Hi!

I wanted some mixing practice and worked on the multitrack of "The Weight" by Bret Alexander and Friends, available at the Roswell Pro Audio website. While this is not the style of music I usually work on, it was a nice learning experience.

This was mixed in Reaper, using a very limited set of plugins. I was mostly looking to use only one channel strip per track and make larger mixing choices on the instrument and master busses.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Just looking to get better at this.

Static Mix


Final (sort of) Mix

 

Not much to say. It's good. I do not know what "Static Mix" means, but I find it better, because of less reverb on the vocals.

 

To my ear the static mix feels more natural, even tho the top end you managed in the final version is not feeling bad either, but the vocal feels more special when coming in, like i pay attention more to the static mix.

Lately i´ve been thinking about how some mastering engineers are payed for their taste which sometimes is making more darker masters with more feel rather than transients and top end snap, and those songs/albums get recognised for being unique

 

Thank you so much! I have to agree. When I listen back after a day or so, I prefer the static mix too. It has no processing on the individual tracks apart from volume and pan, and all the processing is on the busses. I think I overdid it a bit with the vocal reverb. Still trying to figure out how to set that tastefully without it sounding overwhelming.

Thank you for the feedback. The recording was top-notch for this one, and the quality of the multitracks is doing 99% of the work on the static mix, I feel. I love darker-sounding songs. The challenge is making them translate properly on smaller speakers and earphones. I'll try this mix again with even less processing to keep the natural sound as much as possible.

 

it's really a good mix, good job mate!!!

 

Cheers mate! It is a risk, but if you make it translate closer to the static mix you might have a horse for the races to come

had fun trying to push it to some competetive levels
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/odim...shed.wav?rlkey=6v9w0j8g4793adhpfwzwsgpn0&dl=0

cheers

 

Last edited: Aug 10, 2023

the bass is nice on the second one. i almost thought i had my sub turned on already.

 

Amazing job on this. It sounds clear and present, the vocals sit nicely. What kind of processing are you running on this, if you don't mind sharing?

 

Thank you so much! Appreciate you taking the time to listen

Thank you! That's the Massive Passive emulation doing the hard work on the low end there. Much appreciate it

 

Cheers bro, the song is great and your mix holds up very well

All plugins
Pro-q3 and DDMF LP10 for eq
Supercharger GT and EMUPowerFX for comp
TRacks clipper and Vox Elephant/Ozone4/pro-L2

I might used Unisum comp and a Reaper exciter on the last one

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2023

Hit hats on Final have a little too sizzle and upfront level.
Vocals too compressed to my liking.

To summarize :
Vocal levels and hi hats from "static", all the rest is nice.

And push the violin a little more on Final, to compete with the vocals.

Nice mix !
I loved the high freqs definiton you got.

It was a pleasure to listen

 

It sounds really good! You achieved loudness while preserving the fundamental balance of the mix and also improving it sonically. Are you using any parallel processing?

 

Thank you so much for listening!

I agree. The highs are sounding harsh and poking out, especially in smaller speakers. Maybe a de-esser would do the trick. I'll try that in the next iteration. I'll also try using some volume automation for the violin. Valuable feedback, much appreciated

 

Appreciate it bro, i did spent some time on it, if the bass were 25% less distorted i think i could push it even more

The only parallel used was on Supercharger GT 80% dry/ 20% wet around 4db comp

Certain words have much more weight in a track, this version is more focused on the impact than the vocal feel
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/muh6...ibe1.wav?rlkey=vbd1i6x8hmq3gr29f373au6cp&dl=0

p.s. - do you mix edm/techno?

 

Last edited: Jul 20, 2023