May mix challenge 2022

[Paul MotionParticipant]

@Steve, for the synth I have put the J37 across it, (I’m using Only Abbey Road plugins from Waves because I’m a masochist), I also compressed it and rolled off the low end as much as possible to try and get some spread.

For vocals, a bit of verb or maybe a delay. They just feel a bit dry to me. If you have some on them at the moment then more! 🙂

The thing with feedback is that music, like any art, is subjective so it ultimately just becomes opinion. The detailed technical feedback comes with time. I’m not great at it to be honest but the more you do it the better you get and I find it also really helps your own work as you’re listening critically which helps focus in on the problems I have in my mixes. I also found the Sound Gym practices really helped.

I’m struggling with the vocals at the moment. The plugins just don’t have what I need to get them to sound how I want 🙁

[KipParticipant]

Arthur that low end is incredible to me.

vocals could use some top end.( for me) but very rich warm mix with the drums just hitting perfect...if i where a rich man i would look into those acustica plugins...really thick in the best way

nicely done

[Jon griffithsParticipant]

nice mix arthur. think vocals both backing and main on the chorus could come up a bit,

drums are amazing

 

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Jon griffiths.

[Paul MotionParticipant]

Hey Arthur, nice work man. I don’t really trust the sound quality coming out if Youtube even when I have it on highest. From what I can hear I’d agree that the vocals are a bit quiet.

For me the bottom end is pretty big but I’m hesitant to comment there given it’s youtube…

very silky smooth mix though 🙂

[SteveParticipant]

Hi Arthur, I'm with Paul in that the  low end sounds pretty big for me too.

I also agree with Jon, that the chorus vocals (where the vox split left and right), could come up a bit, just to match the verse level or just a little more.

I like what you've done with the synth , really nice.

And those drums !  ;0)

Overall, I like the different direction you took the song  ;0)

[SteveParticipant]

Trying to apply the feedback to my earlier attempt, is it an improvement, or have I fudged it ?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SxuuOW-GjCOfOjcRkhuLXsstOzbAP5GO/view?usp=sharing

@Paul, I found the culprit on the electric at the end, it was an incorrectly set gate threshold, hope I've sorted it for you ;0)

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Steve.

[Paul MotionParticipant]

Hey Steve, sounds great man. I like the tones. Possibly a little more 2 or 3k on the bass to help bring out the articulation.
I would bring the acoustic a bit more into the middle… maybe at 60% rather than close 100% left. Then spread the piano far left and right. Basically the acoustic sort of sounds outside the mix a bit too much.
Go wider with the hat and have the tambo over the opposite side to balance.
Snare sounds great.
Go a little wider with the toms.

Almost there for me.. great work!

[KipParticipant]

steve

i hear a very warm natural mix that fits the song...im Leary to offer any more as i dont have the ears but i definitely would be happy were it my mix

[SteveParticipant]

Thank you Kip, yep considering the challenge I'm content with how it sounds (my ears are not that good either), I'll re-do the song at some point with my usual choice of plugins, and see if i can get it any better.

@ Paul, I hear you, but as I try to move the drums / hat around I'm fighting the OH and room mic's, so (for me) it's very tricky.

The Tambo can be moved I think, so I'll try that when I re-do the song.

I have a low pass filter cutting off the high end on the bass, so I could relax that, I really missed Bass professor mkII for bass, I also missed the TDR plugs  ;0)

My take aways........

All things considered, I'm glad I had a go at the challenge, going with a basic set of plugins really changed my approach, made me think and was indeed a challenge (for me).

Overall I like the Dead duck free bundle, it's plain and simple, clean and easy on the eye.

nothing clever like dynamic eq's or multi-band compressors, all old school manual, it has what you need, though not always what you want.

And it all worked on my system (Win 10 / Reaper) without glitches, and it's free.

One thing though, I'm not a big fan of the reverb, it's ok, it works fine, but it has one sound, so if it doesn't suit the track ( I'm thinking Jonah Smith or Steve M), you are kind of stuck with it.

I prefer Oril River, Dragonfly, Melda or of course Valhalla for free reverbs with more options in room sounds / manipulations (maybe I'm just more familiar with them).

I think the developer originaly designed this bundle for getting people away from using their eyes and using their ears more, personally i think they succeeded.

Will I use them going forward ?

Probably not for mixing, I have other options including stock for the basics, but every now and then I might challenge myself with them again, just as a reminder to use my ears (it's a bit like soundgym without the answers / scoring), so i'm keeping them installed for that  ;0)

[Paul MotionParticipant]

Hi, here's my attempt. Still not happy with the bass. I tried to adjust it after this mix and messed up so much more. I think it may just need turning down but would love some feedback.

I ended up using the Abbey Road plugins from Waves. These were:
Chambers
Plate
RS124 Compressor
EMI TG12345 Channel Strip
J37 Tape
Reel ADT
TG Mastering Chain
REDD EQs

I should have purchased the RS56 Passive EQ as the EQ on the other plugins just isn't accurate enough at all.. meaning you end up having a couple of the same plugins to access different frequencies BUT.. the Abbey Road plugins are hungry hungry beasts so I ended up running out of CPU power 🙁

The things I liked; the J37 tape is brilliant and quite versatile. The Reel ADT can also be used for a few different things but you need to be careful of phase issues.
The things I didn't like; I REALLY missed the MV2. It took quite a bit of fiddling to properly work out how the EQ curves worked generally on all the plugins with EQ, which became a little annoying after a while as it slowed things down considerably and meant the mix was a little fragile, (changing a little thing had large consequences).. likely due to my mix style though. I had to completely rethink how I did things quite a lot of the time although it gave my ears a solid work out.

I definitely wouldn't use all the Abbey Road plugins like this again but I love how much I got to learn about them. The J37 will likely see a lot more action.. the others probably a little more only here and there frankly.

Let me know what you think!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10iJ52eMHbDUlzE7AxJ64p916j8wt4RS4/view?usp=sharing

[KipParticipant]

this sounds great Paul

maybe the abbey road stuff is the  quality of this mix but to me this is very natural and even ....nothing is standing in the way of the song or overshadowing the performance.

really great job man

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