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

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg_L
  • Start date Start date
DAW: Pro Tools

Monitors: KRK Rokit 5s

Room: A small square one, and the only absorber is my bed :laughings:
 
Greg_L said:
I've never even considered flipping the phase on my snare mic. :spank: :o
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Seriously, you should go back to one of your older tunes and do it. Not that your snare has ever sounded weak to me, but it will pop right out (if it's out of phase to begin with).





P.S. Forgot to say...Congrats PANDOMONK. Your mix does kik ass.:cool:
 
RAMI said:
Seriously, you should go back to one of your older tunes and do it. Not that your snare has ever sounded weak to me, but it will pop right out (if it's out of phase to begin with).
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I certainly will. I've almost got enough songs finished for a second album and when I go to final mix them I'm for sure gonna check the snare on each one.
 
Greg_L said:
Dr Scholls..
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Did this guy really have to be a doctor to figure out that putting a cushion in your shoe would make your foot more comfortable??? I would have bought those off a MR. Scholls. Even a Senior Scholls.:eek:
 
RAMI said:
Did this guy really have to be a doctor to figure out that putting a cushion in your shoe would make your foot more comfortable??? I would have bought those off a MR. Scholls. Even a Senior Scholls.:eek:
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He's a quack! :mad:
 
philbagg said:
I knew you liked it! :D

Can I mix the whole song like that and you can include it as a bonus track? :)
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Sure.

Tell me more about this ducking bullshit.

How would I set something like that up, and when/why would I need to use it?
 
LDS
Pros: Drums sound pretty good, although kick gets lost in low end resonance at times. Guitars sound good. Leads sit nicely, but too dry.
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Thanks!!!

It's very cool that you took the time and put forth the effort to do this!!

I'm thinking my monitor setup/room needs some serious revision. Anytime I mix something I listen to it on a couple of other systems and find the same thing you mentioned.

DAW: Auditon 3.0

Monitors: Samson StudioDock 4i (I have an old, old, old set of Yamahas, but the power amp I was using started gettint intermittent so I snagged the Samsons late last year).

Room: Roughly 10X10, sorta, kinda with a 2X2 intrusion from a stairwell in one corner and the back wall being an open walk-in closet housing an electronics workbench with shelves and crap. Treatment? Uhhh... A big pile of sleeping bags and gig bags in one corner. To the left of the DAW is a custom designed and built diffuser cleverly disguised as a bookself with books, microphone cases, reels of tape and stacks of headphone amps and headphones.

So, any guesses on why my mixes or so bass heavy or suggestions on fixing that?
 
Greg_L said:
Yup. Assume I know nothing about wanky studio trickery, which isn't far from the truth.
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Ok so... (I have a feeling you'll just "TL/DR") :p

There's ducking (gate), and sidechain compression, they both do the job similarly.

Side-chain compression
Basically, you can set your parameters for compression, and then you can set another signal to trigger the compressor - so the compressor won't do squat until it receives signal from the sidechain. This is commonly done with the kick and bass in dance music.

Ducking (Gate)
This is similar to s/c compression, and also uses the sidechain input of the unit/plugin. The difference is that s/c compression compresses the signal to attenuate it (IOW: cut the peaks relatively), and ducking will turn it all down by a set amount - as if you just pulled the fader down.

Setup:
I know you use REAPER, and I'm not familiar with it, but I'm sure you're able to use sends (I'm sure you've used 'em with reverbs and stuff). That's half the battle. Then you gotta make sure your plugin has sidechain capabilities.

compressor-bused.jpg


Just above the "input" on the compressor - "no key input", that's the S/C input on Pro Tools.

So, you'd set up a compressor on the bass, and set the parameters normally, just so that gain reduction is about 5dB or so (don't turn the signal back up - that's the point). Then, set up a send on the kick track to Bus 1, and set the s/c input of the bass compressor to Bus 1. Then, whenever the kick hits, the bass comp will be triggered, and attenuate it by 5dB or so.

Same rules apply with the gate. Set it up normally, setting your attack/release times, then set your threshold very high so it'll always kick in, and set your "range" to -5dB or so. Then, do the sidechain, and whenever the kick hits, the bass will duck by 5dB.

I prefer ducking to s/c compression, seems a little more natural to me.
 
Also, some compressors and gates actually have filters for sidechaining:

Dyn3.jpg


See above the gain pot?

This could be even handier for you when gating drums.

Let's say you're getting a lot of unwanted kick low-end bleed and hi-hats in the snare mic, that's almost as loud as the snare itself. If you set a gate, the kick and hats will open it half the time as well, which is no good. So, you can filter out all the low's and all the highs from the signal that the gate looks at, and won't open to anything above and below the set frequencies.

Result: The gate will only open to the snare (if done right).

There's a use for ya ;)
 
Thanks for the pointers Greg, I noticed later the drums being off center, that actually happened when I ran the final mix through Ozone... something threw the drums left.

I enjoyed mixing this piece though and the playing was first rate.

Look forward to the next challenge.
 
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