What is too loud?

LazerBeakShiek

LazerBeakShiek

Rad Racing Team
Are vocals too loud? Maybe the drums are too quiet. Let me know if you hear something that stands out as wrong.. Im stabbing in the dark.

Amateur, uncompleted home recording of matchbox20 song.

When I record, I have been using upto 4-5 instruments to mix. Just a rough couple verse and chorus with a measure at the end of just the instruments.

 
I listened on some ear buds so the bass response is not good, but I didn't think the vocals were too loud. Sounded about right to me.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
there's not much of the other drums except a hint of cymbals.
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Yeah, where are my cymbals?!! The midi dot is at 127 velocity ..

Ahh, ok. So you set it midi overdub, for track input. It is EZ drummer, with a controller keyboard. You find the key that makes a splash sound...set to record. Press that splash key to correspond with the beats you want accented. One second..

Here cymbals! YAY!


The mix is inevitably different now with cymbals..So, I kept turn things up..Man, Im lost..Im in the dark here.
 
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Crashes now toooo loud, and for me snare is too loud and meaty. Vocals ok if you now tame the very annoying cymbals. I could live with the snare if just a bit less obvious and the guitar near the end doesn’t come up in the gap.
 
Fixed cymbal volume per comment, good call.



-16 Lufs. I tried to balance the snare and yelling(vocals) . Then balance the kick with the bass thumps. I removed a high shelf that I was using to make my yelling buzzy on those 2 tracks.

The mix looks like this. So I got it into a targeted range, I was actually trying to do. After 28 tries..
Screenshot 2021-08-19 095147.jpg
 
It seems pretty close to right. What I might do is cut 3-6 kHz just slightly in the instruments. That's the vocal definition zone that makes the words clear. I think the instruments are competing with the vocals just a tad.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
I think the instruments are competing with the vocals just a tad.
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Yeah, I think you have a point. The mix with voice is too advanced for me. Needs to be simpler. No voices. A couple guitar lines and a bass line with drums should do.

Are these tracks mixing better? 30 seconds of Country like jam.


The mix specs out like..
Screenshot 2021-08-20 220043.jpg
 
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I would strip down your mix - start over. Start with the Drums - get them up and strong - then do the same with the bass - carving out space for the kick, snare and bass. Then add the vocals - again carving the space out with kick/snare/bass. Then you add your Guitars in and find there space. If you've carved the right spots out you should have a balanced mix where everything is the right volume.
 
Papanate said:
Here you go - spent 5 minutes - got some results.
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Yes, there is a EZkeys track too. I wanted to mix a variety of instruments only. You did a nice job. There are some parts of the guitar tracks that you chose to augment and it sounds cool. Sounds like you did some EQ'ing. Although the drums seemed quiet at first, I listened again, and it was ok. Anything you noticed that I could do to the recorded tracks to make them more mix - able?

keith.rogers said:
I'll play. I didn't read the rules or listen to anything except the raw downloads. This is about -12dB LUFS. Range about 5dB LU.
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Cool. Again it's completely different, yet I recognize some original. A tremolo sounds added. Are any of these you playing it? hhmmm so different. The chords that I hid in back you have out front strong. It is a better flow for the material. Is there anything I could do to the tracks during recording to allow them to mix better?

Thanks. Some cool perspectives, tell me about what you did. Or what you think I should do.
 
LazerBeakShiek said:
Yes, there is a EZkeys track too. I wanted to mix a variety of instruments only. You did a nice job. There are some parts of the guitar tracks that you chose to augment and it sounds cool. Sounds like you did some EQ'ing. Although the drums seemed quiet at first, I listened again, and it was ok. Anything you noticed that I could do to the recorded tracks to make them more mix - able?
Click to expand...


I compressed and EQ's the Bass - I ran all the guitar parts through Helix to reshape their sonic imprint. I EQ'd all the guitars as they were all peaky and not up to volume. The Guitar part strumming the chords was out of tune - so I put on a Chorus. I also put an Adaptive Compressor on the MIX buss. I didn't get a keyboard park - maybe that was the second drum part?
 
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