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Oops double post, here's what I wanted to add for clarity. Would be interested to get the advice of you guys about it
EDIT TLDR : If some part of the spectrum is well mixed, a boost or cut will leave it well mixed (beware of phase etc), if it is badly mixed, it will just increase or lower the volume of this badly mixed part of the spectrum (but it could maybe have magical side effects with the rest and who knows ? if it sounds good it sounds good )
Edling
Lovely balance between vocals/drums/synths, everything blends together really nicely. Well-chosen effects with a lovely sense of spaciousness. The spectral profile is a little thin sounding in general, it feels like there's a bit of an EQ tilt going on pushing the highs and reducing the low-mids/lows, but other than that it sounds great.
Thanks for the feedback @BenjiRage and for selecting me for the second round. I'll try to get some more body in the low-mid area without going the route of boosting them on the master bus (which seems like cheating ). On the upside, I now have an extra tool to increase dynamic movement between the different sections of the song!
Not saying your comment wasaiming at me, but since I mentioned it in my previous posts, I need to answer lol.
I was feeling that way before, and still :
I'm trying to balance the individual tracks at best.
But then I apply processing on busses, and then finally on the mix bus. And my reasoning is like "I applied this compressor on, for example, beat + bass bus, and I'm happy with the groove, the grit, the mids, the highs, but it lowers too much the lows, but I like the movement that I'm hearing in this part", so it is like an adjustment, a correction of the bus processing.
You could see it like boosting some freqs into a saturator, then lowering them after, to add some distortion where you want.
I did read that usually with Tapes, it was common to boost the highs into the tape. If you apply the tape on the mix bus, is it cheating to to boost the highs into it (and maybe lower them after ?), just my two cents
PS : I'm not an engineer, just amateur since 1996 for composition, and 2005 for mixing. So I'm just telling my current feeling about it.
Cheers.
No I totally missed your comment, I was only referring to my own process
Old-school mixer that started out in -95 on tape-machines and analog desks. Today mostly in-the-box. Big UAD fanboy
Thanks for the feedback @BenjiRage and congratulation to all who made it in the next round, very well done!
I had a lot of fun mixing this song but was unforunately one of those who stepped in the "idiots can't read" trap
However, after reading though the guidelines again, I have a quick question regarding "Micro-adjustments". Would it e.g. be allowed to mute one or more tracks for a few hits to emphasize the transition into the chorus or would this already be too much of an intervention onto the arrangement?
Edling
Lovely balance between vocals/drums/synths, everything blends together really nicely. Well-chosen effects with a lovely sense of spaciousness. The spectral profile is a little thin sounding in general, it feels like there's a bit of an EQ tilt going on pushing the highs and reducing the low-mids/lows, but other than that it sounds great.
Thanks for the feedback @BenjiRage and for selecting me for the second round. I'll try to get some more body in the low-mid area without going the route of boosting them on the master bus (which seems like cheating ). On the upside, I now have an extra tool to increase dynamic movement between the different sections of the song!
Great mix indeed, one of my favorites from the top15! You can find the missing lower mids in the snare and some of the synth track have nice ones soo. I think you have enough up to 150 from the bass guitar but above seems indeed to be a little of a gap.
Edling
Lovely balance between vocals/drums/synths, everything blends together really nicely. Well-chosen effects with a lovely sense of spaciousness. The spectral profile is a little thin sounding in general, it feels like there's a bit of an EQ tilt going on pushing the highs and reducing the low-mids/lows, but other than that it sounds great.
Thanks for the feedback @BenjiRage and for selecting me for the second round. I'll try to get some more body in the low-mid area without going the route of boosting them on the master bus (which seems like cheating ). On the upside, I now have an extra tool to increase dynamic movement between the different sections of the song!
Not saying your comment wasaiming at me, but since I mentioned it in my previous posts, I need to answer lol.
I was feeling that way before, and still :
I'm trying to balance the individual tracks at best.
But then I apply processing on busses, and then finally on the mix bus. And my reasoning is like "I applied this compressor on, for example, beat + bass bus, and I'm happy with the groove, the grit, the mids, the highs, but it lowers too much the lows, but I like the movement that I'm hearing in this part", so it is like an adjustment, a correction of the bus processing.
You could see it like boosting some freqs into a saturator, then lowering them after, to add some distortion where you want.
I did read that usually with Tapes, it was common to boost the highs into the tape. If you apply the tape on the mix bus, is it cheating to to boost the highs into it (and maybe lower them after ?), just my two cents
PS : I'm not an engineer, just amateur since 1996 for composition, and 2005 for mixing. So I'm just telling my current feeling about it.
Cheers.
No I totally missed your comment, I was only referring to my own process
No worries, it is interesting anyway to compare techniques, and the logic behind it sometimes
However, after reading though the guidelines again, I have a quick question regarding "Micro-adjustments". Would it e.g. be allowed to mute one or more tracks for a few hits to emphasize the transition into the chorus or would this already be too much of an intervention onto the arrangement?
Hey, it's an interesting question in that it often sits in a "grey area" where the answer isn't always so clear. From my position as song provider, the example you have provided would be ok - it doesn't materially change the arrangement, it's more of a musical punctuation that you've enhanced through your mixing. However, this particular example (to my ears at least) sounds quite abrupt and for want of a better word "hacky" so definitely proceed with caution when going down this path for future challenges! You might not necessarily be breaking the rules, but the song provider might not necessarily enjoy your adjustments
)
