[j.hall]

chat it up in here.  i'll start listening to mixes in a minute.

[j.hall]

i hate reviewing the mixes.  makes me feel like an ass.  but whatever, here goes.  just my opinions.....

ITB

drums feel a bit too distant or my taste, but nothing really wrong with it.  the kick is really big in the lowend, maybe too big.  and lacks any real definition.  it's clearly there though.  toms don't match kick and snare.  pretty good mix.  my only real complaint is the vocal feels too quiet.  it's an indie rock type band, so mixing the vocal back is probably genre appropriate. 

NYC260

i like the drums.  nice vocal too.  guitars seem back to me. if you jammed the guitars up with the drums this would rock (IMO).  toms are tucked back a bit as well.  doesn't sound like you have much compression going on.  which isn't a bad thing at all.  in fact, i think it feels good.  something way high up in the overheads is harsh to me.  i think i remember fighting this in my mix as well.

MoreSpaceEcho

tremelo on the bass.....interesting.  guitar tones are really good.  drums seem a bit weak compared to everything else.  vocal feels good as well.  where are the toms?

mplancke

i like the "glitching" guitar thing at the top.  do you have miss fires on your snare sample?  flanger?  man those guitars are so wide, that's cool.  lowend could be bigger overall.  how did you create the vocal harmonies?  nice touch.  you should have edited the vocal tracks, i can hear lip smacks and awkward breathing in between lines.  some weird edits on the drums.  intentional i'm sure, just not my bag.  i like most all of your vocal treatments.  good vibe.

cmikk

wrong sample rate.  pretty sure the correct one was posted.  regardless.  pretty good mix.

Big Chief Awesome

feels really mono.  vocal at top is a decent way to get some vocals sooner.  with it this mono, it's hard to really pick through it.  snare is really loud.  vocal needs to be edited.  i can hear lip smacks and breathing in weird places.  lowend is light overall, IMO.

Duke

another mono mix.  low mids are a bit muddy, which sucks down the clarity of the mix.it's hard to sift through it when it's mono.  vocals feel good.  drums sound wierd, but that's probably cause the rooms are summed mono.

Graham Duncan

nice balances at the top.  feels light in the bottom end overall.  but the balances are solid.  vocal has a delicate feel, that's nice.  finally, a mix where i can hear the toms.  once the band gets "big", the vocal gets buried a bit, not bad though.  good mix.

colinl

kinda cheating, but that's not the point!  best bass guitar tone yet.  i'd like to hear the kick have more "ass" to match the bass.  if you mixed it analog, you should do "window" mutes on the vocal to get rid of the lip smacks.  more toms!  let those things rage.....

Billybehdaz

interesting drums.  haven't heard that yet.  i'm losing the bass guitar a bit, but not bad.  cool toms!.  this is a good mix.

southboundloco

rhythm sections rules.  bass is with the kick perfectly.  nice samples.  they fit the rooms and overheads well.  nice mix

mcsnare

love the rich echoboy.  deep bass!!!  my room is shaking in all the right ways.  kick seems a bit pointy until the guitars get bigger.  solid mix as usual!

i'll do some more in the next few days.

[colinl]

here's my first round of critiques.. I'd do em all now but the bulls game is on in less than an hour and priorities happened

in order of submission...

jhall: kick sounds almost too good for the rest of the tracks haha.. did you mix some samples in?  once the gtrs get loud it mixes in fine but it sound out of place in the first verse to me at least..  I can't hear the lead guitar anywhere past the first verse, but it seems like an intentional arrangement decision, am I right?  Everything else is great.. would you mind explaining some of the mindset behind that cool layered guitar sound?  love the vox fx as well.

ITB: lead gtr is too quiet, but maybe people just didn't like the part   I hear something "woofy" in the low end, but can't tell what it is.  other than everything sounds fine to me

NYC260:  sounds like the bass, drums, and vox are having a party and the gtrs weren't invited.  crank em up! 

MoreSpaceEcho:  did the intro make you fall asleep?   wobbly bass could be really cool if timed a bit better, I really like the "boost" the mix gets when you enter the 1st chorus.  everything sounds nice and balanced.  neat reverb on the toms of the dropout part, but could maybe use some tweaking?  I bet I'm going to hear lots of "mix tricks" for that dropout part as I listen to these

mplancke:  whoa, sounds like you turned the kick into another snare?  not sure what to think of that one   I think I can hear vocal tuning..  I really like the harmonies you put in, mind explaining how you did them?  and I like the verb'd out bgv. 

cmikk:  I always wondered what we'd sound like as a slowcore band...

Big Chief Awesome:  another one who altered the intro.. maybe we should rewrite that haha...  balance sounds pretty good overall, but its maybe a little dull at the top and light at the bottom.  panning is for sissies right?!  I like the gtr fade at the dropout part.  and the verb'd out refrain is a nice touch!

Duke:  rhythm guitar is way quiet for my taste, and the vocal seems a little hot.  I hear some things collapse when I listen in mono but it does sound very narrow.  I like the vocal echo a lot but it needs to come down a little in volume. 

alright, bulls game is on.  I'll try to get back to this tonight

[NYC260]

J.Hall:  your "not much compression" critique...can you clarify?  Cause, if you mean "master brick wall make it loud" compression it would be because I didn't use any.  I generally prefer not to.  But I'd like to hear more of what you mean 'cause I may have used more compression in other areas than you think!

Colini:  love the party comment..funny!  And it also made me feel like the time I spent on the drums, etc, was well spent.  I'll have to make another mix w/ the gtrs louder and PM it to you. 

All told...thanks for the comments/critique/compliments. 

BC

[mplancke]

mplancke

i like the "glitching" guitar thing at the top.  do you have miss fires on your snare sample?  flanger?  man those guitars are so wide, that's cool.  lowend could be bigger overall.  how did you create the vocal harmonies?  nice touch.  you should have edited the vocal tracks, i can hear lip smacks and awkward breathing in between lines.  some weird edits on the drums.  intentional i'm sure, just not my bag.  i like most all of your vocal treatments.  good vibe.

Vocal harmonies were done in Melodyne.

I don't mind the exaggerated breathing/mouth noises, I think it adds drama.

Drum edits were intentional, snare misfires have been corrected and MP3 reupload.

http://sharktankpro.com/IMP/ST_IMP_Master.mp3

Mark

[mplancke]

dupe

[Walker]

lead gtr is too quiet, but maybe people just didn't like the part  

I liked the part but found the effects printed on it was a little out of time which made it cause the song to go a bit messy in parts, so only ended up bringing it in for certain lines that seemed to fit to me to still use it for the vibe.  I noticed in your mix though it worked really well.. out of interest did you have a dry part to use? 

I found the bass was a real challenge.. my initial mix is just woofing.  Also found it really hard to place the snare right for this track.. I did end up getting something I was happier with (ended up with a deeper plate) but unfortunately after the submission date. 

Thanks for the tracks, I really enjoyed mixing this song.. initially I was thinking it was easy but as I went along I felt I wasn't on the right track for this type of toon, trying to match sounds to the effects on the guitars, etc. to make it fit.

I'll try and get some comments up soon (although I feel totally unqualified to do so!)

[colinl]

The only fx added to my mix were a couple of all around verbs that I used sparingly on a bit of everything iirc, and one vocal verb/delay thing.  Any effects on the guitars were part of their pedal rigs and recorded directly to tape that way.  We intended the recording to be one of those completely live to tape deals, until we realized that it's actually really hard to get that right (especially on the 9 minute long prog-type song we did later in the session.. haha), and ended up doing a few overdubs   But we were definitely in the "get the sound you want now while tracking, not later in the mix" mindset. 

The lead guitar in the verse is using a looper/delay that has a reverse feature, he plays the delayed riff for the first half of the phrase, then hits the reverse button and the whole riff he just played gets played back in reverse, which is why it kind of sounds like someone rewinding tape or something..  we thought it sounded cool at least!

I know as soon as I got the transfers, one of the first things I did was to make the IMP .zip, so you have the same exact files I did.

[colinl]

alright back to it..

graham duncan: I really like this mix, it's hard to pick out anything wrong with it.  You cleaned up the dropout in the bridge really nicely. 

colinl:  I felt like I had a hard time getting the lead gtr to fit in anywhere sonically, but it seems like it came out alright.  Also felt like a real struggle to get anything out of the low end of the kick without making it sound like arse.

billybehdaz:  drum sound is real interesting.. did you use a bunch of the rooms?  Maybe too much overhead during the bridge.  But still really solid mix!

southboundloco:  I felt like the "main" gtr could come up a little in the intro and first verse.  Feels "flatter" than the other mixes to me, but I can hear everything just fine.  Love the repeated "alone" in the choruses, not so sure about the mega-tremmed out guitar in the drum dropout part. 

mcsnare:  kick sounds too stabby in the first verse but sounds fine later.  I like the snare verb.  I think the rack tom maybe jumping out a bit?  thats pretty nitpicky though.. 

boedoconstrictor:  that distortion on the lead guitar is neat!  I don't like it as much on the vocal though, and the vocal could come down a few dB.  This mix sounds very LOUD!  There's something a tad bit harsh in either the "main" or "more" gtrs. 

tim davis:  another attempt to make the intro more interesting   I like the chorus on the main gtr, maybe just back off it a couple clicks.  I like the drums.  vocal maybe 3 db too hot in the first half of the song.. not much.  can't decide whether the guitars should be a little more up front or not..  dropout part is very interesting  

demikeproductions:  almost pooped myself laughing at the vocal intro!!  I would have picked a different part to sample but the idea and execution are great!    gonna have to show this one to the singer..  I like that you halved the intro part too, thats really the most elegant solution I've heard yet.  I like how the guitars are swimmy, and like the little vocal delay effect additions.  Snare in chorus 1 sounds like a nine inch nails industrial snare.. kind of out of place.  Love the little high frequency ping pong bit flying around.  I like how much you went for it with this mix, it's certainly been the most adventurous of the lot.  It paid off too, sounds awesome.  Mind sharing any info on how you set up your reverbs?

walker:  Bass maybe a tad too loud?  I can hear everything though, it just seems to kind of stick out.  I like your work on the toms.  Guitars in the bridge could use some more low end I think. 

annnnd that's all of em!  Everyone post YOUR critiques too, if I remember correctly (been a while since I last IMP'd), if you posted a mix, you're supposed to post these!  If anyone has any questions about how things were recorded/gear/whatever, I'm happy to answer.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

colinl, did you guys record this yourselves? was it tracked to tape? what do you play?

sorry about your intro.  i liked it just fine but i must've been feeling impatient when i was mixing this, so it just got axed.

good critiques so far, i'll post mine later tonight.

[colinl]

it was tracked by my friend aaron mccallister at great western record recorders.  It was tracked to 2" (GP9 on a studer A820).  I played the drums.  np bout the intro haha, its actually really fun seeing what everyone did with the song. 

[NYC260]

That's one of the questions I meant to ask...whether this was tracked to tape.  I could definitely hear the noise on the drum tracks during the break.  Haven't heard tape hiss in quite some time!

Colini: btw, I only used the room mics for my drum mix.  Didn't use the overheads.  FYI. 

BC

[MoreSpaceEcho]

listening on good headphones, typing as i go...

j hall: kick's a little clicky in the first verse, but it's fine once everything kicks in. snare sounds good. good job de-clacking the bass. i could maybe use a little more of the guitars. maybe. nice work.

ITB: bass seems kinda loud in the beginning. the balance seems a little weird at first, but it gets better, the rocking section after the chorus sounds suitably, uh, rocking. i feel like the fast release on the drum compression is making the cymbals a little crazy?

NYC260: snare is a little muffly. vox could use a little midrange cut. i'd like to hear the main guitar louder, and i'd like some more action on the right side of the mix.

mplancke: woah super loud. you got some really serious phasing going on with those drums. the vocal harmonies are really nice, well done. mix gets kinda crackly at the end.

mine: first verse sucks, it's alright after that. seems a little dull overall. i agree the drums are kinda weak.

cmikk: with the right drugs this could be great. hi end seems a little crunchy.

Big Chief Awesome: interesting idea with the vox on the intro. cool guitar on the rocking section in the middle. it's all a little too mono for me,  on this one and cmikk's my left ear's saying 'hey what about me?'

oh..woah...cool dubby outro there, nice.

Duke: bass kinda loud/drums kinda soft at the beginning. vox delay a little distracting. hhmm, it's kinda murky and mono...get those guitars out to the sides!

Graham Duncan: good mix. i think if you're gonna have the lead up that loud in the middle section you need to do something cooler with it. other than that it's great.

colinl: i feel like the drums could be a little roomier/more bombastic sounding...seems a little too much of the close mics. i realize you are the drummer, heh.  guitars are cool, vox could maybe use a little midrange cut.

Billy Behdaz: drum compression is cool but maybe a little overdone. the kick sounds weird in the first verse, like its out of phase or something, but it seems fine later on.

southboundloco: snare's too smushed to me. the long vocal delay is a little distracting. i feel like the middle section's not rocking enough without that other guitar in there. woah crazy tremelo.

mcsnare: love the delay on the guitar in the intro. this snare seems too smushed as well. nice bass and vocals. i'd like to hear the guitars a bit brighter.

bodeoconstrictor: hhmm, the balance is good but it seems a little telephoney overall

tdavis: i don't think the extra vocal at the beginning really works. snare could be more upfront. or maybe the vocal's just too loud. woah, that breakdown is a little weird.

walker: i think the snare needs to be more upfront. vox sound a little congested.

DeMike: not sure about that drum sound. guitars sound cool in the middle section. i dig all the delay/ambient stuff, it could maybe be tucked in a little more.

alright. i need to not listen to this song for a little while now.

[Osumosan]

Awww! I knew I'd miss this one. I had the old forum as my homepage for a while and kinda gave up. Looking forward to #26. I'll be back in the saddle for that one.

Michael

[j.hall]

jhall: kick sounds almost too good for the rest of the tracks haha.. did you mix some samples in?  once the gtrs get loud it mixes in fine but it sound out of place in the first verse to me at least..  I can't hear the lead guitar anywhere past the first verse, but it seems like an intentional arrangement decision, am I right?  Everything else is great.. would you mind explaining some of the mindset behind that cool layered guitar sound?  love the vox fx as well.

yeah, i got rid of that guitar track.  too messy, just sucked the mix down, and was really distracting to me.

layered guitar sound?  didn't i just pan them out and crank em up?

vox FX moves between three different things.  verb, delay and pitch shifting.  it's also typical for me to have a fourth, distortion.

if you can get more specific i'm sure my answers will as well.

[j.hall]

J.Hall:  your "not much compression" critique...can you clarify?  Cause, if you mean "master brick wall make it loud" compression it would be because I didn't use any.  I generally prefer not to.  But I'd like to hear more of what you mean 'cause I may have used more compression in other areas than you think!

i don't use L2 or anything like that.  i'm talking about overall compression within and on the mix.  i just got a general sense that your mix wasn't really "glued" together all that well.  there isn't anything wrong with that.  i tend to like aggressive sounding mixes.  so color my comments with that knowledge.

hope that helps.

[colinl]

yeah, i got rid of that guitar track.  too messy, just sucked the mix down, and was really distracting to me.

layered guitar sound?  didn't i just pan them out and crank em up?

vox FX moves between three different things.  verb, delay and pitch shifting.  it's also typical for me to have a fourth, distortion.

if you can get more specific i'm sure my answers will as well.

ah, I thought I heard a delay or something that made the guitars sound 3D...  maybe I was just high

I am interested in how you EQ'd the guitars.. they retain a glossy edge without being harsh..  they're present but they have a space in the mix, not just slammed in your face.

I heard the verb and delay on vox, where did the pitch shifting come in? 

[j.hall]

ah, I thought I heard a delay or something that made the guitars sound 3D...  maybe I was just high

I am interested in how you EQ'd the guitars.. they retain a glossy edge without being harsh..  they're present but they have a space in the mix, not just slammed in your face.

I heard the verb and delay on vox, where did the pitch shifting come in?

i did add some delay to one track, to give it more space and depth.

let me look at my mix before i comment on the EQ thing, and the vocal fx.