Lewitt mixing contest - Dirty mix

Bash This Recording
#1

I have been busy but thought I would do a quick mix to keep attempting to improve my mixing.

thanks for any and all feedback.

And below is take 2. Thanks again.

1 Like
#2

Hey Eric, I think the bass sounds too full and could use a little more focus. Otherwise, the tones and balances all sound pretty good. Cool song!

#3

Sounds good, Eric!..Cool track. Vocals in particular sound good…

That said, I was curious what would prompt a bass player (@miked ) to say “it has too much bass”! :scream:…so I just had to give it a listen on my studio system… Yup, Mike’s right - too much bass. :speaker: :speaker: :speaker: :speaker:

Have you checked it on a car stereo? I’m pretty sure this would be Boom City on that sort of a system. Reference it against a bassy mix on that type of system.

In fact, I was curious, so I imported the mix into my DAW and ran Span over it. As I suspected, there is a massive spike in the “boomy” frequencies that destroy car doors :grimacing: I pulled out 6.7dB (!) at 80hz and it sounded much more balanced. The only trouble was, when the bass player did some runs higher up on the neck, the bass jumped out once again and flinged mud everywhere!

It might be a matter of really controlling the low end of that acoustic bass with more compression, and bringing it down in the mix. Sort that out and you’ll be golden.

Nice work!

#4

Thanks for the feedback.

@miked thanks if you are feeling like giving it a run it is here https://www.lewitt-audio.com/mix . I struggle with getting my bass right. I am trying to develop tactics that will get a good powerful bass without hurting anyone, still have some work to do as you noticed.

@ColdRoomStudio no I didn’t just not enough time but I know I should. I also need to work on my monitoring setup so that I can get this balance right. Thanks so much for your suggestions as always very helpful.

1 Like
#5

Haha! I was in a state of disbelief myself, like someone else was using my fingers to type… :astonished:

Thank Eric. I remember that contest coming through my in-box now. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#6

Ok I think I did it, the second attempt is in the OG post.

1 Like
#7

Sounds much better :+1:

1 Like
#8

Hey, I’m not that early on that mix :smiley:
From what I listened to, that double-bass sound is difficult to manage as the first mix was heavy on that part and I found the second mix very light while I would imagine what you run after: that walking bassline played on a double-bass that filled that low-mid area in a pleasing way…
I have no tip for you but it looks like a try-and-die game: try until you find the right recipe :confused:

By the way, everything else is gorgous but this thing is tricky!
Nice job!

1 Like
#9

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah it takes me a while too, ah well just keep practicing and some day …

#10

Yeah, it doesn’t sound very encouraging… I recently read one article on string sections on Soundonsound, Mike Senior has lot of tips maybe it could help (“the mixing consideration” section for instance)

1 Like