*** MC MC #1 ***

[Cary]

...Funny how everyones different. Curtis is really heavy on the vocals. You'll find that I put more lead guitar in. Nick's sounds the best...

I wonder why Nick's sounds the best... 

Ok guys.  Liking it is one thing, judging is another.  We're trying to learn here.  Please explain what it is about Nick's that makes it best.

[Cary]

Bonus question:

What was wrong with the vocal track?  No offense Ray - your performance is wonderful.

[NickT]

Bonus question:

What was wrong with the vocal track?  No offense Ray - your performance is wonderful.

Some transient spikes hit 0. Leads me to believe there was a brickwall catching the spikes. The noise floor below 40hz is pretty high.

Track clips at "I could understand..."

[NickT]

...Funny how everyones different. Curtis is really heavy on the vocals. You'll find that I put more lead guitar in. Nick's sounds the best...

Ok guys.  Liking it is one thing, judging is another.  We're trying to learn here.  Please explain what it is about Nick's that makes it best.

I am glad you guys like the mix. I would really love some feedback as to anything that makes this mix "good" and if you hear anything that shouldn't be in there. I am trying to get used to my room, so the comments would really help.

I wonder why Nick's sounds the best... 

This is a great opportunity to do what I do. I pick Cary's brain and try his "suggestions". We are lucky to have a resource with the information that Cary has. So if something is giving you a hard time, post it and let's all learn a little something.

Nick

[Cary]

Bonus question:

What was wrong with the vocal track?  No offense Ray - your performance is wonderful.

Some transient spikes hit 0. Leads me to believe there was a brickwall catching the spikes. The noise floor below 40hz is pretty high.

Track clips at "I could understand..."

nope. 

[CurtisDowney66]

Is it that he sings en-ti-re-ly, instead of en-tire-ly?   Nothing wrong with it I suppose, I just found it an odd pronuciation .

[dogbizkits]

Like Cary said, Ray's vocal is wonderful. When it comes to the "what's wrong" part of the question, there appears to be some limiting (where we can see the audio sometimes flat-topping at the loudest peaks) and can hear the dynamic range being crushed at these points. However, this problem is far more obvious with some of the electric guitar tracks. Limiters are great tools and can be a recording engineers best friend. None of them are created equal, so it can take a bit of practice to get to know them - and to make them do their job "well". Addressing questions like the one posed will improve the mixing process and therefore the clarity of the mix. It may be an idea in the future to run "recording clinics" to help the guys and girls improve their track recording techniques so that their mixes benefit big time in the future. This is where the process begins, so I propose to Cary the possibility of developing this idea in the future.

As for my own mix, I'll have something up at the weekend (Saturday latest).

As usual..... I've been back to edit my typos and grammar errors 

Cheers,

Rab 

[Letizia]

ok, first impression... the two cymbal tracks are exactly the same

knowing Cary... the vocal track has an (obvious) edit somewhere.

won't get into clipping, compression, fx and/or quality of tracks, but i think, after this is done, if it's ok w/ the trackers, we should use this song for a recording clinic/discussion where we talk about what was done and possible alternatives/improvements.

as far as taking more time than others, or not wanting to get into too many technical details... don't let these things stop you. it's not a race. and fwiw, i do things by trial 'n error and feel. tech knowledge is not necessary.

[Studioplayer]

Ok guys.  Liking it is one thing, judging is another.  We're trying to learn here.  Please explain what it is about Nick's that makes it best.

Not judging. Just comparing. Maybe I shouldn't have listened to the different takes before I put mine up. Sometimes it's like comparing apples to oranges. Depends on what you want. I actually shouldn't have said Nick's is the best since I haven't listened to them all including yours Cary. Nick just seems to get this full and VERY clear sound. I don't know how the hell he does it. It's good model to go by. I was listening to mine all night and wanted the acoustic to stand out more and not be so buried in there but couldn't quite do it. Then I listened to Nick's before going to bed last night and heard his version where the acoustic stands out, the lead guitar sounds great (bright). The vocals sound full and the drums are very present. It's just a very clear mix. I'll try to work a bit on mine some more tonight and see if I can get something up. Feedback is needed as well as explainations on how they achieved what they did.

The other thing I notice about Nick's mixes is he doesn't seem to get biased towards one thing or another. Being a guitar player I tend to focus on the guitars too much. Vocalist's tend to focus on the vocals. Same with drummers and keyboard players. I see that often. It's good to go at it with keeping in mind the music as a whole.

I will continue to mix. 

Dave

[Studioplayer]

Bonus question:

What was wrong with the vocal track?  No offense Ray - your performance is wonderful.

I also noticed that the vocal track had been, limited? compressed? squashed? hit a brick wall? in many spots. I still needed to put some slight compression on it to help in the high spots.

These are very challenging tracks 

[Cary]

ok, first impression... the two cymbal tracks are exactly the same

hahaha.  True!

knowing Cary... the vocal track has an (obvious) edit somewhere.

I'm not sure how long I'll let this go before spilling the beans. 

[Studioplayer]

There was a spike in the main vocal track. I had to take it out. A POP !!

[Letizia]

give those of us that are late to the party a chance to listen before you spill any beans

[Cary]

give those of us that are late to the party a chance to listen before you spill any beans

Not a diss of any kind, but those with experience would hear this right away.

[Studioplayer]

There's a wierd warble @ 56:58 "If it was her lips"  Actually anywhere in the song that says "was her lips"

Is that an edit job?