Public Mix Contest #11 !!!!!!

[BentRabbit]

Your mix sounds REALLY nasal. Like.. REALLY. What kind of speakers are you using?

I just bought some KRK RP5's but they won't be here 'til next week...

So I'm juggling between some Edirol 10D's and some low cal headphones...

I'm sure I'll head right back to the drawing board once the KRK's get here...

 

[geet73]

Wait till you get a load of what I do....

I tend to leave out the effects when I mix someone's stuff (unless I can add something, but the effects plugins I have are shit). I may compress a little.

I will probably submit the driest track here. You'll need a glass of water to listen to it...

I needed to dry my clothes off after listening to a lot of these tracks. Ha.

Those monitors will be a HUGE improvement, Rabbit. I'm curious to hear how it comes out after that.

The thing I like about a majority of Finster's tracks.. is that they sound good from the start. (Hint, hint.) You don't have to do a lot to make them sound good. It's just a matter of what you do that's going to make or break it.

I mean, you can get all experimental if you want.. but for a straight-up mix.. these tracks are a blessing to work with. Good work, Chris.

 

[BentRabbit]

I needed to dry my clothes off after listening to a lot of these tracks. Ha.

Those monitors will be a HUGE improvement, Rabbit. I'm curious to hear how it comes out after that.

The thing I like about a majority of Finster's tracks.. is that they sound good from the start. (Hint, hint.) You don't have to do a lot to make them sound good. It's just a matter of what you do that's going to make or break it.

I mean, you can get all experimental if you want.. but for a straight-up mix.. these tracks are a blessing to work with. Good work, Chris.

I agree, he does most of the work for us

I was kind of shooting for a upper mid-rangey sound on the vox like Ed Kowalczyk from 'Live' but with these fakey monitors...

 

[Kainz]

Allrite fellow mixers, here is my second "beta" (not the final one, but getting close I think heh ). I guess no one spotted anything very annoying in my previous beta?

Well anyway, here we go with the second version. I did fix some obvious errors I had there in the previous one.

I'm trying to achieve quite natural yet modern kind of sound. Nothing smashed or over EQd here. I'm still not quite comfortable with the lead vox and those toms are not what I want them to be.. Tell me what do you think? Anything to fix? Comments? Suggestions? Anything?


Song is here:PMC 11 (beta 2)

I had some ISP problmes, the link should work now...

 

[MichaelM]

Thanks NL5, Finster. Well after 4 attempts in three different browsers and 2 different operating systems I still couldn't get the file. Got a friend to download it instead. Got it no worries, just get him to put it on CD for me.

 

[ecktronic]

Sounds good Kraley, but there seems to be alot of noise. I thought it might be compression on the vox bringing up background noise, but its still there when the vocals arent playing.

 

[ecktronic]

Here's what I have so far. Any comments?

Snare isnt loud enough. Kick drum sounds inconsistent in volume. Woah, just realised the singer reminds me of Ben Harper a bit. Nice mix though.

 

[ecktronic]

Here is mine unless there's anything someone thinks I should fix... fun song.

Woah, loud mix man. I really like your mix, think its real good even after adjusting the volume to compare. Punchy drums, nice reverb on vocals. Not totally sure about the toms though. Could just be me being over critical.

 

[ecktronic]

BentRabitt. I know people say not to use headphones for mixing but i would say you would get better results using headphones. The EQ is totally wrong. The vocals dont sound right at all. Sounds like you can hear the room they were recorded in, strange.

 

[xfinsterx]

Bump!
Just woke up, here come the reviews!

 

[NL5]

Im gonna go with Nikki on this one, thanks for the options though,
I cant stand a monopoly.

Oh! you meant Motley Crue! Duh...
I thought you meant Tommy Boy or Little Nikki.

Yep, slammin coffee sounds like a Tommy/Nikki sorda thing - LOL

 

[xfinsterx]

I just couldn't find any way to make the distorted guitars work, so I just left them out.

I also am wondering if others are finding a problem with the low level of the lead vocal - I had to really pump it up with a compressor to get it to stand out at all. Sounds really gritty now, tho.

apologies for using .wma (I h8 .mp3 - high end killer!)

public mix by kraley

Cool wah effect.
It sounds like you compressed your mix with an Alesis 3630.
Whatever compressor you used it is making the mix "PumP"
Try increasing the release time, or just not compressing the mix at all.
Kick drum also seemed compressed incorrectly.
You need to work on you attack and release times.

-Finster

 

[xfinsterx]

Well I was going for a natural, open, dynamic sound - I guess I'll have to reconsider that if it seems too boring. What sort of tweeks would you suggest? Crank the compression, add more reverb and effects?

Thanks for listening and giving feedback.

Work on broadening the stereo spectrum and dynamics of your mix.

-Finster

 

[xfinsterx]

this is my first shot at it....definatly not my final entry....

Ok Jeremy.
That was a nice overall balance, and a good stereo spectrum.
Good job on those areas.

With the exception of Kainz mix everybody is compressing the mix!
Knock it off.
Please people leave the dynamics in tact.
Ill just turn my volume up ok?

Nice work Jeremy, best ive heard from you to date.

-Finster

 

[xfinsterx]

Here's what I have so far. Any comments?

The general flavor you got out of the sounds individually is good Geet.
However, this is mixed similar to hip-hip.
i.e. Tons of bass gtr, lots of kick n snare, and plenty of vocals.
The guitars both acoustic and lead are super distant and almost non-elemental to the blend which is a shame.
Id work on that.

\Good Main vocal sound BTW.

-Finster

 

[xfinsterx]

Here is mine unless there's anything someone thinks I should fix... fun song.

Sounds good Strave.
Good balance cool panning and explorative work with reverbs and compression.

You mastered this track?

Too bad...youll notice that when the chorus comes in the dynamics stay EXACTLY the same. Thats unfortunate.

If you take away all the effects and just listen to the band dry....when that hook comes in the whole mix sorta pops up in dynamics as if it were a live band.
Thats a big deal to me.
Mix to compliment the bands dynamics.

Ill need to hear your mix with out so much mastering going on please.


-Finster

 

[xfinsterx]

Strave and jeremy, I couldn't open your links...

Geet... wow.. awesome job on the vocals dude... That's what I'm rasslin with right now...

I may start over and work from the vocals down instead of drums up but here's what I have so far if anyone with real monitors would like to critique



Rabbit pmc11 take 1

You need to start over with the EQ'ing youve done here.
Start over all thogether Rabbit.
Just mix all the tracks with no eq at all first, using only compression and reverb where needed.
Then listen and see where the EQ needs to be.
This mix is over EQ'd.

-Finster

 

[xfinsterx]

Holy crap there are 84 people viewing the mix clinic right now!!
Thats NUTZ!

 

[BentRabbit]

Must not be any new entries in the 'hot women' thread

 

[NL5]

Holy crap there are 84 people viewing the mix clinic right now!!
Thats NUTZ!

Ya, I probably should of mentioned this in the past - there are usually between 200-300 downloads of the files, even when there are only 20 or so contestants.

There are a lot of LURKERS out there!