MixWOLPH3 - Draft submission - camillo jr

[camillo jr]

Here's my bit! This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It was interesting going for different vocal textures in each section although I'd say the vocals are fairly up front for the most part. I did a lot of experimentation with the bridge and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it. There was always the feeling of veering between simplicity and a more effects based approach. I think the whispers decided it for me. But I've got to stop mixing this for a while!

Really glad fader8 and Lagerfeldt put this song forward, thanks for that.

EDIT:
On the following MP3 file I just noticed that there are three glitches in this MP3 that are not part of the song file. Specifically at 2:04, a small pop right on the P, at 2:06 a chunky swoop sound on the "fire" phoneme and near the end at 3:33 there's some odd thing that comes in right after his last word. None of those is in my song file.

Click here to listen to the mp3

[Eriksimon]

Camillo, nice work! Very nicely balanced throughout! I've opened it, removed all headroom via the Gain plugin (+4.5 dB), slapped on an AdLimiter with +6.0 dB, bounced and listened. With this very crude "mastering" your mix already is a tad louder than what I produced... I like the stronger definition and snappyness of your snare, and the consistency of the vocals. Though I may have overdone my reverb, I do think you have still underdone that... but overall: you made the best of careful mixing/automating, without enlisting an army of plugins and buses and auxes.

In der beschränkung zeigt sich der Meister.

[camillo jr]

Thanks very much Eric!

Interesting comment about not using an army of buses. I've got 8 fx buses and another 6 for submixes and so on. All of which is about twice what I normally use in my client's productions. (Mostly folk and roots musicians.) OTOH, there is an army of compressors at work there, which is mostly all I'm using on the vocals for leveling. I think I have like maybe just three vocal rides in the whole song, which again is unusual for me. All hail the Logic compressor! Man, you can get a lot of tones and effects out of that thing. I'm just getting to know it again because I've been using FabFilter's Pro-C for quite a while.

Re - reverb. There's a few spots where I might add more. I really went for clarity of vocals here, given the tender subject matter (according to my wife's interpretation of the lyrics ). I kept looking around for similar songs on youtube and I couldn't find one quite like this, in terms of the vocal. It seems to me a lot of pop vocals these days are really in your face. But the textures are also often more minimal whereas this song had a lot of busy elements to knit together so for those reasons I went for more clarity in the vocals.

I'm curious if you also think the choruses need more reverb? They have the most delay and reverb compared to the other sections.

One thing I discovered recently is that in a situation where I've got, say, a lead vocal and some harmony vocals, if I put reverb just on the lead vocal, in some mixes it makes it sound like there's reverb on everyone, especially if the harmonies are tight. There's no harmonies in this song but I used the same principle on the doubles and octave voices, which really helps clean things up.

BTW, my wife just told me what your German quote means. Thanks for that too, I really appreciate it!

[Rev. Juda$ Sleaze]

Hey man, yours is the first I've listened to, it's pretty cool and very up-front. I think you may have to find some things to bring back in the mix though, there's a lot going on in there, so a fair chunk will have to be banished to the realm of "subtle" IMO.

BTW, thanks for inviting me in, the water is pretty warm!

EDIT: Oh yeah, and you left that bit of headphone bleed at the end of the track.

[Rev. Juda$ Sleaze]

Hmmm... You have made me realise that I've completely misused those filter sweeps before the drops though...

[camillo jr]

Hey man, yours is the first I've listened to, it's pretty cool and very up-front. I think you may have to find some things to bring back in the mix though, there's a lot going on in there, so a fair chunk will have to be banished to the realm of "subtle" IMO.

Intriguing comment! In my nouveau pop mixer brain, I thought I had banished some stuff to the realm of the subtle. Are you saying that some things need to jump out more? Or that the stuff I muted in the outro might be better left in?

BTW, thanks for inviting me in, the water is pretty warm!

Great, one more perspective on this choon. This must mean there is a right reverend mix waiting for our perusal? Looking forward to it.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and you left that bit of headphone bleed at the end of the track.

Damn! You're right.

[Rev. Juda$ Sleaze]

Hey man, yours is the first I've listened to, it's pretty cool and very up-front. I think you may have to find some things to bring back in the mix though, there's a lot going on in there, so a fair chunk will have to be banished to the realm of "subtle" IMO.

Intriguing comment! In my nouveau pop mixer brain, I thought I had banished some stuff to the realm of the subtle. Are you saying that some things need to jump out more? Or that the stuff I muted in the outro might be better left in?

Hmmm... Think I was suffering from ear fatigue when I wrote that. But it does still seem slightly crowded in the upper middy synth sounds. Might've been to do with listening through headphones too.

BTW, thanks for inviting me in, the water is pretty warm!

Great, one more perspective on this choon. This must mean there is a right reverend mix waiting for our perusal? Looking forward to it.

Oh yeah

[fader8]

BTW, thanks for inviting me in, the water is pretty warm!

Great, one more perspective on this choon. This must mean there is a right reverend mix waiting for our perusal? Looking forward to it.

Oh yeah

.....and the good reverend drinks the Kool-Aid... er, comes over to the darkside,,,,um, succumbs to peer pressure.....

[Rev. Juda$ Sleaze]

.....and the good reverend drinks the Kool-Aid...

...It tastes funny...

[camillo jr]

Hey man, yours is the first I've listened to, it's pretty cool and very up-front. I think you may have to find some things to bring back in the mix though, there's a lot going on in there, so a fair chunk will have to be banished to the realm of "subtle" IMO.

Intriguing comment! In my nouveau pop mixer brain, I thought I had banished some stuff to the realm of the subtle. Are you saying that some things need to jump out more? Or that the stuff I muted in the outro might be better left in?

Hmmm... Think I was suffering from ear fatigue when I wrote that. But it does still seem slightly crowded in the upper middy synth sounds. Might've been to do with listening through headphones too.

Well, when I listen to our two mixes (yours and mine) back to back, mine sounds scratchy by comparison. Or yours sounds dark! Now I can't make up my mind, which is why at some point I'd like to find a good pop tune to reference against my mix. That's the thing - you think you've nailed some aspect of a mix and then later down the line you go "what was I thinking?!?" In particular, now I'm wondering if the voices are too bright in my mix. It's not like I'm even adding very much high end but worth looking at anyway. However, I don't think I added much of anything, EQ-wise to the synths - mostly that was low-end subtractive EQ, if memory serves.

[Rev. Juda$ Sleaze]

Well, when I listen to our two mixes (yours and mine) back to back, mine sounds scratchy by comparison. Or yours sounds dark! Now I can't make up my mind, which is why at some point I'd like to find a good pop tune to reference against my mix.

Good idea!

Mine is kinda "smooth" (or dark), but I think that might be my 80s pop sensibilities.

[camillo jr]

Well, when I listen to our two mixes (yours and mine) back to back, mine sounds scratchy by comparison. Or yours sounds dark! Now I can't make up my mind, which is why at some point I'd like to find a good pop tune to reference against my mix.

Good idea!

Mine is kinda "smooth" (or dark), but I think that might be my 80s pop sensibilities.

Funny you should say that 'cause I thought the track had a bit of an 80s vibe to it even though it's got the more modern hoover sounds and so forth.

Anyone got any suggestions for some reference tunes?

[camillo jr]

.....and the good reverend drinks the Kool-Aid...

...It tastes funny...

That'll all pass when it kicks in.

[Rev. Juda$ Sleaze]

.....and the good reverend drinks the Kool-Aid...

...It tastes funny...

That'll all pass when it kicks in.

And one more:

[Rev. Juda$ Sleaze]

Anyone got any suggestions for some reference tunes?

This really reminds me of being stuck in Romanian taxis with the radio on... unfortunately I never thought to ask for any artist's names...

[Eriksimon]

Tiësto, Armin van Buuren... Just hijack some audio via the iTunes store... I did...

[RolandFan]

I think you did a nice job here! The mix sounds full and polished. I think the vox could use some reverb and a subtle delay to fill it out, but that's a personal preference. Of course, there's always little things I might do differently, but I think this is a solid, quality mix!

[camillo jr]

Thanks man! I agree about needing some more verb and maybe delay. I want to put more "gloss" in this mix. I've been listening to artists like the ones Eriksimon recommended a couple of posts back and the big thing I notice about them is the reverbs sound very misty and kind of vast sounding but without sounding much like any real room - no boxiness whatsoever. I'm guessing that those reverbs are kind of thinner on the bottom of the spectrum although I don't really know.

[camillo jr]

Note - I've noticed some glitches in the MP3 file attached to this thread. See my edited post at the top of the thread.

[Pinknoise]

I like what you did with voices in pre-chorus(or first part of chorus) voices sound like they're going inward jumping delay preset on delay designer.
Also ensemble plugin on whispers is very good idea.
Using only parts of the guitar makes it sound alive.