Hey Guy's! This is Sahej. Here's one latest song that I mixed would appreciate feedback, good or bad just come at me.

Little bit more info - I've been Producing/eng for 10+ years but for the last 5 years only been mixing songs. wanted to make this thread to see what you guys think how im doing so far. still long way to go but if theres anywhere i can improve i would like to know that please, also if theres anything you like in particular would appreciate that. Took me 7 hrs to mix this joint which is a good feeling as it used to take weeks sometime when I started out, but very early I realised that if a mix is not finished on the day it was started, it's just gonna get worse and difficult after that point. Also this is v1 and artist has approved it.

 

Last edited: Jun 22, 2024

oops here's the link - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h6b0...ey=zmukj34f6npnri1ane452hsw5&st=q5gmw0vd&dl=0

WAV - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ri06...ey=44194fwe49ccnomr2d7qf10cq&st=a106dql2&dl=0

 

Last edited: Jun 22, 2024

You have got the basics right and don't take it as diminishing to your skills quite the opposite, i'd say you're 85/90% there, mix is solid and balanced, what it lacks is that sparkles/excitement and that modern brightness, your mix is a little bit muddy i'd say

listen to what i have done so you'd get an idea at least of what i'm trying to communicate

 

I liked it. I didn't notice anything glaringly wrong. You already know, there is more work you could do to it; but that can also go on forever if unchecked. I would at least reimport the final render mix into my DAW or Wave Editor, and listen to it the next day. That's one more chance to process the track, with plugins stacked up and using the full resources of your computer (if need be). On fresh ears.

 

I really liked it, it is not my favorite style, but I have enjoyed it. Nice wide spread on guitars. May you can share more info about the mix, tools and wisdom used on this track. Definitevly @MrLyannMusic gives it a punch!

 

Hi. Solid fundamentals. It's that last 10% that's the hardest.

Are you using any comparison tools to compare your mix to other songs in the genre? It not, I'd encourage you to try them. I was hesitant at first because I thought it felt like "cheating", but these tools are helpful to focus you toward the general ballpark of where you need to be for your genres.

 

great job Sahej , lovely kpop vibe. sounds perfect to me. well done !

 

It's good enough to move on to the next track. It's a sparse track, your balance is linear there is nothing there that would be impossible to fix in post. IDK about the high end because it sounds like everything above 12-14K is chopped off - because it is that's what mp3 does to sound.

There is no thing wrong with it, print it, pack and move on.

 

Sounds good to me, as others have said, solid fundamentals

But I think it's lacking a bit of vibe. The music would enjoy more depth in the mix, with a more imbalanced mix. Everything sounds very much in front, dry and bright, so it's hard to separate the vocals from the accompaniment. It feels a bit busy, with sudden changes in dynamics that makes the listening a bit fatiguing on headphones.

Here's a great reference in this style :

It has a more generous use of reverb on key instruments, creating a nice atmosphere, and playing into this "chill" vibe. You can listen to other mixes by Jaycen Joshua. He's pretty much the top engineer in this style. Majid Jordan and dvsn are also artists that are great at this in their mixes.

But that's just my opinion, these are very much creative decisions. Technically, your mix is very nicely done.

 

Last edited: Jun 22, 2024

Thankyou for taking in your time and doing an edit. I will look more into that. I like the eq moves you made which is giving the vox a tad more presence may i ask what were your exact moves with the edit?

 

I agree, Actually thats my go to aproach but i do it differently according to my needs. I print everything where ever i can till all the tracks are summed to 4 final auxes- All vocals, all drums+bass, all music, all efx. and i would go back to the final auxes one last time the next day before printing the final.

 

Thank you. It all starts with a template that i use on every mix. With my workflow, it’s really important for me that the tracks and aux’s are routed the way I like.

My style of mixing is super inspired by Jaycen Joshua, so pretty much whole template is routed exactly the way jj has it but i have Modified it over the years. Only the god particle on the master with default settings that i mix into.



if this helps, major difference that i felt with my vocal mixing skills was when i started using using volume automation. Took me some time to understand it right but now i think just simple volume automation can give the last feel that artist might have missed, like i turn down harsh sibilants(basically manual deessing), Take down sustain on certain words or opposite, many other things that i want out of it. But most importantly I realized quite recently while watching the new jj video,that if you process your vocals first to your desired taste then slap a waves vocal rider before all the processing ( i have extra aux available already in the template for the same purpose) and now that you know how your multiple compressors are gonna react to your vox, you can tame what you don’t like and bring up what you wanna hear more. i think it all comes to your taste and how you want to feel your vocals.



Classic ps22 on the guitars followed by s1 imager doing a little bit. also i really like softube’s harmonics saturator plugin on the gtrs and keys. it gives melodies a little extra weight even with the default settings.



Soothe for all the sidechain needs.

1. certain things that i like to sidechain-
2. bass to kick
3. vocals to kick/snr but only the transient info
4. low end of music aux to bass but only on the mids
5. Music mids to vox
6. all efx to vox

im not necessarily doing a lot but enough for soothe to find that extra space between all these instruments

 

I use metric AB to ref between the demo, and sometimes would use it with other songs, and i agree! def need to get into habit of referencing more music.

 

Thank you for providing this ref. Great song, and i like it even more as its mixed by Jaycen Joshua the goat, who I religiously follow. I do agree i should have used bit more depth on the music, which i didnt, but def will remember this comment on my next mix!!

 

Appreciate that! Should have uploaded wav lol

 

First of all congratz(!!), i too follow Joshua and get obsessed, the mix is great, i guess chasing that 5-10% is what everyone is chasing, it might be that "air" or "sparkle". The problem is tho, when all the pro´s say they use only digital, they never say they push the final print thru the hardware they are monitoring thru(which ever one is suiting the mix), and why?Because plugins will act differently with that "blanket" over the top, and that is why they are all laughing...it is the ultimate prank game. I think he is doing the mastering also whenever he can. Anyway, my two cents are, if you get that Neve buss thing... and push the mix trhu it you would be a dangerous mixer!

this is my -6LU take
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I like @MrLyannMusic version too.

 

Last edited: Jun 26, 2024

What is this Neve buss thing, a Portico? No joke there, and that's the kind of 10% or whatever number someone wants to call it. Sometimes, you just know it's done. But usually, it's more like this. I will usually work on something and call it done when I open the project up, do some work, and the end result is not still getting better.

A wav uploaded might go a long way still. That's what you guys being able to do some improvements to it still; says to me. It's the 90/10 phenomenon where the first 90% of the track is done within the first 10% of the work. That last 10% taking 90% of the time is where things can get stuck. There is definitely a point where you can't go much further without the track "changing".

I like that sly Mobb Deep sample at 0:04.

 

Portico for sure, and no joke, whoever does mixing should get that thing, if i transition to mixing at some point it is the first thing on my list, i´m not even thinking twice. It solves so many problems.

But to your point, if you take a break for a week and hear the track again, any first hunch you have on some "snare transient" should be done right away, like.. first gut reactions are king. I agree man, i get stuck every day, and the tracks change so much so quick..fiddling with plugins and after 20 versions version 5 still sounds the best. It is the craziest thing..

 

We have a feature called "Alternate Mix" in Logic that helps with keeping hard drive space clear of duplicates you would make if you just "copied" the project. It just re-uses the same pool of audio files. But it is the damndest thing when you have a big mix built, create an alternate, and then reset all your channel strips and remove all the effects, A/B them; and that stripped version is still better than your mix.

 

haha
i´m sorry you gotta go thru that thing

We can agree that the feeling is the ultimate free plugin. But is shows how "fractal" is the learning curve....basically, if sounds dont work from the first go, nothing is going to help them, and if they do..mixing should be straight foward.

But on the other hand, you can always replace the kicks snares, do some "work" work, but if the vocals were recorded too hot...or poor production...