'Valerie' Collaboration Ajay, Tony and John.

[Andrew (AKA Ajay)Participant]

Here we go,

Song: Valerie
Vocals: Kaedyn Kashmir
Guitars: Warren Huart
Percussion: Andrew Hazzard
Producer: Andrew Hazzard
Mixer: Tony Loignon
Mastering: John Elleson Hartley

Percussion tracking currently in progress, stand by for updates, etc.

Please feel free to follow along and offer a suggestion!

Ajay

[Andrew (AKA Ajay)Participant]

For those using Studio One, here's a link to my session if you'd like to offer any opinions and suggestions.

Right now, I'm not sure if I need to re-record my conga's?

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d633zocpas1f1md/AABU011Z7N3GllDJ-bz5HmU2a?dl=0

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Andrew (AKA Ajay).

[Tony LoignonParticipant]

Ajay,

Here's an initial first cut:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yuwxkwn2joa1sst/Kaetlyn%20Kashmir%20-%20Valerie%20%28Cover%29%20-%20Final%20Mix%20v1.mp3?dl=0

Notes:
- I did not use the H3000, or other FX from the original.
- Added my own FX, some of which are the same as Warren's, but I used my settings.
- Added whisper on vocals.
- Re-aligned some of the tracks and had a few polarity flips in the mix.
- For the kick, I added a side-chain gated tone generator at 60hz that is sitting just below to give it a little more punch.
- Regarding your ozone wash, I assumed you wanted an ocean wave sound fx. I added RBass and LoAir on the track to get low end (and rumble) and a side-chain of delays and reverb to it along with EQ to get a slight realism improvement. It gives a freq sweep similar to that of a real wave now.
- Played with your initial panning on the guitars to bring the rhythm guitar closer to the center (40% pan) and moved the other guitar at 30% with a delay effect on opposite side at 30% sitting below the mix.
- Added a side-chain flanger effect on the congas. Gives them a nice little ring and makes them pop!

Regarding mix dynamics:
- I have an 1176 on 20 to catch only the occasional spikes
- SSL bus comp and a Puigchild in series to tame some of the spikes and glue the mix
- An L3LL-multiband limiter to keep it from peaking on export.
- The track is exported at -12 LUFS for your hearing pleasure.
- Overall mix dynamic range is 9db.

If you can split the conga stem, it would be great. I'd like to lower the level of the tambourine by a couple of db and remove the kick in it. I tried removing it with X-Noise, but was unsuccessful. If you can't I'll have to chop up the track to manually remove it.

Once this is to your liking, I'll post the final mix at -18 LUFS for John in .wav 48k/24.

Comments?

Tony

[Andrew (AKA Ajay)Participant]

Hi Tony, very nice no far!

After hearing that, I think I'll re-track the congas.

A few notes:

1) I'm not happy with the sound as a percussion group (i.e. all played together, congas, foot tambourine and bass drum) so I'll re-track all part separately.

2) I'll also add more elements (shaker ?) to the repeat chorus's at the end, it gets a bit repetitive?

3) The vocals are sounding good, for me they're a little too compressed sounding so let's work on that soon.

4) The bass drum and bass guitar relationship is not quite there yet, there's too much 'click on the bass drum and I think the 60hz tone you've added is clashing with the bass guitar tonality.

5) I'd like the Ozone Crash left more natural sounding and a tad louder in general.

Having said that, it's starting to take shape, thank you.

I'll endeavour to get the tracking done soon and transfer the files to Dropbox ASAP.

Great work, talk soon.
Ajay

[Andrew (AKA Ajay)Participant]

Hey guys!

I've re-recorded the congas and extra percussion.

The link to the files below, if you're playing at home...lol

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m520a2aklpvps9j/AAAi4PbLBEMMHw-R-rzbL0xCa?dl=0

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[Tony LoignonParticipant]

Ajay/John,

Here's v2 mix with Ajay's revised percussion tracking. New tracks were much better and cleaner. I still need to go through and do a few edits for tempo synching, but didn't want to spend a whole lot of time yet doing that.

Let me know what you think.

https://soundcloud.com/bemelodic/kaetlyn-kashmir-valerie-cover/s-HYIEB

[Andrew (AKA Ajay)Participant]

Hi Tony, sounding great mate!

I agree with the congas, they do sound a ton better now.
I think the mix is extremely close, the only things that are bothering me are;

1) The bass is still too dominant, only very slightly though?
2) Once the bass is brought down a tad, the thump of the kick can be pushed up a little to meet it.
3) The tambo at the very end (playing 16th's I think) is too loud, it should be buried in the mix or even taken out (don't tell the drummer LOL)

I'd love to hear from John, I think the mastering engineers thoughts would be good at this stage, John?

Also, I would suggest that we all post the final mix for Feedback Friday and all include the same info, so it doesn't get confusing for Eric haha. It also means we get an extra chance to be picked HAHA!!!

Talk soon
Ajay

[Anonymous]

Nice mix Tony.

A couple of things I noticed. As Ajay suggested, the tambo is bit too dominant, although I think throughout, not just at the end. However, the shaker sounds absolutely great, so perhaps more shaker and a bit less tambo? It might be just personal prefs though.

The congas sound a tad too wide in the stereo field - perhaps a little un-natural as they tend to draw the focus away a bit.

On a technical note, there is a little click right at the end (3.59) well, at least you know I listened to the whole mix 🙂 a few times actually.

Cheers, Steve.

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