Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Nate!! Stoked you’re here, man – thanks so much for sharing this awesome track with us! And, wow, this has come a long way since I last heard it – excellent work!
I agree with lots of @-PT‘s instincts (tho I am not as anti-whistler as he, lol). The main overarching things I hear are:
- Heck yeah, louder vocals please! You sound great – let those vocals be loud and proud
- The delay on the vocal is cool, but you could probably a) automate the delay so it’s louder in some areas (based on featured moments and lyrics) and more subtle in others, just for variety and clarity; and b) like Paul mentioned you could try EQ’ing out the high frequencies of the Delay FX return so that the delay is darker/mellower than the raw vocal. This is a common trick to allow the vocal to remain clear and intelligible even when swimming in delay effects.
- The clap backbeats feel like they’re the loudest thing in the mix at the moment. I’d try turning those down and turning the vocal up.
- LOVE the low vocal bass stuff and octaver vocals – very unique production and sound!
- As Paul mentioned, I agree it’d be cool to experiment with a simpler beat or backbeat for the verses. I have some ideas but too difficult to type – much easier to demonstrate on video or audio (perhaps later when I’m back in town – on fam vacay at the moment w laptop trusty Audio Technica headphones)
- Also as Paul mentioned, the track might come on a bit too loud in the intro. I mean … loud is good! … as long as the arrangement can sustain it through to the end. What I mean is, just make sure IF the beginning of the song is hella loud, make sure the end of the song (or wherever the climax occurs) is EVEN LOUDER! For more info on how I structure loudness and build it into a mix, check out the “Find the Drama” tip in my 5 Mix Power Tips pdf. 🤘
Lastly, your one-mic drums are cool! Check out the replay of our recent compression zoom for some fun things to try, smashing those drums up even more, if u want.
Awesome work, Nate!
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Bar! What a beautiful recording, song, performance, mood, and mix! Brava, and thanks so much for being here and sharing this with us! I really enjoyed listening to this. I’m away from my studio on a quick family trip, listening to this on professional headphones and laptop while sitting on a balcony surrounded by palm trees. Not a bad soundtrack!
Here are my realtime notes I jotted down while listening. These are just “what-ifs”, not actual issues or anything like that, so as always, feel free to disregard!
- 1:09 would be a great spot for a new element to enter (structural, subtle. Like single-note or two-note “chords” holding whole-note or half-note pads that u barely notice but that help the listener feel like the arrangement has become slightly thicker, more complex, even if they can’t pinpoint what’s been added. Could be a mellow electric organ or a pump organ or anything pad-y and unobtrusive)
- solo at the end – could have some subtle long spacey verb. like, mostly dry guitar in the mix but behind the guitar solo there could be some kind of wide spacious ambience to add a new flavor just for the solo to set it apart from the rest of the song.
I also love the mix and song exactly as it is right now! So, again, take these ideas with a grain of salt! 🧂👏👏👏
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Jeremyyyy! I listened to this on my earpods on my walk today and LOVED it! Bravo, dude! My one and only micro-thought that occurred to me was this lil nugget I always put into practice:
Make sure the very first word of the very first lead vocal entrance is clear and proud. Often times I’ll give that initial vocal entrance some extra fader love to ensure it’s not lost at all beneath the beautiful track production. This isn’t something the listener should notice at all like a wild fader move. But more of an assurance QC checkbox for me while im mixing: can I absolutely understand the first word, first line of the lead? ✅ Does the lead vocal make a grand, memorable, definitive entrance? ✅
Whether you decide to update your mix with this in mind or not, you have crushed this production, song, performance, and mix, my man! Way to go!
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Woomp, there it is! Hope you fabulous “stooges” can join us!
mixprotege.com
👂 How To Dial In Perfect Compression Settings By Ear
Come hang with Dana and your fellow Mix Protégé community members as we talk compression - specifically (but not limited to) stereo bus compression!
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@Bigchrizzle comin strong with the great questions again! Love this. I definitely do not have specific ratios or other compression settings I always use for mix bus glue. But what I do have is a method for deciding on settings which I’d be happy to demonstrate via video!
If you (or anyone else here!) are interested in that lemme know and I’ll either record a demo or schedule a livestream or member zoom. Great topic!
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Paul! Sorry I didn’t see/hear this sooner! Fun track, man, and great pix too. For me, the picture that best fits the mood of the track is a “comp” btwn the two: giant rock-lizard riding that sweet hog into the dusty desert B&W sunset!
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Homey! So good! And so sync-able (naturally, you sync gem!)
My only thoughts are:
• More kick in intro. I know you’re kinda waiting to reveal the kick when the whole beat drops, but maybe try letting the full kick be in the intro but low-pass it or band-pass it? So it feels loud enough and knock-y enough on small speakers while still letting the listener know “this is just the intro beat … just you wait .. this track about to knock your head off when the REAL beat drops!” (which it DOES! 👏)
• Intro lead Vocal feels a bit loud against the track and also a bit “spitty” on the tippy top end. “Spitty” has nothing to do with literal spit in my learned lingo FYI, it just means sibilant and/or a bit too hype-y or shrill on the top end.
• The level and tone of the chorus vocal when the whole beat comes in at :30 is GREAT. I would use that as a guide to level/tone the intro vocal.
• Hi hats throughout the song – I would tuck these in a bit. They feel too out in front of the track to me.
• 1:07 I’d try a bone dry vocal here till 1:30
• 1:50 Vocals here starting to feel spitty again – not sure if u boosted the top end here for these chorus vocals or if it’s just that there are more harmonies stacking up compounding their top end, but I might try dialing it back a touch. U could even try leaving the lead voc alone but dialing back the top end boost on the backgrounds to see if that does the trick.
• Final lyric “the top is like wuh” could be boosted so u can really hear it and it doesn’t get too swallowed up by the cool swoosh fx. (also, sorry, I’m sure I don’t have your lyrics correct haha – just typing fast)
BRAVO dude! What a super banger! I can hear this track with all it’s sections and drops and twists and turns being a commercial AND sync hit! ⚡️
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Roy! Wudup, man! Can’t wait to listen to this in the studio tomorrow!
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@Bigchrizzle! This is such a great question and one I think about and tinker with all the time.
Here’s my general approach to fx while mixing.
- I always get my initial balance without reverbs / delays, and I let the dry mix “tell” me what it needs — for example, while I’m working on the dry balance my imagination is filling in various effects like a vocal tape slap effect or a delay throw on that lyric there, etc.
- After I’ve been mixing “dry” and my imagination has been consistently suggesting the same effects ideas over and over again, I’ll take a moment to manifest those ideas using various plugins on a series of stereo FX returns like Slap, Delay, Verb, Modulation, etc. This initial “FX manifest” doesn’t have to be 100% perfect, but it should at least be a quality representation of my imagined sound.
- I’ll play around, mixing with the FX, automating some of the special FX moments I’d imagined, having fun while doing some delay throws, reverse reverbs, maybe some kind of bone-dry vocal line when the band drops out before the last chorus …
- Then I’ll mute them all again and really focus on the dry mix, imagining “how could I make this mix radio-ready without any effects?”. I’ll really try to make the mix as engaging and exciting as possible with no reverb, delay, etc. This “back to dry” process forces me to work harder on what I would consider the essentials: balance and automation.
- Once I have a dry mix that really slaps, that I’m loving even without FX, then I’ll put headphones on and bring my FX return faders back up, little by little, adjusting to taste. Doing this part in headphones ensures I wont add more FX than needed – the FX are there to support an already rocking mix. And since I already designed the FX in step 3 and know they’re in the ballpark, this final step is really just about fine-tuning rather than exploration and discovery.
So in general I like to keep things fresh and stay inspired by toggling back and forth (usually for hours, sometimes days, at a time) between dry mixing and wet mixing. And the point at which I switch between those modes is when I feel I’ve started to lose steam or perspective and need to re-inject some inspiration into my process. ⚡️
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Homey! So exciting to hear this great track progress, and glad you took the plunge into melodyne – that software is incredible. Nuthin like it. And the vocal work you’ve done is definitely sounding more polished! Nice 👌
The mix sounds different than before – kinda thin and scooped out in everything but the bass and kick drum. When I checked the new mix against your original mix (and that Christine and the Queens ref) I was like, “ahhhh there’s all the body I was missing!”
Maybe you left sonarworks on while you bounced the file, or went too deep on a new mastering plugin? 🤷🏻♂️ I’m so curious! But regardless, it’s definitely comin along man! ⚡️
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@-PT I agree with @shimmerisland – I hope you’re writing and/or interviewing people publicly somewhere (in addition to Mix Protégé)! The wider world needs more of your spirit and turns of phrase.
And @shimmerisland, Vonnegut is right on the money 😂
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Hahahaha!
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UNREAL @Nate! So beautiful. Fantastic job on the song, the production, the singin’, and the mix!! And thanks so much for sharing your journey with us! 🥇
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Awesome, man, I’m so glad to hear that! Happy to help, and look fwd to hearing what you’re up to!
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Yeah your instincts are correct: put IBP on one of the two tracks so you can sweep around the delay and phase knobs to find a setting that brings the piano “into focus”, especially the low end and low-mids, which is where you’ll likely hear the biggest effects of this IBP knob twirling.
That said, I find that upright pianos are always a bit of an untamable beast when trying to find the perfect full-frequency phase alignment between two or more close mics. I attribute this to the fact that the strings on the soundboard criss-cross: low strings running diagonally in one direction, hi strings diagonally in the opposite direction overtop the low strings. So I’ve found stereo close-mic’ing an upright seldom results in perfect phase results across the whole frequency spectrum. You might sweep the IBP and get a perfect result in the low register but find that setting isn’t great for the mid-range.
So … with that in mind, what I love about the IBP is I can sweep around and tailor the L/R phase and time alignment to suit the song, giving preference to frequencies (i.e., notes on the keyboard) that are prominent in the arrangement and/or essential to the song or mix. For example: who cares that the stereo piano mics are perfectly aligned and in phase for the lowest notes of the instrument if those notes are never played in this song? If a tree falls and no ones is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Know what I mean? I hope I’m making sense, Patrick!