Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Got the files loaded up in pro tools and sounding great. Which DPA mic is that and where did u place it? That’s got the incredible low end I’m hearing – love it!
I’ve also made some adjustments to the iphone track which balance the image of the ambience and guitar. Hoping to show yall in a vid on monday including also my RX process for multi-mic guitar squeaks 🤘
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Jesse!! Boy, you really riled up those birds at the end with your stunning performance! 😂
Soooo beautiful, man. I love it!! Giving me some Pat Metheny Charlie Haden “beyond the missouri sky” vibes, which I’m a huge fan of.
As Jeremy mentioned, the guitar squeaks caught my ear. Personally I’d keep the top end the way you have it and would use izotope RX to reduce the volume of the fret noise. I typically do this manually using the attenuate or replace tabs within the “spectral repair” tool – however, there is also a “guitar de-noise” module which does a pretty good job automatically.
And dude … the low end on the guitar is massive!! I love it mucho!!
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oh, and I love the long fade at the end! Really lets me enjoy the space you were in and confirms that your environment was intentional and is of equal importance to the record.
I did, however, find myself wishing there was a bit more “nature sound action” on the right speaker. Seems like most of the bird and creature activity occurred on the left side of the image. And hey – that’s probably exactly how it was when you recorded it! If that’s the case, no need to adjust nature! lol. I only bring it up in case that panning was accidental or something. Otherwise, disregard.
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Yeah Paul!! So great to hear this, and as others have mentioned, really sorry for your loss.
I totally “ditto” Jesse’s great ideas, and Jeremy’s too – they’ve really brought up all the same big picture thoughts that came to my mind too.
On the technical side (even tho it wasn’t asked for haha), I would bail the flanger on the distorted guitars and also try a more vintage amp sim with some nice spacious reverb decay. The solo guitar, you could try keeping the original tone and even keeping it dry if u like, to contrast the big wide non-flangy vintage verbed electric guitars.
Also for the acoustics, I’d love to hear more body on ’em. If I were mixing this song, I’d start by muting everything except the vocal, acoustics and bgvs, and make the best sounding record I could using just those elements. Like … I would mix as if those were the only 3 things in the song. Then once I love that version, I’d one-by-one add in the other elements to see how they fit in the the record as “support”
I do also – like jesse – feel the midi stuff is a bit jarring and I might experiment with different sounds or textures in those b-sections. Like, the marimba feels out of place for the vibe of the song for example. But the part is cool. Know what I mean?
Love the song and performance!! And am looking fwd to hearing how this progresses, man!
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Ooh, sick – thanks, Jesse!! I can’t wait to hear what new sounds and shredding synth lines you come up with using this new technology!
Dropping a link here as well if anyone wants to dive deeper:
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I will definitely defer to @-PT on this one, but from my experience:
- FOH should absolutely give you both L/R channels of your laptop (NOT just arbitrarily pick one). If FOH is running your monitor via console Aux Send 1 for example, they would send equal amounts of Left and Right to Aux 1 so that you’re getting both sides summed to mono in your wedge.
- You could always touch base w the FOH engineer and say something respectful like, “I’m sure you’re already doing this, but is it possible to get both sides of my laptop into this mono wedge? You rule – thank you!”
- Or, as part of your baller rider, you could require 2 stage wedges for stereo monitoring 🤑
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Yes, yes, and YES! I love that you are as mesmerized as I by the mind-warping phenomenon that is RX Spectral Repair. So insane to be able to see music and sound and the relevant harmonics! And it’s even more insane that we’re able to visually adjust the sound, not just look at it. I’m with you man – it’s magic.
The fine folks at iZotope came through with a temporary fix for me to use while they work on a more permanent solution. It seems I uncovered a bug they weren’t aware of. So this past week instead of making videos about RX for you and Mix Protégé, I made videos about RX for iZotope, haha. They were awesome and ON IT, which was very cool and helpful.
I saw that you already released your song and amazing boat video on Youtube, but if it’s cool with you can I still use your guitar tracks for demonstration purposes?
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Hahaha, awe, thanks so much man – I’m so glad it resonated and was as fun for you to read as it was for me to imagine and write down.
And heck yeah – always follow your heart! 💜⚡️🤘
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Sorry no vid yet, Jesse. I’ve been working with the folks at iZotope on a fix for something I discovered while making a vid for you… stay tuned.
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So cool, Paul – I LOVE the a cappella intro and was totally drawn in right away as the production developed. Hearing those bgvs louder was super fun – those are great!
For the heavy guitars, I always wish they could sustain alll the way till the next chord(s) so there were no blank spaces … like, once I hear them I don’t want them to go away! If I had my grubby knob-twisting hands on these tracks I would probably try adding some kind of “sustainer” type plugin or pedal or process on those crunchy cool guitars to experiment with elongating those held chords. Could be done via stretching them or something. I used to use Paul Stretch for this, an old incredible standalone free software that I’m not sure exists anymore. You could stretch a sound out for literal DAYS. Another thing I might try is playing the same part on a couple of new guitar tracks, but letting the strings sustain naturally. Treat those w/ the same type of amp sound and then blend them in with the existing guitars so the original guitars are still there in the mix, untouched, and the new guitars “carry the torch” when the orig guitars die out. Just spitballing ideas here, don’t mind me.
It would also be cool to utilize the accordion after the first instrumental bridge as a pad texture. So we hear it first as the arpeggiated bridge part and then when the next verse starts it turns down a bunch but does paddy chords so that the “new shiny object” introduced in the bridge doesn’t disappear but rather fades into the fabric of the song and arrangement.
~ [INCOMING STORYTIME MIXING ANALOGY…]
I’ve never described it before as such, but sometimes while mixing a song I imagine myself the listener as a guest arriving at a party. I arrive at the front door and it is quiet outside the house (I hit play but the song hasn’t started yet). The first person I meet at the door, the host, says hi and welcomes me into the foyer (the lead singer sings an opening line atop a minimal, inviting ambiance). As I’m led by the host toward the living room we bump into Paula and Travis who’ve just stumbled out of the hallway bathroom. They are loud and drunk and happy, and we all shake hands and hug (B3 organ and background vocals make their entrance .. the song develops). As we move past Paula and Travis into the kitchen I’m greeted by these two bearded lumberjack-looking twins, Ace and Johnny (chorus crunch guitars). Ace and Johnny stay in the kitchen doing Jågermeister shots while the host brings me and Paula and Travis out to the patio where there are a bunch of other partygoers watching a skinny hipster play an accordion (the accordion enters for the bridge turnaround section). Just as the hipster finishes his totally non-ironic ditty, there’s a brief moment of silence before Ace and Johnny suddenly burst through the kitchen door out onto the patio, their voices booming, their flannel lumberjack shirts smelling like hickory smoke. There are now a dozen partygoers on the patio talking, laughing, cheersing, etc (the song is in full swing, heading toward the final chorus)….
The point I’m trying to make is that as I meet people at the party they have my full attention, we’re introduced and chat for a sec – this is like a new instrument entering the arrangement of a song. In the mix, I often turn that new thing UP and draw the listener’s attention toward that new thing. As the song/party ensues and we meet new people/instruments, those people we met earlier in the night don’t LEAVE the party the moment we start a new conversation with someone else … rather, they usually fade into the background ambience. For example, I might go chat with the Accordion Hipster for a moment but in the background I’m still aware of Ace’s booming voice, Travis’ reedy laugh, Paula’s occasional hoots and whistles, and of course the host, who has now fired up a karaoke machine and is absolutely SLAYING “uptown girl” by Billy Joel.
Ok, that was interesting. And amusing, at least for me, lol. Hope that party analogy for mixing was somehow helpful, and keep up the awesome work, @-PT!
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Awesome! Can’t wait to see the video!
If you want, send me your raw consolidated stems (the tracks that are getting routed to your guitar buss). I’ll see if I can make a vid showing my method for multi-track RX’ing and guitar de-squeaking.
https://www.dropbox.com/request/IANIcxUN2UmfPJ5PtNBt
(I’ll text u a password – that way this link won’t be accessible by someone reading this post a year from now lol)
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Ooh, good idea for a video! Hearing and identifying mid-side issues is one of those tricky things to wrap your ears around, much like “hearing” compression or identifying phase anomalies.
I’ll add that to my video list!
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Hahahah – brilliant post and excellent insights, Paul!
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Ooh, this sounds nice, Paul! Thanks for the screenshot too. And for the use of the word “slovenly.” 🏆👏
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Paul! Thanks for the great comments and ideas!
Would you mind re-uploading your EQ image when you have a chance? Looks like for some reason it’s not showing on my end. 🎛️