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[J-Texas]

j.hall wrote on Tue, 19 June 2007 11:14

J-Texas built yourself a little bass fill.  Based on your guitar and bass sounds, the drums aren?t nearly hyped enough.  The mix feels safe.  You are either newer to mixing, or you just didn?t feel the track very much.  The backwards organ is really cool, that?s a great touch.  And you used it subtly.  The bass in the bridge just feels off to me.  The synth work is good.  Interesting ending.  I didn?t like it at first, but the last female vocal almost sold me on it.

I'm glad somebody got the organ thing. There wasn't much to the bass so it had to be pumped for sustain. The guitar I liked. Besides a little EQ, I didn't want to mess with it much. I thought that the highlight of the track was the vox. That's what I focused on. And the spacey feel of the tune. I went back in after listening to the thing about a thousand times (it really grew on me like that black stuff in the X-Files movie) and squashed the drums a bit and it sounded better... bigger. I pumped the gain makeup and it put a cool sustain on that bass drum. Should-a. Could-a. Would-a. Better luck next time. If it sounds like I just started mixing then I've wasted a lot of time and should find a new profession.    My junior high band director once suggested 'Underwater Basket Weaving'... maybe I'll look into that. Thanks for the feedback. I really did like the tune though. I checked out the rest of the album on iTunes. Pretty cool. Can't wait to try number 13.

[j.hall]

i just think you played it safe.  which to me, is from lack of motivation, or lack of experience.

didn't mean to offend, just wanted to spaker your mind thinking about how others precieve your work.

[J-Texas]

Come on dude... you didn't offend! I'm secure bro! I can't argue that I played it safe, I guess. That's just the way I heard it, that's all.

[spoon]

j.hall wrote on Tue, 19 June 2007 11:14

I'M FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!! spoon I?m done commenting on the female vocal being featured, and I?m sure you?re sick of hearing it.  The vocal verb is a too long, or too loud.  It sounds good, but it moves the vocal past the dry music.  Always look for a realistic picture of the whole band.  Granted, this isn?t always the right approach, I just think it is for this particular song.  your mix does a good job rolling by.  Aside from the image of the verb, the song just happens, which is great.  Rhythm section is balanced well too.  Why did you want the outro to go that long?

I dont mind the fembot comments.  I am still glad with that play (though now I know the artist intended a male lead, and would have changed that in an instant had I known then).  I am assuming you mean the verb on the male vox (yours).  Yeah it is a bit much, but I wrote previously, this was intentional to the femvox focus; I wanted the mvox to be distant and very ambient.

Outro:  As I wrote in another post ( I sure you missed it as you were out and there is 6 pages to this thread), I REALLY like this song and (as you do know) I think your sister's voice is great.

When the bridge dropped and the outro hit with full rays-from-heaven vocals, I just loved the shock.  So, like a junkie, I wanted more...and gave myself more.  (Just one more hit!)  
If I had MY way, I would have repeated it a bunch more while slowly decaying the volume and sending the entire mix into reverb'ed obscurity.    (Which I did for my own collection.)

Thanks for the song J!

David

[Fibes]

To gahena with the male vocals.

The only thing they were selling is the song short.

My dime and a half.

[chrisj]

j.hall wrote on Tue, 19 June 2007 12:14

Chris J I really like the organ.  Wow, the vocals are a lot louder then the music.  Intentional?  I dig the snare, the kick is too light in the low end.  The huge compression only bothers me at the level the drums are mixed.  You could sell it by turning them down and blending in some of the original sounds.  There is something in the mids of the vocals that feels honky (male vocal).  Nice bridge.  That?s massive!!!!!  You just need the drums to come around.  That huge wide synth takes up a lot of space in a good way, but when it leaves, now the mix feels empty.  This is my favorite organ sound.  You made it sound like a pipe organ in an old church.

Worth the wait! Thank you so much! The vocals being really up is intentional- I'm usually working to make them register as a person and to dominate the rest of the song, and here especially I thought it was all about the words- even more so since I didn't entirely understand what they were about. It's like OK, let's confuse _everybody_ and make it so you can't ignore the puzzling singer or avoid dealing with how he feels! Turned out to be a winning strategy because how he feels is the whole thing...

Thanks for the tips on incorporating such extreme drum sounds- would have helped if I'd done that. Thrilled that you liked all the aggressive stuff I did- it figures, because to some extent it's your advice to not be shy or stick to habits, expressing itself in radical mix decisions.

I do like my organs (hee). That's actually all done with two plugs I make one of which is free. I use 'Ensemble' on organs all the time because it kills the directness and makes them sound more background- it's like a 20-voice chorus effect- and the whole verb, including the synth bridge, is 'FreeverbCJ' on my Kagi site in the downloads section. It bears no resemblance to Freeverb anymore but Freeverb is its daddy so it will stay free forever. Those two things are, I think, the only things I did to the organ sound... it's all about having a good verb, for a sound like that.

[CHANCE]

j.hall wrote on Tue, 19 June 2007 09:14

I'M FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!! Chance I thought I was going to hate the wrong sample rate, but it?s creepy in a cool way.  Those vocal effects are freaking me out.  The alt perc. is interesting, but out of place.  Good grief, this mix is scary.  I?m going to have nightmares.  Do you work on horror films?  The samples are A LOT brighter and louder then the music.  For having the sample rate wrong, I think you did your best to make it work.  That kick drum is HUGE!!!!!!

LOL,,,Damn near fell on the floor

Do I work on horror films? Close. 50% of my work is commercials and jingles


I might add that I enjoyed listening to all these variations on a theme and to give a shout of thanks to J Hall for all the time invested in imp

[maxim]

j wrote:

"Is this the space odyssey re-mix?"

it's the cocteau twins re-mix



"Aside from the female being the lead vocal, I don?t mind a lot of it."


my rationale for spotlighting the female was that i preferred the vocal

if i had been able to discuss the mix with the artiste, i would have undoubtedly tried to work harder with the male vocal

as it is, i see this exercise, partly, as an opportunity to go a bit crazy with the mix

sometimes it works out, sometimes, it doesn't

in imp11, i dropped out the entire drum track, this time, i thought the lead vocal could go

live and learn...




"The bridge feels half-assed, and the outro coming in makes the bridge section feel even more half-assed. Thoughts on that?"


i wasn't 100% happy with it, the execution seemed to lack the impact i was imagining it would have

the intention was for the listener to go enter a nightmarish space

i should have just cut and pasted chance's bridge...

thanks for the comments, j

(perhaps, in the future, the tracks could have a "mission statement" from the artiste?)

[southboundloco]

is it still possible to DL the multitracks of IMP12?...i missed out  

[j.hall]

nope, go DL em.  just don't post a mix.

[southboundloco]

oh ok...hmmm...where's the (link of the)DL site for the multi tracks of this song cant seem to find it.

[j.hall]

there isn't one.

check the rules thread to get to the server.

[southboundloco]

ok thanks!   hehe lookin forward to the next IMP

[el duderino]

j.hall wrote on Tue, 19 June 2007 12:14

el duderino did you re-amp the guitars? Oh you did for sure in the chorus.  That?s to much, especially following it into the 2nd verse.  The vocal balances are nice, but the left guitar is killing your really pretty mix.  Did you not want it to be so pretty?  The vocal delays are OK, you could have worked those a bit better.  Honestly, the mix was great till the left guitar grew a mullet, bought a 5150, turned it to 11 and came to the wrong band practice.  Curious what your thought was on that.

didnt reamp, just slapped an emulator on it  

yeah after listening again i agree there is a bit much distortion but i wanted to add a nasty element. wasnt really going for pretty. The vocals delays are one thing i wish i had more time for, i had plenty of ideas, but unfortunately no dice. I dont know why, but when listening to the 2 guitars as they were I felt something was missing but at the same time kind of distracted me from the song as a whole. if that makes any sense. I wanted to add that dirty element and i was trying to make the dist guitar a bit more pad-like. didnt quite work as i had planned but it was in the ball park.  

I appreciate your review, comments, and accurate description of the left guitar. thanks again for doin this.

[homerecordingodyssey]

Quote:

homerecordingodyssey mix version 2 reviewed: the mix is a bit dark, but the drums are really bright and really loud. Though the bass is balanced with the kick well. The sonic differences can?t be fixed in mastering, FYI. When the drums are in, they just dominate. Overall, I think the mix is boring. You have some good ideas, but the music needs to come up to blend with the rhythm section.

My inexperience shows through, which is why I am here In my defense I only had a day to mix it, but the main problem is the low end response of the 5" monitors I am using, I just cant here it properly and always seem to end up putting in too much or too little drums and bass. Although you would think by now that I was used to them.

Hopefully will do a better job with the next one.

Thanks for the comments. I am going to remix it again from scratch until I feel it is up there with some of the other mixes submitted for my own learning experience.

Andrew