Haha not really. I only got paid $80 for this whole song. recording mixing and “mastering” included. I got the money to buy the gear from my corporate day job savings. sometimes its hard to continue with music production when the payback is low.
I’ve managed to put together another mix. this time with one track of the vocals. I threw in the vocals to test if the final instrument mix would still have some space for it.
Wow, great vox bro. This is really good. Like the way you sung from those very highs to the lows. this has all the best elements. Great guitar tone and playing. Thought the lead break was a little mellow compared to the whole song. (like i could do better) ha ha This should find a good home. good job
The drums are sounding much clearer, with the upper frequencies cutting through now.
Sounds good, Brian.
I think your clients will be happy with this.
I was expecting the vocals to be aggressive and “heavy metal-ish”. It’s interesting to hear how the vocal attitude and melody take the song in a lighter direction. It has that modern “Power Pop” sound.
Hey Bryan, I’ll have to listen to this on better speakers, but this is sounding pretty cool so far. As I said, only listening on small speakers, but something about the vocals doesn’t quite gel with the instrumental here - it sounds ever-so-slightly “stuck-on”, however…
Yikes! Different local economies notwithstanding (I don’t know what the buying power of $80 in the Philippines), that doesn’t sound like enough for all that work to me. Here in Aus, the last time I recorded and mixed a band, we did 3 songs and I charged them $300 per song… & that still wasn’t enough to cover the time I spent in any sort of adequate fashion.
Thanks Andrew. I did invest a lot of time to get the sound that I wanted. I actually mixed this everyday since i posted the thread. I just finished the instrument mixing today but the vocals are yet to be fixed. I just put em in as reference as to what my final instrument levels are goin to be. $80 here is not really enough for the effort and software investment. Heck its just enough for me to eat for 1 week haha. I’m still trying to climb up the ladder so I could charge more and studying a lot to justify the quality for the rates. I also need to be able to mix faster and more efficiently. I always find myself in the guess work even after all the years I’ve been practicing. Sometimes I wonder if its normal or not. Thanks for the input andrew much appreciated. cheers mate!
Thanks Loren. I didn’t like the snares sounding that bright so I put in a compressor just on the high end of it. I agree with the guitar tone. hmmm. maybe i could try reverting the settings to that mix. thanks for the input. Have you listened to the 4th one with the vocals?
Thanks wicked! It did take me a lot of tweaking to figure out how each drum piece reacted to the master buss compressor. (I mix with it turned on all the way). Very tiring process but I learned a lot. Yes the vocalist is kinda poppish he came from an alternative band which I think added more interesting elements to the character of the whole band. These are young guys in their early 20’s and I think they also did a great job in writing the song. thanks for the input and boost of confidence. cheers!
Hi Paul, thanks for the input. I couldve done worse so thankfully, Im not the singer in this piece. The band are my clients. really cool bunch of guys.I’ll check that lead break and try to make the tone a bit more agressive. thanks again paul cheers!
Guess I missed the 4th one somehow. Yeah that one sounds better to me.
I’m probably nit picking a little but in the one you posted with vocals but I think the toms could come up just a little bit. I think the way you have them carved out works ok though.
Hey, since I’m used to listen to it without solo or vocal (I listened to your mix very often the last week), it sounds a bit weird to me but at the end, it works really really well!
The only tiny thing I could find is the middle solo being a bit into the mix…
I could not agree more!! Specially regarding the result, the quality and the tone you get!! (+ editing, pitching, processing, mixing, referencing, mastering…)
One question by the way: I listened to the song thru some kinda cheapo speakers and it showed me that the PLR (Peak to Loudness Ratio) is quite low and I doesn’t know if it’s the genre who needs to or you just put a limiter so that we could have a louder output…
I don’t know if you could have the a higher PLR to get more punch/snap on both kick and snare (I found them a bit overcomp’d)
Hi ncls. thanks for the comments. Im still working on the vocals on this. it has 5 layers. I only put 1 layer in this mix just to test the average levels of the guitars and bass vs the vocals. I’ll check that solo and put it more up front. actually I was thinking the same thing as I listened to the mix. I did put a limiter on the master buss. Im trying out the fab filter plugins. I think it played around 8-10 RMS. I also chopped a lot of the kick and snare peaks on the drum buss using g-clip brickwall limiter. I’ll try taming the master bus limiter and see what happens.
Yes the rates hhaha. Im allowing myself to be robbed at the moment because I’m still trying to build a reputation in my local scene. How much do you think (In USD) should I charge as a regular rate when the time comes?
thanks for the input. much appreciated and cheers!
The band are my clients. really cool bunch of guys.I’ll check that lead break and try to make the tone a bit more agressive. thanks again paul cheers!