Let's see what you do with this original rock song, 10 tracks

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johngalt1977
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Johngalt1977

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Hey everyone. I've been enjoying mixing the things you all had up and thought I'd throw something out there. Open to any slicing/dicing/arrangement/effects/etc that you are feeling. I've included where I landed on the mix as well, because it seems to be standard practice. I'd be interested in any commentary you feel would help me to learn.

Thanks!

Zip file :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8uU8sOmGDoIXzhQT0NZMmxrRG8/view?usp=sharing

My mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8uU8sOmGDoIeWF5bDhiWkxTWnM/view?usp=sharing
 


updated. now more ass kickin. laughter and suggestions welcome.
 
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Laughter? I think not. I heard the first one you put up as well. I appreciate the effort. Drums are a little to crisp for my taste, but I love what you did with the guitar and the synth in this version.

The last one was too delay-ey on the vox... and this one doesn't have that effect as much. It's a nice mix. I just wish that the mando had been recorded better to get a little more taste of that in there, but I understand that limitation. Thank you!
 
Sounds like there is a rhythm guitar part that is bleeding into the first few measures of the mandolin track, but there's no rhythm guitar track in the package... am I missing something? Would be nice to play with that if there was a rhythm guitar track available.
 
Here's my first attempt...

This is my first submission in mix-this. I've not listened to any of the other mixes of this song to avoid coloring my path. I don't think I'm done with it yet, but here's a stab.

View attachment VacancySign-JohanTuxMix.mp3


Edit: After listening to the other tracks, it seems that I emphasized the mandolin more than most.

And thought I'd describe what I mixed - keep in mind that I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this (but trying to improve):
Mixed in Reaper 4 on a 2006 Mac Pro - I don't have studio monitors so I used a pair of Logitech speakers tuned as neutral as I can get em.

Bass:
Panned Center, mixed at -7dB
Cockos ReaEQ 100Hz +5dB, 300Hz -.8dB, 1kHz -5dB, 5.7kHz -6.5dB
Cockos ReaXcomp, compressed the low end up to 100 Hz
Routed to an FX track and used it to mix in a mild flange effect increasing throughout the track to about 50% wet at the end.

Drums:
Put all the drums in a parent folder mixed at -7.3dB
All Panned Center except OH's which I panned hard left and right.
Kick: (-8dB)
bass boost and a lowpass rolling off everything over 120Hz
Toms: (Low tom -4dB, mid tom -2db)
kept dry
Snare: (-3dB)
Apple AUDynamics processor to gate out @ < -10db. to remove some of the bleedover from the kick
Compressed it hard
Ran through a highpass filter rolling off below 380Hz
Stereo Widening
RealEQ to boost at 400Hz, deep cut at 1kHz, mild boost over 6Khz
Overheads: (both mixed at 0dB)
long tail reverb with a 50% wet mix.

Lead Guitar:
Generally mixed at -4.5dB but boosted up to +1dB during some periods.
quarter note delay, usually buried in the mix, but at 50% wet at times (namely beginning and end)

Synth:
Generally mixed at -3 dB but boosted in places like the lead guitar. Dry as tracked.

Vocal:
split into 2 tracks, panned soft L&R
Vocal 2 delayed 10ms for a slight widening effect
Vocal 1 Compression only and mixed at -.5db
Vocal 2 Compressed and reverb with a medium tail

Mandolin
split into 3 tracks.
Tracks 1 and 2 panned hard L&R
Track 3 panned soft Right and only heard during the first 4 measures
Track 1: highpass to roll off everything under 800Hz
Track 2: High Shelf filter to roll off at around 15kHz
Track 3: EQ to cut everything under 1kHz and boost everything over that mixed at +5db

This was to give a bit of lo-fi rhythm guitar effect to the intro

Mixed it down to a stereo 24bit 44.1kHz stereo track for "mastering" - as much as someone with NO training can master his own mix.
Mastered on a Windows 7 laptop with Reaper. I switched to Windows because I couldn't find a tape saturation simulator for free for a Mac.
Compressed, and tape saturation for the master.

Comments and critiques are very welcome.
 
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@Pmilani: I like - Your lead vocal has a nice separation without being too forward.
 
Hi, thanks for uploading. I had a quick play with this earlier on. I didn't do much in the way of automation effects etc... Mainly just got the drums beating a little harder. I felt the mandolin was the driving force in the song so made that quite obvious.. I think?! Anyway have a listen and see what you think... Soundcloud though I'm afraid! https://soundcloud.com/ltfprivate/vacancy-sign
 
Ang on... I seem to be missing a guitar track or two!! Investigation underway!!
 
My modern mix (with an 80's flare)

Thought I would give your song a quick mix. I gave myself 45 min and then I was done. Please let me know what you think. This is a very different style compared to what I'm used to, but I tend to approach things with a more modern sound (but with a little bit of 80's flare on this track). Hopefully you will like it. I just started a website to do just this, so if you have other tracks you might want mixed or mastered let me know - I would love to help!

Looking forward to your comments.

Bobby
Raytown Productions
www.raytownproductions.com
 

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Hey!

This is a great song, so I wanted to give it a go too. I don't know if the OP is still around, but I hope you'll give it a listen.

Added a guitar solo to the song, hope you don't mind, nothing fancy, was just having some fun :)

Vacancy Sign :)
 
I'm way late to this. But I wanted to give it a shot. I tried to keep it fairly natural.

This was a great track to practice on because it had a lot of problems ... I mean no offence by that. Home recording can be really challenging, and in this one everything was bleeding into everything else. It was crazy! I had to watch how much gating I did because some of the atmosphere would get totally lost.

I did use reverb ... I think it worked? I tried to keep it roomy and not too bright. I may have the drums too loud still, not sure. My ears are shot tonight.

This was a quick mix. But I hope you like it!
 

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