Maschneid's an Accident

[maschneid]

Well this wasn't meant to be final, but work is screwing me over, and I won't have a chance to finish it up. Come to think of it work has screwed me over all this month it seems. Anyway this is my second entry in the contest, and I tried improving on the mistakes from Aprils Mix. In April it was creative attempt, which I was for the most part happy with. This one I tried to just have the most even mix that I could.

Goals:
Have bass presence. Last month the bass was kinda non-existent.
Make the processing less obvious.(Compression)
No Ear Splitting Effects
Keep the mix sounding raw.

If I had more time:
I would pull some of the backing vocals down and keep just one main up front in the mix.
When the song gets going the vocals tend to get kinda lost.

At any rate. Last Minute, but here is the almost final attempt. Thank you in advance!

[wireman957]

You've really pretty much kept the dynamics of the song, but the second vocal/delay effect is making the vocal really hard to understand for most of the song, not just the second half, like you've already acknowledged. Your lead vocal suffered from the phasing/cancellation issues introduced by including that second vocal too close in level to the first, I think.

You certainly can't be faulted for having no bass this time out - if anything, you could have high passed the bass a little more and then even had room to bring it up in the mix. This bass part can really function well as a bridge between the lows in the drums and the mids of the guitars, but you have it hanging out down with the kick and low tom a bit too much - lousy friends those drums can be...down low they just expect all the glory! Keep in mind this is really all my own opinion, okay?

Other than that, your overall level is a little lower that a client would probably expect to hear, not that I'm in love with the current trend of -6 or -4 dB RMS by any means. It sounds like this mix might have been done with no real finalization to maximize levels. I think that as home recorders we need to think in terms of finalizing every mix that goes out the door if we want to be taken seriously by folks we would like to record with us. Okay, no more of this phiophosiz...er, philososize, er, yakkin' about what I think...

I know you had little time to do this and I'm sure you now know, this song, as simple and straight-forward as it sounds, had a lot of little turds (absolutely no offense, rossbrown - I think the song is brilliant) that needed to be polished in order to make the song sound as raw and unpolished as it needs to be presented. In my humble opinion, under the circumstances, you did a pretty darn good job!

[maschneid]

Hey man I really appreciate it! I plan on continuing mixing the song. Just didn't get to beat the deadline.

[ChronoWulf]

Hey man, nice mix. I agree that the bass could be taken down a few db and probably eqed away from the drums. Drums also sounded a bit boxy to me - maybe cut a little from the mids?
I like how the guitars came through but during the last part of the song seemed like they could have been pushed back a little. I liked the sound of the backing vocals but I think the main vocals could be a bit more present. Also the end seemed like it was over compressed though I didn't notice that on the beginning. Mixing quickly made it harder I'm sure - I usually take forever.
Some nice stuff though.

[redworks]

the song is feeling good in the first half. could use a little more of the lead vocal though out though and then have it really intense on the second half. unfortunately one of your goals was to control the compression. (now just so you know i am relatively new to this mixing thing and i don't always hear what others are talking about so this is why i am so excited about this) i can hear the compression kicking in during the second half and it is really affecting the vocal. they start and then it is like they are being suffocated. there are no ear splitting effects and the mix is feeling pretty raw so top marks on that. thanks for taking the time to submit it even though you had so little time. it is great having so many people involved.

[Jjsodarock]

Hey Mashneid,
Our time is so valuble. It seems that places like 'work' just don't get it! God knows, if I could get by without sleeping, I would. Music, mixing, sex, recording, more sex, mixing, etc. I thik you get my point.
Good work on our mix. The guys covered all the tech stuff. Its weird to finally hear a mix that I don't have to turn down Keep it up, Jojo

[Jjsodarock]

Hey Mashneid,
Our time is so valuble. It seems that places like 'work' just don't get it! God knows, if I could get by without sleeping, I would. Music, mixing, sex, recording, more sex, mixing, etc. I thik you get my point.
Good work on our mix. The guys covered all the tech stuff. Its weird to finally hear a mix that I don't have to turn down Keep it up, Jojo

[mikobaku]

Maschneid!

Between your initial comments and everyone's suggestions, I'd say you all have it covered. Nice mix, and when you do all you want to do to it, it'll be a great mix! Since there was talk of compression, and I too am new to a lot of this, I wanted to point out something that I am starting to hear... not comprehend... but just hear.

With my own mixes, esp. with those with a large dynamic range or those with a lot of instruments in one part and very few in another, the mix buss compression really has a huge effect on the bass end of things. With your mix, the beginning seems to have the bass taking up a lot of space... and appearing (or being) very big, full, perhaps "too much bass", and yet, there are times in the song when it drops way down. I don't know if this is something happening TO the mix or something happening IN the mix, but it's noticeable, and I think I read a good mix is one that isn't noticed so much. I am just pointing it out, unfortunately with no suggestions to give you.

I am amazed how much you did with so little time! Yeah, and work stealing your time is a travesty!! Bah to work!

~Mike

[Scottt.sound]

maschneild - I like the mix. Just a few things of my personal likes. The tone of the bass was good but a few parts washed the guitars out a little. Around 2:10 the vocal effect slured the words. 2:33 guitar might be a fuzz too loud. 3:37 tamborine too loud.

good job. i like your ideas
Scottt

[maschneid]

Thank you everyone with the comments! I really greatly appreciate them!

[danmanisa]

Great that you have goals to focus on and great that you got a mix in, even if you are not happy with it.
Let's see, dynamically it feels pretty even so far. Bass wise, I think you may have overcompensated a touch, yet it feels more present in the drums than anywhere in the bass guitar. The kick and toms are pretty full and the bass does feel quite strong at times. I guess if you are having troubles in this area (only assuming from what you have written) I would make an effort to reference some more bass prominent mixes that you know well on your system so you can compare your mix to that. Don't get me wrong, yours is not majorly boomy, yet it is effecting it. Also, the vocals feel quite distant and lite, so this sort of accentuates the bass dominance making the vocals feel smaller.
There are yet to be any ear splitting effects, so check that one off your list (unless you are going to surprise me in the ending?)
The mix is a little raw, but I'm not too sure what you wanted by that, so I'll leave it.
I think you were spot on with what you said you needed to do, re vocals coming up, so at least you know that. It's a good mix overall and I think the lessons learned (re bottom end) in April and May will see you do a pretty competitive mix next month.
Good work!

[JoshERTW]

Hey man,

Good on you for approaching this thing with improvement in mind - I try to do that, use a new technique or plug-in on every mix - on this one I played it safe and went with my usual go-to plug's and processing though, I too was very pressed for time.

Decent sounding mix - I think the main criticisms have been posted already.

I would suggest cutting a little bit of 400 hz on kick, bass, toms and maybe guitars, and also EQ'ing your reverbs (chop off the low stuff below 400-500 hz). Try that, and see if you can get a bit more clarity in your vocals.

It also sounds like the last vocal is comb-filtering or something? Did you use both "main vocals?" I found using both "main" vocal tracks actually reduced my clarity, so I turned one of them into a reverb by putting a reverb effect on the channel at 100% wet (Thanks to Fhumble Fhingaz for that technique).

Sound's like your getting there man, keep up the good work. Don't let the man bring you down

[fHumble fHingaz]

Musically the mix sounds great. The sounds of the instruments are raw, but quite well controlled.

The bass could do with a tad less sub, but not too much.

The biggest issue for me is the vocals - the doubled "echo" vocal really makes them sound distant & a bit hard to understand - it also causes certain words & phrases to jump out whilst others to disappear a bit. Perhaps using the double as a true echo (ie. processed with 100% wet verb) & mixed down lower would have worked better.

Overall, nicely done!

[Patrich]

good work. this was a song with big dynamic range and you have managed to not squeeze that out wit this mix...in the first part. but, when the song enters into the second part and we wait for that "explosion" of energy the songs grows "smaller" if you see what i mean. i think you have some compressor/limiter (probably on 2bus) clamping down here a bit too hard. that is in so may ways my favorite part of this song so i am a bit sensitive here. i want those guitars to blow up and take me for a ride, but this doesn't really happen i'm afraid.
part from that all your sounds are good, however i think you have kept the vox tracks slightly too low overall.

[Jeronimo Mora]

Nice mix !

The delay on the main vocal is a little distracting. The vocals also sound like they were high passed way too aggressively. Backing off the high pass filter would have helped not make them so thin. I did feel the guitars were high passed a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle too much too, but not as much as the vocals. Did you get rid of some of the guitars or why does the mix sound a tad bit empty? It's almost as if the panning of the guitars is making it sound empty. Or did you remove some guitars? It just sounds like the arrangement was a bit sparse. During the last part, the vocal just about disappears. I don't know if that was intentional or not. The solo part is the part in your mix that sounds the best. Overall, there's just a lack of cohesiveness that is, in my humble opinion, taking away from the listening experience.

Pretty good job considering you said it was last minute! I hate rushing things.