New alternative track for critique - This City

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andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

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hey everyone, spent a little longer mixing this one than I normally do. There's a lot going on, and I battled the compression settings for vocals a lot. I ended up having to manually adjust volume levels much more than I wanted to.

Hopefully the bass is more rounded out this time, and I turned the kick up a bit more than I have in the past as well. Also, this is my first track featuring my new Gibson Studio Gothic, which should, hopefully, sound more full and thick - less thin and jangly than the previous Fender clone.

Looking forward to the good and the bad. thanks guys

https://soundcloud.com/andrushkiwt/this-city
 
Although I kind of liked the vibe of your mix...I felt the the drums need a hell lot of high end to it. It sounds kind of muffled.

I think you've managed to get a good guitar tone. IMO it sounds nice.
 
CMolena said:
Although I kind of liked the vibe of your mix...I felt the the drums need a hell lot of high end to it. It sounds kind of muffled.

I think you've managed to get a good guitar tone. IMO it sounds nice.
Click to expand...

Hmm. The drums are mixed the same as all my past tracks. The only difference this time is that I put reverb on the snare and toms. I did adjust it a few times this week, so maybe it needs to come down a bit. EQ-wise, they are exactly the same as everything else ive done.

I'm curious what the "vibe" is...can you explain the vibe you get from the track? I don't play these out live, so feedback is limited.
 
The quiet intro was good. I thought it was a little too long. I might try experimenting with thinning out the vocal in the intro - like a telephone voice thing. When things kick in, I'm thinking the impact will be bigger.

Mix is a little narrow. I'm hearing stuff on the edges, but it's louder in the center.

The vocal is pretty far out front. I think it's because the instruments on the sides are quiet.
 
CMolena said:
Although I kind of liked the vibe of your mix...I felt the the drums need a hell lot of high end to it. It sounds kind of muffled.

I think you've managed to get a good guitar tone. IMO it sounds nice.
Click to expand...

TripleM said:
The quiet intro was good. I thought it was a little too long. I might try experimenting with thinning out the vocal in the intro - like a telephone voice thing. When things kick in, I'm thinking the impact will be bigger.

Mix is a little narrow. I'm hearing stuff on the edges, but it's louder in the center.

The vocal is pretty far out front. I think it's because the instruments on the sides are quiet.
Click to expand...

Back to the drawing board. I'll post when it's back up
 
ok, spent a few days reworking this. this is the 8th image file. The track followed a newer Breaking Benjamin song in my car and it followed rather nicely in the low end. there may be a touch too much bass for some, but again, it sounded modern and similar to other rock/alternative mixes in my car system.

if you guys get a good "sound" going that you're happy with, do you ever save settings for particular things? i have been starting from scratch each recording and it might be why my tracks vary in different aspects (snare sound, bass roundness, etc...) of course, the settings would only be a reference point to something that sounded good in another track, and they would be fine-tuned for the new one. The bass sound here, for example.

let me know what you guys think, hope it's more good than bad :) thnx

the link at the top is the same as the one below

https://soundcloud.com/andrushkiwt/this-city
 
I like the song. Good bass part. There is not too much bass for my tastes. My preference is to hear the bass part clearly. As some mentioned, the mix does seem a narrow (based on your last mix--I assume it was more so in the earlier mixes). That could be causing some congestion around the bass in the center. Vocals are very good.
 
Robus said:
I like the song. Good bass part. There is not too much bass for my tastes. My preference is to hear the bass part clearly. As some mentioned, the mix does seem a narrow (based on your last mix--I assume it was more so in the earlier mixes). That could be causing some congestion around the bass in the center. Vocals are very good.
Click to expand...

I widened to about 112%. Also, in the chorus, the vox are double tracked and panned to 25% l and r, with one additional track centered. I did this to unclog the middle. It's still too narrow? Guitars are very wide. Is there a particular section that sticks out as narrow?
 
andrushkiwt said:
I widened to about 112%. Also, in the chorus, the vox are double tracked and panned to 25% l and r, with one additional track centered. I did this to unclog the middle. It's still too narrow? Guitars are very wide. Is there a particular section that sticks out as narrow?
Click to expand...

More accurately, the middle vox in the chorus are a copied and pasted track of one of the tracks that are panned to 25%. Maybe that causes a shift of the vocal to the middle more? So, it's 25% left one take, centered same take (with stereo chorus), 25% separate take. Maybe because that one and one side are identical, it shifts the sound to the center. ? Fyi, harmonies are 100 % panned.
 
Others may disagree with me. I'm not hearing the guitars panned wide. You may have double tracks or different parts panned left and right, but for me they are imaging closer to center. Maybe they are not very differentiated? There is a lead guitar part I hear on the left during the verses. During the chorus what I hear most on the left and right are cymbals, especially what sounds like a crash or hat hit very hard on the left. My favorite part of the song was your second verse, where you play that syncopated bass line (very nice). There is an openness to the sound that I like.
 
andrushkiwt said:
I widened to about 112%. Also, in the chorus, the vox are double tracked and panned to 25% l and r, with one additional track centered. I did this to unclog the middle. It's still too narrow? Guitars are very wide. Is there a particular section that sticks out as narrow?
Click to expand...

Robus said:
Others may disagree with me. I'm not hearing the guitars panned wide. You may have double tracks or different parts panned left and right, but for me they are imaging closer to center. Maybe they are not very differentiated? There is a lead guitar part I hear on the left during the verses. During the chorus what I hear most on the left and right are cymbals, especially what sounds like a crash or hat hit very hard on the left. My favorite part of the song was your second verse, where you play that syncopated bass line (very nice). There is an openness to the sound that I like.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't really widen them anymore without pushing everything else too. There are 2 sets in guitars playing the rhythm in the chorus. One set 100, the other around 82. Each set is the same take, but ran with different amp settings and eq. I guess I could actually play each set individually, for 4 total takes. Maybe that would help distinguish them instead of recording onto 2 channels simultaneously. And then doing that again for the other set.

Thanks for picking out the bass part. :) last minute idea.
 
Robus said:
This guy has a clever suggestion for how to create stereo double tracks from a mono source, without re-recording anything. Seems obvious, but I wouldn't have thought of it. I haven't tried it yet, but will:

Create a doubled stereo track from a mono source - Hometracked
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geez man, that's a lot of work! haha. i'd be easier to just play it over, for me. especially if the strumming isn't straightforward and predictable. good idea for parts where it is the same for a few seconds, although. i think i'll just start recording each set as two different takes instead of copying and pasting and relying on enough changes in EQ, delay, and amp settings.
 
I hear you. I almost never record just one take of anything, so I've usually got an extra or two that can be used for doubling. But I don't double much. The older I get, the more I want to hear the space around and between parts in an ensemble.
 
Robus said:
I hear you. I almost never record just one take of anything, so I've usually got an extra or two that can be used for doubling. But I don't double much. The older I get, the more I want to hear the space around and between parts in an ensemble.
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I see. Its all taste. If I could use 30 Seconds To Mars' gear and mix engineer, I'd love to hear my songs that way. With a touch of Nirvanas In Utero album. I think that's what I'm going for. Possibly. Maybe.
 
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