After the differences in volume and metering are accounted for…when you bring everything down to the same level, I liked Mix 1 better because I felt like it had more glue and it breathes. It has space.
Hey…listen. I’ll tell you something I’m learning about myself from these last few months of getting trashed, fried, kicked to the curb, then rehired. I’m finding I tend to favor mixes with less processing and place an extremely high value on clarity over energy and power.
Also, I think its really important for you to keep in mind that my background is NOT in this genre. Remember that I’m a classical pianist who’s primary income as a professional engineer is in orchestral and church music.
ears are ears brother. I need and accept all feedback. Even if my ears cant hear it all now, they will and the more opinions given, the more we all learn
Im somewhat agnostic on how good or bad the reference track is. Its a pro track and better than i can do at this point
yeah, lots of good specific info there. Wish i had it 3 weeks ago…cuz i aint going back and starting over on this mix lol. (next time ill google that sort of stuff)
lets go one more time. many small changes. Slowed API 2 bus comp to slowest attack.
maybe snare too loud in parts like ending vamp?
gotta turn it in tomorrow. In any case i think its right much better than the Karnivool mix…then again I think maybe it was an easier mix, but hopefully im getting better too
It seems to lack the excitement and energy of the reference mix, due to your weak kick/snare combo, especially noticeable through the chorus’s.
The kick is audible, but doesn’t really cut through the mix with any real impact. It’s just kinda there, as opposed to being a driving force behind the rhythm.
The side-chaining of the original kick probably helped in this area.
Guitars feel quite thin through the chorus sections, and I found the ‘washing’ cymbal (in the chorus) abrasive and overbearing.
There’s no real satisfying payoff in those two main hook areas 1:14 & 3:18 imo. It’s more like getting bashed in the cerebral cortex with cymbals and not much else.
A significant step in the right direction. Not that you’re trying to recreate the reference, but it would have been nice to hear some pumping from the kick side-chain to make the mix feel slightly more musical, especially in a crossover genre of this type. Could be worth experimenting with.
its weird. ive sidechained several thingsbut simply can NOT get a sidechain to work on any of the guitars. im assuming it has something to do with them being under 3 busses. the 3 main guitar tracks are under “main guitar” then “total guitars” then “instruments” folders and i cant get a sidechain to work lol
ok, many many small changes. Went thru and really cleared out a lot of the hiss up around 15k and up etc
here are 2 chorus snippets, first one with FG-Red on master buss, second one with VComp. Neither one doing a whole lot. Both going into an L3 which again is pretty mild
FG-Red
VComp
any preference? 2nd one was printed a bit louder, evidently pushing into the l3 harder…which was set at about.6 limit
OR…how about one with NO master bus compression. (though it still has the API 2500 on the 2 bus as the previous examples did…doing about 1db GR
This is just straight into the L3 on the master bus…barely pushing into the L3
Third one for my money.
You’ve got a pretty excessive amount of body in that snare which doesn’t make for a very pleasant listen, some hits are definitely worse than others.
I made a couple of surgical notch cuts, one at 180Hz -6db and the other at 210Hz -7.5db, and as you can hear, there’s still shitloads of body left. I’d be looking elsewhere to get that snare to cut, definitely needs a lift higher up, possibly 4-5k area for slap.
listen how weak the snare is in the verse…imagine cutting more 180-200 here. this already sounds like a hand clap
I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “weak” through here. I actually think within the context of that section it’s sounds pretty good.
ha. listen to this. here it is WITHOUT the stupid “tribal chilll” in the verse. thats where the stupid handclap vibe is coming from
Yeah, that handclap element might well be your issue although it’s a little hard to tell without hearing it solo’d. That snare sounds really nice on it’s own. Can you possibly make a fairly big high pass on the handclap and use it more to enhance/fortify the top end of your snare, as opposed to shitting up all that bottom end?