STARING AT THE MOON - (Benny)

[Benny]

Thanks Bob. I'll work on getting the bass to fit better.

[Benny]

A rare day off...so I'm tweaking the mix of one of that like. Tell me what you think, please!

[docmidnite]

A rare day off...so I'm tweaking the mix of one of that like. Tell me what you think, please!

[CosmicDolphin]

I always liked this song, and I can't remember the old mix but the little mono Avantone speaker I have is quite revealing ...you hear things differently to the big monitors.  Here is what I noticed on that speaker.

There's a degree of distortion/crunchiness, it makes it hard to listen to at any volume..maybe worth checking if anything is clipping either on the busses or within some plugins.

The vocals sound too forward in the balance, especially at the start. There's also some harsh frequencies that could be notched out which may not be helping.  A good way to do it is solo the vocal and using something like Wave Q or similar make a 6-8db boost with a fairly tight 'Q' of about 8 and sweep around from 1k to 8k.  If you do it with the monitors up quite loud the nasty bits really jump out...they often have a 'whistly' kinda quality to them.  If you have it up loud enough you'll be screwing up your facing when you find it    Then tighten the Q even more to around 16 and make a deep cut of 5 or 6 db.  Then you need to 'reset' you ears.  Give it a minute before you go back and listen to you cut within the mix.

The bass has very little small speaker translation...there's usually somewhere you can boost it between 300-600hz and it won't be noticable on the big speakers but will give the impression of bass on the small ones.

Ditto with the kick, it sounds like there isn't one on this speaker. You can hear it on the intro but it gets buried as the mix builds up

The stereo guitars take quite a dip in mono, you may have some cancellation going on there.

Hope that helps 

CD

[Benny]

Thanks for breaking it down.    I'll work on those items.

[Paulo]

Beautifull song, Benny... Distinct vocals as usual.

[SmithC]

Hi Benny,

This is a fantastic tune....I kept on humming this after listening to the track 

Cheers
SmithC

Thanks guys for the comments.   I liked this one, but was getting a whole spectrum of opinions and was unsure how it came across to listeners.

[Benny]

I got some new JBL monitors for Christmas, so I did a remix on this one that I was never quite satisfied with.

[CosmicDolphin]

I got some new JBL monitors for Christmas, so I did a remix on this one that I was never quite satisfied with.

Hey Benny

Merry Christmas, it certainly sounds like you're putting your new monitors to good use  Which ones did you get ?

It sounds much better now than the previous version, the harshness is all gone - I can now listen to it quite comfortably whereas before it was a bit like someone dragging their nails down a chalkboard     The bottom end has also made a comeback and fills out nicely now , where before it was absent.

I still stand by a couple of the things I said about the original..

The vocal in the first bit doesn't blend as well as it does through the rest of the song.  I think you need to go to work with the automation to drop that part a little to make it sit, maybe some extra ambience here would help too by automating your delay/reverb up a bit.   It's also noticable that the vocal sounds a bit thin when it's more exposed so it may be worth giving that section it's own bosst low down ( about 150hz ) to fill it out until the full arrangement kicks in.
 
The impression of bass on a small speaker is missing.  Because they can't reproduce deep bass you need to make sure that your lower mids compensate. I did a little boost at 250hz on the EQ on Media player and that seemed to help, so there's definitely scope to do it with a proper EQ to see if it does the trick.

At 2.44 there's a chance to do something a little different just to give a bit more ear candy..maybe ride up your delay on the vocals and put them through another effect like a flanger or radio style EQ ??

I'm still finding the kick drum is not very present, I can only really hear it well when the arrangement drops. I don't know if you have tried automating the level of it up to prevent this when everything is playing. You could try Eqing it to give some more presence in the upper mids that helps it cut through, or finding a cut in the bass that stops masking it..or both 

Nit's aside I think it's way better and as you get used to your new monitors it will get easier 

CD

[docmidnite]

Well, first of all: Isn´t it nice and cool to have CD AND Benny back here???
Man, how I missed your songs and comments!!!!!

I havent´listened to previous mixes and I sit here after an awesome gig last night but with an awfully horrible monitoring so my ears are shot down...
But what I hear is
1. a nice song with a decent arrangement
2. a modern sounding mix
3. no (typical  ) Benny-harshness on the mix, especially on the (Benny)guitars.
4. I agree that the kick could come up a tad
5. I also would use something "special" at 2:44, maybe a repeating delay of the line... go an be creative (listen to Some miracle, where I also use some repeating delays on a special part...)

[Benny]

Thanks guys for stopping in and helping me. The monitors I got are JBL LSR305's, small ones. I felt that I needed some good near field monitors with a punch. I listened to several in the store and these sounded by far the best, very natural. I may add a subwoofer later. But I really can tell the difference...I know a lot better where I stand in mixes than before. Sorry about all the previous harshness.   Hopefully it will get better.

I will take note of both of your comments and make the changes. Good to have you guys to help me.

[Benny]

This mix seems to play well loud and soft, on monitors, car and headphones. Agree?

[docmidnite]

This mix seems to play well loud and soft, on monitors, car and headphones. Agree?

Here on my poor desktopmonitors it sounds awesome, Benny!!!
That snare sounds killer!
Cool arrangement overall!

[CosmicDolphin]

Definitely a good improvement..better than the last one for sure....this mix is more than good enough in the context of MCS and a general thumbs up 

I think if you still want to take it up a notch , you need to work on the kick & bass. Kick sounds very hollow & weedy...I'm not sure why kick sounds the way it does as the snare sounds really good.  There could be several reasons..

Is it phase cancelling with anything ?  Have you cut too much 'meat' out of it...is it being slammed by compression ( your track is very loud relative to others ) or is it just the wrong fader balance ? Or maybe the kick sound itself isn't up to the job and could use layering with a sample ?

You could try pulling all the faders down and re-balancing it with the kick & bass first and see if it improves.

Also ...When I play it through the Avantone you can hear that the vocals are bit too loud in the mix...maybe only by 1 or 1.5 db but you really notice it why you're listening in mono.

You could also ride up your piano in between the vocal phrases, and those little verse guitar stabs could come up.

CD

[Benny]

Ok. Thanks guys.

I will work on that kick drum. I think I cut a little around the 150 range for some reason.

I've been mixing quite a bit in mono lately which has helped me with levels. On the vocal, I listened to several pop songs and it's surprising how loud the vocals are, so I tried matching what I heard.

The guitar whacks are the hardest to sit right. I changed the tone where they weren't so piercing. I'll bring them up a hair and try some piano riding.