Mix Contest #9

[Freudian Slip]

Freudian Slip

Your intro is great...Strong and I love how you gave the growl a place...Volume is good too.

Bass has a dark driven energy that never lets up. I like how you kept the 'string pop' on the pick-up(?)... up front.

You did an outstanding job with the vocals. I like the delay/echo and the panning used. It rocks !!

Snare stands out with a nice reverby pop.

I would have liked to hear the cymbals a bit more bell-like. More cowbell!!!



The drums are a bit back in the mix, other than the snare.

Man, I love that bass string pop. Gives it some texture.

The panning sounds like the vox, drums and bass are center with this mix too, but the axe sounds more center panned too than not. In fact it all sounds center panned except for the vox delay. It amazes me even more how it isn't muddled with all center...or sounds more centered than not....sounds excellent...other than my desire to hear the toms and kick with more distinction.

I am hooked on that bass pop.

Kudos to you Freud.

Once again...only my opinion here.

Hi True I actually hard panned two of the guitar tracks and put one up the middle. I did move the yell at the begining to give it impact as the drums came in. The fret noise on the bass I felt was a something that helped the song and I decided to go with it. I really enjoyed mixing this and learned alot from it. I had alot of fun. Sort of put on my producer hat. I still dont feel like I got the low end under control at the begining even though I used a hi-pass on pretty much everything (toms/floor tom) and hyped the boing.

I tried for a "Tool" type mix. I have never done that before. I shot for a feeling and think I may have more work to do trimming up the low end at the begining.

Very cool song Perdicament, and I had a blast messing with it. It's cool to step into another world for a while

Oh True... The vocals are actually a duplicated track that I offset and added distortion to and did some automation on. Some lines did not work so had to mute them. Got as much as I felt would work in though.


F.S.

 

[Freudian Slip]

Did I say thanks True-eurt????????????? Truth be known I am not working so I have lots of time on my hands



Thanks

Let the accusations of ass kissing begin


F.S.

 

[true-eurt]

The song does have that eerrie aura to it. I don't hear where the bottom end is out of control in the beginning. I think you did justice to the mix, by going with your instincts on the bass pop. It really gives it a texture and takes the dark feel to a heavier place.

I take it the 'hard' panning of the two guitars gave it that full, but not muddied center sound?

You did an excellent job on the vocals Freud. They really stand out. With your mix the bass and vox just kinda jump out and get me...although the guitars and snare had their defined positions too.

I need to stop listening to these mix contests for a bit and try mixing one myself. I have gained a lot by listening though. These contest are really helpful in honing one's listening skills. When I do my own mix though, it really really sucks.

 

[true-eurt]

Did I say thanks True-eurt????????????? Truth be known I am not working so I have lots of time on my hands



Thanks

Let the accusations of ass kissing begin


F.S.

Hey...you are very welkom Freud. You aren't ass kissing with anyone. Just being polite. Nothing wrong with that. You don't have any reason to ass kiss. Like I am some kind expert...bawaahahahahahahaaaa I am just learning like everyone else.


I may get accused of Smoke Blowing though!!

 

[Freudian Slip]

The song does have that eerrie aura to it. I don't hear where the bottom end is out of control in the beginning. I think you did justice to the mix, by going with your instincts on the bass pop. It really gives it a texture and takes the dark feel to a heavier place.

I take it the 'hard' panning of the two guitars gave it that full, but not muddied center sound?

You did an excellent job on the vocals Freud. They really stand out. With your mix the bass and vox just kinda jump out and get me...although the guitars and snare had their defined positions too.

I need to stop listening to these mix contests for a bit and try mixing one myself. I have gained a lot by listening though. These contest are really helpful in honing one's listening skills. When I do my own mix though, it really really sucks.

I learn alot too. As far as your mixes, Time is on your side

F.S.

 

[Greg_L]

I entered a mix. It's not on that list. I'm not gonna win, but I still entered one.

 

[jdk303]

My entry

Hi.

I guess I'm a bit late with my entry, but I just found this thread yesterday and tried to finish in a hurry.

Anyway, there's something REALLY weird going on with the guitars. It sounds like something is out of phase, but I cannot seem to fix it. The rest of the song was easy to mix, although I really had to work on the snare to get it to sound consistent throughout the song (it should've been hit harder in various places in the performance). The kick was also a pain, but I managed to somewhat get the sound I was looking for.

I've been mixing this thing for hours now and I can't really hear anymore if something's wrong with it. I'm it has a few balance issues. Also, I was looking for a different reverb/ambience for the overall feeling of the music, it's a bit too dry for my taste. But oh well, I'll just send what I have.

Anyway, please (someone.. anyone!) listen and tell me what you think! =) Also, if I'm not too late, please consider the mix for the contest. I think you won't be disappointed.

Kind regards,
Jon Dal

 

[NL5]

The vox needs to come up, I can barely hear it at times. Not sure what you did with the guitars, but it sounds like they are out of time, and out of sync with each other. The snare sounds better than most of the entries, but the kick is clicky sometimes, other times not - kinda strange.

It's certainly a different approach to the song.

 

[zed32]

i think the kick clickiness varies because the drummer will sometimes hit the kick too soft, then he'll hit it way hard, so it was hard to get the kick track to balance out and get it all to sound pretty even.

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

Hi.

I guess I'm a bit late with my entry, but I just found this thread yesterday and tried to finish in a hurry.

Anyway, there's something REALLY weird going on with the guitars. It sounds like something is out of phase, but I cannot seem to fix it. The rest of the song was easy to mix, although I really had to work on the snare to get it to sound consistent throughout the song (it should've been hit harder in various places in the performance). The kick was also a pain, but I managed to somewhat get the sound I was looking for.

I've been mixing this thing for hours now and I can't really hear anymore if something's wrong with it. I'm it has a few balance issues. Also, I was looking for a different reverb/ambience for the overall feeling of the music, it's a bit too dry for my taste. But oh well, I'll just send what I have.

Anyway, please (someone.. anyone!) listen and tell me what you think! =) Also, if I'm not too late, please consider the mix for the contest. I think you won't be disappointed.

Kind regards,
Jon Dal

yeah i hear that phase thing, although it wasn't as bad in other entries, so are you sure your choice of EQ didn't attribute to it? What I did to semi-correct it was use a variable phase plugin. Also I thought eqing too much in the high mids/highs seemed to exacerbate the problem.

As far as the mix, I like the vocals, is there some sort of chorusy type effect on them a little bit? I like it, could you explain what you did with them? I would turn down that kick eq just a tad(1db or less) that you seem to have put on at 2.5-4.5k and maybe add a tiny little bump higher up too like 8 or 10k or something to give it more air/click, and a little less of that papery thud you get when you boost the 2.5-4.5k region. Also maybe turn down the low end eq on the kick (50-100hz) a tad (1 db or less), it's a bit much. But of course I have a different ideal for a kick sound in my head, so this is all IMO.

The overheads seem to have all the lows cut out either with a filter or shelf, but they seem a little thin, I'd move that shelf/filter down a little bit in frequency so that you get a little more low mids on the cymbals but are still cutting out the ultra lows- if that's even what you did. The guitars have a little bit too much high mid eq at the end, I would turn that down a little bit there. Vox could come up a bit. The it sounds great, it's one of the best entries yet.

 

[NL5]

i think the kick clickiness varies because the drummer will sometimes hit the kick too soft, then he'll hit it way hard, so it was hard to get the kick track to balance out and get it all to sound pretty even.

That can be fixed though.

BTW - I liked your mix BriefcasemanX.

 

[zed32]

i dont know how to fix it? i just hard limited the crap out of the kick track, i had no idea what to do! i tried using a different compressor and it made the louder kicks sound way distorted. with limiting it sorta calmed it down. i dunno if i did it right.

 

[jdk303]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I didn't re-fit anything in the mix, so the guitars shouldn't be out of sync. I really had to work with the guitar recordings to get rid of that nasty mud. I prefer mid over mud any day. =) But I definitely do agree, they are middy. Anyway, I have mixed tons of stuff before but never had so much trouble with guitars before. If I had more time I would probably go for re-amping. All this software EQing is murdering my soul, I tells ya!

You're right, BriefcasemanX, I cut the overheads at 550 I think. I usually don't like using the overheads as room mics (in the absence of room mics), but I _was_ going to try going lower, and go for more fullness. I guess I just forgot. Heheh. I'll try that! And I'll also try and fix that clicky kick.

I think I'll also have to fix the toms.

The only thing I have on the vocals is reverb and delay. I try to choose a short ambience reverb, instead of a plate or hall, and then go for delay to give it a sense of space.

I also agree with NL5 on BriefcasemanX's mix. It's good.

Again, thanks for the pointers.

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I didn't re-fit anything in the mix, so the guitars shouldn't be out of sync. I really had to work with the guitar recordings to get rid of that nasty mud. I prefer mid over mud any day. =) But I definitely do agree, they are middy. Anyway, I have mixed tons of stuff before but never had so much trouble with guitars before. If I had more time I would probably go for re-amping. All this software EQing is murdering my soul, I tells ya!

You're right, BriefcasemanX, I cut the overheads at 550 I think. I usually don't like using the overheads as room mics (in the absence of room mics), but I _was_ going to try going lower, and go for more fullness. I guess I just forgot. Heheh. I'll try that! And I'll also try and fix that clicky kick.

I think I'll also have to fix the toms.

The only thing I have on the vocals is reverb and delay. I try to choose a short ambience reverb, instead of a plate or hall, and then go for delay to give it a sense of space.

I also agree with NL5 on BriefcasemanX's mix. It's good.

Again, thanks for the pointers.

what verb plug is used for short ambience? And was it a preset or homegrown?

 

[jdk303]

Jesus Christ!! I swear, this guitar phasey thingy has got to be the doing of Satan himself! It's a thing of evil!

Why OH WHY can I not get these guitars to behave?!?

If anyone's interested, I followed some of the pointers and made a new version.

Here are my two submissions to the contest. I give up on the guitars. I surrender to ye, foul creature of the nether!

New (improved?):

Old (clicky and middy):

Johnny

 

[jdk303]

what verb plug is used for short ambience? And was it a preset or homegrown?

Basically I go for convolution reverb for ambience. You can get nice impulses for that stuff. Have you used the SIR plugin?

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

Basically I go for convolution reverb for ambience. You can get nice impulses for that stuff. Have you used the SIR plugin?

I have it, but don't really care for it, at least the impulses I used. It always sounded flat/2d etc, but your use of it is good. I used voxengo pha 979 on the guitars for phase which is super cheap, but I think you can download a free plugin called phase bug which does the same thing, but I couldn't get it to work on my system for some reason.

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1767.html

 

[NL5]

i dont know how to fix it? i just hard limited the crap out of the kick track, i had no idea what to do! i tried using a different compressor and it made the louder kicks sound way distorted. with limiting it sorta calmed it down. i dunno if i did it right.

Cut-n-paste...........

 

[zed32]

Cut-n-paste...........

ahh gotcha. this is probably where something like Drumagog might come in handy i'm thinking.

 

[NL5]

ahh gotcha. this is probably where something like Drumagog might come in handy i'm thinking.

yep, that works damn well too........The snare needed it worse I thought. From the mixes I've listened too, the snare sound really sets certain mixes apart from the rest.