New exercise mixing effort

LazerBeakShiek

LazerBeakShiek

Rad Racing Team
This evening I got back to it. Been two weeks. Still the tracks I record feel like they are competing for loudness. Not in any way mixing. Vocals are a puzzle. I ran into a major issue with delaying the drum line. It sounds too busy here with EZDrummer, and usually its sounds cool. EzKeys 'phaser grand', I was just wheeling through with ,my midi notes and landed on that. The tracks line up pretty tight.

Halfway through it. So this is part 1.

I put the low vocals up way high. Cause otherwise, they sound wimpy. Can't crack that nut yet.. but you gotta try something. Right? Hear anything that I could improve for part 2?

Jessica Riddle, Angels Fall

Version 2 with less voice.
 
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Liking the tune> I cant really hear much in the way of ambience (reverbs, short delays) which to my ears makes it sound very "in the box" rather than a band playing together. Also to my ears there are too many elements competing in the 2-5 k mids, which is what I believe may be why you have difficulty balancing the vocal parts.
Keep going and good luck!
 
Gtoboy said:
Liking the tune> I cant really hear much in the way of ambience (reverbs, short delays) which to my ears makes it sound very "in the box" rather than a band playing together. Also to my ears there are too many elements competing in the 2-5 k mids, which is what I believe may be why you have difficulty balancing the vocal parts.
Keep going and good luck!
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What is a good reverb? Something not too complex. I tend to like spring reverbs. Any reverb VST's you could recommend?

It is a dry recording. Looking at the UA page online. The AMS RMX16 plugin should be pretty cool. Waiting till holiday sales.
 
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seems to be a frequency masking the vocals making them sound muffed. a bit.
when I hear this I go for an eq cut in the 320hz range.
the tune has an infectious groove like make me smile or get back.
good job beaker man,
 
LazerBeakShiek said:
This evening I got back to it. Been two weeks. Still the tracks I record feel like they are competing for loudness. Not in any way mixing. Vocals are a puzzle. I ran into a major issue with delaying the drum line. It sounds too busy here with EZDrummer, and usually its sounds cool. EzKeys 'phaser grand', I was just wheeling through with ,my midi notes and landed on that. The tracks line up pretty tight.

Halfway through it. So this is part 1.

I put the low vocals up way high. Cause otherwise, they sound wimpy. Can't crack that nut yet.. but you gotta try something. Right? Hear anything that I could improve for part 2?

Jessica Riddle, Angels Fall

Version 2 with less voice.
Click to expand...

Interesting piece. I think your vocals sound like a demo - can you cut loose? I really wanted to chorus to punch. Other than that. - the guitars aren't paying together - I mean they are the same rhythmic idea but just kind of stumble.
 
Papanate said:
Interesting piece. I think your vocals sound like a demo - can you cut loose? I really wanted to chorus to punch.
Click to expand...
Try this worst version of Ah Ha . I'm still working on it. The voices get worse and worse through the song until its only rough cuts smeared together.

Just wanted to know what you think so far. Ill redo vocals on Sunday, but what else needs it? I listened to it too many times and feel burned out.


With the JS Master Limiter on the Reaper mains. more keys +4db. dropped a doubling guitar track. Lowered some voices. Sped the thing up .0015% , because these digital recordings KEEP SLOWING DOWN after I record them. No autotune. Obviously.


Screenshot 2021-10-23 170024.jpg
Are you able to tell that I used no actual amplifiers? Just the instrument, an AKG P420, and the interface.
 
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It went poorly. What works for making the vocals the same volume while singing every line? A habit I make, is moving closer and closer to the microphone as the song plays. Is it possible with a combination Limiter and compressor to maintain say -6 db all the time?
 


At this point its just screaming.

Same problems in this one. Voices get louder as I get closer to the microphone. By the end part there is lip noises. Im switchin to omni.
 
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I listened to the self esteem draft. For a rough draft it wasn't terrible. I see what you mean about the levels.

A pop filter will help you stay at a constant distance from the mike. My vocals can have a lot of volume deviation, sometime to much for just a compressor to smooth. At that point I add volume automation to get everything closer so a compressor can smooth it out.

You might try going through a compressor on the way in. I recently tried recording vocals through an out board compressor and then into my DAW. That worked pretty good, the levels are consistent. I need to practice using the compressor so the vocal doesn't get squashed, but I'm happy with the first song I did that way.
 
On a first listen it sounds like there's a lot occupying a similar frequency area. There doesn't sound like there's a lot of space in the mix or clarity. Like the vocals are smack bang on top of that, I think, low mid range which is right where a lot of the drums sound and I guess the bass too. And the electric guitar on the left is really all over that frequency range too. Not sure what others have been saying. Maybe a tad more panning could help things. But yeah, first impression...a lot all in a similar freq range. The actual vocal might be considered a bit kind of ground bound in a way...it doesn't vary or sell the track I guess.
 
I am using the presets from UA. I press record. The tracks don't have any EQ or tone shaping. That guitar is the Diezel H4 'brite drive'. The bass is the SVT unison , 'just bass'. My impression was you could just use the presets, the creators made them sound right already..They are preset. So I'm supposed to re EQ them? I was hoping they would be something right from the beginning. Like EZdrummer, and use it to balance everything else.

This is the opposite of showing off. Kinda like, whats wrong with me..Its bad.
 
Playing with my new Waves VSTs. Does this stuff work? Element and Codex with EZ drummer and a line6 UX2 guitar solo.


If the guitar solo was lost in the mix, the guitar solo is louder in this one.
 
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