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.
JD01 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 5:27 pm
OK, quite an extensive reworking on this one, mainly with respect to the drums. But I then had to put the whole mix back together.
Dust Mix 5.mp3
You still have this weird deep flubby resonance in the kick and bass. It's still basketbally. Your listening environment has got to be lying to you because it's not that different from the five other mixes you've done. The snare is a little improved. But you've lost the vocals again. Go back to the drawing board.
JD01 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 5:27 pm
OK, quite an extensive reworking on this one, mainly with respect to the drums. But I then had to put the whole mix back together.
Dust Mix 5.mp3
You still have this weird deep flubby resonance in the kick and bass. It's still basketbally. Your listening environment has got to be lying to you because it's not that different from the five other mixes you've done. The snare is a little improved. But you've lost the vocals again. Go back to the drawing board.
That's annoying - this mix is a complete re-build too.
This was done on my AKG headphones last night. I'll try a couple of other pairs of headphones and have a listen in the car if I get chance today.
Here's the drums and bass isolated
Dust Drum n Bass.mp3
I'm a bit worried that my ears might be more fucked than I think they are. Not damaged, but blocked - bone, wax, sea-creatures etc.
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JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 4:30 am
This was done on my AKG headphones last night. I'll try a couple of other pairs of headphones
I didn't want to make the assumption but my initial thought when hearing all these not-so-different mixes was "these sound like headphone mixes".
There's nothing wrong with mixing on headphones if you have to, but they do lie to you. You don't get any real sense of space and phase and everything sounds good and loud and clean when it's really not.
I'm getting really pissed off with this now 'cos I don't really feel like I'm getting anywhere. I'm not recording new stuff 'cos I've got loads of songs that I've finished writing/recording but I just can't get the mixes to translate across systems.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:59 am
I'm getting really pissed off with this now 'cos I don't really feel like I'm getting anywhere. I'm not recording new stuff 'cos I've got loads of songs that I've finished writing/recording but I just can't get the mixes to translate across systems.
Don't get pissed, just get out of your rut. Look, you probably had some drum revelations today, right? That's something. Work with that. To my ears your mixes always have the same things lacking - drums and vocals. Pretty much every time over the years it's the same thing. Guitars are great, performance is great, bass is usually okay, but drums and vocals need work. Now those are two pretty major elements, but they're fixable. One is just learning how to deal with drums and the other is overcoming your vocal hangups. You have a drum program so the worst part of recording drums has been done for you. You just need to learn how to listen to them and mix them. And vocals...I don't know what to tell you about that. Just belt them out and turn them up.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:59 am
I'm getting really pissed off with this now 'cos I don't really feel like I'm getting anywhere. I'm not recording new stuff 'cos I've got loads of songs that I've finished writing/recording but I just can't get the mixes to translate across systems.
Don't get pissed, just get out of your rut. Look, you probably had some drum revelations today, right? That's something. Work with that. To my ears your mixes always have the same things lacking - drums and vocals. Pretty much every time over the years it's the same thing. Guitars are great, performance is great, bass is usually okay, but drums and vocals need work. Now those are two pretty major elements, but they're fixable. One is just learning how to deal with drums and the other is overcoming your vocal hangups. You have a drum program so the worst part of recording drums has been done for you. You just need to learn how to listen to them and mix them. And vocals...I don't know what to tell you about that. Just belt them out and turn them up.
Thing is with the drums - I just can't hear what the problem is when I'm in this office or listening on these cans.
Ah... I just switched to my Sony XM4s. These aren't reference cans but they're very good headphones. Now I can really hear a problem.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:25 am
Thing is with the drums - I just can't hear what the problem is when I'm in this office or listening on these cans.
Ah... I just switched to my Sony XM4s. These aren't reference cans but they're very good headphones. Now I can really hear a problem.
I was listening to some isolated drum tracks on youtube this morning. The legends. Most of them were recorded in the 60s and 70s so we won't count those. But the more modern-ish ones like Nirvana drums and Rancid drums and Foo Fighters drums...they all just sound like drums. Just regular ol drums. They're not super isolated and hyped, they just sound like drums in a room. And really they all sound just kind of meh, but that's what drums sound like. Close mic'd but the overhead presence is clearly all there. But what none of them had is a bunch of fake reverb slathered all over them. And if they did, it was mild and tasteful. And all of the bass drums sounded pretty normal. Flat punch with some depth and not any kind of bouncyballishness.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:25 am
Thing is with the drums - I just can't hear what the problem is when I'm in this office or listening on these cans.
Ah... I just switched to my Sony XM4s. These aren't reference cans but they're very good headphones. Now I can really hear a problem.
I was listening to some isolated drum tracks on youtube this morning. The legends. Most of them were recorded in the 60s and 70s so we won't count those. But the more modern-ish ones like Nirvana drums and Rancid drums and Foo Fighters drums...they all just sound like drums. Just regular ol drums. They're not super isolated and hyped, they just sound like drums in a room. And really they all sound just kind of meh, but that's what drums sound like. Close mic'd but the overhead presence is clearly all there. But what none of them had is a bunch of fake reverb slathered all over them. And if they did, it was mild and tasteful. And all of the bass drums sounded pretty normal. Flat punch with some depth and not any kind of bouncyballishness.
I'm gonna have a go at a drum mix on these Sony XM4 headphones later see if I can get something better. There is definitely a problem with my ears though - I can hear shit in there crunching around when I clench my jaw.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:42 am
I'm gonna have a go at a drum mix on these Sony XM4 headphones later see if I can get something better. There is definitely a problem with my ears though - I can hear shit in there crunching around when I clench my jaw.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:39 pm
OK, here's another go at the drums and bass. I've made a few small tweaks to the drums - I've mainly tweaked the bass though.
Dust Drum n Bass 2.mp3
Yeah I think that's a little better. It's tighter. I think you could take some of that Def Leppard reverb off the drums.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:39 pm
OK, here's another go at the drums and bass. I've made a few small tweaks to the drums - I've mainly tweaked the bass though.
Dust Drum n Bass 2.mp3
Yeah I think that's a little better. It's tighter. I think you could take some of that Def Leppard reverb off the drums.
I mixed that on my Sony headphones, they're really nice, I use them for casual listening all the time. They've got much more low end than my AKGs. I remember when I first got the AKG702s I didn't think they had as much low end as the 701s.
There's not much reverb left on the drums now - I'll mainly just be tweaking levels of room mics. I've just been turning my reverb impulse on and off and its barely making a difference - my room mics are a bit too prominent. Most of the difference I've made there is a scoop on the bass at about 150hz. Also, on the drum buss generally I could here a sound that really had a clear pitch to it and I managed to get most of that out.
The other thing mixing on these noise cancelling Sonys is that it feels really claustrophobic and fatiguing.
Listening to last mix. ....... sounds pretty good to me in general ..... the ride is fine ..... maybe a little too compressed from distortion so you don't really get a snappy attack ..... but you note choices are good ones ..... maybe mix in a bit of undistorted git to get that attack back.
Your vocals are almost always buried somewhat for the same reason that many, many people mix their vox low ..... they're not singers per se and aren't confident in their vocals ..... common issue ..... mix the voice higher man! ..... they sound fine.
Doesn't matter if you like them ( you prolly won't ) so just rely on others and if they say the vox are good then accept that they are.
I don't have many mix comments because mixes can be all sorts of different ways, all acceptable ....... I don't hear anything here that bums me out so no problems AFAIC
Lt. Bob wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 2:09 pm
Listening to last mix. ....... sounds pretty good to me in general ..... the ride is fine ..... maybe a little too compressed from distortion so you don't really get a snappy attack ..... but you note choices are good ones ..... maybe mix in a bit of undistorted git to get that attack back.
Your vocals are almost always buried somewhat for the same reason that many, many people mix their vox low ..... they're not singers per se and aren't confident in their vocals ..... common issue ..... mix the voice higher man! ..... they sound fine.
Doesn't matter if you like them ( you prolly won't ) so just rely on others and if they say the vox are good then accept that they are.
I don't have many mix comments because mixes can be all sorts of different ways, all acceptable ....... I don't hear anything here that bums me out so no problems AFAIC
Cheers Bob. There's definitely a few things I want to work on with regard to the boominess. I'll have another go at a full mix later and see how I get on.
Yeah that last mix drum/bass mix sounds pretty good. I like the kick sound. The bass might be just a bit over boosted in the 80-160 range? Or maybe cut too much in the 300-600hz range? In any event, I think it has just a bit too many lows and not quite enough low-mid (it could have been recorded that way too).
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:39 pm
OK, here's another go at the drums and bass. I've made a few small tweaks to the drums - I've mainly tweaked the bass though.
Dust Drum n Bass 2.mp3
Yeah I think that's a little better. It's tighter. I think you could take some of that Def Leppard reverb off the drums.
OK - Think I'm getting there. I've actually added a tiny bit more reverb into the close mics, removed all of it from the overheads and room mics... I've also dialed back the room mics loads.
Dust Drum n Bass 3.mp3
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JD01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 12:01 pm
OK - Think I'm getting there. I've actually added a tiny bit more reverb into the close mics, removed all of it from the overheads and room mics... I've also dialed back the room mics loads.
Dust Drum n Bass 3.mp3
That's probably the best you've done yet. I've said it a billion times - the room mics in VST drums pretty much add nothing of value. No one listens to me until they finally hear it for themselves. I've been saying it for a fucking decade or more. They're almost always way over the top like they were recorded in a fucking middle school gymnasium. I don't think I've ever heard drum program room mics do anything good for a drum track. So dialing them back, or muting them all the way, is a good thing if you want tighter punchier drums. The overheads are enough.
Now put your 50 guitar tracks back in work on the vocals!
Cheers, dude. Thanks for your help with this. This an Armi's similar thread have been really helpful.
I basically dialled back the room mics until they were just acting as a "make it better button" without sounding like they were really there in the mix, same as I've been doing for years with guitar reverb on rhythms.
JD01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 12:20 pm
Cheers, dude. Thanks for your help with this. This an Armi's similar thread have been really helpful.
I basically dialled back the room mics until they were just acting as a "make it better button" without sounding like they were really there in the mix, same as I've been doing for years with guitar reverb on rhythms.
Right. You can fake the "room mics" by bussing all of the drum tracks to a group and adding reverb across the whole kit....tastefully. A little tiny bit goes a long way. It's also a good way to treat the individual tracks as a complete kit with EQ and compression to "glue" it together. It should only take little tiny bits of tweak to finalize the drum sound. If you do it right it's unquestionably better than the crap room tracks they give you with the program.
