Current Events > Anyone here know anything about audio mixing/engineering?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Could use some tips. I haven't done much mixing before, working on a track of mine and wondering if it's all wrong or at least headed somewhere in the right direction.

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@RedJackson I think

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Ah good I was already sending it to him lol

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Bump

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about to head off to sleep, but i'm somewhat acquainted with it, albeit with no formal training/education on the matter

what in particular do you have questions about with respect to the mix

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You'd probably fare a lot better with being able to isolate tracks, but I'll send you tonight's progress. Been doing vocals for two weeks and never hated my own voice more :D

Some tips on how to spread out midrange would be good, things seem a bit crowded and EQ is a weak point of mine

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Feel free to listen to it while cruising tomorrow. This was all done on headphones so I don't know how it will translate to a car/phone speaker.

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I produce. Did you double track your vocals?

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Nah but I'm thinking about it. It's all just on one track, but I've seen people duplicate tracks and diddle with the reverb and delay levels with volume to dance around with the sound. And I didn't do the classic double tracking either with two separate recordings John Lennon style. I'll send you what I have so far, feel free to tear apart the mix, I still have some vocal stuff to do like the bridge. Aside from melody/lyrics I'm open to changing everything aside from basic form.

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ShyOx posted...

Nah but I'm thinking about it. It's all just on one track, but I've seen people duplicate tracks and diddle with the reverb and delay levels with volume to dance around with the sound. And I didn't do the classic double tracking either with two separate recordings John Lennon style. I'll send you what I have so far, feel free to tear apart the mix, I still have some vocal stuff to do like the bridge. Aside from melody/lyrics I'm open to changing everything aside from basic form.

I sent you a PM. Great work on your song btw, well written and its the type of song I would genuinely listen to in my free time.

However, about that Lennon comment. Im pretty sure he was the one who wanted to skirt around the process of recording two vocal takes and insisted on doubling tracking.

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ShyOx posted...

Feel free to listen to it while cruising tomorrow. This was all done on headphones so I don't know how it will translate to a car/phone speaker.

Bump just cause this is the TRUE TEST lol

but at least it'll give you a good clue and perspective on where the song is at.. where it could go even

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listening to the song you sent - the fidelity of your mix is far better than anything i've put out, professional grade imo, and the track is all around phenomenal.

if anything i'd perhaps consider taking down the absolute lowest extremes of the frequency range (particularly with the sub-bass and kick) so it doesn't overwhelm the rest, but not so much where its "impact" is reduced, for lack of better words

a touch of (additional?) saturation on the vocals also wouldn't hurt in bringing it out further

on a more subjective note, vocals might benefit from some [additional?] subtle reverb, perhaps with ~4s decay, particularly around the chorus

i'm not sure what the instrumentation is in the instrumental bridge in particular and the final section, but it seems at times to clash with otherwise flawless layering. i'm not sure what you're going for with it, though i'd personally consider reducing the higher frequencies on that particular section a notch (at least where it's most apparent) and increasing its release time a bit (if possible anyway).

however, you're probably working with a soundsystem with far better fidelity than i do, and again there's a significant degree of subjectivity to these suggestions, so take this all with a grain of salt; it's likely you're hearing some things i can't on my speakers.

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TheMikh posted...

listening to the song you sent - the fidelity of your mix is far better than anything i've put out, professional grade imo, and the track is all around phenomenal.

if anything i'd perhaps consider taking down the absolute lowest extremes of the frequency range (particularly with the sub-bass and kick) so it doesn't overwhelm the rest, but not so much where its "impact" is reduced, for lack of better words

a touch of (additional?) saturation on the vocals also wouldn't hurt in bringing it out further

on a more subjective note, vocals might benefit from some [additional?] subtle reverb, perhaps with ~4s decay, particularly around the chorus

i'm not sure what the instrumentation is in the instrumental bridge in particular and the final section, but it seems at times to clash with otherwise flawless layering. i'm not sure what you're going for with it, though i'd personally consider reducing the higher frequencies on that particular section a notch (at least where it's most apparent) and increasing its release time a bit (if possible anyway).

however, you're probably working with a soundsystem with far better fidelity than i do, and again there's a significant degree of subjectivity to these suggestions, so take this all with a grain of salt; it's likely you're hearing some things i can't on my speakers.

Nah it's all on headphones and I think they're just mid range. In today's listening culture that's what everyone is listening on outside of the car so it's probably a fair way to mix anyways, wish I could get some good monitors though.

Yeah I'm still finding the balance; looking at a lot of records/artists like The Weeknd, Bo Burnham's new thing, Daniel Johns 'Talk' (main reason I went electronic from singer-songwriter type) and they have the wall of sound type thing with that deep bass that floors you, but theirs tends to have more texture so I'm tweaking knobs and things trying to get there lol. Right now it's two different bass parts playing the same thing, just panned to different sides. I like the way one bounces but the other is just a lounge lizard wurli-mock with the octave taken down for my 49 key midi board.

I think I'm going to side-chain the bass to the drums and shop around for other plug ins for the wurli bass side. The bass drum is giving all the pulse needed anyways and has that good deep bass sound I'm going for.

The vocals def need some further tweaking, the only work I did there was cutting a bit in the mid but it needs more, and I'm gonna double track them. I completely forgot about the bridge when tracking so I have to record some more of that and then re-record the guitar, the guitar ended up being too low a signal and we lose a lot of tonal quality. Might try doubling the mics and blending.

Thanks for the props and suggestions; went ahead and worked on another one tonight, I can shoot yall mixes of that one eventually too. It's the more hit-potential of the two but it's also a lot more work ie vocal harmonies. Had to get an sm7b since I was losing tone when I got loud with my at-2035

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Well @TheMikh I listened to it in the car today and couldn't believe I didn't notice howmuch the sub bass was clouding everything. Tonights first fix lol

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Gonna put in a lot more work tonight. Sorted through my other track and realized I had to re-track half the vocals >.<

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Do you have a SoundCloud or Bandcamp by any chance? I'd be interested in listening to the rest of your discography.

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check out hiwatt, aka ken marshall on youtube. his channel is real rad and goes deep. prolific engineer and seems like truly genuine dude.

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