@takka360 put me on to this piece recently. It was from the previous Lewitt mix contest. I didn’t even hear it until after the contest, but thought it would be a challenge to mix and a good learning project for me.
Now Alan does mixes like this in an hour or less, probably while he’s brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed. Sickening actually (kidding!) cuz I found this piece to be a pig to mix. I’m new to this live mix stuff and the mic bleed was all over the place. Yowza. Let’s just say it took more than an hour. We’ll leave it at that!
So here’s my crack at it. Be candid. I wanna learn!
The only thing I did different with THIS mix is that I mixed thru my headphones, Senneiser HD600s, but this time with Morphit. The profile, for my cans, boosted the base in my monitoring with Morphit, which would, of course, translate in my actual mix not having enough low end.
I did cross-check it with my monitors, though (KRK VST 4), and referenced it against your track and also the mix that won the competition. I did not spend enough time referencing in the end, though, cuz I had to go to work, and was experiencing ear fatigue. Also, I didn’t listen to it on other systems, cuz @AJ113 said I didn’t have to! (Just kidding, AJ!). My room is not treated yet so my sound environment is less than ideal). I just ordered the mineral wool for my panels and plan on picking it up this weekend. Soon!
Really? That would be awesome! I’d LOVE that. I’ll PM you. Thanks, Alan. Way cool!
Listening to #2 now. I am liking what you got going one. Good balance, good movement and emotion. I am wondering if the drums (in particular the snare) are being choked out a bit by the other instruments.
So I did some work on the drums. Massaged the snare to get a better sound (EQ, CLA-2A). Worked a little on the balance and the mix buss eq and sidechained out the low end on Kotelnikov so I could bring the bass up a tad w/o getting pumping effect.
I also used vitamin to mono the low end to clean up the sides and make the bass tighter.
Man, I found this a bear to mix. I’m really surprised this was kind of a marketing pitch for Lewitt’s mics. I thought the bleed was awful. I had to gate and trim the clips and major EQ on the rooms and OH. Finally had to just resample the snares and kick and toms. Still blended them in with the original but this was nasty.
This thing was such a booger, like I said, cuz of the mic bleed, on all mics, actually. I used the original OH mics, and a bit of the Rooms, but mainly retriggered the close mics. The close mics were tough. I blended them in with the resampled drums that I triggeerd in AD2.
Would love to hear how anyone else handled the drums, whoever took a crack at this one.
Nice job on this one. Yes, it was a tough one and another with the POLARIZER plugin. Really fun song though!
I’m not hearing anything jumping out in a bad way. Your low end feels just right. Nice kick. I’m hearing some distortion or artifacts on the cymbals around 2:35 and maybe earlier too. Now I’m really hearing it once he starts banging on that crash. Really nice punchy low end on this mix though!
This was my take on it. I’ve kept it around on my SC page so I could listen to it thinking I’d go back and tweak some more, but honestly, I’m kind of “done” with it and have moved on. No need to comment or anything, this is your thread. https://soundcloud.com/mbd414/25-reasons-v1/s-cdMd2
Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I thought I was hearing something there too. I’m not sure where it’s coming from. I assume it’s a compression artifact somehow, somewhere.
I’d be curious to know how you approached the drums on your mix (nice job, btw). Did you do much with triggering samples or were you able to get your sound out of just what they provided?
As I’m listening to my mix just now on my Air I’m noticing more sibilance than I was hearing on my monitors or HD600s. Another pitch for testing it out on other systems (there was another thread going on about that). Ugh.
Thanks Tesgin! I mixed it a while ago so I don’t really remember - I’ll try and dig it up in the next few days and get back to you. I DO remember that Polarizer making a huge difference of the OH tracks though… I remember those cymbals being a royal PITA too.
I haven’t really done much with triggers. I’ve got a “trigger” track for my kick and snare in my template, but I just never really do it for some reason. I kind of like the challenge of getting the recorded drums to work.
Listening back to your mix, you really nailed the low end on this one. It’s got really nice focus and weight, much better than my mix. Have you tried a deesser or dynamic EQ on those cymbals? Maybe try starting your drums mixing the OH first and see what they give you. Then fill in the close mics where you need them. That way you’re not trying to bring the cymbals up the the level of the close mic’d drums, if that makes sense…
(Just kidding, AJ!). My room is not treated yet so my sound environment is less than ideal). I just ordered the mineral wool for my panels and plan on picking it up this weekend. Soon!