Rip apart new mix, please!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr. Moon
  • Start date Start date
Mr. Moon

Mr. Moon

Force of Naked
Hey!

I just uploaded a new version of "Hindsight Is 20/20" to my music page on Soundclick. I would really appreciate it if you could check it out and let me know what you think. I was up late last night (this morning) working on it, so it's hard for me to tell if it’s any better than the last or not.

(Note: I will try to upload it to my "NowhereRadio" page too, but I've been having problems being able to upload songs there lately, hmmmm...)

"Hindsight is 20/20": http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/mrmoonmusic.htm

Here's what I worked on:
1. Guitars=> EQ'd the main guitars to get out of the way of the bass, appears to have been successful, maybe even too much... ;)
2. Guitars=> Put some verb on one of the chorus guitars for a bit more depth.
3. Vocals=> A touch of verb to the main and chorus vox, and some EQ changes to the backups, to give them a bit more interesting "environment". (I am consciously trying to work with the vocals slowly and cautiously, as I tend to over-due *anything* associated with them)
4. Drums=> upped the kick just a skosh, and brought down the crashes a wee bit.

There may have been some other stuff, but I can't remember as it was getting late and I was caffeine-free (gasp!).

Any feedback would be appreciated!

-Mr. Moon

P.S.-I am now fully caffeinated, so all is well! :)
 
The guitars sound real big. The gooffy intro is pretty cool, and everything kicked in real strong, too, but it sounds a little dull, did you EQ out some mid-highs-highs for that Korn bass sound to cut through? The kick can be heard very well at dif volumes, which is an excellent thing imo, but it's got some room sound (actually, the whole kit is got some room sound), and very little beef. Which kick mic did you use?

The vocal sound fairly decent (much better than mine), but the volume is inconsistent at some spots, some compression might help. backing vox sound good, but they kinda jump out of the mix a little tho.

I'm trying hard to be critical here cuz I think this can really turn into a great mix, so, don't hate me:D

Al
 
A1A2 said:
The guitars sound real big. The gooffy intro is pretty cool, and everything kicked in real strong, too, but it sounds a little dull, did you EQ out some mid-highs-highs for that Korn bass sound to cut through? The kick can be heard very well at dif volumes, which is an excellent thing imo, but it's got some room sound (actually, the whole kit is got some room sound), and very little beef. Which kick mic did you use?

The vocal sound fairly decent (much better than mine), but the volume is inconsistent at some spots, some compression might help. backing vox sound good, but they kinda jump out of the mix a little tho.

I'm trying hard to be critical here cuz I think this can really turn into a great mix, so, don't hate me:D

Al
Click to expand...

This is the exact kind of feedback I'm looking for, so there's *NO* hating!! :) Thanks for the honesty, too little of that in the world today. ...Anyways, time to get off my highly-caffeinated horse, and get back to the mix! :)

I EQ'd out some of the guitar's high-mids, as you described to get the bass to cut through. I may have done it a bit too much, as my M1 mk2's tend to color things a bit around that region of the spectrum... I will look into this.

The drums are actually soundfonts, as I cannot drum to save my life. I use the NS_Kit 6 soundfonts, which are available online for free. I then transfer them to audio for mixing, maybe I'll try messing with them a bit EQ-wise, but much like vocals, I tend to over-do effects and such, so I'm trying to move slowly with them.

I will also have another look at the chorus vox and the backing guitars, as there are volume swells at this point that I'd like to tame a bit. I think that pulling back the guitar levels here may help.

Okay, so now I have some more work to do!! :) Of course, I'll have to put it off until I finish messing around with this d@mn retaining wall my wife and I are building ...well, actually she's "supervising" rather than building. :)

Thanks!

-Mr. Moon
 
Mr. Moon said:
Of course, I'll have to put it off until I finish messing around with this d@mn retaining wall my wife and I are building ...well, actually she's "supervising" rather than building. :)
-Mr. Moon
Click to expand...

I'm sure you will hear your mix better after you get away from it. Good luck on both the mix and the wall.

Al
 
Hi Mr. Moon. I downloaded this last week and wasn't able to get back to it until now.

Hey...pretty nice song you have going here. Some nice lines in there. Playing sounds good too.

A1A2 pretty much covered what I can hear. It sounds muffled like I have a wax build up going on im my ears...oh wait...*sticks finger in ear, pulls out & checks*...nope no build up :D. Drums seem like they could come up to me overall. Hihat sound is nearly non existent in here. There is definitely a lack of balance sonically to me (scale is leaning heavily toward the low side).

Nice work on this. I will be anxious to hear remixes of this. It's a good song I think and will kick some ass once the mix is sorted out.

OH and bump for folks that really know what they are talking about :D. You didn't get a lot of attention on this before it dropped off the first page.
 
Updated mix posted!

Hi!

I have finally been able to post an updated mix to my NoWhereRadio site here: http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2903&alid=-1

This version was updated today, so it's even more up to date than the version on my soundclick site. Please check it out and let me know what you think. Oh Yeah, I added some high end to the overall mix to try to brighten the overall sound.

Thanks!

-Mr. Moon
 
Ain't nothin wrong with that..that's some rockin shit! Great guitar work, The whole damn mix sounds really well done. I'm impressed.
 
The band is great and instruments are played and mixed well.

The vocalist has a great voice...and the harmonies are good........but.......the vocalist does not seem like he's part of the mix....sort of like he's listening to a really good band mix and then just singing along with it.....I would love to hear the vocalist reverbed and pushed back on stage with the rest of the band..

Great Song


DustyJack
 
I agree...the vocals are just kind of out there until the doubled parts come in...I like those parts a lot, but the vocals sound thin until then...then comes the doubled and its like...wow...then they go back to being thin again.
 
terrible_buddhi said:
I agree...the vocals are just kind of out there until the doubled parts come in...I like those parts a lot, but the vocals sound thin until then...then comes the doubled and its like...wow...then they go back to being thin again.
Click to expand...

Are ya' thinkin' that a bit more verb (as DustyJack suggested) would be the way to go, then? I am trying to be careful not to overdo the reverb, like I normally tend to do.... Are there any other "tricks" and such that you would suggest to achieve these results?

TIA!

-Mr. Moon
 
ya, one of the things I do (which almost always insures it will be wrong) is to put a verb on it and then play with how much dry and wet I let through.
 
Updated mix posted!!

Hey!!

I just posted another updated mix of "Hindsight is 20/20". I worked on the lead vox a bit, to bring them into the tune a bit more. I have both the original version (Hindsight is 20/20), and the updated version (Hindsight is 20/20 - NEW!!) so you can compare and contrast the two mixes.

Find them here:
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists...id=2903&alid=-1

Please let me know what u think!

Thanks!

-Mr. Moon
 
Damn...I've listened to your song so much that I'm starting to have a hard time hearing what I was hearing before. By the way, I think it's an awesome song.

for starters...your thread doesn't work...so I searched around until I found ya. I downloaded both versions and A_B'd em for a while. It escapes me what needs to be done there. Everything is just so clean....and well...perfect-like. It sounded like you blended the lead in a little better, but there is something that is very noticeable. I can't explain it, It's all with the vocals being just RIGHT THERE, but I don't think decreasing the volume on him is going to fix it. I have a hard time with this too, so maybe that's why I'm honing in on it. Other than in the style of MR. MOON...who else might this song sound good on....are shooting for a Chili Peppers sound or a Mettalica.

Good luck,

I'll follow this thread to see what happens

DustyJack
 
IMHO, when you use an intro that is really a musical 'gimmick' I think you should minimize it's use to the absolute least amount necessary to convey the gimic, and it's a decent gimmick I think.

Although I think it would be more effective just to bring this hard rocker in and straight at the listener.

You give us 16 bars of the gimmick, and bring the song in on the 3rd count of the 16th bar, with a punch there, and then a silent count, and that silent count is not completely accurate. So, IMHO if you are going to use a gimmick to bring a tune in it has to be absolutely and completely perfect with respect to timing, and it's got to be as efficient as possible.

Good harmony backvox comin' in around 1:08, mixed nice and up front. You do have some sonic space beneath the leadvox, and you have got to strive to maintain that in this mix. You could ride the faders, or learn to use advanced compression techniques.

The lead vox gets swallowed sometimes, it could come up in places just a bit.

Throughout ... the harmony backvox is mixed nice and strong, and they are good harm-back-voxes ...

Ahhh, you bring the gimmick back at 2:15, even more reason to abbreviate it in the intro. It's really a pivoting element here, and should be used as sparingly as possible, you could loose the listener here if you are not careful.

Damn, that was a killer break out of that, cool.

Mix is generally clean, guitar sounds ballsy without getting shredded or dirty ...

Vox is mixed from this point onward like I want to hear it, but at 2:53 other instruments come in and start to challenge the lead vox.

And you can run all the instruments, all the guitars to one bus, and compress that bus, and mix it against the vox meter.

Study up on side-chain compression, when you have very strong coarse elements at a high volume level coming in and out of a song, and a lead vox that remains at basically the same level, one of those 'busses' is going to have to be strictly regulated to let the lead vox ride out top at all times ... sidechain compression ... good stuff.

Thanks for the effort and sharing ... rock the board dude !

I like molds of clay better IMHO, but that's more my genre. And this is better mixing and performance by a touch.
 
Sorry about the dead link...

DOH!!

Here's the functioning link to "Hindsight is 20/20":
www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2903&alid=-1

DJ: Thanks for tracking down the *correct* page and comparing the two versions. I think that with this vocalist on this tune at this time, I'd have more luck with the RHCP sound than a Metallica sound, as it's more fitting for his voice.

Studiovols: I appreciate the level of detail that you supplied, but it has caused my brain to hurt a bit :) ...Actually, can you recommend any good books on the side-chain compression thingy and other topics you discussed, that describe them simply with small words so I can understand them? And that whole "bus" thing ...Is this some kind of "Magic Bus" or something? (ha-ha) Seriously, I'm doing this all in digital and as a hobby, so I'm going to have to translate what you have told me into "Sonar2.x" language and technique without the benifit of working with this stuff at my "real job". I wish I could work around this stuff all day and gain some knowledge via osmosis, but sadly that's not the case... :(

BTW: Molds of Clay was the last tune my bud and I did together which we mixed, actually I mixed it and he okayed it (his song), and you'll note the overabundance of verb on the vox. This "over-verb" is what I'm trying to stay away from! Oh yeah, we have a new mix we're working on, actually I'm working on it and he'll okay it (again, his song), with less verb and more punch and such...

Anywho, thanks for all the feedback and assistance!

-Mr. Moon
 
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