Mix Review Please! :) Tension Piece

[dwalshmusic]

Hey everyone! I've just joined the TAXI forum, seems like an excellent place to discuss music production

I've written a piece for a superhero short I'm working on at the moment, this particular piece is for an intro scene. Tension/Menace.

It would be great if you could take a listen to this mix and offer any comments, I think it's nearly there, however, a lot of you will spot things I may not!!

https://soundcloud.com/dwalshmusic/a-he ... stral-cues

Thanks for your time all

[denalihighway]

Welcome aboard Damien

I just wanted to chime in, even though this is far from my wheelhouse and expertise. Seems like a nice piece and there are some good parts going on but its a little quiet in parts, just a mixing, or more mastering comment really. You can definitely create the tension and release with dynamics and instruments rather than bring the volume down - the piano tinkling seemed to get a bit lost for example. Also maybe look at changing up the dynamics in some parts. For me, and its just a personal thing - I thought I could feel a drop out and pause at around 1.07 ..and then letting what kicks in there kick in after the pause and build or whatever. Take everything I say with 2 ounces of salt anyways ...Apart from that I can only say it sounds pretty cool but there are some guys round here that will give you some great pointers I'm sure.

Just a hint - you may want to throw in that it's a tension piece or whatever in the thread subject line - that might attract some of the guys who specialise in this stuff if they see if there in the thread heading.

Good luck with it - speak to you soon no doubt
Gar

[jonnybutter]

Hey Damien

It's hard to say how the mix is if you are scoring to picture and there's nat sound/voiceover we can't hear or something happening we don't know. The mix is the *total* mix, including stuff we can't hear (or see). The piece sounds good but it sounds like there are some very large 'holes' put there on purpose.

Sounds like you do good work! Good luck man!

Jon

[dwalshmusic]

Thanks for the replies guys, there are some quite parts there for reasons, but I think you're right about the holes in places, I guess even if parts are underscore to the dialogue they should still be there, and a little more defined! I'll keep working on it and post the final piece with the video footage when it's all done in the coming months

[kclements]

Hello -

I listened a couple times and here are some thoughts I had. Please understand this is just my opinion, and of course, you are free to ignore them

- really nice overall. I think you hit a mood - I'm not sure if it is tension. might be. But it sounds a bit more action oriented in my ear. I think it's the mix of the drums that bring it out of tension for me. Just a bit, but it sounds a smidge too busy for tension - to my ear. Just my opinion. But I am guessing it works well with the picture.

- around :34 when you break it down - I would like to hear the strings and piano better balanced with the pulsing rhythm. Maybe you need to bring that bass rhythm down a bit? it's hard to tell without seeing the video. But I get a feeling that it would still work with a better balance between the parts.

- I wonder if you could change up the "moaning" cell/bass a bit? What would it sound like if you gave that line to the violas after the break? I try to not repeat myself a lot ( a lesson I continually fail and have to relearn and we've heard that line from the cellos/bass in the beginning. Wonder what it might do if you gave it another voice? Or maybe double it on the active?

- I also feel the static rhythm that enters around 1:50 may be a bit too prevalent? again, maybe this hits something with the visual.

great cue though. Just some nit picky thoughts.

Cheers
kc

[jonnybutter]

I am kind of busted here - I read Kayle's thoughts which prompted me to listen again. Turns out I listened the first time on speakers with not very much bass response and therefore missed almost all the bass material in the more sparse parts of the cue. That may be a bit of a problem in the cue itself, but my monitoring situation made it seem much worse.

Now that I've heard all of the frequencies in the cue I would basically agree with Kayle. Nice job, but I would work on the balance a bit, Think about what would happen if the whole track was ducked behind voiceover or sound effects or whatever - those little piano licks, for example (which otherwise sound right on to my ear), would be completely gone.

good luck man

[andygabrys]

HI Damien,

I have also listened a few different times, and one thing Kayle advocated is a good way to get a nice flat balance across your piece. Listen at extremely low volume. I am just listening at the lowest notch on my interface - one notch quieter and there is no sound at all. The keystrokes on my keyboard overwhelm the volume of your piece coming out of the speakers listening this way.

So at this level, the things that stick out are the loudest pieces of your mix.

That's the low moaning motif, and the reality dry synth bass. The glitch percussion in the last 30 seconds is also very loud and present and fairly dry.

the things that are very quiet are the section strings on the sustains that don't accompany the moaning figure, and the spicatto low strings are pretty quiet too. The piano motif is also very very very quiet.

something to consider:

a mix is fantasy - you can do whatever you want. But with this genre, we have a long history of film music that was recorded by live ensembles, and so a solo figure or a trio figure is going to be much less loud that an entire section in most cases. So to hear a very present and dry figure (moaning) with section strings that sound 300' away behind it makes you pause and question whether its "real". And IMO most of the orchestral mockups do try and sound "real", even if there is a lot of electronic elements to them.

If you are having trouble making things sound like they work in the same space - more work with reverb / delay, and eq (especially high Freq rolloff) can make things sound more lifelike on the mix "stage", while still keeping things in balance. Low level monitoring can really help for fine balances once you get your sounds together.

Good luck! You've got a nice range of pieces on your Soundcloud page.

[Russell Landwehr]

I made my mix notes before reading the replies above and I agree with what is written

Before I go to my particular comments, I wanna give a +1 to what Andy is talking about by turning the playback down to "can-barely-hear-it" levels. I've fixed TONS of mixes by using this trick that Andy turned me on to... (and got Andy to OK mixes a lot quicker ) This is probably the most valuable thing I've learned from Andy. It seems so strange to me that mix "problems" jump out at you when you turn it down. but IT WORKS!

Anyway. In the notes I jotted down... that sound that you've got taking up the low frequencies is way over-powering, specially starting at 0:24 and on. The piano is WAY so subtle at 0:28 and on... at 0:46 i can't tell if it is piano or marimba? And that piano part that is buried is gonna give the REAL suspense vibe on this cue.

You might wanna check your listening space and see if you need to turn your sub-woofer up a bit and take some stuff off the top to help you mix this kind of stuff??

Anyway... good work on the composition here... I LOVE tension/suspense stuff.... it is SO fun to write!

Regards
Russell Landwehr