Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Hey Bar! What a beautiful vibe this piece has. I’m listening on my AT headphones while resting in bed and couldn’t help but close my eyes and relax while the sounds washed over me. Very nice!
My main technical observation/suggestion has to do with the main guitar. There seems to be a low-frequency thumpy rumble that could easily be attenuated with a high-pass filter. At times it almost sounds like 50-60 Hz wind noise but, unless you recorded outside, I bet the mic just picked up some thumpy finger proximity or something. Anywho, should be an easy fix!
At times I wondered if the vocal and the bouzouki were a bit TOO hi-passed. They both sound great as-is, but if you’re interested you could experiment with adding a bit more body to the vocal and bouzouki (maybe 3db of 150-ish on the voice, and 5db of 250Hz-ish on the bouzouki? These frequencies and dBs are just guestimates).
As always, take it or leave it! haha. Really great work, both you and @sexton! 🙌
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PS – I love that Tedder course!
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Hey Nate! Huh… that seems super odd and no bueno. I haven’t done much bouncing out of Logic, so I can’t weigh in on that from my own experience; but perhaps @michael or other Logic geniuses here have some insights to share?
I’m “subscribed” to this thread and look fwd to hearing what others have experienced! Thanks for sharing and reaching out, man!
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Yes! I know a lot of long-time “Maschinists” on Reddit and YouTube are pissed that the v3 update doesn’t (yet) have many of the long-awaited, often-requested updates; but I for one am excited about what is included. I’ll take what I can get, right?! Haha. And at $29 it’s a no-brainer for me. … well … with one caveat: Maschine+ “standalone mode” isn’t yet supporting the v3 update.
I have a Maschine MK3 and also an M+. I’m gonna wait for M+ v3 compatibility cause I just KNOW that if I download v3 for my MK3 I’ll start creating projects and then will be super bummed when they don’t open on my M+ in standalone.
All that said, I can’t wait to implement the new v3 features into my workflow!
How bout you, @smoothygroove? Gonna take the plunge and update your Maschine?
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Stuart!!
Back from walkabout with another wonderful Roholt Reward! Love it, man, thank you for sharing this. You have a keen eye for sweet and fleeting freebies, and you are the BEST for hipping us all to them!
And yeah, I agree – All the Soundtoys stuff is excellent. Hope this freebie brightens someone’s day! 🌞
Great to have ya back, homey!
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Really gorgeous, man! Always such a treat to hear what you’re cookin up, and always such a fun musical journey!
Here are the things that struck me while listening at medium-low volume on my living room stereo while the Santa Ana winds blow through an open window at midnight with all the lights off:
- try turning down the whoosh sfx in the intro. I love that effect and the way it pans across the stereo field and sets the stage for the song! But I felt like its volume skewed my perspective once the vocal entered, making the vocal seem too quiet. My hunch is that if u tucked in that effect so that the vocal entrance is big, proud, and upfront as a “you have arrived at your destination” moment, then all will be well.
- If I were producing this (which I am not, so, as with everything that tumbles out of my brain and onto these forums, take or leave as u wish!) I would spend an hour in Melodyne buffing and polishing the lead vocal — in a totally natural-sounding way, of course, per my Natural Vocal Production course, so that your listener cannot tell it’s been worked on. I would also tighten up the timing of the main tom/percussive rhythm pattern that drives the song. It’s a bit rushy-draggy, especially when it first enters. I find that gently, lovingly touching up things like rhythm, timing, and pitch – without going too far – gives the listener a sense of calm and confidence in the record, which really goes a long way.
- As the song progressed I was searching for more “bass instrument”. I was like, “where’s the root?” Part of my auditory confusion was probably due to the resonant notes of the toms that ring out – and are very cool. But I wanted some kind of bass guitar or bass synth holding down the root notes, even louder than the tom notes, to more easily identify the chord changes. I’m sure you’ve got something in the mix doing that, but it just wasn’t coming across at low-ish volume in my living room. So maybe turn up the bass and/or, if it’s a super sub-y bass, try adding some harmonic distortion to the bass which will often create partials/harmonics that accentuate the pitch and perceived loudness of the instrument, helping it pop on smaller speakers or on large speakers at low volume.
Anywho, that’s what I got for ya! Excellent work homey! You AND @nate! This is sounding really cool already, man. I look fwd to hearing it out in the world soon!! ⚡️🤘🤓
mixprotege.com
Grammy-nominated producer, mixer, engineer, Dana Nielsen teaches how to comp, tune, and mix natural-sounding vocals and acoustic guitar.
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Wow, dang… scenario B! That is a head-scratcher then! Keep us posted if you continue hearing this issue (um, without trying to psych yourself out too much lol)
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My pleasure, Nate! And way to persevere and work around those pesky troubleshooting issues! 💪🤓
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I hope your wife is recovering well, Paul! 😌
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Ah, yeah I get it! And true, none of these features are new to me either, as I’ve been making “digital stems” for years now using iZotope RX’s Music Rebalance. Ditto on the other “new” instruments added to Maschine V3.
I think what I’m realizing, however, is that unlike most users, I’ve always used Maschine outside of my main DAW (pro tools, Ableton) and so these V3 updates for me are like, “ok cool, thanks NI!”. In other words, even when I’m composing or beatmaking in Pro Tools, I prefer to run Maschine software as a standalone DAW rather than a plugin within Pro Tools. I just find it to be much more fun to use maschine when it’s untethered from my DAW. This is also why I’m loving Maschine+ lately, cause now I’m LITERALLY untethered from my whole computer! lol.
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YAAAY! Huge congrats on the release, @nategomoon, and great work, man! 🎉
1. For tuning, yeah, it’s hard to get the automatic pitch correction tools to do exactly what you want. Unless I’m looking for that T-Pain effect, I always do everything manually using Melodyne. You can watch my complete vocal Melodyne process in chapters 8 and 9 of the Natural Vocal Production course. Melodyne, to me, is the most flexible, most powerful pitch (and timing) correction software. It’s amazing.
2. Sound quality / Logic bounce: I saw your new thread in the MP Logic forum about this – thanks for posting that there! Curious to hear if other folks have had a similar experience. @michael and I have already weighed in there w some thoughts. 🤘
3. Plugin blips: not sure what’s going on with that and don’t know that particular plugin. But it could be worth making sure you have the most current version of the plugin (maybe a recent update addressed a “blip problem”). Also you could try raising your audio buffer size in Logic’s settings? Sometimes blips like that occur during playback when your CPU can’t keep up with demanding plugins on a low buffer setting.
Hopefully some of these suggestions will help! Keep us posted!
mixprotege.com
Grammy-nominated producer, mixer, engineer, Dana Nielsen teaches how to comp, tune, and mix natural-sounding vocals and acoustic guitar.
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Oh, that is an important follow-up question for Nate: @nategomoon, when you notice the difference in high end punch on your bounces, are you listening on the exact same system, using the exact same outputs and speakers?
Scenario A: If you’re bouncing mixes out of Logic, in your studio where you mixed it, and noticing a sonic difference while listening to the bounce in your car or on your home stereo, then room/speaker calibration might be the solve, as @michael suggested.
Scenario B: Let’s say you’re mixing in Logic, in your studio, using a UAD Twin, outputs 1-2. You do a bounce of your mix using UAD 1-2. Then you open your bounce in Quicktime with your computer output set to UAD Twin 1-2. If you play back that quicktime using the same exact interface outputs, listening on the same speakers, does it sound any different from when you click over to Logic and play the live mix session from there? …. if so, the culprit may be in the Logic bounce settings and/or the youtube/gearspace/tedder conspiracy is real 😲😂.
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Heck no, man! So glad you shared!
And gorgeous looking (and sounding) DISCO page. ⚡️ Beautiful arranging and composing on there, homey!
I was poking around and enjoying all the tracks and stumbled on “Happy” and was like, OMG I forgot about this one! So freaking cool, top to bottom.
@joerobinson, “Happy” is one of @nate‘s excellent shares here on MP Member Spotlight a while back – u can check it out here:https://mixprotege.com/forums/discussion/mix-feedback-on-original-piece/
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Re NY “On Broadway” scenario: 😂
Re binary November: 😩 -
Love this reimagined intro, Paul! Very compelling, anticipatory, and exciting! The loudness was thrilling too. Had me leaning in, ready to hear what comes next. 🙌
It may be more “production-y” than @shimmerisland hoped for from us, lol, but I thoroughly enjoyed your take on it! Great ideas as always, man!
@shimmerisland: I do also love the way you have your intro, as-is. Music is not binary; there are a million fantastic intro options, and you have already crafted a great one. Just thought I’d clarify that my excitement about Paul’s intro option does not mean that I am not excited about your current intro! ❤️🔥