Mixes are TOO "in your face"???

[Nate74]

I've been re-mixxing some old 1/2" 8 track stuff that I recently transfered to my new HD24XR. When I recorded the material originally, I was in a band with a guy who did most of the mixing through his board and outboard gear, and they turned out sounding pretty pro. We pressed 500 CDs and sold most of them at shows and what not.

I haven't had an opportunity to record a full project yet with my new setup so I thought I'd get some practice with this older material.

The one thing I'm finding as that all my mixes seem to be very "in your face." Like every instrument (except maybe drums and bass) are just right there, with little or no space around them.

I'm guessing some combination of reverb and compression will cure this, but random tweaking isn't doing it. When we mixed it the first time, my buddy only had an LXP1 (which I now own) and several DBX160s.

What's a good approach to setting reverb and compression levels? Do you start extreme then back off, or the other way around?

BTW, my other mixes that I've done with the new setup seem to be coming out much better, but they've all been accoustic guitar/vocals stuff and a few songs that I used sampled drums on...

 

[Ronan]

Sounds like you are mixing with no reverb and the tracks were recorded in dry small spaces. Some people love that sound. Check out the last couple Red Hot Chili Peppers records.

Compression will probably make things more (in your face) except for on drum overheads or room mics, compressing those can bring up the natural ambience of the room.

Adding some reverb and maybe very small amount of delay will do what you are trying to do. Do not start off extreme. Just a small amount of reverb on the drum overheads, snare and lead vocal will make a very big difference.

 

[Nate74]

Thanks!
My LXP1 is (according to the manual's cheat sheet) set at about 1.2 seconds of decay, with no pre-delay. I'm wondering if my wet/dry mix is to blame. I use the stereo returns from the LXP to two channel inputs then pan them hard left and right. I'll try messing around with the send levels as well...

 

[BrettB]

Some good reverb settings can do the trick, and also watch your EQ settings: On heavy guitars often the midrange (400-900Hz) gives you a very 'in your face' sound, while wutting mids can give you a different, bit more thin sound.

For the following projects you record, you should investigate the tomm acoustics very good to achive a desired sound,


good luck

Brett

 

[Farview]

Thanks!
My LXP1 is (according to the manual's cheat sheet) set at about 1.2 seconds of decay, with no pre-delay. I'm wondering if my wet/dry mix is to blame. I use the stereo returns from the LXP to two channel inputs then pan them hard left and right. I'll try messing around with the send levels as well...

If you are using the reverb in a send and return configuration, you should have it set the mix to 100% wet.

 

[Nate74]

Yeah I have the MIX set all the way to the "wet" side. Playing with the amount of decay seems to be helping a bit.

I'm also realizing that the guitars need some EQing. I did most of the guitar parts with a 335 on that project and the clean chords sound ok, but when I went with a tubescreamer or similar, it must have boosted that mid range quite a bit.

Just playing with these two things seems to be helping already.

I'm really tempted to go back and try the vocals again on a few parts... heck with 16 extra tracks and the HD24 why not right?

Maybe some B3 too.

 

[mixsit]

There are some general rules of thumb' that might be helpful also.

'Early reflections' that are attached 'in time' to the source tend to pull the image back. You can have your image more forward and still have a large (or deep) ambience behind it by separating the verb from the source. (Pre delay)

Compression can bring things forward by (bringing up the background) but changing attack and release times can alter some of the forms of 'presence'.

Peaces
Wayne

oops. Forgot the biggest one of all. Relative volume!