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The mix is never finished


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Hey guys, I haven't posted in a while, but I'm still around lurking, mostly to check out Shiskovs. 

I've heard a lot of really great sounding home recorded tunes here, so I'm looking for some feedback on this tune I did. It's in the indie-rock-pop genre. Not super wimpy indie rock, but if you only go for a hard rock, probably won't be for you. I have to fix up the fade-out. 

Anyways, let me know what you think. Thanks! 😎

https://soundcloud.com/user-106053403    

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Well... Do you have a friend who could rerecord the vocals for you?  The overlapped vocals do not work, either. 

The song has a sort of Tom Petty/Traveling Wilburys feel to me.  Explore your inner Mike Campbell and think about what he would do with the instrumentation. 

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1 hour ago, Steve Haynie said:

Well... Do you have a friend who could rerecord the vocals for you?  The overlapped vocals do not work, either. 

The song has a sort of Tom Petty/Traveling Wilburys feel to me.  Explore your inner Mike Campbell and think about what he would do with the instrumentation. 

You mean all the vocals, or the background vocals? 

Edit to add:

Yeah, I realize I have a polarizing voice. But believe it or not, some folks like it. Anyways, it's not like I'm aiming to sell the song or whatever, it's for "artistic satisfaction" so I'll stick with the tools I have. 🤣

I see your point about the backing vocals, I'm getting a friend to replace them. 

@zenmindbeginner   @polara   Any feedback about the technical aspects of the mix? Is anything poking out really badly, uneven bass, levels too off etc...? 

Thanks! 

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4 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

I like the chorus. Bump up the bass.

Cool man, thanks for the feedback!

I'm finding bass really a challenge. I copied this technique i found on youtube, the bass is three tracks affected differently. It sounds pretty loud on my monitors, but getting the tune to sound the same everywhere is tough. I will take the advice and bump it up a bit. Also, I'm going to do Landr mastering, which puts a bit of polish on in and evens things out. 

Eventually I want to get better monitoring speakers. 

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Try recording bass like this and then mix the two channels:

1. One DI bass track straight into your preamp

2.  Mic a bass cab

This is a classic studio practice that works very well on bass.

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1 hour ago, Jakeboy said:

Try recording bass like this and then mix the two channels:

1. One DI bass track straight into your preamp

2.  Mic a bass cab

This is a classic studio practice that works very well on bass.

Yeah, I've heard of that technique, will have to try it when I get a chance. This was done kind of "covid-remotely", my friend just sent me a dry DI signal. He doesn't have a mic for the cab. 

Going to try it out for sure when things settle down! 😎

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3 hours ago, sonic1974 said:

Yeah, I've heard of that technique, will have to try it when I get a chance. This was done kind of "covid-remotely", my friend just sent me a dry DI signal. He doesn't have a mic for the cab. 

Going to try it out for sure when things settle down! 😎

Maybe you could feed the DI track through a cab simulator, or maybe a bass amp (if you have one) with a mike on it? Hell, try a guitar amp, it's good enough for Tom Petersson.
Feel free to experiment, it might turn out golden!

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I think the lead vocal sits too on top of the mix especially until the first chorus.  I'd bring it down some, maybe either give it the telephone eq or some other effect in the verse, then double it and pan them in the chorus while bringing up the rest of the music.   The cymbals panned hard while the rest of the kit is straight up the middle is a bit distracting.   I feel like maybe you can eq and pan things so they fit together a little better.  Some of the parts sound like they're competing with each other.   You have a little Billy Corgan thing to your vocals.   Also, the very end, the last "I just found you" feels a little uncertain as the ending if that makes sense.   Has some catchy stuff in it.  

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I often record bass through a tweed Champ....I just make sure to use a beefier speaker in the ext speaker out....in my case, an old EV SRO.

works great. Carol Kaye built her career tracking through a Super Reverb.

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Thanks for the feedback guys, really helpful! I'll post the final version once I make adjustments. 😎

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If you're having a problem with the bass sounding good and strong when you mix it, but weak on other systems in different rooms, it may be your mixing environment.  Something in your room layout maybe reinforcing and emphasizing the bass.  Look at monitor placement with respect to walls and especially corners.  Also, your position in the room.  There a ton of info out there on home studio design and millions of people who will yell "ROOM TREATMENT" at you, regardless of what your problem may be.

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1 minute ago, Rich_S said:

If you're having a problem with the bass sounding good and strong when you mix it, but weak on other systems in different rooms, it may be your mixing environment.  Something in your room layout maybe reinforcing and emphasizing the bass.  Look at monitor placement with respect to walls and especially corners.  Also, your position in the room.  There a ton of info out there on home studio design and millions of people who will yell "ROOM TREATMENT" at you, regardless of what your problem may be.

Yeah, and you can just take it out to the car and listen or put on some headphones too as a check.  

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1 hour ago, Rich_S said:

If you're having a problem with the bass sounding good and strong when you mix it, but weak on other systems in different rooms, it may be your mixing environment.  Something in your room layout maybe reinforcing and emphasizing the bass.  Look at monitor placement with respect to walls and especially corners.  Also, your position in the room.  There a ton of info out there on home studio design and millions of people who will yell "ROOM TREATMENT" at you, regardless of what your problem may be.

Yeah, i have sound panels for the room. It got rid of some bad reflections. 

Initially I was having problems with the bass being uneven when I tested it in the car. But when I did the technique, I copied it from ProducelikeaPro (Youtube channel), I got it a lot more steady. I just was too conservative with the fader. 

I totally agree with @scottcald above that I have to listen on different systems. 

This mix is gonna kill me! So many versions, ha. But it's all a learning experience. Before this, I had only made demos with guitar/keys and voice, no previous experiments doing drums & bass. 

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1 hour ago, killerteddybear said:

So, screw the rhythm section? 😆

Ha! no no, i just mean before I had gone into studios, or friends with more experience were doing it. 

🤣

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1 hour ago, sonic1974 said:

This mix is gonna kill me! So many versions, ha. But it's all a learning experience. Before this, I had only made demos with guitar/keys and voice, no previous experiments doing drums & bass. 

Maybe, but you'll really know when it's right.  Sorry, there's not another metric for that.  It's like when you come up with a good riff, then you finally get the right other parts for the song.  You just kind of know it. 

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1 hour ago, scottcald said:

Maybe, but you'll really know when it's right.  Sorry, there's not another metric for that.  It's like when you come up with a good riff, then you finally get the right other parts for the song.  You just kind of know it. 

Yep, totally get what you mean. I can't wait to get some background voices in there, I think that will bring it up a notch. 

Before, I thought it was done except the backing vocals, but you guys brought up some good points that I have to work on. 

Still, everyone misunderstood my post. When I said give me feedback, I meant: Tell me how much you like it. 

🤣🤣🤣😅😎

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Okay, I gave it a listen. I like it. Nice tune.

Now: did you do a mono mix? Position everything center field and balance (levels & eq zones) all the instruments for the best sound. 
Once you have that, work on the stereo image.

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When mixing/mastering...I use studio monitors, studio headphones, quality MP3 headphones, Cheap ass earbuds, on Alexa, and my Subaru car stereo. When I am happy with all those, I am done. I fine cars to be bass traps in general, so I listen very critically to bass in the Subie.

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Thanks @killerteddybear 

Yep, you got me there. I didn't check it in mono too much. I was concentrating so much on getting the electric guitars to be nice and wide when they come in, I only checked it in mono a few times. 

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Yeah, it's funny the mono/stereo thing.  A number of years ago folks were abandoning mono because everyone was getting good stereos and were listening in stereo.  Now with little bluetooth speakers maybe in a different room, people are listening a lot in mono or somewhere in between, but good stereo still grabs attention.   

One other thing to do is kind of decide the vibe/genre you're going for and listen to tracks like that and take some ideas from those.  It's always a good jumping off point.  

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1 hour ago, scottcald said:

Yeah, it's funny the mono/stereo thing.  A number of years ago folks were abandoning mono because everyone was getting good stereos and were listening in stereo.  Now with little bluetooth speakers maybe in a different room, people are listening a lot in mono or somewhere in between, but good stereo still grabs attention.   

One other thing to do is kind of decide the vibe/genre you're going for and listen to tracks like that and take some ideas from those.  It's always a good jumping off point.  

I've read some mixers don't check for mono, Tchad Blake said that in a video I saw. But you're right, so many people just listen to it on their phone, so you have to take it into consideration.

I'm hugely influenced by Wilco, and Jeff Tweedy does a lot of layers of his voice. But I realize my mistake, my backing vocals on the chorus are just in unison. He has so many layers, but they're not in unison. He also does things like whisper in parts behind the main voice. You don't notice it until you listen really close. All ways to get a thicker vocal I guess. 

So, I'm going to experiment with singing a 3rd and a 5th and see how that goes. My buddy is going to put some on too, but I won't be able to get that until later on.  

I'm just going to redo all the vocals. I was kind of writing the song as I recorded it, there's a few ideas I wanna try now that I've played it more often. 

The editing process is a lot of work, but it brings out the best in things. 

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