probably find it off-putting. I do! but I just took a bit of faith with it.
Although it's not a good thing to do at master stage, I increased the pitch of the track by 1 semi tone, and increased the pace by a good few bpm.
Again, now that you know it'll jump off the page, but I really felt it helped to move things a long a little.
I think that covers it. Hope I didn't bore anyone too much.
Also, I know I'm listing frequencies and volumes by number, but I don't mix that way.
Some of those number were as surprising to me as they were to you!
Armistice
Son of Yoda
I'm here! Ear (left only) still giving me grief but now I have no broadband allowance left for a couple of days gggggrrrrrr.... so I'll have to do a listen at work via smallish headphones! Back in a few hours.... looking forward to hearing it Crows...
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
Didn't think about wide panning the acoustic. Nice Steen!
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
Armistice
Son of Yoda
I gotta tell ya... having recorded this song originally and played it a million times live I'm getting a bit "over" it... 
Nice Crows! I'm definitely picking that you've worked the guitars, sound quite a bit more bitey than the original recording - especially in the solo... snare's a bit boomy for my taste, I'd probably have gone half way from where it was, which I always thought was a bit too far in the other direction... but it works in the mix, and I'm liking the extra kick in the head I'm getting in the dodgy ear...
Just listening to outro now... really like what you've done with the guitars there...
Good stuff... only one ear functioning properly and small headphones at work so I'm probably missing a shitload of detail...
I'm picking up some new monitors later this arv, so over the weekend, depending upon when my broadband allowance resets, I'll have a proper listen...
Next?
Nice Crows! I'm definitely picking that you've worked the guitars, sound quite a bit more bitey than the original recording - especially in the solo... snare's a bit boomy for my taste, I'd probably have gone half way from where it was, which I always thought was a bit too far in the other direction... but it works in the mix, and I'm liking the extra kick in the head I'm getting in the dodgy ear...
Just listening to outro now... really like what you've done with the guitars there...
Good stuff... only one ear functioning properly and small headphones at work so I'm probably missing a shitload of detail...
I'm picking up some new monitors later this arv, so over the weekend, depending upon when my broadband allowance resets, I'll have a proper listen...
Next?
Armistice
Son of Yoda
The singer's coming over for dinner tomorrow night with his wife and new baby.... doubtless we'll talk about this a bit... and after a few red wines this comment may translate to "One of the guys that mixed your song reckons your singing is as flat as a pancake and he almost burnt out his Autotune machine thingy fixing it" - only with more slurring...
He doesn't hang out here, luckily...
Steenamaroo
...
Lol. Funny stuff.
Out of interest though, I didn't notice anyone else tuning the vox.
Have I been too picky, or did everyone else just not bother?
I know there are the artefacts, but after the fact, would anyone agree it needed some tuning?
Out of interest though, I didn't notice anyone else tuning the vox.
Have I been too picky, or did everyone else just not bother?
I know there are the artefacts, but after the fact, would anyone agree it needed some tuning?
ollie99
New member
I didn't listen closely to the vocals, but I've listened to them a lot of times and solo'd them and everything and didn't notice any tuning problems
Armistice
Son of Yoda
I think he gets there, almost, on the big notes, although it takes him some time, and I am aware of the tuning issues, but it was as good as I was going to get, is probably unnoticeable to the average punter.... and as there was nothing I could do about it.. I didn't.
I'm sooooooooooooooooo looking forward to moving into the PC age and getting this studio upgrade finished... I literally couldn't hear how the vocals sit in the mix when he's singing because I never got around to getting a headphone amp with multiple outs, so I'd have a quick listen afterwards via the monitors and go "Yeah OK"... possibly if I was listening at the time I would have picked things up earlier...
There's also the limited time aspect... he's a hard guy to record because I don't see him very often in a recording situation and all the ducks have to line up to get anything at all, and then it's only over the course of a couple of hours, no more - so I'm probably mentally in an "it'll do" mode already - he's not a consistent singer... not good at remembering exactly how he sang last time, so getting doubles and repeat takes is a bit of a nightmare..
Anyway, new set up has a Presonus HP4 in it so I can get more than one set of cans happening an hopefully get a better result...
I'm sooooooooooooooooo looking forward to moving into the PC age and getting this studio upgrade finished... I literally couldn't hear how the vocals sit in the mix when he's singing because I never got around to getting a headphone amp with multiple outs, so I'd have a quick listen afterwards via the monitors and go "Yeah OK"... possibly if I was listening at the time I would have picked things up earlier...
There's also the limited time aspect... he's a hard guy to record because I don't see him very often in a recording situation and all the ducks have to line up to get anything at all, and then it's only over the course of a couple of hours, no more - so I'm probably mentally in an "it'll do" mode already - he's not a consistent singer... not good at remembering exactly how he sang last time, so getting doubles and repeat takes is a bit of a nightmare..
Anyway, new set up has a Presonus HP4 in it so I can get more than one set of cans happening an hopefully get a better result...
Steenamaroo
...
Hey, I know we're (I'm ) getting critical here, but all in all I think it's great tracking and the performances are solid.
I expect to have to do little tweaks here and there in pretty much any recording, man.
Comparatively, I think I had to do less fixing here than in most mixes I see.
) getting critical here, but all in all I think it's great tracking and the performances are solid.I expect to have to do little tweaks here and there in pretty much any recording, man.
Comparatively, I think I had to do less fixing here than in most mixes I see.
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
I gotta tell ya... having recorded this song originally and played it a million times live I'm getting a bit "over" it...
Nice Crows! I'm definitely picking that you've worked the guitars, sound quite a bit more bitey than the original recording - especially in the solo... snare's a bit boomy for my taste, I'd probably have gone half way from where it was, which I always thought was a bit too far in the other direction... but it works in the mix, and I'm liking the extra kick in the head I'm getting in the dodgy ear...
Just listening to outro now... really like what you've done with the guitars there...
Good stuff... only one ear functioning properly and small headphones at work so I'm probably missing a shitload of detail...
I'm picking up some new monitors later this arv, so over the weekend, depending upon when my broadband allowance resets, I'll have a proper listen...
Next?
Thanks Armistice!
Steen, Reason doesn't have an autotune
I don't really like using auto-tune anyway.
EDIT: Oh wait, Reason DOES have one LOL!
I wouldn't use it anyway.