Wild Side - final mix?

  • Thread starter Thread starter schenkerguy
  • Start date Start date
S

schenkerguy

Member
Here's another mix of my song, "wild side." Don't know if I want to spend any more hours on it... think it's ok as is?

I changed a few things, and added a few. Any comments at all are appreciated!

 
the two guits are to much panned for my taste and also a tad too loud, so that they dominate the mix and fight the vocal.


it's a cool song that grooves with a solid guitar performance, and I think you're very near to the final mix! :)

harry
 
vocals sound really good, although you got some cher action going on in spots (like 1:49) i like the guitar.

don't like the drums. they sound like a v kit???

guitar panning was a little hard in my opinion.


overall, it comes off pretty well at first but then starts to show signs of over effects after a while and then just sounds very virtual after a while.....

just my reaction, and what do i know? shit.
 
Oh, is that so... why I oughta.... :D


Well, the drums are samples that I played from my keyboard... The vocal was processed through Autotune... you've got a good ear! Guitars panned too hard seems to be unanimous (sp?)

Yeah, it's "virtual"... it was recorded by one stinkin' amateur on a computer! The drums aren't real, the guitar goes through an amp simulator... the tambourine is real though, and my voice... :D
 
I didn't think the guitars dominated too much. I thought it was pretty well balanced.

Really liked the first lead break and the tone you got there leading into the harp was great. The vocals were good too.

For some reason the snare reminded me a little of Alex Van Halen's snare sound.

The only thing that I could hear slightly off was at 1.30, bum note maybe?? haha. Great job though, I wouldn't mess with it any more
 
Hiya - like the track - nice sound you got going there man.......

Re: Autotune - maybe kill the rate at which it is correcting and you should be able to save retracking.

Have fun and post more :)

Q.
 
I enjoyed this, I like the toms on the verse around 1:25.

Maybe a little too much pan for me, wow I LOVE the solo, nice touch of funk, you can play. Harmonica is a nice touch.

This is pretty damn great actually. Good job.
 
schenkerguy said:

Well, the drums are samples that I played from my keyboard...
Click to expand...

i can't remember how many times i've said this before but i'm just gonna say it again.

if what your after is a real drum sound, spend a couple bucks on some drum loops instead of trying to manufacture a kit with samples. You can buy prerecorded drum tracks with a real drummer playing real drums in a real studio (which is a really expensive process) with so much less effort and it generally will sound like a real drummer playing a real drum kit in a real studio as opposed to a bunch of samples of different elements of a drum set in different rooms played by different people.

whew. that was a mouthful.
 
Thanks for all comments, I'm still learning lots all the time...

Regarding drum loops, the reasons I don't use them are;

1. I like to just be "fluid" as I'm writing something, taking twists and turns, maybe changing time signatures or tempos etc. When using loops, I find you just start with "rock beat 1 at 118 bpm"... you have a couple of variations and a couple of rolls. You almost have to write the song around what you have available for loops rather than creating as you go. I find them time consuming and limiting.

2. I prefer to have total control over the drums in the mix. Loops are recorded as one stereo track, with a certain room ambience. With my samples I have every drum on a separate mixer track, so I can beef up the snare eq, add chorus to a crash, etc.

3. Probably the main reason I record at all is the satisfaction of sitting back and going "dang I'm good" when it's all done :D Even though the drums are played from a keyboard, I'm still playing them. That's not true with loops, you're just flying in someone elses track so to speak. I'm kind of proud of the guitar solo in this song. If it was just from "guitar solos vol 2" sample cd, then there would be nothing to be proud of, right? I have kind of a code of ethics, where I won't use any loops of things that I can do myself. I don't just want to assemble pieces of other peoples work! The harmonica is from loops, I don't own one and can't play one.

4. When using loops, those loops could potentially be used in hundreds or thousands of other songs. Since I compose my drum tracks myself and add effects and eq, they're more or less unique.

I've tried numerous sample cds, I used drum loops on one song called "All I Ever Need" that I posted a while back, and didn't really like them. I have Acid installed too, tried it, but wouldn't use it in a song. There's enough cut & paste synthetic songwriters out there, don't need me!

> end rant
 
Did you mean the link didn't work? It should be ok, maybe was just down temporarily...
 
mix #6... The EQ smile... midscooped... snare drum and vox suffer because of ze scoop... but this is a decent mix. Nice gtr overdubs. Good 'verb. A pinch of "Coldplay" there. Vox tracks have the crispy edge. This reminds me of IanW-UK's offerings in this clinic.

The major issue appears to be the general "crispy" edge on your 2-mix... it's like when you get just barely off the station on your radio's tuning knob.

What are you using for reference listening? That might help us help you get more balance in your mixes. I'm thinkin you're not hearing enough "sizzle" when there's plenty of it there. Do you burn reference mixes to CD for listens in your car? A car is a really good place for checking 'em out...

(On this end: Audiophile 24/96-->Sennheiser HD280-->eardrums :) ... it's not monitors (as in my old setup), nor a good monitoring room... but I'm able to pick out the major "sore-thumbs" with it... EQ is trickier)


As compared to mix 3, the hi-hats "level" is better... but the drums have lost something (the tom toms ambience was better in the older mix...) the bass was clearer in the old mix, but just a touch too loud (1 db - ish). The edge on vox is much better here... no hard, crisp, annoying edge on 'em like in mix 6. Balance seemed almost perfect, except for the loudish hats. Sorry to say it... but the first mix seemed overall "better"... all I'd have done there would be pull back the hats about 1.5 and slapped a bit more compression on the bass.


Chad
 
I like this tune.

Not much for mix comments, but the guitars did dominate.

I like your voice, nice job.

Great guitar playing, I like it a lot, great to hear some real rootsy playing!

Drums.....Well I have to agree with your comments. I my self use a drum machine. I like to be able to build my drum patters from the ground up controlling every sound. Sometimes it's limiting when it comes to sound variation, but I still have the ability to write my own drum parts since I don't own a drum kit (that is something my wife and neighbors should be thankfull for :D )

Really cool stuff, keep it comin'

~scott
 
More chorus vocals, 3db up in tenor

Laid back mon ...

Drums sound a little too verby, no snap.

You vocal when you move into the high range should be 4-6db louder.

When you are in your baritone range, give me 2 more db on the vocal.

Those chorus vocals need to blow our hair back. The synth keys sound almost as loud as the chorus vocals man ... gimmie more of those chrous vocals, they are the GOLD, roll some tap delay off these chorus vocals, they are wild and exciting ok ?

The guitar solo is a little loud relative to the other levels ... get the vocals up a little especially when you move into your tenor range in the chorus.

Don't bring the guitar down, unless you don't have any headroom to bring the vocals up.

This is one of the rare cases where I would say bring the vocals up , instead of creating headroom for them by bringing the instruments down.

Great harp, maybe dripping a little to much with effects, it's good harp, let it shine out a little more.

What's happening at 3:00 to 3:09 is a little awkward ?

Your vocal is really nice in this next section, give us a lot more of that please.

The guitar is all killer, but you have to bring up the vocals, they are GOOD.

Chorus vocals are GOLD. You know the magazine add of the guy in the easy chair, and the speakers are like blowing his hair back, you gotta blow our hair off with those chorus vocals, don't cheat us.

Overall it's a good mix, very pleasant to listen to , good rock and roll dude ... but get a little wilder ... ok ? :)
 
Have to agree with the general consensus here...

The overall mix is a bit bright.

The verses are good, but the choruses need to be stronger. More dynamics please!

I like "ringy" snares, but this one needs more "crack".

Good riffin' in there.:cool:
 
Thanks

Thanks for all these comments! Lots of stuff to think about, I'm actually going to do the mix again totally from scratch. I want to make it more percussive and dynamic, will less effects and "wash"...

The fuzziness that was mentioned was I believe due to the distortion on the guitars, they should have been clearer and twangy, but I made them too fuzzy. Fortunately they're going through Amplitube VST amp simulator, so I can change the settings!

Someone mentioned a weird note I think at 1:30. There's this line in the song that says "like an island in the sun"... well, I thought I'd be clever and do a kind of hawaiian sounding riff there, maybe it sounds like just a bad note!

It's great getting all these comments. Makes me really hear faults that I would have just let go. I'm going to sit and listen to some cds through my monitors for a while and get a better feel for them... :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top