Outside Looking In

jimmys69 said:
Because he has the giddy effect that Melodyne can have on a user with a new toy. lol!

It happens. I have created lower harmonies with Melodyne that give depth to a vocal track. There is one on the site I did for Einar a while back. The song was called 'Everyday'. Don't know the link.

Here is the song tho. The harmonies are subtle at times, more strong in the chorus, but nonetheless created with Melodyne.
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Yeah I thought that's what he had in mind. The sample you posted of Everyday was very subtle, it seemed to thicken but was not really apparent. I would prefer a little more presence but would it sound too fake maybe. I have Melodyne on Sonar X3 maybe I'll play around with it sometime just to see what it can do. I still prefer the real thing but I'm not adverse to trying new things.

---------- Update ----------

jimistone said:
It sounds good but needs more level on drums as others pointed out already. It's really tight and clean, almost to the point of being a bit sterile. It need some type of ambiance to get a more organic sound. That is more a matter of personal taste on my part than something that actually needs fixing.
Good song.
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Thanks Jimistone, by ambience I'm guessing a reverb over the whole mix?
 
Yeah, reverb would be ambiance, or a slap back delay, or even some fluctuations on the levels of the tracks to give it some more dynamic. "Needs more Ambiance" is just another way of saying "it needs something but i don't know exactly what" LOL. Sorry i can't be more specific but it's already better that what I could do.
When the drums come up that in itself may do it.
 
Edit - new mix today (Aug 16) using individual drum tracks. This is the first time I mixed drum tracks - usually I use the stereo drum track Jason send us. Seems ok to my ears but would be great if you could listen and tell me what you think of my newbie drum mix. Same link below I just replaced the SC file.


Outside Looking In
 
That sounds a lot better. The drums are loud enough now. I the the lead guitar could use a little more bite.
 
The drums sound good but a little narrow & I think the bass drum needs some EQing but couldn't tell you what or how.
Terriffic song sounds even better.
 
Thanks Jimmy and Ray - I'm still trying to figure out how these drums work :) The OH's are panned 70% LR, hihat 30%L and toms 25 LR. Everything else is centered.
 
It is better with the new drum tracks for sure. Big improvement. I do think the drums are still getting a little stomped out though. I'd suggest drop everything but the drums maybe like 1db. The kick and snare are getting masked out pretty often. Adjust levels before you go trying other stuff.
 
Thanks Greg, TBH I can't push the drums much more without going into the red all the time. So I'll have to drop everything else if they're being masked.
 
ido1957 said:
Thanks Greg, TBH I can't push the drums much more without going into the red all the time. So I'll have to drop everything else if they're being masked.
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Yeah that's what I said. Drop everything but the drums. You're close though. It shouldn't take much. Here's a little trick that I like to do with my own stuff - find the loudest most rockinest part of the song, and check the kick and snare in that section. Make sure they're audible. If they're good in those loudest parts, then it'll be plenty fine everywhere else. And for reference, listen to commercial mixes in your style. The snare never gets lost. The nice thing about snare drums is they don't eat up frequency space in the middle like vocals, bass, and guitars can. So you can have it loud and proud and it doesn't hurt anything.
 
Ask Jason for a photograph of his kit so you can place things as he had them set up.
I've made the mistake of misplacing a tom or even swapping OHs - my ears couldn't hear it but other could. The OHs will have elements of everything else in them so they're important to get sweet. Toms are a point worth checking: you have 25 L & R but they may be 25 L & 30 L for example, (you could just compare things to PI's stereo track for that matter).
I've been very literal of late and have the snare off centre because it usually is.
That said, read and follow Greg's adv. he's a drummer.
 
A photo would be a good reference point - I'll check it out. Right now the snare is slightly to left side. Not sure if that's his left or my left though.
 
I applaud you not washing out the lead vocals with delays or reverbs (aka AC/DC), but this mix is too dry. Could use something like Ozone on the two buss with just a slight touch of high frequency band widening, a bit of aural excitement, a small amount of reverb for glue.
Small, minute amounts of the above could take this mix to the next level.
 
Crazy Luke said:
I applaud you not washing out the lead vocals with delays or reverbs (aka AC/DC), but this mix is too dry. Could use something like Ozone on the two buss with just a slight touch of high frequency band widening, a bit of aural excitement, a small amount of reverb for glue.
Small, minute amounts of the above could take this mix to the next level.
Click to expand...

Naw man, don't go there. Please?

I'm just going to leave this one alone...
 
It's amazing how 2% or 3% out of 100% wet setting on a good convolution reverb can add glue to a band mix without being heard
 
Crazy Luke said:
It's amazing how 2% or 3% out of 100% wet setting on a good convolution reverb can add glue to a band mix without being heard
Click to expand...

Reverb as 'glue'?

Not sure I get your point man. Reverb is not something I would ever use in mastering.

Did you just get Ozone and playing with the tools they have? I been there a long time ago, and it ended up something I never use anymore.

I am curious to here your thoughts and uses. :)
 
This plpace is a little like AA but for reformed reverb junkies.
We don't like the temptation - we wake up simming in an ambient ocean of convoutions and THEN start to sweat.
Crazy Luke - you need to pop up some samples of your work wth what you've suggested so we can step aside from the program.
 
Mike has Ozone and we've used a preset on one of our other songs. It boosts the overall volume, giving it some punch. We're just doing compressor/limiter right now on the mains. Mastering is a whole other topic that we will look into it down the road. I know Ozone is not popular with the mastering engineers on this board but if you like it, that's good.
You can't see our mix settings but there is both reverb and delay busses in this project.
 
Wow, sweet tones- really just thick and syrupy. Everything sounds good to me here..and I really like the singer's voice. Reminds of something I can't place. I'm probably overstepping here but one thing I'd like to hear arrangementwise is a couple place where the rhythm gits break from that "deh deh.....deh deh" pattern even just for a couple bars. To me it would improve the "flow", whatever that means. But in general I think this is a pretty sweet mix.
 
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