Imposing on you, really

[Garry Sharp]

Originally posted in the relatively quiet backwaters of the Fostex forum, been persuaded to over it to the main street here. I know how busy the clinic is, and frankly as this is my first attempt at mixing I don't think it's up to the quality of most of the stuff here, but I'm serious about learning and would be grateful for feedback.

As it stands, the biggest shortcoming I know is the lack of middle, which I think is because we are a Lead guitar / bass / vocals combo, using a drum machine till we get a drummer. I'm still working on the frequency spectrum problems this arrangement raises and whilst I have some ideas that's the main area where I would appreciate some help. Getting a rhythm guitar or key player is probably the answer, but we also have the option of male harmony vocals which could also fill the space between the high and the low stuff.

I've made the problem worse in this mix because I'm learning my monitors and keep burning CD's to reference on the hi fi which of course is also imperfect. The mix has too much top end and I've fallen too much into the compressor trap. So these are the problems I'm aware of; on the other hand the ones I'm unaware of will lie in the female lead vox and the bass, both of which seem nice to me but you can tell me why I'm wrong And indeed what else is wrong which is the point of this post.

The song in question is the second one on our page, Change Your Mind Back, a completely different version from the one some of you were kind enough to listen to a few months ago. (The other two songs on our page were recorded in a paid for studio ).

I'd be very grateful for any of you who have time to listen and comment.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/vella/singles

Garry

 

[twist]

She's a good singer, but I didn't really care for the effect on the vocal. This of course is only my preference. What was that anyway? A little too much verb on the drums for my taste. I liked the ending.


Twist

 

[Toki987]

The upper mid and high end of her voice sounds too enhanced, she already sings there. I'd take off the effects first, get her voice to sound like it does singing without a mic and then strengthen it a little in the lower tones and lightly touch the highs, then seeten with some verb. Just a humble opinion here.
Ken

 

[Kramer]

The whole mix sounds overcompressed(maybe some limiting going on too).
It has the classic symptoms of an over accentuated bass and hissy highs especially in the vocals.I would start over and re-mix from the bottom up.There's a good song in there it just needs to be properly mixed.

Turn off ALL of the compression/Limiting and re-mix.

If you tell me this mix doesnt have any compression/limiting applied to it then I quit.

 

[groucho]

Dang, there's a lot more people here since the last time I checked in!

Anyway...

I was intrigued by this tune, so I thought I'd add my encouragement to give the mix another shot, because I think the performance and the song really deserve it. Sounds like it was well-recorded, but I can't figure out what that odd "artifact-ish" sound is on the high end. If I didn't know better I'd say it was poorly applied noise reduction - it sounds more like that to me than overcompression.

But you've got some good stuff here. Let's hear a remix!

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Garry Sharp]

Thanks to all. Very helpful indeed.

Will try again

Garry

 

[Garry Sharp]

Right. Done it. Did everything you said.

And boy were you right. Air and light flowed back into it. Only problem is you can hear all the mistakes now!! I feel that possibly things could be done to it to make it more exciting, but at least the base mix is miles better. And my CPU thought it was on holiday this time through.

I replaced the original mp3 with the new one, if you're interested in listening, but even if you aren't I'm very grateful - that was an excellent experience for a newbie.