Reason to Rhyme - any feedback appreciated

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maxmax77 said:


1:00 in, the bassline starts. It gets more pronounced as the song goes, and it has a lot of the tone I’m going for. All those little lead fills in the postchorus have the kind of sound I’m going for
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The bass here has more stuff going on below 70hz, down to about 40hz than your bass. Arbitrarily cutting the low lows from your bass won't get you this tone and sometimes a small boost is necessary.

It's higher up where the bigger differences are.
 
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HumanPlanet said:
The bass here has more stuff going on below 70hz, down to about 40hz than your bass. Arbitrarily cutting the low lows from your bass won't get you this tone and sometimes a small boost is necessary.
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Interesting, ok! Thanks. I’m gonna clear out my most recent changes and take another crack at it.
 
maxmax77 said:
Interesting, ok! Thanks. I’m gonna clear out my most recent changes and take another crack at it.
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If you have a bass guitar reference you like, work towards it. There is no right way to mix a bass guitar every time (or anything else), you have to do what the track needs. I know this is obvious but it's good to be reminded. I'm a huge believer in using good reference tracks for direction when mixing.
 
That really is a great idea though. I don't usually do side-by-sides of the songs I'm inspired by with whatever project I'm working on. Your observation about the 40-70hz range was really helpful. I think this is a lot closer to what I'm going for now:

 
That's better! The guitars are still too harsh and the panning could do with a bit of work. Personally I only pan stuff 60 or 90 degrees.

Also it sounds a bit dry to me. Parallel ambient reverb maybe (but maybe not this much!)? Or maybe not, you decide.

View attachment Maybe too much!.mp3
 
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Ohh yeah, I dig that. It really brings everything together. I’m still transitioning from Reaper to Logic, so I haven’t totally figured out their bus/aux system yet.

Just to clarify, when you say parallel reverb do you mean basically adding 100% wet 0% dry reverb to the mix?
 
maxmax77 said:
Ohh yeah, I dig that. It really brings everything together. I’m still transitioning from Reaper to Logic, so I haven’t totally figured out their bus/aux system yet.

Just to clarify, when you say parallel reverb do you mean basically adding 100% wet 0% dry reverb to the mix?
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No.

Set up a bus with only the reverb on it at 100% wet, send your audio to that channel (additionally, not exclusively (and not from your stereo/master bus obviously)) and blend/control the amount of reverb you want with the fader on the reverb bus.
 
HumanPlanet said:
No.

Set up a bus with only the reverb on it at 100% wet, send your audio to that channel (additionally, not exclusively (and not from your stereo/master bus obviously)) and blend/control the amount of reverb you want with the fader on the reverb bus.
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Mm ok I think I’ve gotcha! If I understand what you’re saying about a bus, I believe I have done that with my hardware mixer before. I sometimes send multiple inputs to an aux, run it through a 100% wet reverb, and then plug the output into another channel strip and controlling the reverb level with that channel.

So in Logic, if I’m following, I would add a send on all my tracks to one bus, and assign that bus to an aux. Then I’d add the 100% wet reverb to that aux channel strip and control the reverb level with the fader.
 
I'm sure we're making this sound more complicated than it is! but basically yes (I think).

Although not necessarily each track. If I have already set up, for example, a drum bus I would send that to the reverb bus and not the individual drum tracks.
 
Awesome! I think I’m following. Thanks again for your help!

I’m gonna set up the reverb bus for proof of concept of nothing else, and after that I’m going to clean it before I run the mix through my hardware compressor. I recently learned a lot more about how to really use the EQ on my fender amp, and I now realize that I was recording the amp with wayy too much treble—especially for overdrive tones.

I’ll see what I can do for the electric tracks I have recorded, maybe just pulling down the highs more will do it. But I’d rather start with good tracks than try to salvage subpar recordings.

Besides that I think the bassline definitely needs cleaning up, and the harmonies could be tighter. Plus the stuff you mentioned about panning, I’m going to try keeping it to 60 and 90 and see how it feels. Cheers!
 
mcmac74 said:
Great song...your voice reminds me of Stephen Malkmus and I like the low key warmth to this.
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Hey thanks! I’m glad you like it. I just listened to some Stephen Malkmus, and I really liked what I heard. I’ve been listening to a lot of music with baritone lead singers recently for inspiration, and this stuff is now right up there on the list!
 
The 4/8 mix is worlds better than where you started ... as you started to wander a bit more out of the center. Good material. Don't be afraid to push the instruments all over the stage. The pan knob turns left and right for good reason. Also - a LOT can be done w/ delays and effects. :D

One of the problems when things aren't well separated is that the frequencies bunch up on top of each other, and stomp on individual clarity.
 
K-dub said:
The 4/8 mix is worlds better than where you started ... as you started to wander a bit more out of the center. Good material. Don't be afraid to push the instruments all over the stage. The pan knob turns left and right for good reason. Also - a LOT can be done w/ delays and effects. :D

One of the problems when things aren't well separated is that the frequencies bunch up on top of each other, and stomp on individual clarity.
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Lol to the extent that it is better, it is definitely a product of everyone’s input! It’s so helpful to hear this stuff from more objective (and informed) standpoints. And it makes my mixing process much more intentional and less scattered.

That makes sense as far as frequencies compounding when they are in the same area, I never really thought about panning as a tool to avoid that issue. I’m definitely going to experiment with different placements for different instruments with the new tracks I record.
 
Monkey Allen said:
Getting bass to kick through in mixes...I dunno...but what I've heard is not to try boosting the low bass frequencies...but to reduce them a bit and raise the harmonic frequencies around 1kh...with a really wide Q...you can raise all those frequencies up over 200. Something like that.
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^ Yeah, this.

Plus, I don't add a lot of distortion to stuff in my mixes, but I used it regularly on bass to get it more heard without being louder.
 


Here is the new version! I did all of this and probably more:
-added a lot of reverb and some delay on the vocals
-re-recorded all the electric guitars
-added a new guitar solo bit in the outro (I am not sure yet whether I like the way it sits in the mix)
-tried to clean up and simplify the number of guitar tracks, and made much more extensive use of panning
-added two new harmonies/background vocals, changed the panning on those a bunch
-a bunch of random automation and eq-ing to different stuff

Thanks for all of your help, everyone! Any more thoughts or feedback is always appreciated :)
 
Wankenstein said:
I like it! Your writing style reminds me of Sean Nelson. He is the singer/writer for the band Harvey Danger

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What a compliment—thanks! After listening to that song and some of their other stuff, it is definitely right up my alley. The balance between grunge and clean sounds in their music is really cool.
 
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