Morgan Mallory -- Of This I'm Sure (Just Lisa Mixes)

[Just LisaParticipant]

Hi --
This track is from Phil Allen's Mixing in the Box course -- one of the first set of multitracks I ever mixed. Both of those courses (EQ and Compression and the In the Box course) were very informative and worthwhile for a beginner.
I came back to it so I could experiment with file uploads -- differences between mp3 and wav, real time or background processing -- to Soundcloud.
Also, imported it into Studio One 4.0 with the intention to 'break' it, i.e. recreate the bug I found in my "Numb Me Up" file. It's a much smaller session, fewer than 50 tracks, but has the same routing from my own template.

I'm curious what other people thing about the file quality sound on Soundcloud in particular. There's four uploads total if you follow the link.

Also, if you'd care to critique, I would love to know what you think about the general effect (eq, compression, muddy, bright, etc.)
AND, the arrangement. If you know the course, you may have mixed this one yourself.
I feel like I chiseled an angel out of a block of marble. Singer/songwriter, beautiful fingerstyle guitar (my favorite to play, actually) was drenched in an oddly heavy arrangement that included a full drum kit, sloppy electric guitars, and a gang vocal that did not add anything meaningful to the song. Instead, I featured the haunting slide guitar as a solo and brought in some elements at the end to create a more balanced presentation. (Apologies to Warren if he was part of the gang.) The background harmony was nice, has Phil singing which I recognize now after working on Numb Me Up.
I'm particularly fond of Mumford & Sons "Lover's Eyes" and I think that was the vibe I was going for when I mixed this initially. I also hear a ghost of Needtobreathe "Slumber" I'm not all about the metal ALL the time. ; ) (Just MOST of the time.)
Thanks!
: )
Lisa
https://soundcloud.com/just-lisa-3/of-this-im-sure-pma-just-lisa-mix
(this is the background mix WAV file)

• This topic was modified 5 years ago by Just Lisa.

[James GormanParticipant]

Alrighty, I threatened to do this 🙂

Love what you did with this. A very different take from where I went. I've written a lot below, but I think once you deal with muddiness it's going to be pretty close.

Did you take inspiration from the video itself? I can imagine this coming out if they picked a different direction from after the pre-production when it was just the guitar.

Here's my take on the mix:
Overall it's pretty muddy, a lot of buildup in the guitars, drums and bass (maybe pads too) in the 200-500hz range, and a whole lot missing above 6k. I was playing with F6 to manage this and cutting low mids washes out the vocals a bit and boosting the highs over-brightens the acoustics a touch too far in the chorus, so it's a bit of individual track balance and a bit of overall balance. Tidying this will bring out a few nice accents already there - just my simple dnyEQing really brought out the clave/woodblock you put in and the air in the vocals. It also settles the second verse bass into a less aggressive place.

The mix feels a little narrow. The lead vocals and acoustic feel right down the middle while the BVs and the Slide are panned out. Bringing out the tops improves this, but you might want to pan the acoustic a tiny bit off centre (like 15-20% - I'm stealing this idea from Warren's singer-songwrier course with Pete Mroz). This should spread things out a touch and balance the

The other one that sticks out is the kick. It's mcuh bigger than the rest of the song and dominates, especially when there is no bass playing to smooth it down. I feel like if you pulled the back the <100-150hz in the kick and added more reverb/room to it would sit better. In the outro this could almost be pulled back so far as to be the insinuation of kick drum rather than something that is felt.

Little one, especially since I like the transition and the solo, so much, is to bring the slide up across the end vocal bridge (my castle in the skyyy(here)yyyyyyy) so it really powers in.

Ambience on the slide great, really sits well in the song. Same with the bass and pads.

The only problem with compression/automation that i really noticed with in the vocal bridge where the vocal was a bit uneven. Given how different his singing was I'd recommend pulling it out to its own track to mix independently (I did this with verse and chorus too).

On the compostion:
Overall love the direction, does what you said it did, so most of these are little things. You picked a tough one since it's so driving and I think the composition is let down by the performance (I'm looking at you verse 2, you can tell he sang over a much fuller mix).

Not sure about the bass in verse two, it feels at odds with the rhythm and pace of the song with everything stripped back, could maybe do with a new part. It's not that it sounds bad, more that it doesn't totally make sense in the song since it's pushing pretty hard, but it feels like you wanted it to be pulled back. Same goes for the vocal bridge. Did you consider pulling it out? I think the solo still works, it's really the singing that doesn't quite fit.

Drums are great, really suit what you did. Might want to pull back in the last chorus, maybe the mix note above is enough, but maybe also some velocity modulation since it's playing four on the floor but not going to take off anywhere.

Love the pads and percussion. That pad in the last chorus really works there. The percussion really works to pull back Morgan's drive (in a good way!) and helps make sense of all the stuff going on.

[Just LisaParticipant]

Thank you for all the help!
I've never seen the video. It never occurred to me to look for one since I didn't think it would be a commercial release. I had worked a lot with the Kalama Brothers "Simply Human" and when I looked them up, I found almost nothing. I thought Phil's mix of Simply Human was unfortunate for them. I become Kai Kalama's 98th subscriber on Youtube. Those boys have some talent and why they aren't a household name is beyond me. Guess I have to google Morgan Mallory now.

So, in a vacuum, I was free to pursue my muse.
It was when I heard how the vocal interacted with the kick w/o the rest of the kit that I fell in love with the song so I'm glad that translates in spite of it being so unexpected.
Adjusting the energy of the vocal across the different sections of the song is a great idea.
Bringing in the slide heavier over the end of the bridge -- I was going there, kind of, so more is better obviously.
I can certainly work the stereo field better.
I'm not sure what the bass is doing, I will check it out. Maybe it was an editing mistake.
All of the technical issues are probably about inexperience and my listening environment. I think I'll start all the eq and compression from scratch. It might be easier that way.

The course was the very beginning of my mixing career, so the fact that it's full of flaws is not the least bit surprising. I know I'm doing a lot better, so now that you have given me some direction, fixing it is going to be really fun.
I mixed it on my old Audio-Technica headphones and then took it to my "Studio C" pre-acoustic treatment. MUD is an understatement. I was very discouraged, but used the situation to analyze my issues.
Since then, I've changed my room, gotten the Byerdynamic headphones, learned my speakers, and installed the Morphit plug-in post-fader on my Main out.
It was only a year ago that I found out what an interface was! I bought one from Presonus, got the Artist version of Studio One. Before that I was using Audacity and a usb mic or DI from my modeling amp. I quickly realized I needed to know a lot more than I did in order to get good results from this. Starting with: what are all these plug-ins for?
And here we are.
: )

[James GormanParticipant]

You're welcome. This sort of thing is great for me too, gets me thinking.

> I've never seen the video. It never occurred to me to look for one since I didn't think it would be a commercial release.

I only found it on Spotify. I just meant watching the course and seeing the song evolve. I was a bit 'huh' when I heard where it ended up, then listened to Morgan's other stuff and it made a bit more sense. I was kind of riffing off the interactions between Morgan and Phil as the went through the recording in where I took the mix.

> I'm not sure what the bass is doing

I think it's just the part. I'm guessing it was Phil playing counter to the back beat to bring energy to that part (I'm not so strong on the music theory side of things so there's probably a better explanation). Since you don't have a back beat playing there's some of the drive (inherent in the part) but it doesn't play against anything, so doesn't quite fit in.

> I think I'll start all the eq and compression from scratch. It might be easier that way.

The balance is pretty close so this should work.

If you doing arrangement and mixing on you first ever full track without help, in an imperfect acoustic environment, and getting where you did, I reckon you've nowt to worry about.

[Just LisaParticipant]

: )
thank you.

The course I had with the tracks was Phil mixing in the box. I didn't see videos of him working with the artist. Different course? Or I missed them on Youtube?

Just as you say, no editing error on the bass. He's hitting every 1 and 3 with the kick drum. but he's also hitting 2 and 4 and they all have 'grace notes' similar to the way the kick plays throughout. 2, 4 and the grace notes are more obvious because my kick is drowning out what should be the most stressed notes of each measure! Hve to work on that. I was digging the different vibe because in absence of so much other stuff in the track, the bass has bigger shoes to fill and variety helps.

the arrangement is the fun part, one of the things that always attracted me to the idea of mixing, putting music together. duck to water, falling off a log, the ideas just come to me and I go with them. After working with Audacity and a usb microphone for a long time -- and getting really good at comping my own guitar takes in THAT imperfect environment, any editing at all feels like a breeze in Studio One. I thought I was cheating with my guitar takes. It was a revelation when I learned that everyone does it -- or has someone else to do it for them!

I do believe I adjusted all the balances and changed a lot of the eq and compression before I posted this mix -- I mixed it in January originally and I learned a lot in six months.
Nevertheless, really thank you. This is very encouraging.

[James GormanParticipant]

> The course I had with the tracks was Phil mixing in the box

that'll be it. I've been labouring under the impression they weren't recycling tracks. I did his Music Production course, which had a lot of Morgan in it. Things make more sense now. I might have to get this just to figure out what Phil was doing with that mix. I've only heard the Spotify version, and I wasn't super happy with its noisiness. Couldn't understand the direction after seeing the production video.

> Just as you say, no editing error on the bass. He's hitting every 1 and 3 with the kick drum. but he's also hitting 2 and 4 and they all have 'grace notes' similar to the way the kick plays throughout. 2, 4 and the grace notes are more obvious because my kick is drowning out what should be the most stressed notes of each measure! Hve to work on that.

Are what your calling grace notes the 'and' lead-in notes to the 1 & 3? They're what I think is adding the urgency (along with the general attackiness). But they are also played close to the same volume as the on-beat notes so I think you'll have a hard time using what's there without major surgery.

> It was a revelation when I learned that everyone does it -- or has someone else to do it for them!

Ha, yes, I remember being much more relaxed after learning that.

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