Hour Glass

Your Mom loves your mixes, but are they really up to scratch? Post your tracks here and get the community's feedback to help with the spit and polish. Impress us! We don't bite.
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WhiskeyJack
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by WhiskeyJack »

ido1957 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2017 8:17 pm Did a few changes to the bass (too low) and vocals (too high) after listening on a few other speakers.

On a side note, Sonar has "Mix Scenes" but it's sketchy. Like if you add a track/bus to a new mix it gets added to the old mix. The old mix is basically affected if you download to compare without checking. Annoying but will remember in the future. I went back to my saved project and started checking all the parameters again versus the new one.
I didn't go back to the old previous mixes only listening to 20170603.

I think my chest wants to feel more kick coming through. I hear lots of the beater on the skin but not really picking up much thud/wump. It's there, i'd kind of like ot hear just a bit more of it. only a me thing.

Other than that i got nothing. Cool song Ido. I really like your vocal delivery too.

Um the very last few second there is weird cutting in and out on the over head tracks it sounds like. right at the very end. 2:34 to 2:37 A gate of some sort maybe?
:happytrees:
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ido1957
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Post by ido1957 »

That OH cutting out may be a cut and paste issue. I had to jiggle the ending a bit to get the drums in time so I probably goofed it up. Good ears though -
I'll take a look at that section. The kick I can look at at too probably just needs a hair of adjustment on the eq. Thanks Shan :)
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rayc
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by rayc »

Latest mix is cool Gerry. Thud will make it better - well picked Shannon.
Your voice is solid in this Gerry.
The solo at 1.20 could use a little beef - it sounds a little thin after your strong vocal and riff.
Cheers
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

Thanks Ray - I should redo the solo - I also thought the tone was a little too "smooth" for the song as soon as I started mixing it. The girls are probably going to get pedicures at the mall today (grad on Wednesday) so I can get some recording time in.
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einstein magoo
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by einstein magoo »

May just be me...I'm monitoring on Tannoy Reveal 502s, I have zero treatment in my roughly 19' x 21' room, mix position centered on 19' wall.

1st mix sounded like a blanket over everything but drums and vocals, like especially the drums were in a different space, in front.

Latest mix, now the drums are under the blanket also, but they somehow still cut through.

Really like the song and great, strong performances, just think the whole master buss needs some air all around? The mix just sounds dull, to the ear, not arrangement or performance-wise. Again, may just be my environment.

The bass sounds great; however, again, just me, I like to hear more pluck or accent on the notes, whatever that is called.

Great job with the song, probably just ignore my comments. I'm a noob!
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

Thanks for the comments! I appreciate the feedback and will recheck the mix with those in mind. Just want to add that since the mix is "supposed" to sound good on any system your feedback shows it's not quite right. But will it ever be done???? lol :facepalm2:
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TripleM
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by TripleM »

I went straight to the 6/3 mix.

Cool song and a cool vibe.

Things in general sounded a little boxy. Missing some high end and a lot of 1K honk. The vocal and guitars are contributing most to this.

The lead vocal sounds like it's in a different space than the instruments. The singer sounds like he's right in your ear, while the band is in the back of the room. I think the lead vocal is dominating the harmony vocal.

The snare has a kind of thwappy sound. Not quite enough power. Other than that, I liked the drums.

The bass level was a little, but I think it worked well for this type of mix.
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

Thanks TripleM, appreciate your comments. :coolstorybro:

Depending on who you talk to, Boxy is supposedly when things are not panned enough and crowd center.
I have panned the rhythm/lead guitars (75%) solo (40%) and backups (35%) so maybe you can elaborate if that's the issue.

Are you listening on monitors or headphones?

I'll look at the other things mentioned in your post and see what I can do. I have redone the solo as per Ray's suggestion so I'll be remixing later this week.
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

New mix - hope this fixes your concerns TripleM. Vocals down, EQ 1K, new solo. Bass sounds louder although I didn't change it specifically. :crazy:
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by Greg_L »

ido1957 wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2017 6:52 pm New mix - hope this fixes your concerns TripleM. Vocals down, EQ 1K, new solo. Bass sounds louder although I didn't change it specifically. :crazy:
This is the mix I'm listening to....

To me, the drums are a glaring weak link. The snare is tiny and boxy. The kick has a little slap but very little body. The entire kit just sounds small and weak. Toms are tiny little splats.

The levels of the instrumentation sound fine to me. Vocals sit well. Good guitar work. Great bass. Good guitar tones. I think the vocals and guitars could use a little more life. Air, presence, whatever you wanna call it. There's very little shine to the mix. Fix the drums first, if you can, and then look to give the whole mix space and air.
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

Greg_L wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:00 pm
ido1957 wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2017 6:52 pm New mix - hope this fixes your concerns TripleM. Vocals down, EQ 1K, new solo. Bass sounds louder although I didn't change it specifically. :crazy:
This is the mix I'm listening to....

To me, the drums are a glaring weak link. The snare is tiny and boxy. The kick has a little slap but very little body. The entire kit just sounds small and weak. Toms are tiny little splats.

The levels of the instrumentation sound fine to me. Vocals sit well. Good guitar work. Great bass. Good guitar tones. I think the vocals and guitars could use a little more life. Air, presence, whatever you wanna call it. There's very little shine to the mix. Fix the drums first, if you can, and then look to give the whole mix space and air.
Ok - new mix - undid a lot of the things I thought were working which didn't. I stripped this down to a very simple mix and turned off a bunch of reverb and compression. I'm still not sure about the lead vocals tone wise, but the LCR balance, where everything sits, "seems" to be fairly level. And the vocals sound like they are part of the mix and not sticking out. The bass is pounding which my not translate well in my truck but I think Mike will like it lol...

Back to the grind tomorrow (had a couple days vacation for my daughter's grad). It was a nice break....
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einstein magoo
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by einstein magoo »

Where did the cymbals go? Comparing this to the first mix, first was better, to me. Seems to be getting darker.
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

Thanks Einstein - Brought up the cymbals a bit more by backing off on the limiter on the main bus.

Let me know if this still sounds ok now.
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by rayc »

COOL - it is a little dark but that suits the theme.
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

New Mix - what the heck....had some free time after work...
Thanks Ray - Mike said the same thing, but I think it might be the key (Em) and the vocal lines. Anyway, I dicked around a bit more after work and came up with yet another mix. I upped the cymbals a bit more and upped 300-500 on vocals as they were thin compared to the guitars. I like their tone better, and I think they are sitting far enough back volume wise still. Kick is no longer MIA. Hopefully almost done this....

Edit - hey Ray the solo is Mike's Strat Deluxe through his Marshall. Little brighter than the Custom, different pedal (HD500?), with a little eq adjustment, it sings pretty nice.
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by rayc »

Gerry,
that's brighter - I like it.
Two timing your Custom eh? Sounds sweet so I'm sure you'll be forgiven.
Cheers
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

New Mix - early morning with fresher ears. I spent some time on the main mix bus eq.
The bottom end was muddy and thick and cloudy so I rolled some of that off trying to not lose the bass and kick punch.
Then I pulled up the highs by rolling off some of the mid frequencies. Compensated a bit on the vocals so they didn't get thin again.
Solo was sticking out so a notch down there on the track.
Took down the snare as it was a bit loud/annoying after the adjustment.
Now that I've cleaned it up a bit....not sure if the vocals are too loud or not.
Need some more coffee and rest my ears a bit...
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

Final mix ? Spent most of the weekend playing around with this, surprising how much work goes into mixing lol.... Many eq, automation and reverb changes to get to this stage. This should be it for now - sent it to Mike for bass check but the rest I'm pretty much happy with.

:guitarhero:
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by JD01 »

Sounds really good to me, rather than listing everything that sounds good just assume that it all does and is all sitting well in the mix.

Only thing that's a "problem" to me. Is that the kick is too loud and the bass might be too quiet - I think its just the kick being a touch to loud though.
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ido1957
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Re: Hour Glass

Post by ido1957 »

Thanks JD - that kick is a little too loud after taking a break and listening again this afternoon. I'll address that and we should be good. I think the bass is ok, but once I reduce the kick I'll know for sure.
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