Pensado's Place Mixing Competition -Deadline 18th May

[TobiKeymaster]

Had a go at cleaning the acoustic guitar out of the vocal track using RX5 Audio Editor.

It's a new toy, so I'm still getting to grips with it, with more practice should be able to do a better job.

...but, for what it's worth, I've uploaded three versions of the lead vocal track to my drop box. Feel free to download them and try them out in your mixes, might help, might not - but it's worth a try 😉

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dxu8hn69iosanvl/AAD7MLn-MWnWALyE27hZMxGVa?dl=0

All three tracks have been put through a de-noise process, each at a different level of noise reduction : -15db, -20db and 22.5db. The amount of reduction is indicated at the end of each track name.

At -25db, the quality of the vocal recording started to suffer too much, hence the last reduction only being at 22.5db.

If I have another pass at it, I'll upload the results 🙂

[Jeff MacdonaldModerator]

Awesome Toby, thanks for cleaning those up - I'll drop them in and see what happens. How do you find that suite? I have been toying with getting it, but I hadn't really come across a need for it until this tune.

[Chris SweetParticipant]

Alrighty, I know this is a "competition" but we're on team PLAP 🙂 feedback appreciated

https://soundcloud.com/csweet08-1/distance-regret-the-hour-chris-sweet-rev-1

[Seng Chee LimParticipant]

Hi Chris,

Nice mix !! Good job

I'm currently having problem with the snare bottom. How do u 'tame' the Snare bottom?

[TobiKeymaster]

JB, RX5 Audio Editor is pretty impressive. If you're familiar with the iZotope interface, you'll find it fairly intuitive. I've found the processing time to be really fast on my system (Win 7 Pro 64bit, i7 3.2 ghz, SSDs, 32GB DDR4).

The main problem is getting used to 'reading' the spectrogram. For delicate work, like removing an acoustic guitar from a vocal track, you really need to be able to find the guitar and its harmonics, amongst the vocal and its harmonics. ...that takes a lot of practice.

So... the software is very much limited by its operator.

There is the RX Plugin Pack : https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx-plug-in-pack/

That'll do a fair whack of what you need at a lower price.

[TobiKeymaster]

Drums are nice - crisp 'n' punchy. Vocal tone is rich and warm. Balance and levels are very tidy.

Guitars feel a little sat back, sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. They get a little bogged down in places, but in other places they're nice and present. It's pretty subtle - maybe just a little tweaking.

Very solid mix. Maybe some variations here and there, to just lift it a little. But I like the overall vibe of the mix, it's quite low key, almost nostalgic, fits the mood of the song well. I wouldn't change much, I think you're 90% there.

[Anders IsbergParticipant]

I haven't had anymore time to work on this, but here is a work in progress mix. It's not mastered and it needs some more de-essing. Any feedback is welcome!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmklg19somxjro8/Distance%20Mix%20%28Work%20in%20Progress%29.wav?dl=0

[Chris SweetParticipant]

Sameshake, Not sure what you mean exactly. On mine I think I boosted the bottom end a little and then blended it in at a low level with the top mic. Those were bussed and compressed together. Are you making some heavy eq moves on the snare bottom?

[Chris SweetParticipant]

Thanks for the feedback! Glad it's getting there. I could probably bring the guitars up in places. Gonna spend some time with it and see how the guitar dynamics feel.

[TobiKeymaster]

Anders,

Kick is nice and thuddy. Very up front, not a bad thing though. Like the rattle on the snare - depth in the mix is nice too. Kick feels a touch too in front of the snare - maybe - makes the drums feel a bit disconnected. But I like the effect, maybe dial it down a touch.

Overheads are nicely compact in the choruses, present certainly, but not splashing across the mix.

Tone of the vocals is good, they do wander in and out a touch - which I know goes back to the original recording. The 'essing' is not too bad. It's there, but I didn't find it too distracting.

Very decent mix. It sounds a little too bottom endy, but that may well just be my TV. Yeah, almost there - just a little mastering, as you say. Nice job!

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by Tobi.

[Seng Chee LimParticipant]

Chris,

There's lot of bleed in the snare bottom so I did some heavy Eq on the snare bottom and it doesn't suit the vibe of the song. Thanks for the reply. I'll get back to my mix and try to redo the snare.

[Chris SweetParticipant]

Hey sameshake, yeah I'd say embrace the bleed lol. The snare will get weird if you do too much eqing. I think I used an expander to reduce bleed but I didnt go bananas. From memory I think I did a boost around 120 on the top mic to get some beef, cut at 400hz to take out the boxyness and a high shelf around 5k I think to add some snap. On the bottom I high passed around 120, did another boost around 120 again and a small boost in the mids and that was it. Blended together I got a thumpy snare with some snap on top. VCA compressor for smack. Also darkening the hi hat mic helped with keeping hat bleed from getting too bright and annoying. Hope that's helpful.

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