Mix suggestions Por Favor

Hi East Gate,

i listened to the mastered version. For my taste, i would change the snare sound a littlebit. I would think it would integrate better if the sound would be a little more open, and i think it would groove better, if the sample is shorter. Maybe youd like to try another tuning, too.

I think the level of the production is very high and your client will be happy :)

Have Fun

Jörg
 

TheEastGateMS

Active Member
Although the snare sound is (as you said) a matter of taste, you are not the first person to make that comment on this track. It appears that the snare is the weakest point of this track and I will change it first thing Monday morning, if the client accepts the advice.

And thank you for the compliment on the quality!
 

boody

Established Member
Hi Eastgate,

listened to it once on headphones, so just an impression here. Listened to the mastered version. Quality wise it sounds like the tracks are made with 'thin' sounding samples, and that's no easy material to mix. The overall sound seems a bit muffled and the 'air' between the different instruments seems to lack, which makes the mix a bit flat.

some things to try:
- a bigger contrast in brightness and low end between tracks
- attack the strings with reverb/chorus/highcut to make them more organic
- give kick, snare and hatt sound more impact (maybe less attack on comp?) and give them more body with maybe an overdrive (try different types on all!) and an unnoticable very-short very-dark mono reverb.
- low end on the kick: try multing it to an aux with high cut from +/-100hz, bump on +/- 50hz and mix that in: do try to phase invert that to see which sounds best

goodluck with the mix annd don't be surprised if the client goes for the least sounding mix; somehow hiphoppers don't like their demos changed :wink:
 

Awesom-o

Active Member
Hi EastGate

I think the drums are the weakest link - they are too conservative for the energy level of the track, especially the snare. The drums have kind of a rock feel going on, so I'd be tempted to go for a huge \"Bonham\" sounding snare. Maybe have a fatter, deeper kick playing a sparser pattern which accents some of the existing kick beats (eg 808 kik). I'm thinking of Beastie Boys -style big skanky-assed drums but unfortunately can't remember the name of any tracks to point you at.

Good luck!
 

TheEastGateMS

Active Member
harald-kiri said:
i would change the snare sound a littlebit. I would think it would integrate better if the sound would be a little more open, and i think it would groove better, if the sample is shorter. Maybe youd like to try another tuning, too.
Done! And thank you!

boody said:
listened to it once on headphones, so just an impression here. Listened to the mastered version. Quality wise it sounds like the tracks are made with 'thin' sounding samples, and that's no easy material to mix. The overall sound seems a bit muffled and the 'air' between the different instruments seems to lack, which makes the mix a bit flat.
Although I am kinda annoyed that you made comments after listening on headphones, I still appreciate your statements and hope that I achieved more seperation and clarity in the mix.

boody said:
some things to try:
- a bigger contrast in brightness and low end between tracks
- attack the strings with reverb/chorus/highcut to make them more organic
- give kick, snare and hatt sound more impact (maybe less attack on comp?) and give them more body with maybe an overdrive (try different types on all!) and an unnoticable very-short very-dark mono reverb.
- low end on the kick: try multing it to an aux with high cut from +/-100hz, bump on +/- 50hz and mix that in: do try to phase invert that to see which sounds best
There was already a good amount of verb on the strings.
Compression speed on the drums was a very good call imho.
I don't really like to ever mess with phasing tricks. I pitched the kick's subs down a few steps... got it's natural peak to be 50hz.
Thank to you as well.

Awesom-o said:
I think the drums are the weakest link - they are too conservative for the energy level of the track, especially the snare. The drums have kind of a rock feel going on, so I'd be tempted to go for a huge "Bonham" sounding snare. Maybe have a fatter, deeper kick playing a sparser pattern which accents some of the existing kick beats (eg 808 kik). I'm thinking of Beastie Boys -style big skanky-assed drums but unfortunately can't remember the name of any tracks to point you at.
The snare change to a more natural sound was the first thought when people started making comments against the old one... I hope it was a good choice of natural snare though.
The 808 sound was there in the original track, but I opted to take it out since it was far to subby for my taste. I wanted the main kick to maintain some of the subs while the chorus bass fills in the rest. The verses then are a bit more calm down there.
Thank you too!


So guys... I made many mods and uploaded to the same account... If you have the time, let me know what you think of the changes...
It is labeled "FinalTest."
 

boody

Established Member
TheEastGateMS said:
Although I am kinda annoyed that you made comments after listening on headphones, I still appreciate your statements and hope that I achieved more seperation and clarity in the mix.

boody said:
- low end on the kick: try multing it to an aux with high cut from +/-100hz, bump on +/- 50hz and mix that in: do try to phase invert that to see which sounds best
...
I don't really like to ever mess with phasing tricks. I pitched the kick's subs down a few steps... got it's natural peak to be 50hz.
Thing is I was not in the studio when listening, but the headphones are usually more forgiving :wink:

The phase reverse thing on multed mono-stuff is quite common with great engineers as wel. Chad Blake stated that it can drop the kicksound by 1 octave, which can be good... I would certainly try it. Then again, any non-linear eq is a phase trick really...

Listenend to the mixes in the studio this time and the second one is definatly a whole lot better (some translation issues on my system in the low end and the mid aside). It's much more energetic and dimensional to me. I'm still not fond of the drumsounds but that's a taste thing; I mostly mix sampled hiphop stuff (when doing hiphop) and that got me biased I guess. How does the client like it?

cheers
Budy
 

boody

Established Member
TheEastGateMS said:
Although I am kinda annoyed that you made comments after listening on headphones, I still appreciate your statements and hope that I achieved more seperation and clarity in the mix.

boody said:
- low end on the kick: try multing it to an aux with high cut from +/-100hz, bump on +/- 50hz and mix that in: do try to phase invert that to see which sounds best
...
I don't really like to ever mess with phasing tricks. I pitched the kick's subs down a few steps... got it's natural peak to be 50hz.
Thing is I was not in the studio when listening, but the headphones are usually more forgiving :wink:

The phase reverse thing on multed mono-stuff is quite common with great engineers as wel. Chad Blake stated that it can drop the kicksound by 1 octave, which can be good... I would certainly try it. Then again, any non-linear eq is a phase trick really...

Listenend to the mixes in the studio this time and the second one is definatly a whole lot better (some translation issues on my system in the low end and the mid aside). It's much more energetic and dimensional to me. I'm still not fond of the drumsounds but that's a taste thing; I mostly mix sampled hiphop stuff (when doing hiphop) and that got me biased I guess. How does the client like it?

cheers
Budy
 
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