Some stuff for you to practice your mixing

I really love the energy of this song...great tune and a good raw recording. Sorry the file is so big. I left it as a full 24bit /48k wav. file for those that don't like mp3's.

Dropbox - Trouble.wav
 
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mxw said:
Hi, I took the challenge! This sort of stuff is way out of my comfort zone. I am a complete DIY amateur who has mixed hardcore punk bands - which usually means raw, no-frills, in-your-face sort of basic "bluff-my-way-through" mixing stuff. So I took this as a fun challenge. I would very much appreciate constructive criticism? Seriously, the harsher the better! :eatpopcorn: If you can't be arsed, that's cool too! :D I tend to prefer dry, bright mixes. Although I put some delay on the vocs. I did like her voice, she's very good. Thanks for the practice tracks!

Trouble
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Hi mxw,

thanks for sharing your mix ! I can imagine that this is way different than mixing hard core punk. I have never mixed any other music than the music made by the bands I played in. And that tends to be more soul/funk oriented. A friend of mine was into punk a lot back in the days and if I think of his music than I agree that a no-frills attitude towards mixing it is probably the way to go (I'm also a DYI amateur btw, so it's just my opinion). Since there's a lot of guitar, bass and drums energy going on, reverb and other effects would just wash away the attack and b*lls the music needs.

About your mix of trouble; i agree with gecko about the delay and bass. I think you overdid both. Maybe you could add a high pass filter to the bass in order to remove some of the boomyness ? And cut some frequencies where the kick and bass overlapp the most.
The rest of the mix was pretty nice I think. I listened on both headphones and monitors and both sounded fine :-)
 
foobalicious said:
Hi Keith,

you too thanks for the mix !

It's a nice mix. But here too I have some "criticism" (as far a a newbie mixer like me can give any)

What I like is the presence of the lead vocal, the space in the mix and the effect you added to the keys. Also the kick has a nice nice attack.

I do think however that the snare sounds too far away, as if they can only be heard through the room mic. And the guitar is a little to soft for my taste. Especially in the chorus where sax and guitar play the little melody. They blend nicely if on equal volume..


To both you and John: it's great fun to hear other people's mixes, thanks !

I have some more multitracks from this band. I'll put up some more if you like.

Cheers !
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Yes I would very much like if you could post a few more multitracks for me to practice on and judging by this song I'm pretty sure the community would like it as much as I would....very good song indeed???
 
easlern said:
Fantastic song!

View attachment 100219
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When I listened to the first mix in the thread, I immediately thought the synth thing should be panned. Good idea. It's a bit low in your mix. But man, that sax sounds best in yours. I wonder if moving the synths verb to the L side would help the balance. Nice changeup in the intro. I think the panning is right here, it just needs a little more balance somehow, maybe with opposite reverb.
 
Thanks Taras! Yeah I tried a bit of verb on the synth, something didn't sit right about it though so I took it off except in the solo. If I were to come back to it I think I'd swap pans for sax and guitar near the end, I completely overlooked the guitar solo there.

It's funny about the opening tambourine, I thought the files were maybe mixed up or something because that track just zeroes out after a few seconds. But I decided to just go with it, it's kind of cool.
 
abc1mce2 said:
Yes I would very much like if you could post a few more multitracks for me to practice on and judging by this song I'm pretty sure the community would like it as much as I would....very good song indeed???
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Hi, thanks for the compliment. I have added two more threads with a link. So two more songs. One is a slow song (Diggin it) , which is not one of my favourites. I like the groove, but I think we could have added more elements to it to make it more interesting. Also, I hate the saxophone bits in it. I did not have a part to play when we started recording and I did not manage to find anything interesting. So my advise would be is to leave out the sax-tracks when mixing.

The other one is "On the road again", a more poppy feel good song.

But Trouble is my personal favourite :-)

From time to time I jam with some friends at a friend's house. He has a rehearsal room with everything wired up to record multitracks. So we record everything. I think I'm going to post bits of these sessions from time to time. It'll be probably less interesting to listen to because well, often jams are more interesting for the people who played it than for non-participants :-)
But for mix practice they could be usefull.

Cheers
 
easlern said:
Thanks Taras! Yeah I tried a bit of verb on the synth, something didn't sit right about it though so I took it off except in the solo. If I were to come back to it I think I'd swap pans for sax and guitar near the end, I completely overlooked the guitar solo there.

It's funny about the opening tambourine, I thought the files were maybe mixed up or something because that track just zeroes out after a few seconds. But I decided to just go with it, it's kind of cool.
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Hi easlern,

I don't know why this tambourine was even recorded. The session was done a long time ago.

I think either:

- The bit was recorded afterwards as sort of extra 'percussion hit' to emphasize something (although I cannot imagine what that would be)
- The plan was to dub a tambourine part but we never got past the mic check before we ran out of time :-)

But you're right, it's a nice touch to put it at the beginning. As if the band is getting ready play and someone does some warming up shake..:-)
 
John Holland said:
Had some time to give it a little more attention. Tried to bring the vocals out a little more and reduce the low end. Let me know what you think. Thanks again for the tracks and I will check out the others you posted when time allows.
Dropbox - Trouble-Mix This.wav
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Hi John,

I think the vocals are much more present. But (and maybe it is a matter of taste) I still think the bass is too overpowering. At first this sounds ok but after some listening it was a little tiring to my ears.

But again, this might be a matter of taste. I just compared it with my own mix and I noticed that mine could use some more bass presence :-)

Still, I like the mix in general ! Thanks !
 
Hey this is a great track!

Thanks for posting the multitrack... having to figure out the drumkit mics and instruments wasn't too hard

This was a fun one to mix, plenty of dynamics to wrestle with and some opportunity to create space between the instruments

I felt that the tenor sax stuck out a bit too much so pushed it back a little with some reverb.

Vox were parallel compressed and I added some chorus, bandpass delay and then reverb to the lead vox, and just a delay and reverb to the backing vox.

Hope this is worth digging up an old post for:
 

Attachments

  • Trouble_4.mp3
    8.5 MB · Views: 23
Nine Lives - Trouble (Sawmixing MIX v-4)

Mix uploaded in MP3 320k format. they don't allow wav files.
Please comment about the mix so i can improve my mixing. Thanks
 

Attachments

  • Nine Lives - Trouble (Sawmixing MIX v-4).mp3
    14 MB · Views: 24
Thanks for the opinion.
I didn't take note about the time, but probably 8 hours. I found in this version that the bass guitar is a bit lower in volume. Also there is a little chat at the last second that i didn't clean. i'm gonna upload another version.
 
Hey there!

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this thread and for contributing your tracks to the community. I think it's awesome that we can all help each other out by sharing our tracks and techniques.

As for your question, I definitely think it's a great idea to practice mixing on raw tracks. It can be really helpful to see how different mixers approach the same track and to get some feedback on your own mixes.

That being said, I think it's also important to experiment with different genres and styles of music. It can be helpful to try mixing a pop song one day and then mix a metal song the next. This will help you develop a variety of skills and techniques that you can apply to any track.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing your tracks with us! I'm looking forward to hearing more from you in the future.

_______
Jason Hook. Audio Enthusiast and Software Developer
Remove or Isolate Vocals from any Song 👉 https://www.UnMixIt.com/
 
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