redworks_REDs one and only take

I can’t remember what I did on this, so much time passed from start to finish. I think i like what i ended up with so tha tis all that matters. i appreciate all feedback.

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0 voters

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I love the hard panning of the guitars here - it’s a great effect that I’m going to try on my mixes. I’m too scared to do that myself. I love the way the chorus really lifts - it sounds great! During the choruses I’m finding it hard to hear the vocals - now this may be because I’m listening to the mix on my headphones.

I love the gritty quality of the song - it’s good to listen to. I’m finding the snare drum a little overpowering, and the guitar solo is a little loud for my taste. A great mix that I’m going to study a little to further my own mixing!

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Thanks for that feedback. I probably should have cleared a little more space for the vocals in the chorus. I am glad the snare was overpowering for you, I worked hard to bring that out and have it and the vocals working together to drive the mix. It is the first time i have done that because i have tended in the past to focus on guitars and vocals. Now i know that i may have gone a little far but at least it is not enough as it has always been in the past.

I thought I was the only person who did this! I push up the fader of the vocals, and then curse myself for loud vocals. Then I push the fader up for the bass, and that drowns out everything else. I look forward to the day I can just push and pull the faders and everything just falls into place…

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Nice work. Love the snare.

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Thanks Big Al you rock.

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I need to do a better job of rocking next time. :joy:

hey now I would say this is rocking enough. If it is not is because of my mixing skills because i feel like you gave me enough to create something cool with.

Your mix sounds fine. I’m just a little down on myself lately. I probably should have re-recorded those vocals before creating this contest instead of giving you all 12 year old vocal tracks from a much less experienced Big Al. :sunglasses:

Hi redworks, great job with the snare. Nice vibe. Things I noticed that bother me just a little bit: 1. I think the kick could use more punch to match the snare, 2. The volume rises a touch too much during the chorus (did you use master fader automation?) 3. The solo jumps out a bit too much. I hope this helps you. Good job.

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Yeah i probably should practice recording and mixing more often. don’t get down on it, it is what it is and that is a fun real to life situation that we get to practice with and have a chance to win cool prizes and get feedback. That is because of you so thank you.

Yeah totally right on all accounts. Now that you are mentioning them they are bothering me as well. :wink:

There’s so much rumble in the low-end throughout the whole song that it overpowers the whole mix. It’s extremely noticeable. What monitors and environment are you mixing in? I can’t imagine that you didn’t catch this.

Also, that guitar solo hits my ears like an ice pick. I was wincing.

Thanks for the feedback.

I mix in my home on krk5s i think it is. Usually it is a pretty positive environment.

Well i did so you don’t have to imagine it. I don’t have a sub and have had comments like this on other competition mixes. If it is for real i always check my mixes on other systems but i don’t take the time for competitions.

Out of curiosity was it so bad that you could not hear anything else to give further feedback?

Well, it was really distracting. I just now listened to it again to try and focus on anything else in the mix that I can give you feedback on. This track is LOUD. Seems like you may have squashed it too much in trying to get the loudness up. But picking through all of that, I did think that your vocals are actually quite good. Actually, best I’ve heard so far in this contest. It’s just a shame that other things overshadow the work you did on the vocals (which is usually the hardest part).

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Great thanks for that feedback. I will have to look at that loudness situation. It is my first time using the Weiss MM-1 mastering plugin from softube. Obviously i have some work to do to learn how to use it well.

Hey redworks,

The strong parts for me are the drums, the snare especially, and a lovely sustained guitar chords part in the chorusses.
The compression and reverbs are well executed too.

However I was surprised by some of your volume balance decisions. Example: the guitar solo is too heavy for my taste. The verse/chorus ratio is a bit brutal. I lack some bass and lead vocals.

Good energetic approach, good luck!

Thanks for that feedback.

yeah i have a bit of an issue with automation so i always rush it. I end up doing a crap job then I like it less. I sure wish i could redo it but ah well.

Apparently my middle name is “second guess every mixing decision”, because I can’t stop grabbing the faders on my mixer and yanking them up and down. So my new methodology is to come fresh to the mix with unfatigued ears, and ride the faders for everything from start to finish. I work in sections, so I’ll do the verses, bringing up something in the first verse, and something slightly different in the second verse. Then I’ll move to choruses, trying bring them higher slightly than the verses, and so on and so on.

Where I’ve changed my approach, is that when I’ve done all of that, I won’t touch the faders until I’ve listened to the song on as many different places as I can, and I can sit down with fresh ears again with some of the notes I’ve taken. All fine tuning is done with the mouse, because I can’t trust my damn hands to do it subtly!

Yeah I need to get myself to use a method such as this and to practice it . I would need to get some faders to play with but i have been thinking about getting faderport 8 from presonus. Maybe that would get me motivated to practice automation.

thanks for sharing that.