Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Heck yeah, David!! Ya beat me to it! I downloaded the free version the other day and can’t wait to check it out. Have you tried them yet?
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This is awesome, Paul! Sounds great, and what a fun happy tune! Without the sounds of a live audience you made this soundcheck sound like a record made in a badass 100-yr old “recording studio” – love it! Thanks so much for sharing the audio and pic of your “office”. haha. Amazing what you’re pulling off with Ozone and a 2-track! ⚡️
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So gorgeous, Jesse – musically and visually – as always, my man!
Few musings that come to mind:
- beautiful, enchanting, mildly haunting.
- the mood and similar-ish beautiful/haunting chords and melody remind me of a song from my childhood that’s always transfixed me: the chorus from “Calling You” from the 80s indie film “Bagdad Cafe”.
- yes! whistling is tricky to record for all the reasons you mentioned. Same deal with flutes. When mic’ing flutes and whistles I often opt for more of an overhead mic position so that the mic is still close to the sound source but the mic capsule isn’t getting bombarded with wind. If resonances and overtones are harsh you might also try mic’ing a bit off-axis (not pointing directly at the mouth or mouthpiece), or try a darker mic in general like a ribbon. I love using ribbon mics on brassy or overtone-rich sounds cause they kinda smooth a lot of that stuff out.
Keep crushing it man! And thanks for sharing your audio-visual journey with us here!!
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Port Authority, rehearsal space, bus station cleaning crew … lol — what a great image (and scent 😂) you’ve created for us to imagine as we listen to your bumpin’ mix! Love the live-band hip-hop .. brings me right back to high school in the early 90s when my lawn mowing biz was in full swing and my Sony Sports walkman was wearing out rap-metal cassettes like the Judgement Night soundtrack. Also reminds me of working with the supergroup, Prophets of Rage, several years ago, which was freaking amazing.
I love the flow and vibe of the Bronx Slang MCs, and how you’ve mixed this – bravo! My main thoughts, mixwise/production-wise, of things I might experiment with are:
- The snare: it’s wide and super fun, but I’m missing that punch in the center. Like, if you keep all that stereo snare ambience but layer in some “dry” snare right in the center to smack you over the head (hi fi) or punch you in the chest (lo fi) with each backbeat.
- The kick: it has nice attack and nice bottom but it feels very much like a “rock” kick. Might be cool to try either replacing-with or layering-in a slightly more “hip hop” kick.
Love this tho, Paul – thanks for sharing and for the trip down memory lane!!
*PS – wow, many of these Judgement Night mixes are not very good 😬 … hadn’t listened to this album in decades! But regardless, I love the experimental mish-mash of bands and MCs joining forces to pioneer new sounds 💯!!!
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I used this on a mix just yesterday! Very cool, useful, and creative!
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AG FLUXXXXX Strikes Again! Super sick track and song and performance, man – great work and thanks for sharing your badassery with us all!
My main feelings were:
- I felt like there were two separate mixes going on: one for the mid and one for the sides. In other words, the elements in the wide left and right were loud, bright and present; the elements in the center/mid (lead vocals, kick, snare) were a bit quiet and lacked booty, punch and sizzle.
- That led me to wonder what it would sound like if the center/mid elements were hyped up and turned up, and the side elements were left as-is tonally, but turned down a bit so that the resulting mix would regain a bit more power in the center
- Then, the newly balanced mix could get a wallop of more muscular agro mastering
My curiosity led me to throwing your mix into pro tools to see if I could achieve what I had in mind. Here’s an excerpt of where I landed. Hope u don’t mind me messing with it! Lemme know what u think. 🤘
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Jesse! Hope u won’t mind me copy/pasting my response from our sidebar text, and the awesome youtube rendition you did with Amy Cerveni too so that others can check it out – and damn, wasn’t expecting those pipes of yours too! 😲
That’s wild man – i love that u too have a connection w that song. I saw that movie many times as a kid when it came out, and while as an adult I don’t remember the movie at all, but I remember vividly the first time I heard that song as a kid in the film – i was spellbound!!! I couldn’t get enough of it. And of course there was no Spotify back in the 80s, so the only way i could hear the song again was on VHS lol. – Dana
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Ayooo! Poppin in here to remind folks that de-esser plugins aren’t the only way to control sibilance. There are some other manual ways I turn to, which often yield cleaner results than software/hardware de-esser devices, that I mentioned in another recent thread here. These manual options in conjunction with your static de-esser plugin setting might be just the simple fix you need to iron out those last few remaining pesky S’s. FWIW!
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Awesome, Pete – glad to help! Look fwd to hearing more! And, like @-PT , I dig the lyrics!
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Heck yeah, man! 💜
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Nice, Pete! Big strides here! Good move putting the de-esser before compressor – that does tend to help so you’re not working against yourself (trying to reduce sibilance after it’s been boosted by the compressor). Sometimes I even try a little de-essing before AND after compression if needed. That said, though, if I reach for a second de-esser, chances are I’ll opt to manually reduce sibilance via clip gain or melodyne amplitude tool. Anyway … just food for thought. There are no rules! And what you’ve got going on now is a big improvement!
Here are a few additional quick thoughts:
- the hi hat that enters around 1:30 and stays in the rest of the song feels a bit loud to me
- the whole track could get some louder “mastering”. See this post for some tips.
- extra credit / optional: the timings of various drum/perc elements as well as doubled vocal consonants feel pretty loose, which is totally fine as a stylistic choice(!), but for my ear those things pulled me out of the song trance a bit. For example, some of the hat patterns or drum programming feels like it could benefit from some quantizing. And some of the drum hits (like 2 kick sounds hitting at the same time) and vocal consonances (like 2 or 3 vocal stacks, T’s and S’s especially) aren’t lined up with eachother, which creates a lot of “flam-y” moments throughout the track. I’m not necessarily suggesting 100% quantization if that’s not your vibe. And if you want to maintain a looser more natural feel, you could always do this type of alignment manually, without the use of quantizing plugins or DAW operations. Or you could just be like, “Naw, Dana, I like it loose, brah!” and that’s cool too! Just offering my first impressions to take or leave as u see fit!
🤘
mixprotege.com
Limiter/Mastering Question - Please advise
Dearest Mix Geniuses!I have a question that I’m hoping you all can help me understand more clearly.It is my understanding that it is generally good…
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Excellent, man! Sounds great and “booty-ful” 😜. Love the new mix and arrangement updates.
My only thoughts, FWIW, were about the new intro arrangement. Feels like there are 2 intros currently, and the gap of silence btwn them made me unsure of what’s going on as a listener. Also, after that silence, when the vocal comes in, it sounds like perhaps there’s an edit where the cymbal hits and music enters? (like maybe the attack of the cymbal and instruments got cut off? – easy fix if so!)
I dig the way the song ends with the guitar arpeggio and when I heard that ending/outro I was like “ooh, why not use this guitar arpeggio as the intro as well?” Like, use the guitar instead of the current synth intro, no silence gap, vocal and music enter the way they normally do (tho maybe that intro guitar arp stays in too?), then maybe try muting that initial cymbal at the vocal entrance and save it for the first chorus. 🤷🏻♂️
Again, all just my own musings for you to take or leave as you wish! It’s sounding awesome, man – killer work!!
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Thanks, Pete! That was such a fun interview/chat with Ari. Gonna post it here on Mix Protege soon, too!
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Wooo! Fantastic, homey! Happy headphone-ing! 🎧
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Hahaha – love the “Thinker” with laptop 💻😂. Yeah, in general that’s a producer and/or artist choice. Though in my experience it’s often a discussion that includes producer, mix engineer, artist, and artist management. If there’s budget to try out a few different mastering engineers on the same song, that’s always an eye opening (ear opening?) and fun experience. As a mixer, I’m often relied upon for mastering engineer suggestions since I’m usually the person interfacing the most with that person.