Find Another Me

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cowparsleyman

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« Reply #15 on: December 13, 2019, 08:50:04 PM »
Again thanks to all that critiqued this one, I've spent the last week remxing, Hope this is better...

I have replaced the original file in SC,

It shouldn't be so muddy (thanks to Maag EQ4), BVox up in the mix, the overall level is higher louder, LVox over the mesa's at the end was using automation a'la Boydie, there is no Master buss EQ applied, this was all done on individual tracks or subMix busses.

The Whole thing has been put through the Plugin alliance townhouse bus compressor and Sonnox Inflator, removing the Waves L3 ultramaximiser and Waves RBass tht I tend to put on the Master buss.

Any let me know if it's any better...Gloves off again..but Iwould understnad if you don't want to listen to it again, that's totally cool ...

mickyplankton

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« Reply #16 on: December 14, 2019, 08:12:36 AM »
Hi cow man. This is a good song. But you have been so restrained in the production that it doesn’t quite take off. It improves a lot at 2.35 when the song beefs up , but even then it’s still a bit safe. I would also consider speeding it up a bit. Not much but just enough to give it a bit more swagger. Cheers Micky.

cowparsleyman

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« Reply #17 on: December 14, 2019, 10:31:49 AM »
@mickyplankton - Nice to hear from you again Micky, thanks for the listen and your kind words - This one is a sequel to a previous song called 'Spitting Feathers' so it's kind of maintaining the vibe from that...Funny this is the original bpm master, with the initial release I moved it to about 125, exactly what you suggest, so I'll go ahead and listen again and decide.

I know what you mean about the 'safety' of it, it's intended, giving space for the story to unravel, and with it there's more bovril added along the way and gives more contrast when it does eventually beef up, one is ready for the double Mesa's due to the clear stupidity of the bloke in the song

There will be a 3rd song in the story...

Jamie

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« Reply #18 on: December 14, 2019, 03:44:53 PM »
Hi Rich, I didn't understand half of what you've done to this but to my untrained ear it is soooooo much better. Theres a clarity that wasn't there in the first version hence my 'foggy' :P comment! The track is really lifted , wish I knew what you were talking about re the treatment! ::) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Nice one!
Cheers
Jamie

cowparsleyman

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« Reply #19 on: December 14, 2019, 04:29:07 PM »
@Jamie - Oh Man, sorry about that - thanks for the additional listen, didn't really thing anyone would bother.

At the risk of patronising you, and stirring up debate (this is just my opinions)  I'll take a bit of time to explain what I did...maybe it helps someone else with 'muddy' mixes.

First it won't always be obvious to the mixing engineer that a mix is muddy, sometimes the song is heard many 100's of times and there's a brain fog that descends, at the time I mixed this I had a cold, so my luggoles might have been a tad bass heavy.

I took a by-thebook-approach to loudness, there is a way to measure the loudness of a song (google Ian Shepherd), if you have a Loudness meter it will do all sorts of wonderful things, the guide value is around -14 LUFS for Spotify, which I followed and as a result it sounded to me rather dull on Spotify, especially when the previous track is comparitively loud, (Louder songs usually give the impression that it's better)...so I made it louder (-10LUFS)

Tone
The aim is to hear each intrument group clearly, this can be done by making each group sit in it's own frequency range, so they don't clash, so often I hear clashing...there are some very cheap tools that assist with this (check out Voxengo Span)

Tone or Equalisation (EQ) can be a devil sometimes, especially when one has a vast array of plugins to hand, and it's not always adding frquencies that might help, but very often removing the harsh ones works even better, a famous producer once said "Adding EQ makes it sound different, removing them makes it sound better", the basis for this is that adding eq is putting something in that wasn't there, removing is just taking out something that was. Maag EQ4 is a little plugin that quickly shapes the tone, but keeps it very natural, that's a bit rare, as many EQ plugins want you to hear a massive difference ...

About Submix busses
A submix is a group of tracks that are related and the relationship between them is important, drums is a common submix buss, where indeed the Kick and snare levels are extremely important., so if the levels between each drums is right as a kit, then it will sound better in the song, there is a master fader to control the overall level of the submix, so this can be brought up or down in relation to the whole song, this is really really handy and I know a lot of members here use this , @Cawproductions @Skub @pompeyjazz etc... EQ plugins are rather handy on the subMix buss, such as SoundToys Decaptitor on the drum buss, a very quick way to add reall ooomph, gently does it though, a little goes a long way.

The submixes usually goes either to a Instrument only submix buss, or the master buss (or 2buss as it's called in the States)

In find Another Me I looked carefully at the submix levels and solo'd the subDrums and Bass together, then added the subBVox so I was comfy with those,

I always enable a master buss compressor once the song is taking a bit of shape, as this help me to 'get my ear in' along the way, then near the end I apply a limiter, and this is the bit about the Waves L3 Ultramaximiser , this is just a limiter, which basically stops the volume going over a certain level, say -6dB.

Instead of the Waves Limiter I have tried a few, and now my goto limiter is the Sonnox Inflator - it's so natural, don't get me wrong I love the L3, but the Sonnox is just so smooth, much of the clarity from the remix is coming from that...

Any I hope I haven't confused you even more...and hope this helps

As always feel free to PM me if you need any more info...