Stavrosss - Master the present tense

[stavrosss]

Thnx for the comments Minianimal
Don't know if the eighties chorus guitar sound is in right now, I will have to trust you on that I didn't set out to emulate something that' s in right now, but rather, went for the sound I had in my head, and yes that was the sound from the 80's, a sound on which I grew up on and still love to this day Thanx for taking the time to listen and comment I really appreciate it! Cheers

[stavrosss]

Thnx for the comments danmanisa
Well I try not to read any comments before I listen to mixes on here so I have my own opinion on them before someone else's leads me in another direction. That way I find myself repeating stuff already mentioned but hey, at least it's not "as the guys said before me..." I just love that guitar sound and the fullness it brings to the whole mix so I went for it. As with everything else there are people loving it and there are people hating it, can't please them all As for the kick, that is the driving element of almost any genre of music and I like my music to drive, so I went for that, and yes I tucked away the electric guitars a bit, not to go the rocker side of the song that I hear a lot of people did. I agree on your view of the build-up, I just can't stand a mix with no dynamics so yeah, I maybe overdid it a bit, thanx for the insight. As for the ending that is just a personal taste how I feel that song should end, and your idea of leaving only piano and the vocals is great, if it works in the context of a song, why not Cheers

[stavrosss]

Yeah I hear you now I am, as you are probably, really obsessed with pitch correct performance and tuning that it bothers me allot to hear a slightly off performance. The first thing I said when I listened over the clean guitars was: damn, nice tracking, but can they use a tuner next time?.. I dealt with that problem making a chorusy sound and it was tucked away beautifully as for the vocalist, if no auto tuning was made, and that is the raw track of his singing it's not bad at all, the dude has a good voice and his pitching is fine, most of the time..I heard the problems you mentioned but I didn't want to process the vocal any further, as those little out of tune parts are something 99% of the listeners wouldn't even notice. But yes I agree, I could of dealt with that issue none the less. Cheers

[Jeronimo Mora]

Yeah. I think holster might have made the guy re-track if the take wasn't good enough anyway, so what we're getting are only the takes that were very very close. Not saying the guy sucks, because he doesn't. He's very talented. Dude has a great voice. But even professionals do tons and tons of takes.

[bholst]

Here's my mix, hope you enjoy it, had a lot of fun mixing this, the recording was done perfectly so it was a breeze getting the sound I had in my head. Cheers!

For some reason, that clean guitar on the intro reminds me a bit of "Black Hole Sun" Nice. I like the distorted vocal on the first chorus. You really gave this some interesting stuff in here dude!
Good drums and bass felt pretty dang good too. I LOVE the tone on the lead guitar in that break and how the "woah's" kick in. Very nice. This one had some of that creative stuff I was looking for. Interesting twist to leave out that vocal at the end. I kinda like that too. I just really like how you took tons of chances on this one and really pulled off some interesting stuff. Any sort of mix stuff that I heard was probably already pointed out, and to me, was really minor stuff. Good work dude! Big creativity points from me
Glad you liked the tune!

-holster

[Jan1973]

As much as I love the mix overall and especially the reverse reverb on the whoas, I absolutely think that the chorus guitars don't fit the song and should generally be used very sparsely. They take a lot of the power in the section preceding the whoas.

[stavrosss]

For some reason, that clean guitar on the intro reminds me a bit of "Black Hole Sun" Nice. I like the distorted vocal on the first chorus. You really gave this some interesting stuff in here dude!
Good drums and bass felt pretty dang good too. I LOVE the tone on the lead guitar in that break and how the "woah's" kick in. Very nice. This one had some of that creative stuff I was looking for. Interesting twist to leave out that vocal at the end. I kinda like that too. I just really like how you took tons of chances on this one and really pulled off some interesting stuff. Any sort of mix stuff that I heard was probably already pointed out, and to me, was really minor stuff. Good work dude! Big creativity points from me
Glad you liked the tune!

-holster

Thanx for taking the time to listen to my mix
Glad you liked it I try to put something creative in every mix I make, to give another view on the song but only if I feel it's not hurting the original idea of the composer/band.. with this one, I just went for the sound I had in my head immediately after listening to the raw tracks, and basically, made the song sound like the music I love to listen to. And it was pretty easy given the song is killer and the tracking was done impeccably nice work..

[bobbybovine]

Hey stavross, I love love love the choices you made in this mix man. The muted part with distorted mid range vocals is killer. Your kick and snare are wonderful choices that compliment the overall sonic characteristic of the rest of the instruments. Your cymbal sound especially in the last part with the wash is fantastic, not harsh at all and just the right volume. There are some things that pop out to me that hold this mix back a bit. The mix is lacking a bit of clarity, your bass definitely has some buildup seemingly around the 80 - 100hz mark or so and your low mids in the 200 to 400 range feel a bit overbearing. Your kick is a bit too loud throughout the song but especially in the last section. There is a part in the 2nd verse I believe where you added a hi hat while the tom groove is playing and I like it, it adds a bit of top end info that is necessary but it sounds like you added an arm to the drummer (although I am sure there are drummers that do that regularly ) The only other thing is the missing vocal at the end with the piano, I miss it, really miss it and wish you had left it in. This is an incredible effort and if the clarity was there I would give you a 5, almost but not quite I really enjoyed this one.

[mannyace]

Fantastic drum sounds you've got going here. Great idea with the chorused guitar. Sounds good and has been unique compared to mixes I've listened to thus far. Care to explain how you thought of it, what you did, etc? I wasn't feeling the vocal effects (reverb? delay?) especially during the whoaaa's at the end but I think that's more of a preference thing. I didn't like the lo-fi thing in the middle of the song either, felt random. But maybe it wouldn't be too bothersome if I was listening casually. I think this is the most polished mix I've heard yet. Maybe or maybe not my favorite, I can't decide but you certainly had a sound you were aiming for and you def molded to the tracks accordingly. I think this mix more so than any others shows that off. Seriously this is very, very, very good work.

[TopBobSecret]

Stavross,
Interesting guitar effects. I love the sound of the instrum. break.
Your transition from lo-fi (distorted?) back to normal was nice and smooth and well handled.
Nice use of delays. The pre delay(?) woahs were cool but started weird.
Overall sounds great and has high marks. You had an entirely different sound to every other I've heard so far.
There's a noticeable level wobbling in the piano at the intro and the piano, throughout, could use some more resonance or volume or something.
Good luck-TopBob

[pkv2010]

Great mix!

The piano sounded beautiful, and the dynamic changes didn't bother me. I loved the guitar sound, and the sound of the voice. I liked how the voice was placed in the song, and the overall instrument balance (other than the drums - see below). I liked the 'opening-up' at around 1min - nice one, good contrast.

I liked the snare sound ok, but not the kick sound or the toms. The kick was too loud overall, and I'd have preferred a bit of acoustic kick drum sound to it rather than 100% 'electronic' hard-edge doof sound. The toms were mixed too low for me. The drum wav files indicated how much presence and power the toms had; I missed that very much in this mix. I thought the 'whoa's' were too affected, and so felt out of place; but good on you for trying something different.

Very interesting move to drop the end vox. Brave. Perhaps I am just used to the original, but I do think it is required to 'close off' the song. But again, good on you for going for something different and risky.

There is a great energy in this mix!

Congrats.

[toaster]

like it...
love the creativity
think the radio voice in first lift is good but a little of the impact is lost on what i see as a part that should definitely lift.
Loving that effect on the woahs at the end..nice.
Tuning the vocals? Personally I think its gotta be done, its so easy now and i think people expect it
I even think the 'average joe' is getting better at spotting it, probably because 99% of vocalist are being tuned.
Cant say I agree with taking the vocals out for the ending/reprise.... but you go with your gut...
Good work

[stavrosss]

Hey stavross, I love love love the choices you made in this mix man. The muted part with distorted mid range vocals is killer. Your kick and snare are wonderful choices that compliment the overall sonic characteristic of the rest of the instruments. Your cymbal sound especially in the last part with the wash is fantastic, not harsh at all and just the right volume. There are some things that pop out to me that hold this mix back a bit. The mix is lacking a bit of clarity, your bass definitely has some buildup seemingly around the 80 - 100hz mark or so and your low mids in the 200 to 400 range feel a bit overbearing. Your kick is a bit too loud throughout the song but especially in the last section. There is a part in the 2nd verse I believe where you added a hi hat while the tom groove is playing and I like it, it adds a bit of top end info that is necessary but it sounds like you added an arm to the drummer (although I am sure there are drummers that do that regularly ) The only other thing is the missing vocal at the end with the piano, I miss it, really miss it and wish you had left it in. This is an incredible effort and if the clarity was there I would give you a 5, almost but not quite I really enjoyed this one.

Sorry for the late reply Bobby Thank you so much for the insight I really appreciate it. As for the bass and low mid build up, you could be right, without a doubt, my problem is an untreated room, in which I moved to a few months ago (different city, different life style and obligations) so I haven't had the time (or money) to get into that yet.. I just mix as I go, in between two obligations (hence the late reply). Your room acoustics are probably top notch (or you are totally accustomed to the sound of your room) and there is no argue with that, having listened to your mix, if you say I have a problem down there, I take your word for it cheers

[bobbybovine]

Sorry for the late reply Bobby Thank you so much for the insight I really appreciate it. As for the bass and low mid build up, you could be right, without a doubt, my problem is an untreated room, in which I moved to a few months ago (different city, different life style and obligations) so I haven't had the time (or money) to get into that yet.. I just mix as I go, in between two obligations (hence the late reply). Your room acoustics are probably top notch (or you are totally accustomed to the sound of your room) and there is no argue with that, having listened to your mix, if you say I have a problem down there, I take your word for it cheers

ah man I don't want to let the cat out of the bag. If you knew my mixing situation currently you would lose all respect I am actually not all that different than your situation. I am in the process of selling my house so I had to dismantle my mix room. I reference on 4 systems, my computer speakers with sub, laptop, and 2 sets of headphones. For the bass the first thing I pretty much do is work on the kick and bass. I find the fundamental of the kick, and always cut that frequency on the bass, I will then compress the bass fairly aggressively to lose the dynamics depending on the section of song and then the old sweep and destroy technique with the eq and notch out any resonances that exist. Seems to be working for me even in non ideal conditions. Congrats on the top 16

[stavrosss]

Fantastic drum sounds you've got going here. Great idea with the chorused guitar. Sounds good and has been unique compared to mixes I've listened to thus far. Care to explain how you thought of it, what you did, etc? I wasn't feeling the vocal effects (reverb? delay?) especially during the whoaaa's at the end but I think that's more of a preference thing. I didn't like the lo-fi thing in the middle of the song either, felt random. But maybe it wouldn't be too bothersome if I was listening casually. I think this is the most polished mix I've heard yet. Maybe or maybe not my favorite, I can't decide but you certainly had a sound you were aiming for and you def molded to the tracks accordingly. I think this mix more so than any others shows that off. Seriously this is very, very, very good work.

Thank you mannyace for the comments and sorry for the late reply, my life, and my job are hectic at the moment No problem, I'd love to explain how I went about this song, if you care to listen Drums are part MIDI part real, I almost always do that with the drums, I leave the raw sound with all the bleeds and incorporate a huge heavy sounding sample on top of it..it's more time consuming in that I have to go trough my sample libraries and pick out the sample that not only sounds good in the context of the song, but also accompanies the original snare drum and the whole drum kit. When you mix those elements in, the sound is huge and punchy, the way I like it Parallel compression on the drum bus and a lot of eq, especially on the OH to tame them down a bit. As for the guitar I didn't use any chorus effect vst per se, I made my own with a waves doubler, doubled the original sound to a total of 4, placed them in different pan positions, about 45L 30 L 30R and 45R, added different flavours of phasing tuned them -6,-12,+6 and+12 cents, and muted the original centre signal to leave some space for the vocals.. added delay, and reverb for ambiance As you said, that was the sound that was in my head, and yes I went for it, with everything I have I'm glad you like the work, it means allot Cheers!

[stavrosss]

ah man I don't want to let the cat out of the bag. If you knew my mixing situation currently you would lose all respect I am actually not all that different than your situation. I am in the process of selling my house so I had to dismantle my mix room. I reference on 4 systems, my computer speakers with sub, laptop, and 2 sets of headphones. For the bass the first thing I pretty much do is work on the kick and bass. I find the fundamental of the kick, and always cut that frequency on the bass, I will then compress the bass fairly aggressively to lose the dynamics depending on the section of song and then the old sweep and destroy technique with the eq and notch out any resonances that exist. Seems to be working for me even in non ideal conditions. Congrats on the top 16

Well you just explained exactly how I mix the kick and bass together, word for word On my Adams it sounded ok, so it must be the room (in nearly all cases it actually is) and no, I don't lose respect that easily, a guy who made a killer mix in that situation you described can only keep my respect Congrats to you too, see you in the ring

[stavrosss]

Stavross,
Interesting guitar effects. I love the sound of the instrum. break.
Your transition from lo-fi (distorted?) back to normal was nice and smooth and well handled.
Nice use of delays. The pre delay(?) woahs were cool but started weird.
Overall sounds great and has high marks. You had an entirely different sound to every other I've heard so far.
There's a noticeable level wobbling in the piano at the intro and the piano, throughout, could use some more resonance or volume or something.
Good luck-TopBob

Thank you TopBob, and sorry for the late reply,
yes the vocals in the break are made with a distortion vst, D16 devastor, and a lot of automation was done to make a smooth transition into the clean vox. I agree on reverse vocals sounding a bit weird, but hey who ever said they must sound perfectly reversed As for the sound, yes, I did not want to listen to a single mix before I made my own, so I wouldn't get distracted from the sound I had in my head, and the way I wanted this song to sound Thnx for taking the time to listen Cheers !

[stavrosss]

Great mix!

The piano sounded beautiful, and the dynamic changes didn't bother me. I loved the guitar sound, and the sound of the voice. I liked how the voice was placed in the song, and the overall instrument balance (other than the drums - see below). I liked the 'opening-up' at around 1min - nice one, good contrast.

I liked the snare sound ok, but not the kick sound or the toms. The kick was too loud overall, and I'd have preferred a bit of acoustic kick drum sound to it rather than 100% 'electronic' hard-edge doof sound. The toms were mixed too low for me. The drum wav files indicated how much presence and power the toms had; I missed that very much in this mix. I thought the 'whoa's' were too affected, and so felt out of place; but good on you for trying something different.

Very interesting move to drop the end vox. Brave. Perhaps I am just used to the original, but I do think it is required to 'close off' the song. But again, good on you for going for something different and risky.

There is a great energy in this mix!

Congrats.

Thank you for the comments pkv ,
and sorry for the late reply, going trough some turbulent changes (new job, new city, new house, new room for mixing ) well you're the first who didn't have a problem with the dynamic changes in the piano, I tried to explain that those changes were made intentionally to bring that flat piano back to life a bit, but with no success guess it didn't work out as I wanted it.. I appreciate your intake on the drums, there are some divided opinions on that matter, the first reaction of a friend of mine who is in the same business was: the drums are too small, and not punchy enough.. -.- well could it be because he's also a drummer?..
As for the end vox I just felt they were a bit of an overkill after the whoas and the chorused guitar outro molding in with the piano sounded beautifull to me, something that would be lost with the addition of vocals.. but that's just me thanx for taking the time to listen and comment, I really appreciate it Cheers!

[stavrosss]

like it...
love the creativity
think the radio voice in first lift is good but a little of the impact is lost on what i see as a part that should definitely lift.
Loving that effect on the woahs at the end..nice.
Tuning the vocals? Personally I think its gotta be done, its so easy now and i think people expect it
I even think the 'average joe' is getting better at spotting it, probably because 99% of vocalist are being tuned.
Cant say I agree with taking the vocals out for the ending/reprise.... but you go with your gut...
Good work

Thanx for the comments Toaster and sorry for the late reply..
About the tuning, I personally do it 99% of the time, because it just bothers me if the singer is out of tune, that is something I just can't live with..but really in this song it didn't bother me that much at all..don't know why that is, but I just didn't want to tune them just for the sake of tuning.. the thing that bothered me much more than the vox was the clean guitar that was poorly tuned.. I didn't spend time tuning that because,as you heard, I made a huge chorus sound from it so the tuning was buried in it (not that I did it because of that, I wanted that sound, just the end result was that I didn't need to tune them). As for the end vocals you are true, my gut was overpowering my brain I'm sticking with it 100 % Thanx for the comments and time spent, I really appreciate it Cheers!