First go on this song

[ido1957]

Ok this still has no drums and that will make a world of difference later. But for now, Mike built this on a base of acoustics which is new for us.
The whole tone is different from what I'm used to mixing so I want to get some feedback on whether this is anywhere near properly balanced with what is there so far.
I'm using parallel comp on my vocals and it puts them out front nicely but maybe too much???
Is the bass too loud ( I want definition though)?
Lead too dirty? Getting in the way of the vocals?
I had to eq the lead to match the acoustics other wise it just sounded too "fat" and "bassy" and didn't blend.

Wave File so it's pretty big.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AofOwfPMYksQiEbOiLtykz4A41ie

[JD01]

That's a good start, Ido.

The vocals are quite close but too close. If you're going to move them back, make sure its only a tiny bit.
The mix sounds good to me as it is, I'm not good enough to critique a mix in depth.
The only thing I'm not keen on is the acoustics - they sound a bit piezoish.

The ending is pretty abrupt too!

[ido1957]

Thanks JDO1

The ending was deliberate on my part. I was trying for a sort of echo effect which we sort of got.

The acoustic is a Takamine something direct into an ISA2 - it has some "mic/piezo" blender pot (not sure how he set it, probably toward piezo).

Yeah the vocals are weird - when they first come in they're blaring then somehow seem to settle in (I did automate them down 2db just on verse 1).
I'll take them down another db overall and see if they sit better.

[JD01]

Yeah the vocals are weird - when they first come in they're blaring then somehow seem to settle in

Ah, I thought that might have just be me getting used to them.

[rammer24]

Sounds like a good start, Ido. hard to say anything until drums are on this, but the sounds captured are good.


A problem happened, un-related to the song.

When I clicked on Ido's link, instead of opening a new tab, it changed pages and took me to One drive. Then, I couldn't back page to come back here to comment. I had to go to my book marks and find this site again. We need to make it so that clicking ona link opens a new page, not changes the page, if you know what I mean.

Also, why does this page not give me the option of "Quick Reply"? Other pages do, but some don't, like this one.

[Greg_L]

Agreed with Rami's comments. Make links open in a new window and no quick reply for me either.

Anyway, I'm not crazy about the direct acoustics. I'd rather hear them mic'd. Even poorly mic'd acoustics sound better to me than direct acoustics.

The vocals sound very good to me. No problem with the level and they're present but smooth in the mix.

[ido1957]

Yep - that "new tab" option would be better as I've had the same issue here this morning. I'll try and post that for a suggestion.

Mike's not a mic user on electric or acoustic yet. I'm working on it
I've got to say though, that this particular acoustic guitar sounds 10 times better than his previous Yamaha direct - better pre amp he says.

We'll get drums on this soon and then we'll have to fix everything

[ocnor]

The performance was well done. Maybe I'm going deaf in my old age but it sounded a little dark to me. I'd use an HPF at about 70Hz and bump up the mids slightly between 2K-12K. I think that you would notice a big difference in the clarity.

[ido1957]

Thanks Ocnor. After reading your post I realized that I had a LPF on the main bus (no idea why - maybe it was too bright early in the build). I'll remove that first.
For the HPF, once I get drums in wouldn't that cut off some of the kick drum? I think we usually HPF the bass guitar below 80 or something so the kick gets through.
What do you think?

[rammer24]

Thanks Ocnor. After reading your post I realized that I had a LPF on the main bus (no idea why - maybe it was too bright early in the build). I'll remove that first.
For the HPF, once I get drums in wouldn't that cut off some of the kick drum? I think we usually HPF the bass guitar below 80 or something so the kick gets through.
What do you think?

Yeah, I personally would NEVER High Pass a whole mix. I would NEVER even high pass just the drum bus. Just high pass what needs to be high passed.

[ocnor]

Thanks Ocnor. After reading your post I realized that I had a LPF on the main bus (no idea why - maybe it was too bright early in the build). I'll remove that first.
For the HPF, once I get drums in wouldn't that cut off some of the kick drum? I think we usually HPF the bass guitar below 80 or something so the kick gets through.
What do you think?

Yeah, I personally would NEVER High Pass a whole mix. I would NEVER even high pass just the drum bus. Just high pass what needs to be high passed.

I agree that it's better to fix each track individually if possible. Since I don't have access to the individual tracks I was just making a general comment on the entire mix.

[ido1957]

Ok got it!

[ido1957]

Couldn't sleep so I fiddled around with this some more really early this morning.
Removed that LPF on the mains(arghh).
I did some widening on the chorus electrics.
Cut the lead solo into it's own track and set the eq and delay a bit different so it "punches" it up a bit.
So the main question is now...
There's three electric parts with different treatments - verses, chorus, solo. Are they "too" noticeably different as in does it sound forced?
Or, is it cool like a Bob Ross painting

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AofOwfPMYksQiEgVFBGrGZWEYCr6

edit - still need the drums for this....

[ocnor]

That sounds better. It helped to give each instrument it's own space. I'd bump up the lead guitar a bit.

[JD01]

Ido, sounds good. I agree with Ocnor that the lead is bit low in places. Have you automated it down when you're singing? You might have got a bit too far.
The solo is a bit too quiet actually. Maybe that's just me though 'cos I'm a closet guitar wanker. I think the mix is good though, but miked up accoustic guitars will make it sound better!

Vocals are great. What are you singing into?

[ido1957]

Thanks ocnor and JDO1 - Mike asked me to rearrange some of the lead parts and cut out others so the current arrangement has a few holes that will need attention. So more thinking/recording to see what will work. We did a mix with what was left which included adjusting the lead parts. Mike's going to get the drum tracks this week and we'll continue from there. I'll try to get a new mix up in a week or so.

Mike just bought a new OMEN laptop and UAD Apollo Twin interface so that will probably take up some of his time in the near future figuring it out. We can get Sonar to work but not Windows media - he needs to figure out why the device is not visible to Windows media. Might be a driver issue.

I did the vocals with a U87ai into an LA610 MKII. I picked the mic up last March and I really like it.

[JD01]

I did the vocals with a U87ai into an LA610 MKII. I picked the mic up last March and I really like it.

Sounds expensive!

[ido1957]

Yeah $2500 CDN from a pro studio in Calgary that rarely used it (they have mics worth 10 grand so this one was a backup lol).
L and M want $3840 plus tax for this mic, so I did ok on the price. I had to buy a shockmount from China as I wasn't about to pay 500 for a piece of plastic.
I'd been using my NTK and Sputnik for vocals and they served me well but they are retired now....

[JD01]

I need to but a cheapy Chinese shock mount to hang my C1000 in front of my amp. The Focusrite mic isn't very good really but it's been fun to experiment with.

Your mics are way out of my price range.

[rammer24]

I need to but a cheapy Chinese shock mount to hang my C1000 in front of my amp.

Why do you need a shock mount? Just put it on a stand. My drum overheads are C1000's. All they need is a bigger mic clip than most mics.