i think i get it. SNAFU? (Situation Normal All F'ed Up)

interesting sound to some of those AA plugins. 'old timey' or something. when you think about it, just the act getting things recorded in the past imparted a lot or 'work' on the sound before you even did anything to it. desks, boxes, tape, etc. even through good gear. let alone the distribution on plastic or whatever. some people still like that sort of sound. must admit it seemed like it was easier to get things together. maybe its was just lack of options or errant sentimentality.

i think that may be the impetus behind some of the fetishization of some of these plugins. a one-stop-shop for a 'sentimental' sound.

 

Hi there.
So after listening, many things popped up. Blatantly and not so much for what is "wrong" in your mix, so I will try to describe the best I can here. In my opinion, fixing these and of course adding your own twist will bring considerable improvements. So here I go.
Vocals are way too bright. Whole ~4dB from ~2k to all the way up. There is no body of the vocals, especially in the verse. So the balance of them is not natural.
Drums and other elements seem just cut off from high frequencies, making them sound that they do not belong there. What I mean is, that it seems like vocal track was just slapped on the instrumental and it doesn't make a coherent image. Another way to imagine is that the sound (meaning your mix) you made sounds like instruments are coming from the main membrane of a speaker and vocals are coming only from the tweeters. This was the most "blatant" thing I noticed the second vocals jumped in.
Now the second thing, that is not so pronounced of what is missing. And it is the low end extension. I have a sense that a lot of starting mix engineers just don't want to show the low end in this kind of genre, which is bonkers. You don't have to "make" more bass, lower frequencies etc. Just making what is more present is what I suggest, so that the lowest portion of low end is present, not in the "mix" but in the feel. So it is hard to describe, but if you solo the dry bass track, I bet there is some low end there. So I would like it to live in the track as well. It doesn't have to show on a spectrogram blatantly that it is there, just "live" there. So probably dynamic eq on the 2nd-3rd harmonic (cutting them ~3db) with somewhat wide Q factor is the way to go.
I hope you find my opinion helpful and it brings some benefits.

 

Bass is too stereo
Drums are too mono
The opposite of common sense, especially listening with headphones (like most ppl will do)

Apart that technical, love the song

 

I have reviewed my mix and I agree. It wasn't good enough. I have left the first one up, with the new one which is more open and full.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 1, 2021

I haven't tried this one, yet. But I tried a lot of their other preamps and ATME, they are too subtle to tinker with. I'd rather use a transient designer (freq specific or full range), chorus FX, different reverbs, or M/S treatment to add punch, crispyness and width/stereo separation.
But from what I've seen so far, the auto gain works pretty well.

Other than that, I think sirwicked33 was referring to the track being too mono, not the bass.

 

Despite the fact I got a new kind of tinnitus this week (yeah!) so I'm not in a position to criticize technical aspects, I really like the track and enjoy it with the rest of my listening ability. Like many of your others too

 

Last edited: Jul 31, 2021

I can hear everthing in its place, no sore thumbs jumping out.
Works perfectly well!

 

i think we can all agree that stereophonic music was a giant mistake. it was pushed on us by a global conglomerate of big electronics, the mystic order of the knights templar and walt disney. this unnatural and unholy trickery -- pushing two pristine mono signals at us in order to delude us into perceiving a wide image is not only against the laws of nature, but is an affront to basic human sanctity. a deceptive practice doomed to failure.

can we all now get back to how music was meant to be appreciated -- in glorious mono.

 

I hope it has a wider perception now.

 

blasphemy!

 

I'll be the judge of that. One Hail Mary and two Our Fathers. Amen.

 

your "soundstage" is wide enough and it's mixed nice, clear, and loud. I'm not big on the vocal. There are some portions of the vocal where I first noticed less effects, and that I did not like those parts as much, at first listen. But it's not the mix, it's more like it just does not fit.
imho, of course. I think I have heard some things you have done with Melodyne previously, and
that isn't what I am referring to; technical stuff. More that they are 2 separate pieces of musical content.

 

Last edited: Aug 1, 2021

Thank you for sharing your creative process. IMO this is an original composition. Parts of it may not be, but as a whole it is certainly an artistic expression, even more than a collage is. You are good and quick at arranging the elements. I know a thing or two about how it's done.. and certainly don't find it to be easy.

Really think you should follow this direction. To be honest, I prefer it over the early pieces you posted (long time ago). And if you enjoy making it - well, that's what matters the most..

P.s. I'm sorry, I'm not good at telling you, whether it is muddy at around 678.99 Hz or not..;)

 

I for one am very curious about the technical side stuff. but I don't want to derail the thread since it is about the song.
Since he is basically testing out a new plugin at the same time. I did not see it for free, it's apparently about 50$ normally.
This is done in Logic? and if so, I think it is an excellent example of what he is trying to accomplish. Getting this level results directly out of Logic is impressive. I would have every channel strip solid red to get something this loud, first try.

 

Wonderful track the only thing that annoyed me was the hats

 

In my never ending attempt to please everybody. I have remixed the track.

 

I created the harmony vocals in Melodyne, so yes there are audible artifacts. It is also possible that some harmonic notes are a half or quarter tone off perfect, but although my initial idea was to produce something quickly and thus these things can get overlooked, here I am
still trying to satisfy everybody's "not incorrect" comments. As above, yes the hats were awful.
As to how this works for me in Logic, think of the Black plugin as being the gain control at the top of a large console. If the VU meter is too high or too low, this is where you place that track in the sweet spot. Then you adjust the fader. I got these levels with most of the faders at minus 15db.

 

this is heresy of the highest order. flagrant use of stereophonic imaging. it has not gone unnoticed by the higher reaches of the holy roman empire. may god have mercy on your soul. a few hail mary's and some rosary beads are not going to get you out of this one.

other than that, i like how the vocal sits forward now in a more exposed(commanding) position and the drums have their own space as well. they have been liberated from the wall of sound. probably an improvement(?) i don't know what you are going for though.

you have some very demanding clients BTW. you should have learned by now to never listen to the clients. they have no idea what they are talking about. just give them a sandbox and some rocks to play with. anyway, i will leave you to get on with mix revision 42.

-- i think the holy roman empire have put out a fatwa on this magic plugin so you may not get to use it much longer. probably a good thing as it is leading people astray from the one(mono) true path --

 

i looked up the magic plugin. it seems like a similar concept to airwindows console. have you tried that? it is a two part, emmitter --> collector type deal and comes in a few different algorithms. you have to be wary of the levels you feed it. if you have not already tried it, it might be worth a try, seeing you are interested in that sort of thing.

airwindows plugins are free to use, technically donationware. i like the acceleration limiter, and some interesting singular utilities.

 

To keep the sanctity of the audio perspective holy, reverent and pure I listened to the last remix with only my phone speaker and was transported to blissful mono heaven. Lenny, you are the one true Pope, Monsignor.