"Tonight" Mix critiques

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:17 am

This is my 8th mix of this song, but I am not sure it's the best. I would appreciate any feedback you guys can offer up. Thanks in advance!

http://www.brettdriscoll.com/download/original/Tonight-Drums-Mix-8.mp3

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 12:23 am

Love the song!

First of all, too much compression on the snare. I know what you're trying to do, but that's too much. Ease back at least 2dB.

And ease back on the 12K there buddy! ESPECIALLY on the acoustic guitar. Al I hear is brrrt brrrt brrrt, no strings! Add some mids to it and give it some body! Also ease back on the 12K at the high hat. That made my head hurt.

I can't imagine you would do that on purpose. I am thinking there might be something wrong with room or monitoring, because there is waaaay too much hi end going on....

Than again, that's only my opinion... Smile

Everything else sounds good enough!

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 12:43 am

I'm a bit with Mark on this one. Terrific song but The high-end on the harmony vocals is too edgy and over-the-top. You're trying to get "air" but we're getting ear fatigue instead. And there is much too much proximity effect on those harmony vocals making them appear rather muddy, which also appeared to be rather stereo lopsided (low harmony hard left, high harmony right of center). Roll off some low-end on those harmony vocals, like about 6 DB at 80 hertz and add some compression to them. They don't sit right in the mix because they are not compressed enough.

I really like you're highly stylized over compressed drums! I think your snare drum should be a little more predominant with a little more snap to it in the mix? Not enough now because you're monitoring too loud. So a little push on the fader and maybe another 2 DB at 10kHz will put that snare drum right where it needs to be. It's too far back now. The toms sound great!! Lov'em!

Number 9 Number 9 Number 9 will probably be just the ticket!
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 9:39 am

Thanks so much for the comments! These are exactly the type of comments I need to hear. This is my first attempt at completing a song that I have written (and actually taking the time to record things the right way!)

The drums were played on a Roland TD-3 V-drum set that I just purchased. I recorded stereo audio out, and midi out. I had my friend who is a terrific drummer, set them up for me and he actually played drums on this song. I then took the midi track and sent it to EZDrummer. The final mix is mostly EZDrummer with the original stereo recording from the kit mixed in (the drummer like the "bigness" of the original scratch recording). SO in other words, I can tweak the HI-Hat and things like that individually.

I will take a look at the harmony eq and compression settings as well.

I tend to mix with headphones (yeah I know not a good idea) but I have a roommate and can't always crank up the monitors. My monitors are just M-Audio BX-5's so they are also probably a week link in my setup. I have upgraded pretty much everything but my monitors, so I think it may be time!

RemyRAD - There are actually 3 vocal harmony parts... but the low harmony on the right is hard to hear in some parts. I need to probably take a closer look at the panning...maybe do away with the 3rd part?

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 2:09 pm

Here is an updated mix with your suggestions. Better? Worse?

I had trouble with the bass on this track. I am not a bass player but played bass on this song. During the verses I played up higher on the neck, and then on the "if you died tonight" part I played an open E...... obviously the open E has more low end, and that is what I was going for, but it is tough balancing it out with the rest of the song.

http://www.brettdriscoll.com/download/original/Tonight-Drums-Mix-11.mp3

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:39 pm

Niiice. Much more listenable in my opinion... But this time round I noticed there is a room sound on the vocal. Did you add this in, or is it from the booth?

You could definitely bring up the cymbals a little bit, and I still think the snare is a bit too compressed. Not because I don't like compression (I love it), it just makes it sound as though it's being played with brushes... Smile

The bass is ok, maybe a bit hard on the low mids, (around 120), the open E sounded fine to me...

I would definitely try to make the solo guitar a bit "edgier" for it to stand out a bit more and pull it a bit back if you do that. Maybe add some nice room to it...... see if it works...

On a different note, be careful when you mix with headphones. If they are headphones you normally use with your iPod or CD player, most of the time people have bass bost or loudness button on, not to mention you're listening to mastered stuff. So keep this in mind when mixing, to not make your recording overly bright or bassy since you're used to the sound of the headphones...

Again... love the song! Sounds like some of the stuff I used to write... but with better singing and actual guitar solos... Very Happy

Keep it up!

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:47 pm

Niiice. Much more listenable in my opinion... But this time round I noticed there is a room sound on the vocal. Did you add this in, or is it from the booth?

You could definitely bring up the cymbals a little bit, and I still think the snare is a bit too compressed. Not because I don't like compression (I love it), it just makes it sound as though it's being played with brushes... Smile

The bass is ok, maybe a bit hard on the low mids, (around 120), the open E sounded fine to me...

I would definitely try to make the solo guitar a bit "edgier" for it to stand out a bit more and pull it a bit back if you do that. Maybe add some nice room to it...... see if it works...

On a different note, be careful when you mix with headphones. If they are headphones you normally use with your iPod or CD player, most of the time people have bass bost or loudness button on, not to mention you're listening to mastered stuff. So keep this in mind when mixing, to not make your recording overly bright or bassy since you're used to the sound of the headphones...

Again... love the song! Sounds like some of the stuff I used to write... but with better singing and actual guitar solos... Very Happy

Keep it up!

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:28 pm

mark_van_j wrote:

Niiice. Much more listenable in my opinion... But this time round I noticed there is a room sound on the vocal. Did you add this in, or is it from the booth?

You could definitely bring up the cymbals a little bit, and I still think the snare is a bit too compressed. Not because I don't like compression (I love it), it just makes it sound as though it's being played with brushes... Smile

The bass is ok, maybe a bit hard on the low mids, (around 120), the open E sounded fine to me...

I would definitely try to make the solo guitar a bit "edgier" for it to stand out a bit more and pull it a bit back if you do that. Maybe add some nice room to it...... see if it works...

On a different note, be careful when you mix with headphones. If they are headphones you normally use with your iPod or CD player, most of the time people have bass bost or loudness button on, not to mention you're listening to mastered stuff. So keep this in mind when mixing, to not make your recording overly bright or bassy since you're used to the sound of the headphones...

Again... love the song! Sounds like some of the stuff I used to write... but with better singing and actual guitar solos... Very Happy

Keep it up!

Thanks Mark,

Hmm I must be on the other side of the fence with the cymbals lol..... I thought they were too loud.

The snare is what it is........ it is from EZDrummer..... I could try and change snares to see if one sounds better than the other. I will look into the guitar solo (I am assuming you are talking about the first one right?)

Headphones are AKG K-240s

As far as the vocals go, I switched the reverb setting on them because I felt they needed something extra, but maybe I added too much.

Thanks for the bass suggestion...... this is probably around the frequency that I think is bothering me.....not a real low freq, but a mid bass freq seems to be over bearing at some parts. I will try cutting around 120.

Thanks again!

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:37 am

nice song ! I would just add some contrast to your mix, every thing is always at the same place, maybe you can think about changing some balance between the different verse or maybe write some other guitar parts, just to keep the interest to the song..the drums are nice and groovy and I don't have problem with the bass part....I'd push the guitar solo more forward and more "present". It's not a short song, then maybe guitars are too "wise" and playing the same parts from begining to the end in the same place...did you use Autotune or tuning plug on the voices ? maybe it's too much but the voices (especially the lead) are lacking something, they seemed to be too "monotonous" maybe it's the performance that is lacking something special...the backing harmony effect is really nice....the intro is too long, not bringing something more to the song (that's what a record company would probably telle you too) I just listen twice to the song (the 2 different mixes, second one is a bit better) and it's only my advice...the most important thing is that the song is realy nice and the groove is a good base...you have to dig into the writing of arrangements and try other things to maintain originality and interest to it....

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:10 am

kidindoor wrote:

nice song ! I would just add some contrast to your mix, every thing is always at the same place, maybe you can think about changing some balance between the different verse or maybe write some other guitar parts, just to keep the interest to the song..the drums are nice and groovy and I don't have problem with the bass part....I'd push the guitar solo more forward and more "present". It's not a short song, then maybe guitars are too "wise" and playing the same parts from begining to the end in the same place...did you use Autotune or tuning plug on the voices ? maybe it's too much but the voices (especially the lead) are lacking something, they seemed to be too "monotonous" maybe it's the performance that is lacking something special...the backing harmony effect is really nice....the intro is too long, not bringing something more to the song (that's what a record company would probably telle you too) I just listen twice to the song (the 2 different mixes, second one is a bit better) and it's only my advice...the most important thing is that the song is realy nice and the groove is a good base...you have to dig into the writing of arrangements and try other things to maintain originality and interest to it....

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

I hear what you are saying with the intro...... I have been toying with getting rid of it all together and just going right into the song. As far as vocals, it is more of a perfomance thing I am imagining. That is the first vocal take, and I really did it just to get something down that I could listen too. I think it would be wise to take some time to redo them. I also hear what you are saying about the guitars, or at least the guitar that is sort of noodling thru the whole song. It would make the song more interesting if I changed this up in different parts.

Thanks again! These are things I like to hear.

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:00 am

Dude thats pretty sweet, How did you get such a big snare sound, I can never get mine to sound like that.

I might push the vocals up a bit too. Bkg vox sound MUCH better in mix 11 too.

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:39 am

Thanks! The snare is just the default Snare in EZDrums. I didn't really mess with it too much. The original snare from the V-Drums is mixed in behind the whole ezdrum track as well, so that maybe adding to it.

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