the clockwork clown_alesh

[alesh]

Hi!
here's my entry and my interpretation of this song. I have so much fun mixing this tracks in the begining but then i get a bit frustrated because i couldn't get it right...bass guitar drives me crazy in some parts because ( in my opinion) is not working well with the song but still....very interesting arangment...and song itself has a good potencial...but it would need some rearangements.

[ccc187307]

Sounds like you put some good effort into it.

I'm surprised all the people that used a big, aggressive drum sound. To me the song just didn't call for it, obviously the most energy at the end though.

[romanvm]

Great Mix

In some parts where you have the electric guitar it seems to mask/conflict with the vocal. Also, the mix seems a bit muddy to me and not as clear or wide, could be due to me listening in headphones.

Got a nice reverb going on the drums, in the very beginning it seemed as over kill, but when the rest of the stuff kicked it worked.


Good job

[m24p]

Why soak the windup in reverb? It doesn't make sense in context.

Drums work pretty well in context, but I think you would have been better served keeping the 'verb toned down until the music kicked in. Is it just me or is the kick pumping the mix? That's one of the things I'm not the best at noticing but it sounds like it is.

Cool entry! I like the big strings in the bridge.

[Stan_Halen]

Cool sounding kick drum, but it does dominate the mix, and any compression/limiting is probably going to excessively trigger that. The chorus gets pretty busy with instrument levels, I would thin things out there a little bit. Strings in the verse are a little strong also. I'd like to be able to hear the vocal through the song better (less instrument volume), because it sounds like you did a good job with it.

[Jeronimo Mora]

Nice mix.

I thought the kick levels were just fine. What I thought needed to be brought down was the snare. I'm with Stan on the strings in the verse. They were a bit too loud. The verses sound nice fat and full which is awesome! But when the rest of the instruments come in, it starts to get kind of foggy. Doing some hi-passing would have helped remove some of the unnecessary low end. Having the strings up so high might have added to the problem. I loved the tom and kick sound by the way. I thought sibilance could have been tamed a bit more. I would have underdubbed or fixed some of those wrong notes in the end guitar solo. The vocals should be Eq'd or brought up a bit.

Other than that, I thought it was a cool mix!

[fHumble fHingaz]

Can't really comment on the bottom end of the mix due to listening on cheap, small speakers. Overall, the mix sounded pretty good... probably a little more reverb than I would have preferred over the mix in general, but that's subjective, I guess. The vocals, for the most part sound nice, but I found there were points where a little more attention to automation/compression was needed - In the sections where the song gets really full & busy with instrumentation, the odd phrase or word here & there were getting a little buried. I've often found really low mix volume works when automating vocal levels for intelligibility... bringing the mix down just above the level of the noise floor in your studio really helps in getting perspective as to whether the vocals are managing to "stay afloat" above the level of the instruments.

Overall, well done.

[josemena]

Really good mix, the snare was a little over processed, but I think this is the mix I like the most so far

[dymrip]

Not a bad mix here. One thing really stuck out me to throughout the song. It sounded like your toms were out of time, they were hitting about 3 or 4 seconds too early each time. I also noticed some spots where it seemed like the synths, guitars, and vocals were all competing for the same mid-range area, causing some mud.

I kind of liked the sizzly, arena-rock type snare you used. It was strong while staying out of the way of the other instruments.

Nice job man!

[dymrip]

Sounds like you put some good effort into it.

I'm surprised all the people that used a big, aggressive drum sound. To me the song just didn't call for it, obviously the most energy at the end though.

I do agree for the most part. The more up-beat rock sections worked with aggressive drums, but I do think the softer verse parts sounded better with more of a room/open sound. I especially liked the drum tracks that were posted separately. The ambient mics and Sony-in track fit the verse sections of this song very nicely IMO.

[dayvs]

Grat mix, I think there are some parts where you need to add more power to the vocals, maybe some automation, and also there are parts that are not well pitch corrected. Anyway, question out of topic: How do I rate this thread? because the "rate this thread" option doesn't show on the top menu of the post, hope you can help me.

cheers.

[endash]

I like the fact that you haven't buried the strings. Wooohoooo! I think they may be a little bit loud in the verses though (not the first verse obviously...).

Overall, good space in this mix, and good contrast between the verse and chorus. to you, sir!

[Ableton_Love]

Good job Alesh!

Great balance here, your use of comp and the faders really keep things from getting out of control.

To me it sounds like you may have used Izotope ozone on the master buss and had like the "Mastering Reverb" engaged because as a whole everything seems to have an equal amount of 'sheer" on it for lack of a better word that makes the whole thing seem ambient where I'd like to feel a little more definition and punch.

You could probably get a little more volume out of the track overall, your RMS seemed to hang around -12

Overall not much to critique. Nice job!

[alesh]

Why soak the windup in reverb? It doesn't make sense in context.

Drums work pretty well in context, but I think you would have been better served keeping the 'verb toned down until the music kicked in. Is it just me or is the kick pumping the mix? That's one of the things I'm not the best at noticing but it sounds like it is.

Cool entry! I like the big strings in the bridge.

reverb in windup...well...I just wanted to "connect" intro with the song...that they would have the same room fealing....tnx for your reply.

[dizzydog]

A bit too wet for me, but the lack of the bass is what bugged me. The synths are nice and clear! Vox too. Like that a lot. Drums sounds are not what I would have picked for the key-heavy mix, though. Overall, pretty smooth.

[danmanisa]

Firstly, I reckon you nailed the reverb for the drums. Absolutely perfect! There is space, but not the grand canyon, yet it is also nice and light and not like the rest of the instruments. There is something funny about the bass in the intro, and I can't put my finger on it. It seems kind of distant, yet the bottom end seems to work in the heavier parts. Maybe needed to reamp or add a touch of overdrive to have the top end cut through a bit. The vocals seem to compete with the strings and it may be wise in future to make some cuts in eq in the competing instrument in the key areas of the vocal (really poorly worded, so I hope you know what I mean). That should result in both coming through without the vocal being obscured. The toms seem a bit dark and boomy, but I absolutely love your kick and snare combo! There seemed to be a little bit of obvious vocal tuning, but to me, not in a good way, like an effect, but more of a correction that was too noticable as a correction. Some really good parts here and good sounds, just a few balancing issues and tweeks away from a very good mix. Nice one.

[Patrich]

kick is heavy, nothing wrong with that. did you hipass the reverb tail on that?, i dont think so and i think it would benefit from that. same with the toms which are very huge and heavy. but i like the samples you have chosen.
vocals up front, sounds ok - but need tuning. the blue notes are a bit distracting.
nice sound on the guitar solo, good job there.
i think you could have used the stereo space a bit more on strings and synths in order to "widen" the experience. a matter of taste. but they are fighting for attention there behind the vocals and some panning and levelling only might do the trick. nice job!

[bobbybovine]

Nice solid intro, the kick is a touch on the big side, but it does work ok. The vocals are nice in the verse. But when the chorus comes in with the strings it feels like a bit much. Some automation to bring the strings in and out in key areas would have really helped you emphasize certain parts without dominating the mix. The e guitar is too low and feels like it is about 50' away. I think that is a missed opportunity on getting some energy in the song. The drums are a bit too loud overall in the mix and thus are taking some of the focus away from the vocals. Good work overall

[bobbybovine]

I've often found really low mix volume works when automating vocal levels for intelligibility... bringing the mix down just above the level of the noise floor in your studio really helps in getting perspective as to whether the vocals are managing to "stay afloat" above the level of the instruments.

Great tip fHumble!!

[redworks]

nice movement to this song. althought that did lead to me having trouble hearing the vocals in the chorus. which did nead some more tuning if you did any. like the big drums they could have used a little greater dynamic changes. nice work.

[bholst]

Hi!
here's my entry and my interpretation of this song. I have so much fun mixing this tracks in the begining but then i get a bit frustrated because i couldn't get it right...bass guitar drives me crazy in some parts because ( in my opinion) is not working well with the song but still....very interesting arangment...and song itself has a good potencial...but it would need some rearangements.

Excellent job on your mix! Drums sound really good to me. I LOVE what you did on the toms in particular. They come through a little hot at times, but they sound great to me. Overall, the mix feels really solid to me. I don't have any complaints, that's for sure
You mentioned the bass track. One thing that helped me on this particular mix was to run the bass to an aux buss and applied a bit of distortion to that bass. A basic guitar amp sim will work fine. That adds a little color to the bass and helps it to translate well on smaller speakers also. The articulation came through better also. Just a thought there. I think I had a lot of compression on that track too if I remember correctly.
Speaking of compression, a little more on the vocal would help too I thought.
Anyway, I thought you did really well on this mix. No major flaws that I noticed. Most of the stuff I'm hearing is in 'squint mode' as Brandon would say. Good job!!!

-holster

[lucccien]

What stood out for me was the overcompression with the kick. Not sure if the kick had too much bottom end or not, but there was something going on with the low end. Otherwise a great mix! Like the ending as well.

[JoshERTW]

Big wide sounding mix. Love your snare sound. The big drums seem a little out of place on this song, but this is how I like my drums to sound - feels more suited to a big powerful rock anthem or something.

Vocals seem to get a wee bit buried in places, could be the reverb. I'd maybe back off on the bus reverb a bit, not too much though - this song calls for a bit of wetness I think.

[DLChuckles]

Yo,

this is a pretty sweet mix.

my main critique is that the drums seems a bit buried in the louder sections. I think some automation is in order to rectify this situation.

My 2 cents. Cheers!

[Convectuoso]

Wow, snare has an amazing crack to it. You nailed that.

I clearly here in this mix you have the basis of balancing and panning down. What you could work on is the low end, and the drum sound on the chorus.

It's obvious you can mix, just a little more attention to the chorus would go a long way

Keep it up!