PoeticIntensity
MagicJones.com (is a website)
Had you mixed loud, the highs would have killed your ears no matter what room you were in.
Touché
Touché
F
fHumble fHingaz
Member
Congratulations to Fishmed for winning! Your mix sounded full & clear & used all the elements in a really balanced way.
A couple of questions for Greg (apologies if you covered this somewhere else & I missed it):
The kick drum - There seemed to be absolutely no bleed in the kick drum mic. Did you achieve this by gating on the way in, or was there some other technique involved?
Another thing I noticed was that, to get the snare drum sounding full & fat, I had to flip the phase on it - normally that's par for the course when you're dealing with top & bottom snare mics, but in this case there was only one, so I gather it had something to do with its relationship to the OH mics.
The drums sounded excellent BTW - I loved the sound you gave us to work with even with what most (by today's standards, at least) would consider to be not very many mics... probably the playing was the biggest factor, though - abosolutely rock solid & consistent.
Also, will you be giving any comments on the late entries? I noticed, that along with myself, a couple of others put forward late mixes... anyway, if you have the time, I'd be keen to hear what you think.
A couple of questions for Greg (apologies if you covered this somewhere else & I missed it):
The kick drum - There seemed to be absolutely no bleed in the kick drum mic. Did you achieve this by gating on the way in, or was there some other technique involved?
Another thing I noticed was that, to get the snare drum sounding full & fat, I had to flip the phase on it - normally that's par for the course when you're dealing with top & bottom snare mics, but in this case there was only one, so I gather it had something to do with its relationship to the OH mics.
The drums sounded excellent BTW - I loved the sound you gave us to work with even with what most (by today's standards, at least) would consider to be not very many mics... probably the playing was the biggest factor, though - abosolutely rock solid & consistent.
Also, will you be giving any comments on the late entries? I noticed, that along with myself, a couple of others put forward late mixes... anyway, if you have the time, I'd be keen to hear what you think.
J
JasonBird
Average Member
congrats fishmed!!
wow, awesome feedback and congrats fishmed! I did n't spend a lot of time mixing mine and i guess it showed! I did have fun though,and the tracks you provided were awesome. when i mixed down the mp3 i chose the VBR option cuz i thought that would be a higher quality option...i guess that didn't pan out so well. i used some of the new plugins that were available in sonar 8.5 . I'll make some adjustment s based on your review and send a remix just to continue learning...if your're not too sick of listening to it by now, maybe you can further advise...thanks again!
Jason
wow, awesome feedback and congrats fishmed! I did n't spend a lot of time mixing mine and i guess it showed! I did have fun though,and the tracks you provided were awesome. when i mixed down the mp3 i chose the VBR option cuz i thought that would be a higher quality option...i guess that didn't pan out so well. i used some of the new plugins that were available in sonar 8.5 . I'll make some adjustment s based on your review and send a remix just to continue learning...if your're not too sick of listening to it by now, maybe you can further advise...thanks again!
Jason
G
Greg_L
Banned
No, it's just a crappy mic. I guess it's a mega-super-hyper-cardoid.
Um, really, I think I just had the mic in a really good spot. I'll admit, I don't pay too much attention to the kick mic placement. I just stick it in there up near the batter head. I do usually point it downward though which I think helps minimze bleed. I also had a small pillow in the kick on this one, and with the mic pointed down, maybe that helped. It's really a crap-shoot though. Sometimes I get more bleed in the kick than other times. I think this was one of the lucky times.
Yup. Rami was the first to point that out to me on my drum tracks. Flip the snare phase. The snare and overheads are never truly in phase. Think about how close a snare mic is to the sound source compared to overheads. It's a big difference. I used to manually line up my overheads with the snare track, but quit doing it out of laziness. These days I like the crackier sound anyway. I go back and forth on fat tone vs crack. It also might somehow have something to do with how I mic my snare. I put the mic higher than usual and off the rim pointed down. It's a delicate balancing act to get attack, buzz, and shell resonance all in one mic. I sometimes get a lot of hat bleed though.
Thanks. And tuning. My drums sound good on their own. I've spent a lot of time dialing them in. I've got awesome cymbals too, but they're a little too wild for this room the way everything is set up. I'm playing with some different overhead arrangements again to get rid of some of the washiness in the overhead tracks.
Yeah I'll give em a spin.
Yeah post it up.
Mick Doobie
Maderator
Hey Greg,
Is there any chance that you can repost your comments post with links to each version/mix so we can listen to the mixes to illustrate your comments?
Is there any chance that you can repost your comments post with links to each version/mix so we can listen to the mixes to illustrate your comments?
G
Greg_L
Banned
Here's my own mix if anyone's interested:
G
Greg_L
Banned
I guess I could, but that seems like a hassle.
Just skim through the posts. They're all here in this thread.
Mick Doobie
Maderator
Yeah, I can dig it. I'm scrolling through right now.
Just heard Vomithatsteve's "What's wrong with you Steve" mix.
Just heard Vomithatsteve's "What's wrong with you Steve" mix.
Mick Doobie
Maderator
Just ran across this. Wow, what an eye opener. Odd, they don't sound so VASTLY different when played separately.
Mick Doobie
Maderator
G
Greg_L
Banned
trumpino1
Dedicated
Absolutely awesome that is exactly what I was gonna ask when I got on here and it was already here. Thanks for the tips on the tamborine and everything and hopefully I can get some more tips when I start recording some drums and tips on anything else for that matter, you really seem to have it all down pat.
One question, would you recommend the CAD Pro set of drum mics you have or do you have something else around the same price that you would recommend. I always read reviews and everything, but I have actually heard the quality you get.
Thanks.
G
Greg_L
Banned
For the price, yeah I'd recommend them. They're far from great though. I've spent a lot of time with these mics and my drums, so I have them figured out. They're not a "stick anywhere and get good results" mic set. You gotta go through some growing pains.
trumpino1
Dedicated
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
Holy shit... I made the top five?
That made my day
That made my day
guitar zero
c = b#
guitar zero
Pros: Overall balance pretty good. Everything is present and accounted for.
Cons: What the hell happened to the kick? It's like random kick hits are missing.
The mix of the tracks is pretty good, but this mix is the opposite of PoeticIntensity's
in that it doesn't seem to have enough done to it. it's a little flat.
On my mix, I actually doubled the kick track, but the more I listened to my mix, the more I was sure you would comment on the level of the kick. I just never got around to doing another mix. I did lots of processing on the tracks, but I tried not to get carried away because they sounded so good the way they were (and last mix contest I totally screwed up the sound of your tracks). I'm actually pleased because this time you didn't say my mix totally sucked like last time, so I'll view that as progress.
Thanks again for doing this. I know this represents a lot of work, but this is a great learning experience, and loads of fun.
So much fun, in fact, that PoeticIntensity was kind enough to add some drum tracks to a song we recorded a while back, and we plan to post another mix contest if anyone is interested. I'll post a new thread. I'm gone for a week, but when I get back, we can get it going if people are interested. I too can offer a free CD to the winner.
Also congrats to Fishmed. I also thought his mix was the best. I thought Acmb was second.
Pros: Overall balance pretty good. Everything is present and accounted for.
Cons: What the hell happened to the kick? It's like random kick hits are missing.
The mix of the tracks is pretty good, but this mix is the opposite of PoeticIntensity's
in that it doesn't seem to have enough done to it. it's a little flat.
On my mix, I actually doubled the kick track, but the more I listened to my mix, the more I was sure you would comment on the level of the kick. I just never got around to doing another mix. I did lots of processing on the tracks, but I tried not to get carried away because they sounded so good the way they were (and last mix contest I totally screwed up the sound of your tracks). I'm actually pleased because this time you didn't say my mix totally sucked like last time, so I'll view that as progress.
Thanks again for doing this. I know this represents a lot of work, but this is a great learning experience, and loads of fun.
So much fun, in fact, that PoeticIntensity was kind enough to add some drum tracks to a song we recorded a while back, and we plan to post another mix contest if anyone is interested. I'll post a new thread. I'm gone for a week, but when I get back, we can get it going if people are interested. I too can offer a free CD to the winner.
Also congrats to Fishmed. I also thought his mix was the best. I thought Acmb was second.
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Steenamaroo
...
hi greg! thanks for the feedback on all the mixes! and well done to everyone, esp fishmed!
i was wandering, would you give a quick listen to a revised mix?
i've come to the conclusion that my monitoring setup tends towards dullness.
you might have read my post earlier, where i realised everyone elses mixes were 'muddier' than mine, and your main gripe with my mix was that it was bright/harsh, so with that in mind i've beefed it up a little.
i've also dropped the master limiter a little.
also, to answer you, yeah i did add in harmonies. thought it gave it a little something, so cheers for noticing that.
.i chose to take the horns and saxes right out in the end.
if you're sure you heard them a little, maybe you were on an earlier mix of mine? doesn't make any difference tho, the brass removal was the only thing i really changed.
submitted mix
revised mix
thanks again!
i was wandering, would you give a quick listen to a revised mix?
i've come to the conclusion that my monitoring setup tends towards dullness.
you might have read my post earlier, where i realised everyone elses mixes were 'muddier' than mine, and your main gripe with my mix was that it was bright/harsh, so with that in mind i've beefed it up a little.
i've also dropped the master limiter a little.
also, to answer you, yeah i did add in harmonies. thought it gave it a little something, so cheers for noticing that.
.i chose to take the horns and saxes right out in the end.
if you're sure you heard them a little, maybe you were on an earlier mix of mine? doesn't make any difference tho, the brass removal was the only thing i really changed.
submitted mix
revised mix
thanks again!
G
Greg_L
Banned
Yeah that's definitely an improvement. The guitars still sound boxy though. And dare I say, too much kick and snare. Lol. It's definitely better without the saxes and piano though.
Steenamaroo
...
cheers greg. much appreciated.
the guitars are literally just eqd a little and panned 80 each way. idk, maybe they're under processed!
anyway, good job, much enjoyed!
the guitars are literally just eqd a little and panned 80 each way. idk, maybe they're under processed!
anyway, good job, much enjoyed!
G
Greg_L
Banned
Not too bad. I'm not crazy about that super fat and roomy snare sound, and cutting out the rhythm guitars during the lead was kind of distracting. Good balance overall though.