Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Kevin!!
So thrilled to have u here in the MP community, and what a killer first post! This is badass. I’ve posted a few thoughts via video below.
Also, which DAW are you using, and can you tell us more about where you recorded this? Are the drums all live, or are there samples in there? They sound nice!! Great work, and I look fwd to hearing what you add to this! 🤘
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Jesse!!! Dude, this is so beautiful, visually and musically! And I love that the iphone audio captured live is used in the final mix, surrounded and augmented by a richer overdubbed atmosphere … so freaking cool! BRAVO!!! 🙌💜⚡️
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Also – never even heard of Needlepoint, and turns out I own it as part of my Plugin Alliance MEGA Bundle, so I’ll for sure be messing with that thing in the near future – thanks for the tip!
And for anyone else who’s interested, it looks like it’s on sale for $29 at the moment. 🤘
plugin-alliance.com
Authentic, physically modeled vinyl effects from subtle to surreal.
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So fun hearing this one again, Paul! — this time on headphones… sounds deep and punchy! 🙌
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Stuart! This is super cool, man – love it! Tension for sure ⚡️. FWIW, dropping a couple thoughts here on an otherwise fun, exciting mix and production!
- The synth lead at 0:52 feels real loud to me against the track. Try turning it down? orrr … try leaving it loud but with heavy side-chain compression keyed by the kick and snare, which would give the synth some aggro pumping action AND it would let the kick and snare cut through the synth better so those drums stay powerful and upfront (right now that synth is kinda drowning out the kick/snare).
- I love how huge the snare is! That said, I want the kick to be JUST as huge as the snare. Currently the kick feels a bit low-volume. Crank that thing up so it punches me in the GUT!
That’s all I got, man – killer job!! And thanks for sharing with us all!
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Jeremy!! I think this is sounding great, man! I didn’t hear anything noticeably harsh or offensive, frequency-wise. The “woofy” rap vocal sound kinda like an effect to me, like a subtle telephone-bandpass. Either way I assumed that tone was intentional.
Any mix engineer refusing to check mixes on headphones should be given a serious side-eye (my daughter hands those out for free, so lemme know if you need one… I got extras!). I always learn so much listening in headphones. I do all my mixing on speakers and then right at the end (sometimes as I’m printing my first mix) I throw on the cans. Invariably, I realize I’m not done with the mix yet and need to address all the wonky things I’m hearing in the headphones! I know I’m finally ready to print a mix when it makes me equally as stoked to listen in headphones and speakers.
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@Bigchrizzle! Welcome to the Member Spotlight, and thanks for sharing! Here are my initial thoughts on first listen:
- Overall this sounds bumpin! Love the way you’ve mixed the track (is this your production as well? Super cool!). Kick and bass are so beefy! Love it.
- Intro vocal sounds awesome, great level, eq, swirly fx. As the track starts and this intro vocal starts I’m all in, loving everything 100%! All the rest of my thoughts about the mix, after the intro, are vocal related. All easy stuff too and I’ll list them below:
- In general, after the intro vocal, the rest of the vocals feel too loud to me, starting at 0:26. I would use the intro vocal/track balance as your blueprint for the rest of the song. If you get the rest of the vocals in the song to sit in the track at the same level as your intro vocal sits in the track you’ll be good! Certain sections currently feel extra loud, like the V2 “I don’t need a boat” section just as an example
- Overall the lead vocals could really use a hi-pass filter or similar EQ to reduce body and proximity effects. 0:19 “deep flowin’ river” is a good example where u can hear proximity effects or wind on the mic capsule that pull me out of the magic of the mix. I think if you try a hi-pass on all the lead vocals around, say, 70Hz or even higher, you’ll clear up the listener’s spacial perspective, sitting the vocal “further back” into the track (once vocal low end is shelved or cut in this way it makes the vocal sound farther away – more ‘on a stage with the band’ as opposed to ‘talking closely into your ear’)
- Try some reverb on the chorus vocals. Could be cool! In general there are great opportunities here for either a) more verb on the vocals across the board, and/or b) reverb/delay “throws” where u automate the vocal send to the verb/delay to punctuate certain words in the lyrics.
- Rap verse vocal feels dark — hype that sh*t up!
- Love hearing your shoutouts from the artist at the end!!! 🙌
It’s so close man!! And great work!! I bet if you load up your favorite sounding, similar vibe/tempo pop r&b mix on spotify and reference it while you work, you’ll find all the vocal level / tone inspiration you need! And keep us posted man!! ⚡️
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Thanks so much for listening and for the kind words, fam!! 💜⚡️
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AG FLUX! Love this, man! Thanks for sharing with us all 🙌
Here are my initial reactions:
- The autopanning on the Rhodes feels too extreme to me – like, it’s kinda fun and trippy in the intro when it’s the only instrument, but after that the “depth” of the panning kept distracting me from the vocal and it was all I could focus on haha. I would try a few things: 1) keep some of the rhodes fixed at center pan while a lesser amount of it swirls L/R (u could achieve this via parallel processing or blend knob on the autopanner, or put the pan plugin on a send so u still get a fair amount of “dry” centered rhodes. 2) slow the pan frequency so it’s less franetic, more washy, oozy-doozy. 3) make the rhodes more dark/lo-fi so it competes less against the vocals and becomes more textural than featured. The filtering could be automated too if u want, so instead of “rhodes on” and “rhodes off” you could have “rhodes filter-morphing” as a 3rd option. I tend to automate the stock Avid “kill filter” or the Soundtoys FilterFreak for this type of thing, but there are tons of options out there.
- Turn up those vocals! And they could use a bit of hype and hi pass. Here’s a tip that feels like cheating: drop a Waves CLA Vocals plugin on the insert, load up the “Face to Face Dry” preset, which will sound overboard and too loud but also cool, so then just dial back the output and some of the other bells and whistles on that plugin to taste. I’m all about knowing (and teaching) how to achieve a polished, hype, hifi vocal sound from scratch. But if you’ve downloaded my 5 Mix Power Tips you’ll also be familiar with my “don’t be snobby” tip lol. I used to scoff at those all-in-one Waves things. And while they do look hideous 😂, and do kinda feel like cheating 🤫, there are some great go-to settings and presets in some of them that I’ll turn to for a quick fix.
- Love the kick – feels great
- Could smash up the master bus a bit more – not distorted, but louder and more aggressive. Try some harmonic console bus plugins on your master and see what sounds cool. Waves NLS and Softube Console1 are a couple go-tos of mine. And then check out the limiter vid I posted on @JLEW‘s recent discussion and see how far you can comfortably crank that mix. https://mixprotege.com/forums/discussion/limiter-mastering-question-please-advise/
Great stuff, Alex! Looking forward to reading thoughts from others in the community and hearing how your mix progresses!
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This reply was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by Dana Nielsen. Reason: forgot to add link to Jesse's forum discussion
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I LOVE this, @Dave! Heck yeah, experimentation, finding the limits, pushing the gear, accidentally stumbling onto cool sounds … that’s the best stuff!
Also … look what sits just on the other side of my room:
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@ABrown! Thanks, man!
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Woo! Can’t wait to hear it, man!
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Nice! I’m ITB as well – have been for the past many years, happily. My main speakers are ATC SCM45As. I also have a trusty (smaller) pair of their SCM25As. They’re both excellent.
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Love this, Alex!! I can really hear and focus on your vocals now! And so many great little ear candy production moments (are the background vocal textures new? Really nice!). Bravo, bra! 👏 💜
And thanks everyone for their amazing, insightful, creative suggestions!! Go, team!! 🤜 🤛