Stan_Halen: Two Bare Hands, and Feet too!

Here it is, toe to heel, ankle to arch. And it’s all bare. Mano a Mano. A rose should smell so sweet.

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0 voters

Hi Stan, nice smooth and natural sounding mix. I like the drum sound in general, particularly the snare.

Here are a few observations:

  • The vocals sound a little distant - “behind” the drums in the soundstage. I think this might be because of the prominent use of the room mic. I’ve been thinking about some solutions that might be worth trying in this situation that I kind of mused over on Eric’s Mix here
  • The mix in general is pretty murky in the low mids - I think the room mic could have used some pretty aggressive eq to remedy that.
  • The sibilants are just a tad too prominent and could use just a touch of taming
  • The rhythm guitar is pretty low in the balance. It is a really important element that drives the energy of the song, so I think it’s balance in the mix was critical to getting a good level of excitement in the mix.

PS. I think you might need to put a poll in your OP so that people can vote for your mix.

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Thanks Andrew!

Yes, the ‘live’ element of this song was interesting … and challenging. Interesting thoughts on some remedies for that you gave to Eric.

That was challenging too. I think I improved it a lot in the BTR process, but I still find I’m fond of a darker mix sound, so sometimes those things don’t jump out at me.

I definitely worked on that, but I think it was a common challenge for this mix. I could have perhaps tackled it more aggressively.

The guitars didn’t particularly excite me. I tried to give them their place, but definitely didn’t feature them. I probably focused more on the synth and the other rhythm elements to drive the song.

Done. :slightly_smiling_face:

Hey Stan, this is a really solid mix. The only thing I’m hearing that’s objectionable is the snare is too prominent. Maybe the vocal could come forward a little too? Anyway, other than that this is really a pretty darn good mix. The vocals sound great. Good one!

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I agree with Mike about the snare. Also with Andrew about the room mic. The balance of the instruments is good, but that darn room mic is muddying things up. I’ll bet a HPF to clean out the bottom of the room would make this a knock-out mix.

Only other things are a bit more vocal editing (esp the sibilance, particularly in the beginning), and there’s something weird going on with the synth in the end (2:53). Some kind of phase action or something. Not sure what’s going on there.

Love the eq on the vocals. Very smooth. Sit nicely.

I like this.

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Thanks Mike! The snare was both integral to the song, but also a bit annoying after awhile I guess. Maybe I could have done some more automation on it.

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I’m glad you noticed. :slightly_smiling_face: I packed a Leslie effect onto that synth, so yes you’re hearing the phase-shift (Doppler) effect of that Leslie speaker. I liked the melody but I though it was too plain sounding. At the end I automated the synth up fairly loud, even rude, as well as cutting the audience and the annoying “Hey Troois” as much as possible. I thought it gave the thing an exciting finish, and was believable … like the synth player cranked his volume as the song was winding down. You know, a bit of showmanship and all. :grin:

Thanks!

sounding good. I think that your drums are feeling really good. I realized when i did my mix what i am missing from your mix when the drums kick in, it is the energy of the guitar. When i did mine i doubled that guitar at that moment and tweaked it so it gave a different energy and panned it the other side to increase that energy. Anyway well done.

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Thanks Eric!

Yes, I kept the guitar pretty low profile. I’ll have to listen for that effect on yours. I would call myself a “guitar guy”, but on this song the guitars just didn’t excite me much. Maybe I let that color my judgement a bit.

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Sounds fine on my laptop speakers.

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