Hey All
I can't believe it took this long for me to find this site but I just signed up and this is my first post. I spent the holidays digging through some old songs I had that for one reason or another never did anything with and decided to see if I could pull something out of them. When I'm mixing I seem to kind of run into the same problems which is the inability to be objective and to know when something is just as good as its going to get and that's just that.
With that being said I need some views on this song. I like honesty more than anything and I've been at this game for a while so I have a pretty thick skin, feel free to lay it on me. However I'm most concerned with 2 things so please try to focus your opinions on:
1) Balance of bass/treble. Too much or not enough? I have trouble making final decisions on this issue and I'd rather leave it to a bunch of strangers on the internet to call it to save time and maybe be more productive.
2) Overall level. I feel like we're in a time that is coming out on the back end of the loudness wars thing and there is a trend to dial things back. So my issue isn't that I want it the loudest it can possibly be, but rather how far to scale down before it starts going too far the other way? This recording is st just the limit so only the most extreme peaks are limiting and with like 1.5 db of bus compression. I guess I'm looking for that middle ground between too much and not enough, and I'm open to thoughts there as well until a real universal standard can be established.
Here's the link I hope it works. This is a simple instrumental blues type thing meant to be more background or a bed track to put some vox on in the future maybe. Thanks in advance for your unbiased and unfiltered opinions I look forward to hearing them all. Much respect.
Comments
Kurt Foster, post: 423801, member: 7836 wrote: but i think you n
Kurt Foster, post: 423801, member: 7836 wrote: but i think you need to push the bass a bit in the lo mids so it will define on small systems better. think a narrow peak @ 220 Hz.
Yup...
'round these parts, we call that a "Foster Peak". ;)
The top is a bit noisy... you might want to slip-edit the beginning... just before everything comes in.
Not nuts about the reverb, but that's a production thing, and probably not what you are after critique wise.
EQ sounds a bit "metallic" in the upper mids/lower highs... off the top of my head, I'd say maybe between 2 - 4k is a bit heavy, giving an edgy sound that isn't really a "nice' edge.
What type and what settings did you use for gain reduction? Sounds a bit squashed...
@Kurt and @Donny thanks so much for the response. I got crazy bu
Kurt and @Donny thanks so much for the response. I got crazy busy for a couple of months and had to get it while it was givin'. Don't know what it's like for you guys, but for me it's feast or famine.
So I tried the boost @220 and it seems to work really well. As far as the top end this is something I really need help with. I know I overcompensate because I'm 40 and I have a lot of loss in those freq's. I've been working on it. Funny thing is the last record I did I deliberately dialed back the top end from where I thought it should be to find the sweet spot and the artist said the mix was muddy! Go figure.
As far as GR, there's very little on the 2-bus, but I maybe overdid it on the individual instruments (another thing I'm working on). I'm getting there, more than anything else I just want to positively know what something should sound and feel like so I know when I'm there. But I do need your help to keep me honest.
I'll try a remix and post soon. Thank you so much....
it sounds pretty good to me but i think you need to push the bas
it sounds pretty good to me but i think you need to push the bass a bit in the lo mids so it will define on small systems better. think a narrow peak @ 220 Hz.