Qucik Ears. Mix advice.

mjbphotos said:
Coming to this one late. I think that muddiness others mentioned is due to the combined piano and acoustic guitar - they''re both fighting to be the lead accompaniment. Pick one (Piano?) and fade the other one down and pan it to one side more.
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You know, I never even thought to pan this out yet. That will help with the mud. Got it sorted pretty good though by pulling both the piano and guitar back at the 222Hz mark to allow the 300Hz boost on the bass to shine through.
 
dobro said:
Okay, it's four days late, but what I'd do is pull some of the reverb off the vocal, so that the *next* time she listens to it, it's more intimate.
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Yeah, I pushed it too far because it hid a bit of the pitchy. When I retrack, I'll get a lot less reverb (assuming I can sing it without being so emotional :))

She's got a copy on her phone and she's showing it to everybody. She really does love the song. I told her not to share it yet, but just let people listen. 99% of people will hear a song once and not notice what we all hear right away in a mix (You know it's hard to go to concerts and enjoy them anymore because I hear every bad bass note, I notice when 2500Hz is boosted too much, etc.) But I don't want it out there for someone to hear a dozen times and start noticing all the little glitches. So until the final is ready, she'll just have to keep the file to herself.
 
Hi,
I agree about the piano/guitar fighting each other but I don't think you need to pick one. I think they just need work.

The guitar is overdriven sounding. Are you compressing it super hard? That's what it sounds like.
Also, it's not a particularly nice sounding guitar. It seems to have a bit of the ol' rattle'n'buzz about it.

I much preferred it when you toned the guitar down into picking.
In fact, I think I'd be inclined to brighten the piano a little bit, keep it as the main instrument, and just play a picked acoustic guitar part throughout.
Nice and gentle though...Mute the piano while you're recording it so you aren't spurred on into really twanging the guitar. :)


It's hard to tell with the guitar distorting, but I think the whole mix is hitting the limiter kinda hard too, right?
Pull it all back! Your missus' attention isn't going to be drawn by a slightly louder commercial radio station. ;) You've no one to fight so go for quality.

Real nice though, and nice vocals man.
Glad she likes it. :)
 
Steenamaroo said:
Hi,
I agree about the piano/guitar fighting each other but I don't think you need to pick one. I think they just need work.

The guitar is overdriven sounding. Are you compressing it super hard? That's what it sounds like.
Also, it's not a particularly nice sounding guitar. It seems to have a bit of the ol' rattle'n'buzz about it.

I much preferred it when you toned the guitar down into picking.
In fact, I think I'd be inclined to brighten the piano a little bit, keep it as the main instrument, and just play a picked acoustic guitar part throughout.
Nice and gentle though...Mute the piano while you're recording it so you aren't spurred on into really twanging the guitar. :)


It's hard to tell with the guitar distorting, but I think the whole mix is hitting the limiter kinda hard too, right?
Pull it all back! Your missus' attention isn't going to be drawn by a slightly louder commercial radio station. ;) You've no one to fight so go for quality.

Real nice though, and nice vocals man.
Glad she likes it. :)
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Thanks Paul. Some sound advice (sorry for the pun, I just can't help myself :)). I had to check on the guitar because I don't put anything in my acoustic chain on the default...but the channel strip comp is on (by default? :confused: when did I do that?) Still, only 4:1, but the threshold looks a bit deep. I'll pull that off when I remix. (and get rid of it on the default).
I'm pretty sure in my hurry I recorded the guitar too hot. Might just be clipping the preamps...It's the strangest thing. When I record through the MXL 2001 the waves look puny when they're right, but when I record direct, they look really nice and fat. Is there a setting I'm missing that makes the waves look bigger on direct than on miked tracks?? I'll have to go looking.

Yeah, I'm still playing with the Onyx 430I. It does some wonderful things, but I tend to push it too far. Adds a nice feel, and then you want more of that. I keep forgetting the rule: Push it till you can hear it, then pull it back a bit. It's a good rule, and I should just follow it. At least when I'm on a 5 hour do or die track and mix run...

I can really put your idea with the piano/guitar to use. I'm putting in an intimate bridge where it will just be the vocal, drums, and guitar. That'll showcase my poor guitar skills for just a few bars and I can focus on the piano for the rest! :D

Not sure how soon the next mix will go up. I've got no days off this week, and next doesn't look good. The week after I'm flying into Spokane/Lewiston area for a week. Life.
 
BroKen_H said:
Thanks Paul. Some sound advice (sorry for the pun, I just can't help myself :)). I had to check on the guitar because I don't put anything in my acoustic chain on the default...but the channel strip comp is on (by default? :confused: when did I do that?) Still, only 4:1, but the threshold looks a bit deep. I'll pull that off when I remix. (and get rid of it on the default).
I'm pretty sure in my hurry I recorded the guitar too hot. Might just be clipping the preamps...
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It could well be a bit of both.
It stood out to me because I recorded a guy last week and his guitar didn't sound great..Kinda harsh and jangly.
I tried to just compress it flat and hoped it would blend but it didn't work at all. :(

BroKen_H said:
It's the strangest thing. When I record through the MXL 2001 the waves look puny when they're right, but when I record direct, they look really nice and fat. Is there a setting I'm missing that makes the waves look bigger on direct than on miked tracks?? I'll have to go looking.
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I get that too. I'm not sure but maybe the DI has less dynamic range or something? Would make sense I guess.
Either way I wouldn't worry about it. My backing vocals and additional parts always look puny in waveform view but I pretty much completely ignore that unless I'm editing and need a visual reference.
Even then, I just zoom. (You should have a waveform zoom option somewhere.)
What's important is the sound and the meters.

BroKen_H said:
I can really put your idea with the piano/guitar to use. I'm putting in an intimate bridge where it will just be the vocal, drums, and guitar. That'll showcase my poor guitar skills for just a few bars and I can focus on the piano for the rest! :D
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Perfect! :p
Who knows..doing that might take away from the impact of the whole thing, but it's something I'd try.
Your choices are yours, though.

Great to hear a recording and mix with a proper story and reason behind it, though. Good on you. :)
 
Yeah, when I view the guitar side by side with the bass (guitar miked, bass DI) it just looks funny that the little bitty guitar wave is clipped and the big fat bass clip sounds so good.

Again, thanks for the listen and especially for the idea!
 
Mix sounds good to me - not hearing any build ups or anything previously mentioned. Great lyrics - I'm a sucker for love songs. I can see this would be tough to sing without getting emotional....:)
 
Thanks Gerry, means a lot. I just need to redo the vocals and piano. Get the drum line on it and get done.
 
Hey Broken, I listened to the second mix and not the first. I am probably going to say the opposite of what was already said. You know when your in church listening to someone sing....the board operator brings the vocals way up and the music is barely there...thats what this sounds like to me. I find the vocals way out front and the music way in the background just carrying the tune. IMHO I think the vocals need to come down and blend with the song more and the music needs to regain some energy. Bring the bottom of the kit up a little. This is coming from an old rocker, so my tastes are different....but I played in worship bands many years and I know how it's all about the message and not the necessarily the music. So it takes a back seat to the vocals. I would like to see you have a little more modern mix without going too drastic. Your a great musician and you have a good voice. I hope you don't take offense to what I said, it's just my own opinion and tastes. Good job!
 
Bruthish said:
Hey Broken, I listened to the second mix and not the first. I am probably going to say the opposite of what was already said. You know when your in church listening to someone sing....the board operator brings the vocals way up and the music is barely there...thats what this sounds like to me. I find the vocals way out front and the music way in the background just carrying the tune. IMHO I think the vocals need to come down and blend with the song more and the music needs to regain some energy. Bring the bottom of the kit up a little. This is coming from an old rocker, so my tastes are different....but I played in worship bands many years and I know how it's all about the message and not the necessarily the music. So it takes a back seat to the vocals. I would like to see you have a little more modern mix without going too drastic. Your a great musician and you have a good voice. I hope you don't take offense to what I said, it's just my own opinion and tastes. Good job!
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Thanks, bro. I listened with my wife last night and thought the same thing. I went too far out front when I lifted the vocal volume. Taking the reverb off really pushes it out there, too. AFA the drums are concerned, RAMI said he'd do a drum line for me, :-)cool: X 1000) so I'm waiting on that to work on the drum line. I also thought the tambourine was too much during the new bridge...have to tuck it back a bit as well.
Thanks for all the compliments. If you only knew how many takes my guitar parts take, you'd laugh at "great musician", too. But that is my weak spot. Wish I could get a good mike setup and go record my drums at the church...maybe when we get into the new building. They're talking about putting the drums in an iso room. That would be nice, because the church will be buying the mikes and acoustic treatment! :)
 
BroKen_H said:
I'm in absolutely no hurry. Whenever is fine. :) Do you want a new click with the new version?
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Actually, yes. If you changed the arrangement, I wouldn't mind having the version you want me to play to.
 
Okay, on my way to work literally RIGHT now. So I'll kick it together in the morning. Thanks again...it's not really changed from what you have, just added a fake drum part.
 
BroKen_H said:
it's not really changed from what you have, just added a fake drum part.
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Oh ok, then leave it, I'm good. I thought you might have changed the actual structure of the tune. I can work with what you gave me, no problem.
 
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