Public Mix Contest #11 !!!!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter mshilarious
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ds21 said:
Suppose I should wait till I hear them on my monitors, my demo mix was only done though wornout headphones, but for the most part yeah good recording ;)
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Thanks, i did this recording quite a while ago.
Before i got any decent pres, like the tridents and the avalon.
Evrything was done with the mixing board (allen&heath) pres. Which can be a bit dodgey at times. And no compression was used at tracking.

But hey to some extent turd polishing is what makes a pmc challenging.
Carry on!
 
Kainz said:
Oh yeah, at last PMC 11! I'v been waiting for this the last 2 weeks :D

Downed the files and I must say some veerry nice engineering here (go Chris go!). Although I had to do some minor tweaks (eg I believe one kick hit was clipping, had to replace it). And I must say I'm having quite problems with that "wet" lead gtr track.. :(

Anyway it is pleasure to mix tracks like these, you can actually mix and not to "fix" ;)

So to work... after few hours I came up with this. This is by no means my final one. Alot to do still, some volume unbalances and I'm not quite statisfied with the toms, lead vox, back vox and lead gtr. Have to tweak the verbs more. Anything else you find bothering? Feel free to comment, I'm more than happy to get some creative feedback :rolleyes:

The song is here: PCM 11 (beta)
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Wow!!!

Damn dude :eek:

Ok im scared of you too.
 
xfinsterx said:
Right on!



Ok, keep talkin' lol



Yeah that was one of my personal judging brownie points.
If you fix it that is.
The lead gtr...if you take and duplicate the acoutic guitar track and nudge the dup forward anywhere from 10 to 20 ms. then pan them out youll have room in the middle for the lead.
Which btw will require some automation.




Cool ill take a listen.
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Yea, the lead gtr surely has room in the mix I don't mean that (and yes, it needs alot automating hehe. Bit more to work there still). I just simply don't like the effects being there, especially the track being mono.. I'm having some problems getting the gtr the way I would like it to be coz the effects already in there, but oh well :p
Overall I think the tracks were very nicely engineered! As I said, pleaseure to work with :)
 
DonF said:
Nice job, Kainz! Is that an autopanner on the lead guitar, or did you do the panning by hand? (Or am I just imagining it...) The overall balance between the instruments is astoundingly smooth to my ears.

Don
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Heh, there isn't actually any pannig happening. I felt that the lead gtr was a bit too static for the song, I wanted it to have a bit more "mood". The effect you are hearing is infact two effects. Very carefully tweaked chorus and flanger as a send effects (sound isn't still quite there yet, but this is just a few hours "beta" after all :D)
 
Kainz said:
The effect you are hearing is infact two effects. ...
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Truly amazing. Yes, I can see how that would work. Thanks for the explanation.
 
xfinsterx said:
Raw-Tracks said:
Finster,

I downloaded the tracks and took a quick listened while I dialed in a rough balance. I'm curious about the vocal recording chain. On all 3 tracks there is this sort of ringing/resonance that I find distracting. Do you hear that? I am wondering what is causing it. Mic? EQ? Compressor?
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Well hmmm....With the girls i had them in the same room so maybe youre hearing the bleed between the two mics?
As for the male vocal i never noticed anything.
Strange.

Thanks for entering BTW!
You won PMC#2 correct?
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OK, I think I was having a "clock" issue this morning, because I don't hear what I was hearing this morning. I realized after checking my clocking that I had my session set for 16bits rather than 24bits. That may have been causing some sort of quantization error. I didn't spend any time trying to duplciate what I heard. They sound fine now.

Sorry to raise any red flags. Nice tracking!
 
Ok. Here is my first attempt at this mix. I have been struggling with the drums, as I never mix drums. Always use samples, or a drum machine, so They are probably pretty lame. Everything else is pretty dry at the moment. Any suggestions on the drums?
Ed
 
Man, these things just keep getting bigger and bigger.
And it seems my dial-up is just getting slower and slower.
 
Dogman said:
Ok. Here is my first attempt at this mix. I have been struggling with the drums, as I never mix drums. Always use samples, or a drum machine, so They are probably pretty lame. Everything else is pretty dry at the moment. Any suggestions on the drums?
Ed
Click to expand...
When I first started mixing live drums, I had to take them and mix them down to a separate stereo mix by themselves, then import the stereo mix into the rest of it. I would take my time and tweak it before I rendered it to a stereo mix, so that I wouldn't have too much trouble with it later on.
Now I leave them as they are in the mix, but I solo the drums and get them mixed to themselves first, then bring in the bass, and after that is set, the rhythm guitars. Then go for the melody instruments and lead instruments. I do the vocals last.
I am not sure how everyone else does it, but that has worked for me.
 
I usually do vocals first.
Then whatever the most prominent instrument is.
I often do Drums last...
 
Disposable said:
I usually do vocals first.
Then whatever the most prominent instrument is.
I often do Drums last...
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Really? Do tell... I am curious about your approach...
 
I see vocals at the centre-point,
And I try to make them sound the best I can
Then use the music to fill in around them...

I see drums as embellishments most of the time, depending on style.
So I focus more on the main focal points, the real meat of the song.

I really have no real rhyme or reason to it.
I think I took down my PMC10 mix, but that was mixed vocals first.
Then guitars, synths, timbales, drums (very very little as Chris had already mixed them really)...
I never even touched the bass or dumbek/congas.

Edit... Actually, I found it still on my page...

http://www.fronder.com/bands/388/music.php
"PMC10Mix2"

5th one down
 
Dogman said:
Ok. Here is my first attempt at this mix. I have been struggling with the drums, as I never mix drums. Always use samples, or a drum machine, so They are probably pretty lame. Everything else is pretty dry at the moment. Any suggestions on the drums?
Ed
Click to expand...

Ok, first thing i noticed is there is a essing issue on the male singer.
Its a little harsh at times, try a desser.
Second, at times the backing vocals pop up over even the lead vocal, maybe try compressing that a tad.
Third, the drums get smothered during the hook.
Fourth, the balance, though mixed like a pop song with vocals up, is out of whack. Try to keep the balance of the mix in tact.

-Finster
 
Disposable said:
I see vocals at the centre-point,
And I try to make them sound the best I can
Then use the music to fill in around them...
Click to expand...

I throw all the faders up into a decent plain blend of the tracks to see what im working with first.
Anything that jumps as being an anomaly ill address, or at least take note of first.

Ill primarily start with the spot that seems to need the most work.
Its hardly ever the same twice.
 
You know Chris... I have yet to do a "throw the faders up" preliminary mix...
In fact I never have done the "standard"
Get the volumes balanced first
Then start with the EQ and panning and all that jazz.

Right or wrong, I dunno. It's just not how I work.

I spend more time on using effects than anything else.
I do experiment a lot,
Simple experimentation, but experimentation none-the-less.
 
Disposable said:
Man, these things just keep getting bigger and bigger.
And it seems my dial-up is just getting slower and slower.
Click to expand...

(i shoudlve posted this first but safari crashed so i did your second post first blah blah...)
Hey sup man!
I was wondering where you where.
Its a big one this time i know...
If you want NL5 will send you a cd of the tracks.
Best of luck man. :cool:
Oh i visited your site too, cool setup there.
 
Disposable said:
I see vocals at the centre-point,
And I try to make them sound the best I can
Then use the music to fill in around them...

I see drums as embellishments most of the time, depending on style.
So I focus more on the main focal points, the real meat of the song.

I really have no real rhyme or reason to it.
I think I took down my PMC10 mix, but that was mixed vocals first.
Then guitars, synths, timbales, drums (very very little as Chris had already mixed them really)...
I never even touched the bass or dumbek/congas.

Edit... Actually, I found it still on my page...

http://www.fronder.com/bands/388/music.php
"PMC10Mix2"

5th one down
Click to expand...
Cool, I can see how that would work! I guess there are no set-in-stone rules on it. I do it drums/bass first because they are the backbone of the song; the rhythm section. Then I do the rhythm guitars. Once I get that set up, I can work in the spices, the leads, solos. Then I bring in the vocals (I solo them first and make sure they are set).
Different routes to the same destination. Thank you for answering my question! :D
 
Disposable said:
You know Chris... I have yet to do a "throw the faders up" preliminary mix...
In fact I never have done the "standard"
Get the volumes balanced first
Then start with the EQ and panning and all that jazz.

Right or wrong, I dunno. It's just not how I work.

I spend more time on using effects than anything else.
I do experiment a lot,
Simple experimentation, but experimentation none-the-less.
Click to expand...


Man after reading the Mixing Engineers handbook..All those pro mixer cats.
They All do it different.
I would say there is no right or wrong here.
 
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