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I’d love your feedback please:)
Hey Mix fam! I’m a bit of a neewbie here, trying to figure out all this mixing and mastering stuff haha. Wondering if somebody with good ears can give this a listen and give me your feedback. It’s a little song I wrote and produced. Is it loud enough? Too loud? Balanced? I welcome and would appreciate any feedback and advice on making it better. Thanks friends!
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9 Replies
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Jesse, this is a beautiful tune. I’m pretty sure I hit zen at around the 30-second mark!
I’m no resident expert, I mostly wanted to just jump on and give some encouragement because I really enjoyed this.
My two cents for what it’s worth:
I realize it is not typical for there to be a lot of hard panning in this type of music. You’re likely wanting to avoid distractions or take the listener out of the moment, but I wonder if there are some opportunities to add a little motion.
Perhaps the swell at the 1:55 mark can be a more extreme pan. The harmonizing gtr, like the one at 0:45, maybe a subtle L->R. The brown/white noise-type cycle that runs throughout the song, maybe moves around the stereo field a bit?, or maybe some automated EQ filtering as it moves through the song. (same with that 16th pulse that comes in around 1:20)
🤷♂️Again, great job! I really enjoyed this tune.
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Hi Jon!
Thanks so much for listening so carefully and for your kind words! Your input is very much appreciated and helpful. I agree with all of those comments and I will go back in and address them.
I actually panned quite a few things in the mix but I think the furthest I went R or L was 25 or so. I heard from somebody that you should never go past 30? (in other words no hard panning) but maybe I was misguided there haha.
I wonder if anybody else in the group has thoughts or insights on panning rules? Are there such rules? Especially given that many folks listen thru their phones?
Curious what folks think!
Best,
Jesse
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Jesse!!!!! I can’t wait to listen to this properly in my studio in the morning! Was a busy day here w sessions. And @Jon_Plett thanks so much for weighing in with those great suggestions!
@JLEW …. take that panning guidance you received in the past and throw it IMMEDIATELY in the garbage! 🗑️ And then light it on 🔥 just to be sure it’s gone for good! hahaha. For real tho – panning is such an amazing source of expression in mixing. I haven’t even listened to your piece yet, but can safely advise you to roam freely about the stereo field with your creative choices. There is definitely a time and place to keep focal elements centered (lead vocal, bass instruments, kick, snare, etc.), but even those rules were meant to be broken when it feels right.
Legend has it, the fully-sweepable pan knobs we know today weren’t even a THING when stereo mixing first hit the music scene in the late 1950s. Mixing consoles of the day had buttons on each channel – one to send the signal to the Left speaker, one to send it to the Right; and by engaging both buttons you could send the signal to both speakers, i.e. Center. So, in essence, you had three choices: hard left, hard right, or right up the middle! I think back to some of my favorite stereo records of the 50s and 60s and how wild (and courageous!) it seems that the drums are all on the right speaker 😲 and the bass and piano are completely isolated on the left speaker 😮🧐 … what once seemed to me like “odd” or “brave” panning choices were really just engineers of that time having fun experimenting with the “brave new world” of stereo mixing, playfully utilizing these TWO brand new buttons on their consoles! Crazy, right?!
So… don’t be afraid to be brave. Be odd, too, if ya like. And above all else … have FUN!
P.S. – This Wikipedia article is pretty fascinating.
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Awesome! This is great advice. I guess I got scared to hard pan pan elements in case the speakers got really far apart or something – but I will be more liberal with my panning choices. A friend of mine was just telling me the other day about the old days of mixing with only the 3 choices (C or L or R). He said he’s been mixing like that recently and its really cleared up his mixes a lot.
Speaking of which – (and I’m sure this is a big subject!) but if you were to hard pan like you are describing – how does it translate when people listen through their phone speaker? Does the iphone just sum everything to mono? Is that something to take into acount when making panning descisions?
I’m looking forward to hearing what you think about my current master of windmills, which is more dynamic than the other version, especially focusing on working from the big section. Power Tips baby!
JLew-
Yeah man! The phone will sum that wide mix to mono for the most part, which is fine. I’m constantly referencing the tiny side-speakers in my studio, pushed together in mono, as I mentioned in this thread from a few weeks ago – check that one out, u might dig!
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Finding clarity in chaos - Mixing - MIX PROTÉGÉ
Finding clarity in chaos - Mixing - MIX PROTÉGÉ
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Sounding sick, @JLEW ! The couple things that come to my mind are:
- some of the bass notes feel louder than others, at least on my system. Like the Eb note resonates much louder than the other notes. Sometimes I do a fair amount of bass automation or note-by-note leveling (drawn automation or clip gain) to ensure that the lower/deeper notes remain as audible/loud as the bass notes in the higher register, and that the higher notes don’t get unnecessarily loud simply due to their higher pitch. Make sense? If your bass synth is an audio file (as opposed to midi triggering a virtual synth) you can often see, visually, the louder and softer notes.
- The kick feels left-of-center and – despite my recent “creative panning” post 😂 – I feel like this sort of “dance kick” deserves to be in the center.
- You might try, as an experiment, mixing a version with the guitar muted 😳. I know, I know, .. the guitar is the star of the show! But it might be cool to try the “Mute the Drums” Mix Power Tip but on the guitar, just to see what kind of creative mixing adventure that leads you on, letting go of the lead instrument and just crafting a wild dramatic ride with the supporting instruments as if there were no guitar at all. Then of course … fit the guitar back into your new instrumental to taste.
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Awesome! Thanks so much man! My bass is in midi, but thats such great advice – I’ll resample it to audio and then Ill be able to see the wav file! your heavy! Thanks a million!
Learning everyday!
❤ – JLew
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Heck yeah, homey! So glad to help and LOVE hearing your amazing progress!!
PS – I added a few more ideas to the original post, as I wasn’t done writing when I accidentally hit “post” haha
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Amaaaazing and such deep and helpful feedback hombre! Thanks a MILLION!!!! I will deal with these suggestions! ❤❤❤ JLew
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