Hay ngz, plz critique this here mix?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:48 am

This is a Tom Petty song called "Saving Grace" from Highway Companion.
We thought we would try to play it all together as a band today and it came out really good so I mixed it.
The way we play it is a bit different than the TP version, but whatever.

If something sounds shit on it, let me know before I put it on our myspacesseurs.

EDIT: I disabled the streaming thing so it won't load song anymore k.
http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/5 ... _mix01.mp3

Is there a way to make that thing not auto-start?
I haet autostart.

filtercap · Post by **filtercap** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:08 am

I like it. From your description, this was a one-take deal during a practice, and then it was... why not mix it? Rather than a slick-ified demo version.

As such, it sounds like all the stuff you need is there. Good balance between parts overall, and nice balance between snare/hat/cymbals. All I'd do is inch the bass up just a tad (bass geetar, not bass frequencies across-the-board) and pan the two guitars back in towards the middle a little. I like the idea of the wide panning, but just a tad less will make the parts move together better IMO. A little (more?) compression on the overall mix might help do the same. EQ's definitely in the ballpark (I listened to this on garden-variety Dell computer speakers and then my old AKG K240 heeedphones.)

Beyond that... if it were me, I'd try a subtle touch of reverb too. Not swamp it out, just enough so that it makes a difference without calling attention to itself. Totally a matter of taste, but for this style song I think it would sound cool. If dry's the idea, great.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:29 am

cool. thx for the protips.
wtf is up with the bass.

on the other mixes of stuff i did, everyone was liek turn bass up, so i maed sure it was kinda loud here. there's a shit ton of bass action.
i don't know!

also, i started with the guitars centered more and liekd it, so i guess i'll give that a shot again.

i luv reverb.

lately, i've just been doing very minimal reverb and stuff and just concentrating on compression. it's a love/hate relationship with compy.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:45 pm

Ok, i got with bum guitarist and we listened back and made some adjustments.

We went ahead and put in on our myspace page since we just booked a gig for Wednesday, which is two days from now. I know, crazy.
It's out of town, so we're gonna bomb everyone we find in that area with friend requests and hopefully they'll dig the new tune.

filtercap · Post by **filtercap** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:05 pm

I had a brilliant reply for you, but took my time so the forum timed-out on me and it got losted. This may be too late now, but here goes again:

If you're mixing with a subwoofer and/or headphones with extended bass response, a lot of the acoustic power of your bass track may be in frequencies below about 60-80 Hz. They'll be toned-down on some speaker systems, and all-but-inaudible on computer speakers. Unfortunately, pushing up the bass track so that overtones come through on more limited-range (or flatter-response) speakers will make the bass overwhelming on a subwoofer or extended-bass system. That may be the problem here. (It's especially challenging with 5-string bass, where the open low B string is way down around 30Hz.)

What I'd do is flatten the bass track's EQ curve or maybe even roll off all frequencies below about 80Hz. Then find a good "meat" frequency zone around 100Hz and a good "attack" frequency zone in the mids. Listen in the context of the whole mix, not just with the bass solo'ed. Get a tone/mix you like that still goes bomp decently through limited-range speakers (think about how they got bass to come thru on old AM car radios). Then with your mix going over your extended-bass system, add those <80Hz frequencies back in until you like the overall balance.

Hopefully what you end up with will translate to a variety of speakers. With the AKG's the bass is there, it just needed some punch/definition to drive the song mo betta. With the computer speakers it wasn't happening.

Where do I look on mice base?

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:40 pm

love the over all arrangement/sound.

i'd inch bass guitar up a bit.
distorted rythem guitar on intro maybe a tiny bit down
i like the vocals.

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:24 pm

I like it over all. I would say experiment with panning more, but I wasn't lsitenin' wit headphones, so you can take that with a grain of salt...

The vocals could use some adjustments on the F and S sounds in the beginning. EQ, or even volume automation can fix that. Some of the guitars were super quiet, and then other would come in loud as Hell our of no where, I would jus lower some volume, and raise some volumes. The levels of the cymbals were alarmingly awesome, until the vocals came in, then they were too loud. You should definitely play around with the volume automation more. I would also try stacking, and back up vocals. When the back up vocals did come in for a split second, I thought it sounded cool.

Also, I'd like to know how you're mixing (headphones & monitors), what equipment you use, etc. I was taught only to use headphones to listen to somethin' by it's self, when mixing the track as a whole, monitors are the way to go. You also have to take in account what your room is like... But, none of us are perfect, my room and monitors are not even mentionable, so I'm not gonna say you can't do it with out it.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:38 am

The bass needs a higher mid freq boost (lets say around 5K or 6K), scoop out some of the funk around 150-400 if you didn't already. I am using headphones and I know I am getting way too much of that bitch for having headphones.

What are you using to mix?

The kick could also use a big upper mid boost as well.

But I think it is good where it sits right now. Only make those changes if you are feeling nitpicky enough.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:31 am

Yeah, the bass and kick were my main gripes.
We were playing really soft so the kick came out as almost all low end with now upper freqencies.

I seriously hate recording this bass guitar. It's freakin' WHACK. I should have brought my bass up from TN, it records great.

Monitors: KRK Rokit 5 (old ones)
Headphones: Sennheiser HD280 Pro

The guitars are kinda all over the place. This was the second time we have ever played this as a band, so i guess we were still figuring out what kinda dynamics we wanted.

Left guitar: Martin acoustic through a peavey delta blues
Right guitar: jagmaster through crate blue voodoo

Even though this was just a second thought recording, it turned out well and thanks a lot for the comments & suggestions.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:33 am

See if your program has a tab to transient function, On your kick drum track, each time you tab to transient, on a second track paste in a sample, mix the high end in.

Alternatively, paste in a bunch of samples, then zoom in to line each of them up if you don't have a tab to transient feature like pro tools.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:46 am

I didn't really feel like spending so much time on some rehearsal recording. But, yeah that would work.

izodiak · Post by **izodiak** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:33 am

I really like this song, very nice.. I would say a great recording, because me with my band mates, couldnt get the sound in the studio so nice, with a "professional" mixer, who turned out an asshole, and we payed like 200$ for one stupid song,, I would at the first part, maybe turn the voclas down, to give to the song some more chaotic but other way, I really like it.. nice, very nice.. great.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:20 am

Sloan wrote:I didn't really feel like spending so much time on some rehearsal recording. But, yeah that would work.

aye, it's a good recording for just a rehearsal though..

mewithoutus · Post by **mewithoutus** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:06 pm

sloan rules. thats all i have to contribute.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:52 am

WHO DAT SANGIN?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:41 am

that's our bum guitarist that lives in the RV behind hte house.
he's kool.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:47 pm

Sounds really good! You need to edit out the sniffing coming from the guitarist coke problem.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:23 pm

NOBODY HAS A COKE PROBLEM

bamonte · Post by **bamonte** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:44 am

slaon whats your bands myspace?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:16 am

bamonte wrote:slaon whats your bands myspace?

http://www.myspace.com/recklessmojo !