Ok, i tried a relatively radically approach mixwise for me

  • Thread starter Thread starter Khompewtur
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Khompewtur

Khompewtur

*Retired*
Did things work for the better or have I courted disaster.

First off the entire drum production is a brand new technique. In the past I have had abysmally awful drum kits when i go organic, is this any improved? 2nd, i squooshed the mix with a limiter and i've only done that once before. Where is the crumble line?

I wanted to try to get better dynamics out of my stuff and some punch. I'm hoping I got some pop in this one, but if not lemme know. Also, i'm hoping the kit at least is somewhat improved from my previous forays into an organic style kit. Maybe i just smoked crack? I dunno, i hate to put this up now but i gotta know whether it was a step in the right direction production wise. plus i'm drinking and i like to watch playoff baseball... choo chooooo.


"Kindling Wood"
 
Sounds alright. I have more of a problem with the drumming style than the sound. Cool intro guitar!
The vocals sound kind of like they're clashing a bit. I would choose a main vocal and use the extra tracks to back that one up to get a more focused sound.

...but I'm kinda drunk so take that as you may...
 
Khompewtur

Your vocals seemed to have benefited from the compression but the rest of the mix doesn't sound particular-illy punchy so, I don't know if this is the right direction to be taking?

As for the drums, well, I guess it's the tightness or lack there-of that is the larger issue to overcome. You might be better off to work with a set pattern that maintains a steady tempo and augment it with live hits through a keyboard or drum trigger pad.

The samples don't sound all that bad except for the kick and a tighter performance will allow the listener to forget about the quality of the drum sounds, IMHO.

The other parts of the tune sound pretty good as far as the guitar and vocal work go and the song sounds interesting so far.

Cheers! :)
 
Mmm... I like this. Here's my take: the mix bus compression works IMO during the "chorus" (the heavier part) - I *don't* like it during the moodier verse parts, which need to breath more to me. So hows about laying off the squishing except during the chorus? That'll give you some more dynamic contrast too.

That is some weird-ass drumming.:D

The high hat sound is kind of phasey and unpleasant. Other than that, I don't think the drums sound *bad*, although I confess I'm not really *wild* about them either.

I love this song though. It's really growing on me.

Cool.

Chris
 
Nice guitars man. I think the drums are a bit dry and up front.
Nice job layering the vocals too! I also like the arrangement. Very good guitar playing and the singing is very well done too. I think you could cut the cymbals back a bit in volume, including the hi-hat. Right now it sounds like the guitars are out in back of the drums. Kinda awkward. Great writing and performance!
 
I really liked the guitars. Especially when the thing kicks in. Really liked the music. Having a little trouble hearing the words - I think a little EQing might be needed. But I think the vocals themselves are sounding nice.

I ought to be the last person to comment on drums. But here I go anyway...

The only thing I thought was weird were the cymbals in the intro. Sounded like someone was hitting them with their fingers instead of sticks. They didn't have the sparkle that I thought they should have.
 
Khompy,
Way cool song. You always have some nice, well chosen guitar sounds. Vocals are really cool. Nice tone and layering. Nice verb.

I think all my concerns lie in the drums (are those the new samples? doh! ;) :) )

Here we go:
1) Cymbals in the intro sound funny because I don't think you can do that with samples without midi/velocity capabilities and make it sound very real. Plus those samples don't work there IMOP.

2) Drums all seem too out front, especially the kick and cymbals/hi-hat.

3) Drums all see way too dry for the rest of the tune. I would bus all the drums to one stereo channel and add verb until it fits better. I would do that first, if you have not already, then adjust the volume to fit better knowing you may need to adjust the balance between kick, snare, etc. as well.

4) I think a more steady/consistent/tighter beat would be better as well. I mean I like syncapation but you may have too much IMOP which also draws attention to the "fake" drums.

Very nice song and wonderful performance!
 
I just re-read your post and noticed this:

Khompewtur said:
i squooshed the mix with a limiter and i've only done that once before.

I wanted to try to get better dynamics out of my stuff and some punch.
Click to expand...

Seems like kind of an oxymoron. :D Actually I think groucho and Ghost were both correct. It did seem to have nice effect on the vocals and change from verse to chorus would probably do you some good. Just thoughts!

The song keeps running in my head so that it is cool. Nice work!
 
Experimenting.........

personally I like drumming to be "In the Pocket" and holding a groove. If the timing isn't there it's a little too experimental 4 me.
Love the song though........it's very GOOD:D

Keep going friend
Dan:)
 
Groooooooooooooovie, man

Cool Tune - Cool Vibe
But let me join with the others in saying the drums just don't cut it for me. The sounds are OK - I actually like that first cymbal sound - but the rhythm just seems off to me. The kick doesn't seem to kick naturally when it's supposed to be - it's way behind the beat and sometimes the snare, too. However, comma...
The tune is killer - the vocals are gorgeous - varied in style and dynamics. The guitars are cool, too - I love that dry, ultra-tight sound beginning at 3:21 with that sonic wash in the background - great contrast in tone color! Courting disaster? No, I don't think so - I'd leave everyhting as-is and change up the rhythm and see what difference that makes - but that's just me. I'm a rhythm freak - just ask any drummist who's played with me - we seldom get along.

Reallly, really, really cool tune - I likes it a lot!!
Two Euro cents from Milan
 
I think your on to something with the drums. With canned ones, the sound is already there, you don`t have to hunt or experiment to get started, just manicure them and get used to using them. I like the bass, a bit of overtone on the low end but sounds neat here.
 
My new drum kit rocks. But i kinda had to turn it sideways a bit so it plays easier (the space bar was getting in the way) :Dhahaha!

Ok i made some adjustments. I took a hair of level off the kit, reductions on the hi-hat, crashes, and I panned the crashes.

I spear a light reverb on top of the kit mix and increase master reverb by 4%.


jake - BUDDY! we were drunk at the same time!! woohooo! Thanks Jake.

Ghost - My first forays into fruity loops were using patterns and I tried that a few times but it didn't work. Using it as a DXi plugin kept crashing my cpu though so this time i farmed out the entire percussion section separately. Gotta take some time to get used to my 'kit' i never tried to think like a drummer before. Thanks for the listen.

groucho - Hey there chris. I guess what im thinking i could do in that case is move the limiter from the master bus into one of the aux and then draw an envelope and increase/decrease the feed when appropriate. Thanks for the feedback and listen.

sabbath - see you at miller time buddy.

sluice - Thanks for the kind words and advice Tom, i pared down the hat a little like you suggested.

MarshaMarshaMarsha - Maybe i was using felt mallets!:eek: :D haha, no i thought they sounded more fake with the highs on so i peeled 'em off. Thanks for the review.

Mica - YOU DA MAN! I love those samples, they made it so much more fun. It was a chore before to go in and be like "ok how do i make a song with no samples". I actually did change the velocity quite a bit on them and sometimes even the pitch slightly to 'change em up' but maybe i could try to review that a little better. Thanks for the feedback and the earlier advice, i owe you bro!

HevyD - Dan = da man. I don't think i know what a 'pocket' is. Do you mean a 'hot pocket'. SOMEONE GET THE STICK! Heh! Thanks for the listen Dan.

Milan - Thanks for the review and kind words man. Believe me if you had compared this to my earlier kits you'd see a world of difference. Unless it was something over the top techno, they were itsy bitsy witsy wittle wookum dwum kittens.

Kenny - Thanks for listening Toke, im gonna keep working on it but for the first time i actually 'enjoyed' making percussion. Yahoo!
 
Cool arrangement & chord changes. Diggin' the tune.:cool:

Drums lack groove. I think I understand why. Too much time at the space bar?:D

A tip on the 2-bus compression: fast attack & release, easy on the threshold, and just bit of make-up gain;)
 
I love the song. Also love the guitar sounds/parts and the vocals are awesome. Great bass tone. Sounds really good when you hear it mostly by itself at about 4:02.

The arpegiated (sp?) guitar is really full sounding. Because it's so full, the transitions are not all that smooth. Maybe if the bass was louder they'd work better.

Drums? The sounds are fine to me. The timing could use some work. The part could also be more steady.

I don't know about the limiter. I never put anything on the master fader so I don't really know what to listen for. I don't hear any obvious problems with it.

The outro (coming into that riff one more time) was very effective. A smoother fade out would help.

....and I notice this strange lack of Simon and Garfunkel influence....:D:D:D

Cool stuff!
 
I can't recall the other stuff well enough to say if this is better or not, but I thought the drums sounded pretty good. I liked the big kick. The crash sounded kind of lonely.

Punch
The rhythm guitars in the chorus are loud enough to hear but aren't adding to the kick of the song, I think you should bring them up or give them some more balls somehow.
 
cool song, i think the drum tone is ok, i'm not a big fan of canned drums( since I play my own) but they aren't setting in the mix well. When the song kicked in, i feel the song got squished down. The guitars are too far in the back . all of the sounds are good, i would remix it with no limiter, use automation for the louder parts, and see how it sounds to you. The bottom end sounmds good to me, it's not distinct to me, but definately there!
just my $.02 worth!!
Jason
 
Hey, the mood of the song (and the way you mixed the 'background' vocal) makes me think of Type O Negative. This is meant as a compliment (I love Type O).

Great song and performance. Nice 'open' mix. Only the drums need some work - mostly timing - but if you get it fixed this song is perfect!! :)

Good one, Khompy.
 
I hear the Type O in some parts.. really good vocals.. I wanted to hear more of them.. some great parts in this tune.. 2nd listen.. good song! the drums are all screwed up.. it's not so much the sound of them as it is the programming.. it's pretty hammered.. cool bass line.. the mix is crackling from over limiting.. I would put more vocal parts when you redo it.. the drums are killing this thing.. good tune Khompij!
 
Alright, spent part of the day reviewing the drums. I got rid of the performance issues (digitally shifting by millisecs), so if you take issue with it now it's just my sensibilities you're not liking. I still kept the drums from being perfect on the beat and there are definitely portions where I kept behind the beat (verse 2) because that's what I'm doing with the bass and that's the feel of the song for me. Also there are parts where I'm drumming according to what the guitar or vocalist is doing, i think it just depended on where my attention span got grabbed while rough tracking.

Also, beefed up the guits a little in the choruses.

I didn't limit the non-drum submix this time. I still think i got close to levels of the first one but i was finding the crumble line (the clean gits start to distentegrate) somwhere around the +2.5db to +3.0db area.

I could've gone for a higher crumble ceiling but i guess i wanted a higher level for those who won't be boosting while listening.


MBrane - Ha! that would be a great name for a real bar. I didn't really approach this with a mindset of steady grooves, but i was pleased with what i got. This was my first song as a drummer rather than a programmer, because I 'played' this. I swear i assigned keyboard letters to different drums and treated my keyboard like it was a yamaha v-kit or something. It was a complete riot to do. Thanks for the review.

fprod - Thanks for the kind words bud, glad you liked. That bass part is actually a bass duet. It happens twice, first verse and isolated at the end. I liked it enough to say i wanted it without vocals on top. The limiter is weird i can mix to a .wav and it will be fine but i go to the .mp3 and then i discover it crumbles and have to go back and start over. Time consuming. ugh.

DougH - I gave the guits in that chorus section a slight boost, hopefully that will get them to where they need to be. Thanks for the listen.

JasonBird - I actually have a kit set up outside my room but i don't have the skilz or the mic's to attempt it. I suppose i could bring the drums in here one at a time but i thought that using FL was much more convenient. Thanks for listening and your feedback.

Peddy Peddy Good To me - Hi... now get back to work!! I LOVE CUSTOMERZ! Oh type O i like them too. I've only heard like one or two cuts from their new album but i totally liked the direction they had gone. Instead of continuing to stay as vampires and stuff they kinda went like "smashing pumkinesque" if that makes any sense. Anyway, it was a more commercial sounding direction but one that i thought was COMPLETELY successful.

Sabbath - I switched up the programming slightly. More it was about going in and shifting the start time on a few errants to get closer to the beats, but when i went EXACT on it started to get back that robotic drum machine feel so i kept it loose. I guess i could add more vox or maybe YOU could! :D "Ebony and Ivoooooreeeeeee side buh side on ma ... pya ..NOH keey booowd whaaaa can't weeeeeeeee" I got the limiter somewhere around 9.2, it started to crumble at +2.5db but i think at -1db it should be ok. Thanks for the listen and review brutha.
 
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