Nice overall tones.

I think the bass is too heavy and the vocals are a bit buried. There's audible pumping of the whole mix as the mastering limiter tries to keep the bass under control. The cymbals seem rather up front, on top of the guitars and vocals. It may be a simple matter of raising the guitars/vocals a dB or so and doing some eq/compression work on the bass.

bouldersound, post: 455913, member: 38959 wrote: Nice overall tones.

I think the bass is too heavy and the vocals are a bit buried. There's audible pumping of the whole mix as the mastering limiter tries to keep the bass under control. The cymbals seem rather up front, on top of the guitars and vocals. It may be a simple matter of raising the guitars/vocals a dB or so and doing some eq/compression work on the bass.

Yep -- EXACTLY the challenges I was wondering about.

I didn't compress the bass itself, so the mastering limiter is doing all the heavy lifting for gluing things together.

In contrast to my normal approach, I DID pull the vox back into the musical bed more.

I also hear some pumping in the cymbals. I first thought it could have been phase issues, but now that you mention it, it may be the impact of the limiting on the drums (submix) and then again on the whole mix (which I am applying somewhat lightly to "trim the peaks"), but I admittedly am pushing the individual channels pretty hard.

Thanks guy!

Attended to ... and hoping it breathes better.

Definitely better. Wasn't sure about the reverb but it kind of works.

bouldersound, post: 455916, member: 38959 wrote: Definitely better. Wasn't sure about the reverb but it kind of works.

I pulled back the OHs on the drums -- mixed them separately, added the bass in, and set the tone against the kick. REALLY pulled back on the compression on the submix. THEN I set the overall compression levels -- and again, pulled it down considerably, and then blended in the guitar and layered keys.

Headphones (which I'd not worn in the original mix) revealed that the synth solo was taking too much of a back seat to the guitar solo and lead vocal -- where it should have been on equal level footing. Once the cymbals stopped stamping on the highs, then the whole mix opened up.

Thanks for the extra set of ears, bud!

Really helped.

Nice song again Kev,
I like the groove and the perfo.
I still hear some pumping and the hihat is a mess (Soundcloud again I guess)
Not quite a standard reggae, but fun to listen to.
I would like a bit more bottom on the bass and a thinny bit on the bass drum.
You know I'm not fond on panned lead instruments.. but I know it's your thing so be it ;)
Nice work, we can hear the pleasure of playing music...

pcrecord, post: 455919, member: 46460 wrote: Nice song again Kev,
I like the groove and the perfo.
I still hear some pumping and the hihat is a mess (Soundcloud again I guess)
Not quite a standard reggae, but fun to listen to.
I would like a bit more bottom on the bass and a thinny bit on the bass drum.
You know I'm not fond on panned lead instruments.. but I know it's your thing so be it ;)
Nice work, we can hear the pleasure of playing music...

Hey M!!

I've got the hi hat recorded with a large condenser (CAD 300) ... and on its own, I like its tone ... but I've got a puzzle going on between that mic and the snare mic -- a newly purchased E300 (Blue Mic) recommended by a bud of mine who has been the sound guy for national acts (think Muddy Waters).

I can only blame SC so far. The most recent mix is improved over the original -- but if there is still pumping going on, I must attend.

It is not a standard reggae -- though we employed that beat in structure. :D

As such, the focus (for me) is finding the distinction of the kick against the bass -- where both sound right in conjunction w/ each other. That's a tough thing to balance.

... and yes -- I'm a fan of panned lead instruments. It's a mix style thing. I'm okay with us being different in approach.

Thanks Marco!

K-

Kevin

kevinwhitect, post: 455914, member: 11453 wrote: Yep -- EXACTLY the challenges I was wondering about.

I didn't compress the bass itself, so the mastering limiter is doing all the heavy lifting for gluing things together.

In contrast to my normal approach, I DID pull the vox back into the musical bed more.

I also hear some pumping in the cymbals. I first thought it could have been phase issues, but now that you mention it, it may be the impact of the limiting on the drums (submix) and then again on the whole mix (which I am applying somewhat lightly to "trim the peaks"), but I admittedly am pushing the individual channels pretty hard.

Thanks guy!

Kevin...
Are you hearing these issues on your original wav file, or on the SoundCloud audio?
You should know that SC is notorious for adding artifacts - aliasing, lossy-ness, wizzly phasing on the top end...
Just throwing that out there. I'd like to be able to hear this as a direct upload here to RO (using the "upload a file" feature), instead of as a SC file...
I won't comment further until then, til I know we're not trying to listen through issues that might not even be present in your original mix.
I will mention that low end pumping on a limiter can often be alleviated by using a HPF on the gain reduction detector, which essentially means that the gain reduction "ignores" the low end, up to a predetermined corner frequency. You didn't mention which limiter you are using, but many have this feature... Something you might want to look into. ;)

DonnyThompson, post: 455926, member: 46114 wrote: Kevin

Kevin...
Are you hearing these issues on your original wav file, or on the SoundCloud audio?
You should know that SC is notorious for adding artifacts - aliasing, lossy-ness, wizzly phasing on the top end...
Just throwing that out there. I'd like to be able to hear this as a direct upload here to RO (using the "upload a file" feature), instead of as a SC file...
I won't comment further until then, til I know we're not trying to listen through issues that might not even be present in your original mix.
I will mention that low end pumping on a limiter can often be alleviated by using a HPF on the gain reduction detector, which essentially means that the gain reduction "ignores" the low end, up to a predetermined corner frequency. You didn't mention which limiter you are using, but many have this feature... Something you might want to look into. ;)

I will do so later this morning, Donny. I use solely plugins at this point, but I'll outline the signal chain on that also. I'm just answering emails remotely on a laptop at the moment.

kevinwhitect, post: 455920, member: 11453 wrote: As such, the focus (for me) is finding the distinction of the kick against the bass -- where both sound right in conjunction w/ each other. That's a tough thing to balance.

You are not the only one challenged by this. My way to look at it is, I first decide which of the two will occupy the sub frequencies. Bass drum or Bass.
With reggae it's mostly deep basses..
Then I would focus one around 60hz and remove a bit of 80hz. Then I would focus the other one around 80hz and remove a bit of 60hz. That way they are not fighting each other as much. I could cut some freq bellow 40hz on both.. but it depends how deep the recordings go.
For presence, basses usually like to have a bit of 300-500hz bump and the bass drum around 1-4K

Of course this is assuming the recordings include a large frequencie range. We can't add 60hz if the recording has none.. ;)

There are gain reduction plugs that have the HP feature, it's not exclusive to hardware. ;)

DonnyThompson, post: 455930, member: 46114 wrote: There are gain reduction plugs that have the HP feature, it's not exclusive to hardware. ;)

Fabfilter's have this feature

Here ya go, Donny!

Master limiter is a BlueTubes Brickwall BW2S

Drum compression is also a BlueTubes Master Limiter

I also have a bunch of Waves Compressors ... which I like.

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…

Attached files Colors.mp3 (4.9 MB) 

Will listen later today when I'm in front of my nearfields. ;)

Night and day better mix with the upload vs soundcloud. The bass and presence in the low mids were obscuring all the other instruments in the other along with the artifacts being an annoyance... I'd still like to hear a tiny bit more sparkle on the top end on the guitars and vocals.... I'm missing the sun. I want an Montserrat kind of vibe from this -- it's a wee bit bland as a mix would be my only critique given the genre.

Had a spot of fun on a lazy rainy afternoon ... :D

Hey Kev, another great song !! Very nice..
If I would be picky, I'd try the drum a bit more dry.. the room sound is making it sound like in another room..
But it's a minor thing.. ;)

Great song, fun, happy, bouncy. :)

To my ears - which perhaps we shouldn't trust today because I got wacked with the flu last week and it really plugged me up in my head - it sounds a bit low mid heavy, like between 250-350. (?) So, rely on the other guys here instead of me, because I'm not sure my critical listening skills are reliable right now.

I know my comment is perhaps confusing, because Dogs ( DogsoverLava ) mentioned the uploaded version to being better in that low/low mid range compared to the SC version ( which I'm not going to listen to, I don't see the point, because I'm already aware of how much SC skews the sonics of music )...

I don't think the energy in the low mids is killing the mix or anything, it just comes off to me as being a bit muddy - but - this also may being caused by the room sound you have on the drums, as Marco (pcrecord ) mentioned. If you dried the drums up a bit, it might lessen the low-mid heavy thing I'm hearing...

But again, I'm not sure you should listen to me right now... and, as always, even if I was hearing accurately, I'd go back to my favorite quote about critiquing , (which Marco likes), and that is:
"ask 5 different engineers what they think and get 15 different opinions"...LOL

The thing is, Kevin, that in the end, it's still a really fun song to listen to, and when all is said and done, that's the only thing that 98% of your listeners are gonna care about. ;)

FWIW
-d.

Good song, Lead vox is up above the mix at the appropriate amount. Maybe make the R Guitars a bit wider on the stereo spread, but most other suggestions would be nit-picky.

You must have already incorporated everyone's suggestions because I'm at a loss to hear any issues with the mix. Great performances, mix and songwriting. Great pop rock track overall. The synth solo in the middle was particularly wicked. I'm more interested in learning how you sourced the guitar tones. Mic'd or USB->VST? What guitar, pickup, vol and tone knobs? Are you a one-man band or is this a proper rock band?

stevie_m, post: 456708, member: 48189 wrote: You must have already incorporated everyone's suggestions because I'm at a loss to hear any issues with the mix. Great performances, mix and songwriting. Great pop rock track overall. The synth solo in the middle was particularly wicked. I'm more interested in learning how you sourced the guitar tones. Mic'd or USB->VST? What guitar, pickup, vol and tone knobs? Are you a one-man band or is this a proper rock band?

Thanks so much, Steve!

This is a live mix off our Soundcraft Ui24r ... but for my vocal -- which was recorded later -- because I didn't want my vocal getting into the drum mics.

We are a four piece "improper" rock band. We are: "Who We Are".

:D

The only "live mics" in the room were the drums. Bass, Keys, and Git were direct. I use Cantabile (plug ins) on my keys, and track the audio via an 8 channel sound card -- mixing everything down to stereo tracks via a Teac line mixer that I then port to the Ui24r.

Bass goes direct into the Ui24r. In channel 1/2 they have amp modeling that I employ for the bass, but I also add processing later in the mix. I run JJ's electric git stereo direct out of the back of his Fender Amp -- which, I believe, is also a modeling amp. I really don't know what model it is, but he makes it sing -- and I just record it. He plays a Yamaha Electric -- that also has built in midi -- that he can source out into other kinds of sounds.

It's a fun band.

To all the rest -- thanks for all the input! I don't know why I didn't receive notification of your comments, but I've been crazy busy with projects and haven't been on the boards in a bit. Thanks again!