Mix this: An original called "Second Best"

Michael Ward said:
So here's my thoughts so far and a big thanks to everyone who has pitched in.


I thought you did a really good job with the vocals.
Car mix sounds good
On my headphones (semi-open), the "Fifths" track comes across as too loud.
Can you do anything more with the clarity of the "Subby Bass B" track? (The one with the upper octave)
You seem to be missing the "Synth-est" track. Was that intentional?
Click to expand...
Here is another go - moved towards a 80s type approach.
 

Attachments

  • Mix Practice B.mp3
    4 MB
Michael Ward said:
A few things that need fixing:
At the very end of the song the synth-est track needs silencing just before the final note on the piano and bass, otherwise the remaining echo/delay taps ring through and sound out of tune, if that makes sense.

Vocals: You have the 2 vocal tracks panned wide, which gives an interesting effect. But in a few places, where I only had one good take and had to paste in into both tracks (completely my fault), the stereo field collapses for a few words or syllables. In some places it's good, but in some it's really jarring (like the beginning of verse 2 at 1:26 - "I am deciding..."). How would you feel about playing with delaying one of the tracks about 20ms, and/or reversing the phase so it doesn't collapse so badly, or any other mixing tricks you can come up with to make it stay separated that may work even better.
Click to expand...
Here comes a new version: Vocal A delayed by 15ms and synth-est channel muted at the end.

And this is what I did for the song:
Add bass to both snares, around 200 hz
Too much "click" in the bass drum, cut at 5k
Reinforce midrange of crash
Add bass to toms
E-guitar: cut low end and high end frequencies
Stereo delay for "Super breakout" and "Synth-est"
Boost trebble in both basses
Add reverb to snares and voices
Mix all up together -> bus compressor on the output channel, slow attack (30ms) slaw release (1.5s), ratio 2:1, compress only by 2db
Equalizer after the compressor, boost midrange and trebble
Brickwall limiter

Thanks for sharing your tracks, and the feedback too !
 

Attachments

  • SecondBest-MixedByMrMix-v2.mp3
    3.1 MB
I spent a bit of time on it this morning. This is what I came up with. Had to do a lot of tweaking on the vocals.


Update:
After listening on the bigger monitors and with different headphones, I did some more tweaking. Took out some <100 Hz and added high shelf around 6K.
View attachment Second Best TR-02.mp3
 
Last edited:
I should not have had the cup of coffee in the afternoon. I took a stab. (This is *not* my thing...) So, mostly it's just some compression, triggering drum samples, reverb, and "pseudo-mastered" to set the loudness to about -14dB LUFS.
View attachment 2ndBest.mp3
 
MrMixer said:
Here comes a new version: Vocal A delayed by 15ms and synth-est channel muted at the end.

And this is what I did for the song:
Add bass to both snares, around 200 hz
Too much "click" in the bass drum, cut at 5k
Reinforce midrange of crash
Add bass to toms
E-guitar: cut low end and high end frequencies
Stereo delay for "Super breakout" and "Synth-est"
Boost trebble in both basses
Add reverb to snares and voices
Mix all up together -> bus compressor on the output channel, slow attack (30ms) slaw release (1.5s), ratio 2:1, compress only by 2db
Equalizer after the compressor, boost midrange and trebble
Brickwall limiter

Thanks for sharing your tracks, and the feedback too !
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input! Do you mean the treble on the whole song? I am still trying to get the best levels for the whole ranges and I wan to certainly improve that.
- I heard your mix, sounds real good too, I think that you did a good job generally, the bass guitar sounds awesome but maybe could be a bit lower sometimes.

keith.rogers said:
I would like to hear the mix with a different snare drum. Otherwise, good mix!
Click to expand...
Thanks! One of the other things that I can't get right is the snare, is it too high pitched/no punch?
I also heard your mix, but I could not hear the drums, maybe it has a very dynamic range and a bus compress on the whole output could help on that!


Thanks both of you, this will surely help me get better.
I reheard my mix and maybe the vocals are too loud...
 
Miguelo081 said:
Thanks! One of the other things that I can't get right is the snare, is it too high pitched/no punch?
I also heard your mix, but I could not hear the drums, maybe it has a very dynamic range and a bus compress on the whole output could help on that!
...
Click to expand...
The snare in your mix was too trebly for me. And, yes, I had the drums too far down in the mix - I heard them in the submix, but it was late and I was too focused on balancing keys and vocal I think. It's on an old computer with an old install of Logic - I'll have to pull it upstairs where I have my current stuff and give it a listen tomorrow. Thanks for making me listen to it again :)

p.s. (edit): remix with drums (mostly snare) pulled forward.
View attachment 2ndBest-2.mp3
 
Last edited:
keith.rogers said:
Sounds good. But, it's pretty loud! (I think mine sounds better about 6dB higher ;)) What was that mix final integrated LUFS?

Did you put some autotune on the vox?
Click to expand...

It's pretty loud I guess, -9.8 lufs integrated.

Well spotted with the autotune. Lightly used on main vocal A (with vocal B blended in periodically) but it is very light.

On your mix, I think you've gone the other way with the snare and now it's a bit loud.
 
Sheetayd said:
It's pretty loud I guess, -9.8 lufs integrated.

Well spotted with the autotune. Lightly used on main vocal A (with vocal B blended in periodically) but it is very light.

On your mix, I think you've gone the other way with the snare and now it's a bit loud.
Click to expand...
Ok, I just do acoustic stuff 98% of the time. I bumped the output to something I guess is more CD-like for this genre (?) so it's 11.5dB LUFS. Turned down the snare a bit. Thanks.
View attachment 2ndBest-3.mp3
 
I gave it a go as I need more practice with mixing. Mostly just tried to keep it balanced, did a bit of editing and add some space and depth. I warmed up pretty much everything - lots of nasty high frequency buzz saw type things happening in the synths and guitars. Those midi drums needed some serious treatment 😱. I bussed them out to a space generator thing I have, and smashed another bus with compression and just tried to give them a punchy feel. I hope it worked.

Overall, I was humming along by the end. There are some catchy elements here and I zeroed in on those.
 

Attachments

  • Second Best - Levity Project Mix.mp3
    4.7 MB
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top