Does this mix work?

CrimsnSyrn · Post by **CrimsnSyrn** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 4:39 pm

I'm pretty spent on this - it's from several months ago...and all I hear are the flaws.

Wondering if I'm overly self-critical or all these flaws readily apparent to everyone else?

I'm not looking for a songwriting critique - I'm aware of those weaknesses already...(but not fixing 'em for the moment).

Unedited honestly greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

https://soundcloud.com/juliet-padou/fig ... -2/s-52LxX

UPDATED VERSION:

https://soundcloud.com/juliet-padou/fig ... -3/s-YujFp

johnlewitt · Post by **johnlewitt** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 4:45 pm

Juliet,

The link doesn't seem to work.

John

CrimsnSyrn · Post by **CrimsnSyrn** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:26 pm

Darn....Thanks John - was having trouble setting it....

Got it working now - sorry!

eirikbj · Post by **eirikbj** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:34 am

The piano is a bit dark and "closed" in the intro. I know thats the sound you´re going for, but at least in the intro and intermezzos it could use some "shimmering". Without voice and guitars you have all those spare frequencies without sound. Some automation here?

nick.moxsom · Post by **nick.moxsom** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 6:09 am

Great song, Juliet

I’d like to hear a gentle delay on the voice (rather than reverb) to put it in the same space as the piano. I love the guitar but it’s too loud when it comes in on Verse 2, imo. Can you get a deeper drum (timpani, perhaps) to replace that tom? It feels a little lightweight.

HTH
Nick

johnlewitt · Post by **johnlewitt** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:26 am

Wow, there's a lot of styles going on in here. I'm not 100% sure which path you want to go down.

IMO, the vocal and tune are reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.

Then when 1:23 hits, the overall sound is more modern singer/songwriter.

So, I think it could be a really cool, classic sounding singer/songwriter tracks by stripping the arrangement back a little bit and applying a different effect on the vocal (right now the vocal effect doesn't seem to match the piano).

On the flip side, if you wanted to make it more modern, change the piano tone to a more friendly, contemporary sound to match the sound of the vocal.

Does that make sense?

It's a good tune. Did you have a specific artist/song you were trying to emulate with the recording?

John

CrimsnSyrn · Post by **CrimsnSyrn** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 10:30 am

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

eirikbj - Thanks for saying that - I've intuitively felt that and have been struggling with the piano sound (a combination of two pianos). I'll definitely look at brightening it in the intro and intermezzos or maybe switching out the piano.

Nick - I always have that problem (with the vocal/piano whenever I use emo piano) Grrh.

I"ll bring down the guitar and have a closer look at the tom. Thanks, ALWAYS for your honest feedback.

John - Thank you for your thoughts and feedback. I definitely want a more modern sound, so I"ll look at brightening or switching the piano. The actually a la for the song goes back a few years - Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" which had a sort of hybrid drum kit sound to it - I wound up not liking it at all and switched to indie drums. I know I ended up a LONG ways off from the sound of that particular a la - but there were a couple other a las that were fresher, and I've usually learned to err on the side of modernity....

Thanks again everyone - I really appreciate it.

funsongs · Post by **funsongs** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:20 am

fwiw;
think it's a good song... sounds a bit in the realm of Sarah McLachlan to me.
I like the piano tone; sounds befitting the mood of the song.
The other instrumentation going on in there makes it different, in a good way;
so that it stands on its own.
I might use deeper-tone drums, too... as others have commented; a more 'tubby' sounding snare;
maybe the whole kit deeper and back in the mix, with the overall sound of the recording as a live, big studio room would sound... spacial speaking;
I would reference the drum treatment with 'Raising Sand' as an ala.

It's really close, and with a few tweaks it sound really good, imho.
Cheers.

CrimsnSyrn · Post by **CrimsnSyrn** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:30 pm

Okay, gents - made lots of little changes….

Biggest problem is still with the piano - it was originally recorded as MIDI, which I had copied and added another piano to it to blend….This software (for the 2nd piano) is such a pain in the ass, I then coverted it to audio - to keep it from crashing…and this was the track I was trying to finagle to be the new main piano. The problem was with how the note velocities transferred to the new piano - the attack was much more apparent - and since I wanted to use this as the main piano I had to go in and cut up the attacks and reduce them in Melodyne to try to keep it from sounding so harsh….It could still sound better…

Had to do a lot of fiddling with the verbs for this piano so it sounded more natural and in the right space

Blended the old piano back in some bits to expand the sound

Lowered the e guitar…

Added a bit more space to the drums

Adjusted the eq on the snare to make it a bit meatier

Tried a timpani in place of the tom, Nick - the only two I have, but the tonality didn't mesh - but I put an eq on the tom on the opening pass to fatten it up

There was already an existing delay on the vocal - but I didn't have it active on the intro…I did a lot of fiddling with the degree of delay on the vocal in different parts...

A big THANK YOU once again to all that helped with feedback - I really appreciate it!

NEW VERSION:

https://soundcloud.com/juliet-padou/fig ... -3/s-YujFp

Kolstad · Post by **Kolstad** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 4:01 am

I heard Sarah McLachlan as a reference too. Patti Scialfa sings McLachlan, what a great place to be!
To me it sounds like cinematic singer/songwriter. Quite contemporary.

I love the writing, the title works really well, especially for tv/film, imo. Your vocals sounds awesome for this type of work, imo.
On the mix I would be careful not to go too far into the Americana realm, but keep it singer/songwriter with cinematic elements.
That could be pretty much as is, and maybe strengthen it with strings and/or more cinematic sounding drums.
Mileage may vary though, considering the intended use.

On the mix, I found the vocals a bit too heavily processed when it first came in. That drew attention away from your vocals and on to the mix. The processing works well in the busier sections, but less when the mix is simple, imo of course.
I would try to automate the compression, and back it down 20-30% in the quiet parts (first half with the piano), and keep it as is when the full band comes in.

The drums, especially the snare sounded weak to me. Maybe its not that important, but if possible, a fatter sounding kit/snare might make the whole thing sound more coherent with the genre. If not, maybe just layer the snare part with (another) sample to fatten it up (but check for phase issues afterwards).

Really great stuff. You've been a fast mover the last year, with this type of writing and production, Juliet.
This is top notch, and arrangement and mix details are highly subjective, so don't sweat it too much, do more instead

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