Old 10-14-2007, 05:47 PM   #1
tspring
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Default Opinions on mix and quality wanted

A couple of weeks ago, my son spent a fair amount of time in our home studio recording a local band named Press Black. They have posted some of the songs on MySpace. I don't know how to link to one of the songs directly, but the MySpace page is

http://www.myspace.com/pressblack

Listen to "Front Row Seat".

Shea (my son) and I don't totally agree about the mix, and we are interested in hearing your opinions on both recording quality and mix. In my opinion, the bass guitar is too far back. Also when I listen with subwoofer turned on, I think that there might be too much very low frequency on the kick drum. What do you think? Any other suggestions?

T
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Old 10-15-2007, 11:54 AM   #2
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just had a listen.

first off, not bad.. good performances and i think the overall mix was pretty dam good. that's 95% of the battle.

my only comments, keeping in mind this is all subjective, of course, are:

i kept wanting a little more "sheen" to the mix. upper high-end (>10k) and maybe a little less in the ever sucking hell hole of low-mids.. a nice fx i use routinely on the master to help here is the Elogoxa x-cita. the 'nice touch' setting boosts lows and highs to add some nice sheen.

i thought the bass sounded nice. i believe it's the tonal nature of this particular bass sound that's giving it that "felt, but not heard" feeling. it wasn't bad at all. i've heard much, much worse. if you still want more in-your-face kinda stuff - i always find bumps at 800hz and 1-5k help with that, and/or making use of a speaker simulator such as BOOGEX and any of a number of great sounding speaker impulse files out on the net. i've used several with good luck for giving the bass better presence.

as for the kick, i like a lot of meat - so that didn't offend me. it may be nice to hear a little more 'click' (1k-5k, again). also, if not using already, i've fallen in love with the BLOCKFISH (free) compressor. for me, it doesn't sound good on much but my kick, but does one hell of a job.

finally - if not already using, VOXENGO makes a spectrum analyzer you put on your master fx and it shows you were certain freq's are overloading. i love it. it really makes every so crystal clear. again, free. google for "voxendo span vst".
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Old 10-15-2007, 03:18 PM   #3
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Thanks Mschuster. I appreciate it when people really listen and put some thought into their comments.

Probably you are right about the low-mid hell hole. We have struggled to clean that up - it was terrible before EQ. Maybe the spectrum analyzer will help there. Thanks especially for the comment on the high frequencies. Now I wonder if I have the high frequencies hyped a little on our playback system, causing us to cut too much of the highs during EQ. I think I'll do a double-check by doing some A - B comparison of playback through different speakers and amplifiers.

There sure are a lot of people that like BLOCKFISH, but I have never got around to trying it. Same with BOOGEX. I think that I'll give it a try for sure. I've never been totally satisfied with recordings of bass guitar that I have done. Maybe that would help get a little closer. Now that you mentioned it , I also noticed the absence of the click on the bass drum, and then forgot about it. Definitely worth trying to bring that sound out.

Anyway, thanks so much for taking the time to supply so much info.

T
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Old 10-18-2007, 05:04 AM   #4
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Hi T, totally agree with mschuster, guitars lo mid probsably 'muddy' mix more than anything. Bass guitar sounds fine here, maybe a little more 'umph' in the kick drum.

Not bad overall!

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Old 10-18-2007, 09:01 AM   #5
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IMO, this is very good work, the little nitpicks discussed here (except "a little more sheen") are what gives this work a PLEASANTLY WARM, LISTENABLE CHARACTER. I prefer not to listen to this genre, but I listened through because it is well done.
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Old 10-20-2007, 11:02 AM   #6
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Thanks for the input guys.

Staccatto - Not my favorite genre either. I'm trying hard to appreciate Press Black's work though. Shea will be happy that you found the recording to be warm and listenable. That pretty much describes what he wants. We'll definitely work on the sheen. I did a quick check of my monitors to make sure that the high frequencies weren't boosted too much (been moving things around lately). They seemed OK. I think that it is an issue with our ears and not our equipment.

Hey Yaz - I've seen your name on postings a couple of times over here on the Reaper site. Figured it had to be the one and only original Yaz.

I don't know if we'll ever get all the mud out of this recording. The guitar was just about as muddy as it could possibly be. From the recordings we have done, it seems to be especially problematic with the style of guitarists in this and similar genres. And getting them to adjust their sound to better fit the mix is a difficult sell.

T

Last edited by tspring; 10-20-2007 at 11:06 AM.
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Old 10-20-2007, 01:00 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tspring View Post
Thanks for the input guys.

Staccatto - Not my favorite genre either. I'm trying hard to appreciate Press Black's work though. Shea will be happy that you found the recording to be warm and listenable. That pretty much describes what he wants. We'll definitely work on the sheen. I did a quick check of my monitors to make sure that the high frequencies weren't boosted too much (been moving things around lately). They seemed OK. I think that it is an issue with our ears and not our equipment.

Hey Yaz - I've seen your name on postings a couple of times over here on the Reaper site. Figured it had to be the one and only original Yaz.

I don't know if we'll ever get all the mud out of this recording. The guitar was just about as muddy as it could possibly be. From the recordings we have done, it seems to be especially problematic with the style of guitarists in this and similar genres. And getting them to adjust their sound to better fit the mix is a difficult sell.

T
Try playing live with guitarists who play alone at home too much, it's natural to turn up the bass knob on the guitar amp in that situation. Believe me, this is not an extreme case. If the ultra-lows are removed, good good, but be careful trying to dry up all the mud, because some of it is the source of WARMTH.

I attempt to remove farty sound from bass by using a dip at 220-270, it doesn't take but a 2dB cut to clean it up. For guitars, a low rolloff (highpass) with 3dB down point at 100 usually does the trick. (unmasks the bass guitar)
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