Greg_L mix contest/clinic/critique - just for shits and grins

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg_L
  • Start date Start date
philbagg said:
Greg, the stuff is tracked so well. What I did was fairly minimal compared to my usual approaches. As Chili said, this stuff mixes itself.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I found myself not having to do a lot of stuff I do normally.
 
RAMI said:
Absolutely. I found myself not having to do a lot of stuff I do normally.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. I threw it into Pro Tools, panned the guitars, overheads, and toms, set some levels, and it was sounding really good already. It's exactly what you want for mixing for the sake of mixing, but I don't think it's ideal for mixing for the sake of a competition.

Other than that, there was very minimal EQ, apart from the bass (I cut a hell of a lot of high mids to try and tame the brightness), cutting the lows of everything apart from the kick, bass, and toms, and then some reverb on the lead guitars.

Compression on the snare, bass, overheads, and then parallel compression on the entire kit. That was it really. Very simple.
 
Will try and mix something on Saturday or Sunday if there's some spare time. Looking forward to it.

Cheers
Tim
 
What was your guitar rig setup? How was/were the cabinet(s) miked? What microphones?
 
Greg_L said:
I even ripped a cracked copy of EZDrummer just to try to draw up drum ideas before I track them for real, .
Click to expand...

I'd like to think i inspired you in some way to do this...

Casue Ezdrummer is my R2-D2 sidekick drummer.

Well R2-D2 is my drummer...



Im working full bore well into next week so i won't have time to fuck with this.


But i may Dl and play with it when the dust settles form it's intial climax....

:cool:

So far i like chili's and philbags... most.
 
philbagg said:
Pretty much. I threw it into Pro Tools, panned the guitars, overheads, and toms, set some levels, and it was sounding really good already. It's exactly what you want for mixing for the sake of mixing, but I don't think it's ideal for mixing for the sake of a competition.

Other than that, there was very minimal EQ, apart from the bass (I cut a hell of a lot of high mids to try and tame the brightness), cutting the lows of everything apart from the kick, bass, and toms, and then some reverb on the lead guitars.

Compression on the snare, bass, overheads, and then parallel compression on the entire kit. That was it really. Very simple.
Click to expand...

Lol. Isn't starting with good sounds the whole point? Mixing shouldn't be a pull your hair out experience. You shouldn't have to a shit ton of corrective processing. There's plenty of room for experimentation with these tracks. Use your imagination. :D
 
Damn you and your awesome home recording abilities Greg. I got this up in Cubase and thought "what the shit, this is pretty much done!"

But after enjoying the tune I did what I would do if it was my own song and realised I'd spent 1 hour and 1/2 of my evening on this. Now I'm tired and confused.

Anyway, enough of this sleep deprived rambling. I'll probably upload the mix by the end of the weekend. I've got my own recording and mixing to do then to, so I'll be more in the zone then.

Nice work mate. Hopefully I won't get too shot down when I upload my first ever mix to the forums.

EDIT: Listening to other people's work is almost cathartic. It makes me want to go back and mess around despite my tiredness and despite the awesome mixing everyone else's versions. I know I'm going to mess with this song for hours upon hours.
 
Last edited:
Greg_L said:
Lol. Isn't starting with good sounds the whole point? Mixing shouldn't be a pull your hair out experience. You shouldn't have to a shit ton of corrective processing.
Click to expand...

no kidding! if these guys want to really test their talent i'll post some raw tracks of mine. :laughings:
 
Well this is my try at the song. Funny this is my first mix on this site and its not even my song. Greg maybe you could do a second place for the worst sounding mix, I might win that. :D This is the coolest thing I've done in a while though.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=24002

EDIT: I don't know how I forgot the cowbell.
 
Last edited:
Atom Bomb said:
So far i like chili's and philbags... most.
Click to expand...

Gawsh :o :o Make a feller get all embarrased :o :o

Chili said:
Hey cool. :) "Must spread some reputation around before...."
Click to expand...

What he said :)

Greg_L said:
Lol. Isn't starting with good sounds the whole point? Mixing shouldn't be a pull your hair out experience. You shouldn't have to a shit ton of corrective processing. There's plenty of room for experimentation with these tracks. Use your imagination. :D
Click to expand...

Actually, I reckon that (1) a true test of skill, and (2) a great way to learn a lesson, is to have to REALLY give it your all.

*cue SouthSide Glen style post* :D

For example, the Leaving Certificate (or equivalent in UK, USA, Canada etc.). We were told all that year that we were in competition with the thousands of other leaving cert students, and we were. It's a very tough time in anyones life (well, the people who give a shit), and so much effort goes into it. My girlfriend's doing the exams now, and boy is she stressed :( Those who do the most work, will reap the benefits and come out on top, and vica versa. They'll get the best college courses, have the best looking LC results on their CV's when applying for jobs, so in a way they've kind-of "won the competition".

However, if it weren't a competition, and it was just to see who's actually competent and who's retarded, the exam would be much simpler. Maths is a mandatory subject, but since I left school I don't recall once having to figure out the hypotenuse of a triangle to get by in my daily life :laughings: It's made harder to "separate the men from the boys". Which is relative to what I'm saying about this mix contest. I just think it should've been harder: Lower quality recordings that don't mix themselves.

And, about learning lessons (about mixing). You'll never learn a lesson better than learning the hard way. Sure, it's not preferable, but it has it's benefits in retrospect. For example, I'm one of the few that kind of ran ahead of the pack in my class in college. I produced one of the best mixes out of the 30 or 40 other guys and girls in there, and I honestly credit it to starting out straight away at the end of 2008. I started recording my own stuff at home, and given the fact that I hadn't a clue what I was doing, they were terrible. I spent so much time trying to polish turds that I learnt so much more about what I was doing, and how to do it. Now, when I get good recordings to work with, it's a pleasure rather than a pain, and I get it done a lot quicker. I'd say it took me 45 minutes to an hour to mix Texas Terror.

Apart from the circumstances of a mix competition, or beginning to learn about mixing, then yes: it's ideal to have good recordings. The less you have to do to get it to "fit", the more time you get to be creative and make it kick ass.
 
Lol. Well you certainly talk a big game. I haven't heard it yet, but we'll see how your mix stands up to the others. :D
 
Greg_L said:
Dude, you should have done this with "light it up". that thing was a mess. :D
Click to expand...

no shit. otoh, much of that mess was because the tracks weren't lining up for you in reaper. having subsequently switched to reaper, i did find the setting option that you failed to select upon importing those tracks. :p
 
ez_willis said:
"much" may have been a bit too drastic. :laughings:
Click to expand...

and honestly, i had never been so discouraged about recording drums than at that time. it did push me to figure out how they could be improved though, and the changes that i made since then fixed a lot of the problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top