Music to Murder - In My Final Days

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kindafishy

kindafishy

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Please feel complete freedom in sharing any thoughts you have. Good, bad, indifferent, about the song, about the mix, about the vibe, whatever. Anything is welcome. This song is destined for a release along with 7 or 8 other songs at some point in the future. I am hoping that will be in 2016, but I keep getting very busy with non-musical endeavours.

Mostly, I am looking for any thoughts on the mix because this needs to be 'ready for mastering' whatever that may mean. I like how it sounds here in my mix space, but translation is always challenging. My hope for mastering is that it makes this mix sound the same everywhere as it does here in my room.

Anyway, here is the mix. Any feedback is most welcome.

https://app.box.com/s/pjn0l86b63gsvv03hihg8qswcjxiszjq

Thanks! I will make sure that I take the time to reciprocate. I have been crazy busy lately, but I'm looking forward to checking out some tunes that have been posted lately.
 
I'm finding it hard to focus on the song because the syncopated drums and oddball fills aren't establishing any kind of groove. The rhythm guitars sound good but there's some weird amelodic stuff happening at times
 
I like it.
The drums are probably too syncopated for my taste though.
The break section from 1.45 is a bit mystifying as nothing seems to take off or build.
Might need to adjust dynamics in that section.
The 2nd voice seems just a little too mellow but is a strong contrast to the 1st voice.
 
Bulls Hit said:
I'm finding it hard to focus on the song because the syncopated drums and oddball fills aren't establishing any kind of groove. The rhythm guitars sound good but there's some weird amelodic stuff happening at times
Click to expand...

Thanks Bulls Hit. I'd counter that it grooves like a mother f$%^@#r, but that's just my opinion :).

Amelodic things happening from time to time isn't unintentional.

I know there are aspects to this song that will not be everybody's cuppa, but everything you hear is the way it is on purpose for better or for worse. This is one of my favourite M2M songs for just these reasons.

Cheers. Appreciate the listen and taking the time to leave your thoughts.
 
rayc said:
I like it.
The drums are probably too syncopated for my taste though.
The break section from 1.45 is a bit mystifying as nothing seems to take off or build.
Might need to adjust dynamics in that section.
The 2nd voice seems just a little too mellow but is a strong contrast to the 1st voice.
Click to expand...

I hear ya. A much earlier mix of this was posted on a different site a couple years back and if I recall correctly, the syncopation was a subject of discussion then as well. It's something that folks seem to either really like or it just doesn't agree with them. Luckily, it seems skewed towards the "like" column. Well, not here so far!

Hmm... never thought about the break section in those terms. I've always just felt that it was a cool transition bit, but yeah, I hear what you're saying. Let me think about what I might do there in the mix.

Great comments rayc. Thanks.
 
I like it a lot. The drums don't bother me, in fact, I think it attracts the listeners' attention and keeps them locked in. I think in the context of an album, this song would work well, providing all the other songs aren't similar.

Guitars sound great. The chirpy guitar on the right started wearing on me towards the end, but I'm an old fuck....

Mix worked well in my room. No nits on this one.

Cool man.
 
Chili said:
I like it a lot. The drums don't bother me, in fact, I think it attracts the listeners' attention and keeps them locked in. I think in the context of an album, this song would work well, providing all the other songs aren't similar.

Guitars sound great. The chirpy guitar on the right started wearing on me towards the end, but I'm an old fuck....

Mix worked well in my room. No nits on this one.

Cool man.
Click to expand...

Very good to hear that it is translating in your room, Chili.

Indeed, this is quite different from other songs on the album. This is the only song where we get into syncopated rhythms. It sits amongst songs that get either funky, sentimental, sleazy, heavy, groovy, atmospheric or some other stuff that I have a harder time describing. Our two newest songs are hard for me to define in those sorts of terms. I haven't posted either of those here yet. They are definitely within the rock genre somewhere though.

Not sure if there is anything I can do about the chirp without compromising other characteristics (sometimes when I remove the "bad", there is nothing "good" left) and I've been unable to perfect my goback machine, but I'll work on both of 'em for ya, Chili. One way or another.

Thanks a lot!
 
I really like it !!! I don't know how I missed this on "that other site" maybe it was before my time there. I believe I hear Mr. Dixon in there he's sounding Great as ever. Digging the guitar riffs you are laying down.........listened multiple times, keeps getting better !! Great job !!!
 
I wonder if the slapback echo kind of offsets the rhythm a bit in the beginning. It seems like the things could be a bit tighter. Levels seem great, vocals are nice.
 
BCF1 said:
I really like it !!! I don't know how I missed this on "that other site" maybe it was before my time there. I believe I hear Mr. Dixon in there he's sounding Great as ever. Digging the guitar riffs you are laying down.........listened multiple times, keeps getting better !! Great job !!!
Click to expand...

Ah! The version posted in the other place was a very long time ago, and to be honest, it's best if you don't hear it because it is a terrible mix :).

That is indeed sammydix you are hearing. We have done somewhere around 8 or 9 songs together and I am in the process of trying to get the tracks ready to put them out as an album.

Thanks man. I like that you are indicating that it's a grower for you. Growers tend to stick with me a lot longer.

Glad you like it!
 
easlern said:
I wonder if the slapback echo kind of offsets the rhythm a bit in the beginning. It seems like the things could be a bit tighter. Levels seem great, vocals are nice.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, easlern. Are you talking about the intro bit before the band comes in or when the full band jumps in? In the intro bit, there are actually 4 guitar tracks that were purposefully selected because of how loose they sounded in relation to each other. I was going for a modulated effect without using any effects.

Could be tighter to give it a more polished studio vibe for sure. I can appreciate that. What we really want, is to sound like a band you'd see at the local hotspot on a Saturday night, so we really just enjoy getting performances that felt good to play and feel good to listen to. What sense are you getting? Too loose for your tastes, or does it kind of work for you? I think that there is a lot to be said for going for either side of the degree of polish in performances, so I can certainly dig where you're coming from.

Good food for thought. Cheers :).
 
Yeah, just the intro really. Once the rest of the band comes in things seem to glue together well.
 
Sounds alright to me. The tempo change at 2:27 seems a bit awkward maybe. Like it is forced just for the sake of a tempo change. The one at 1:45 at so does seem so forced for some reason, maybe due to the drum fill.
 
monkeymanx said:
Sounds alright to me. The tempo change at 2:27 seems a bit awkward maybe. Like it is forced just for the sake of a tempo change. The one at 1:45 at so does seem so forced for some reason, maybe due to the drum fill.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. I'm actually glad you think the change at 2:27 seems awkward as it is intentionally jarring. Sounds like maybe it doesn't work for ya, but that's cool. It's great to get that perspective.

Really appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts.
 
Whoo... 3 weeks later, but I finally got a chance to make some tweaks based on HR feedback and other thoughts that I had after letting it fester a bit.

Hope nobody minds me bringing a thread back after 3 weeks. If so, please PM me. I don't want to be breaking etiquette or anything.

Here are the changes I have made to the initial mix:

- Slight increase to the punch and presence of the bass (it was punchy before, but I wanted mo punch)
- Little moves to draw attention to the 'noisy' bits in the bridges (there is lots of stuff going on there, but I realized that it may be too subtle)
- New approach to reverb (I normally mix very dry, but I am noticing reverb a lot more out in the wild, so I want to improve my use of it)
- New 2 bus compressor (I liked the old one, but it seemed a tiny bit 'smeary' on the low end - this new one has a nice, tightening effect without reducing bigness)

It was all pretty subtle stuff all in all, but I think the tighter bottom end is an improvement and I think the new reverb approach (for me) is polishing the overall production a bit.

Any thoughts or additional critiques are most welcome.

The link in the original post points to the newest mix, but here is a link for convenience -> https://app.box.com/s/pjn0l86b63gsvv03hihg8qswcjxiszjq
 
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