Oba Ozai wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 19:32 CET
@javiramayo
"That said, I have to say that, some mixes like yours, required so much to tell that it seemed more appropriate to invite you to compare for yourself the differences that existed between your mix and other mixed".
"I am dedicated to making mixes and I've been doing it for 25 years" To me is not about the amount of years, is about the quality of your work; some can do great work with a couple years of practice. Im not one.
about -> "About the comment: "Your tracks where not the best recordings I seen, just doing gain stage there was a pain". <- is what a few real pros that do mixing for a living told me (I can provide the sources if you request privately) more than one. BTW, none liked my mix either, BUT they where explicit about certain things. And I do respect that, as I respect your opinion.
I was not expecting a full critique, but is good to feel honestly in responses.
In my view, to just say "listen and compare yourself" is not of great help, simply because mixing is part art, part science and part, plain business. It be like Rembrandt suggesting a young painter, just look, can't you not see?
As for my work, and being honest to my taste, to me it sounds a lot better than the one included with the original files.
In any case, im definitely grateful for the experience. And yes, there are some great mixes here offered to you. No doubt you got a good deal here with the quantity and quality of mixes offered. It be ridiculous for me to expect I be making a production that is to the level of a few of the well seasoned pros here. Not to mention what I imagine to be their gear.
The forum is not just for competition, a lot of it is about educational purposes.
High respects
Even if I was DSQ using samples, I think we can help you moving forward.
When I listen to your mix, I was thrown back a couple of years when I first started, so here are some tips & trix on how you can improve from my perspective.
When @javiramayo told you to listen to other mixes and then to yours, he means that it takes thousand of hours to get used to listen to certain frequency ranges in a mix. It takes a really long time, I promise.
However... I suggest you do following to really hear the differences between yours and others, just to get the "big" picture of how a song "should" sound like.
Now, when you have reached a point and learned how to gain stage appropriate, things start to get interesting like, reverbs, how much compression and so on.
For example, @javiramayo gave feedback on my mix - "Why all this compression?". This is subtle and taste, and like you mentioned... subjective. However, he's right in the sense of how to get a mix "breathe" more and not feel choked... but, this is something most of us will spend years on, as well as it is the most difficult part you will ever experience.
To describe your mix (the best I can), and how it sounded on my calibrated Genelecs, it was like listening to a song coming from an iPhone.
Doesn't this sound strange? It should sound more full, right? From 25hz to 20k.
I suggest you start with a two-step-rocket (from my experience so far):
1. Remove all plugins and set all levels on every channel at 0 and listen. Just start there and compare to your submitted mix. Where does it sound different? This is where you need to train your ears and get used to.
Take an EQ on the master and sweep around from say 25-300hz slowly. What instruments do you hear? Probably some umpf from the kick and bass at 25-120hz, right? Where's the details from the kick and bass so it actually cuts through the mix, the attack and definition?
When does the snare comes in? The bottom and "the meat" should come in at 200-250hz maybe? You get the idea...
2. Gain stage (disable all channels).
When you get the idea of where instruments comes in on certain frequencies, start wherever you want (all of us does it different) - but a suggestion could be with the drums. Start with the kick to where you think it sounds good and then add all other aspects of the drums, one by one at the time. Don't even bother to use plugins yet, they will become handy later on when more instruments are playing and you start notice rumble between the kick and bass.
Hope this helps! Cheers
. The last things was more automation on different instruments for flow and tune the vocals which i wasn't able to get to so they are what they are.
