Mixdown Practicing & Learning

MAGGHY JI

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Mark Opfer
Jan 16, 2022
Hi room!

Long time since I last joined you people for a mix, but I thought I would give it a whirl.

mainworkflow was as follows:
Order and group instruments, have a first listen and make rough balans using the group-faders.
Mute instrument groups except for drum and percussion and main vox. Make a good mix there, add bg vox, add bass guitar, add guitars, add piano and finally add the flute and bagpipe. Then add reverbs.

Since I think of this song as sort of a duet between the main vox and the low flute I routed both to my 'front reverb'. The bagpipes, guitar and bg vocals went to the 'back reverb'. For cohesiveness I send a lttle of the front reverb to the back.

I think the most interesting decision I made was to add a subsynth to both the main vox and the bagpipe drone to give them a little more weight.

Final move was to use a tape simulator on the mixbus. I traded some crystal clarity for a more mellow listening experience. Also, I love me some tape warble.

Here we go!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16UqJkITFMJjsNrMBC8adItZtb50xcv5S/view?usp=sharing
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SERZH MUSIC
Jan 16, 2022
Hi
To fully appreciate your mixing, excessive bass from 120 to 250 Hz prevents me from whistling frequencies around 6000 hz (And if you cut all the sibilants and reduce them manually, it will be even better). I would work on these frequencies and I 'm sure the music would become much cleaner !
In general, there is a good sense of taste and artistic vision in your work, but I repeat, personally, these problematic frequencies prevent me from delving into music.
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Mark Opfer
Jan 16, 2022
He Serzh, thanks for your advice. I just tried dipping a couple of db in the 100 - 500 hz range to see what that would do and I think you are right, it could use some work in the high-lows and low mids. Thanks for pointing that out!
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Cleo Simons
Jan 16, 2022
Hi Mark, very honest aprouch, for me a little dry in the flute and LV. Agree with Serzh, there are some low frequenties suddenly showing up that don't need to be there... But the clean style fits the song, nice work!
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MAGGHY JI
Jan 17, 2022
Hey Mark, I think the guitars need to be cleaned up (on the lows) and the "bassy" sound that enters together with the bagpipes tend to darken all the mix and as the others said, it shouldn't be there.. nice mix!
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Ben Sinclair
Jan 17, 2022
Hey Mark, nice up front approach with this one! I think we had the same approach on viewing the lead vocal and flute almost as a duet, so pushing the flute back with reverb to allow it to still be present without stepping on the vocal. As others stated, the subsynths didn't really help out, the song was already kind of boomy. I have a hard time hearing the bass in your mix, I think it's probably the acoustics as I remember them being a bit boomy/muddy, so shelving away low end on them will probably solve the problem and get the bass to sound clear. Nice mix!
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Mark Milbourne
Jan 17, 2022
Hey @Mark Opfer, Great strategy of viewing the vox and pipes as a duet! Do you have subs in your mix environment? The subsynth is a great idea, but it's generating competing frequencies. Maybe clamp that down with a multiband?

I am also hearing some pumping because of the extra lows.

I think your mix is damn solid. Maybe think about the KISS principle?
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Mark Opfer
Jan 18, 2022
Thanks for all your feedback! I will take damn solid any day of the week, but before I mess with a sub synth again I will definietly buy myself a subwoofer :P

When I went from my monitors to head phones I already turned the bass down by a lot, and I knew from experience with the bass detective that my speakers don't really make any sound below ±70 hz, so I should have known better.