The Way I Feel With You - another mix project.

  • I wrote this almost 2 years ago with lyrics but sorry no singer yet. It's a shorter version than the original for learning purposes. I did all the drum grooves and fills myself (you can probably tell). I'm still having a hard time getting a decent bass tone with a guitar. This bass track is too heavy (maybe Disco heavy) for what I would like. I guess I will ask for a bass for Xmas. I used the new Kemper Double tracker and my Mimiq together with dgburns David G. Burns Dual Amp Med Gain free profile on RM (I love it).


    Let me know how I did please. I left the mistake (string slide) in the intro because I liked how it sounded.


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    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    Edited once, last by BayouTexan ().

  • Great concept, I like the riffs in this one and it also sounds like progress on the production. I'd still bring the guitars quite a bit lower in the mix.


    If there's one tip I've formulated for myself and I'm trying to adhere to because it really works : Don't use the mix to adjust tonality, just use it to balance the instruments.


    Ok, so what I mean by that is - the relative volumes of the instruments against each other is more important than that the mix sounds full, or has great bass sound, or has less treble etc. You want your mix to be about cohesion and separation.


    So e.g. now once I've finished tracking I will pull all the channels to 0 except the drum and bass. Then I'll put the drums up only half way maybe and then adjust the bass till it sits well with the drums, specially listening to the kick drum. If I can get it to sound like a bass and drum kit do live I know I've basically got a good sound going on.

    Then to help them separate I'll trim the bottom off of both (more removed from the kick) and sculpt the mids of the bass till I like the sound. You can go all the way up to 100hz maybe even a tinge higher sometimes. Don't worry, we'll bring the sub-sound back later, the important point is this is your opportunity to balance the really low end energy in those instruments, removing this will help you hear the mids and will change the way they sound. You just want to get it to where it sounds nice and the bass can breathe through the kick a little.

    Next is cohesion, I raise the guitars and try to get them to a level where the bass and guitar become one. There's a pretty wide range there. It's best to err on the side of caution. So I get it to just where they weld together and then if I feel it's not quite powerful enough I'll raise them but only a dB or two at most, so a tiny amount on the fader.

    To get them to merge better with the bass and give the bass more room you might need to hi-pass the guitar, maybe all the way up to 300, but usually not that high. If the arrangement is good then you shouldn't need to do too much hi and lo-passing. Mainly the aim with hi and lo-pass is just to remove stuff that's degenerated into noise and is wasting the available energy.


    At that point in its simplest form the mix is done. Obviously you might add effects, use compression/limiting, tune reverb etc, do more eq work. But it shouldn't be too complex.


    So now's the point where we fix the balance, bring back treble and bass that maybe got lost, or cut them away if they got too big (though it feels like it's actually easier to bring back reduced bass and treble than cut them down, so while mixing it's ok to eq down towards more flat sounds with less emphasis). That's where I'll try to simply emphasize the overall tonal shape, e.g. if I want it to sound more bass-ey I do it then using EQ etc rather than changing the mix. It's super easy to bring up the bass in the whole mix and then because you're affecting everything it all comes up nicely whereas if you tried to do it with just raising the bass guitar in the mix you'll end up unbalancing the other frequencies and the other instruments will end up sounding thinner and anemic rather than coherent.

  • I'm happy you're having fun tracking & mixing , it's a great way to make quick progress.


    The guitars are a tad harsh on my HS7, drums and bass are ok. But my attention is focused on the guitars mainly, as Per said I would reduce them , but maybe EQ the harsh frequency : play with a EQ with freq analyser, like REAQ on reaper and identify the culprit high frequency to tame them. Different to Per's good practises , but simple.


    As per cohesion, I would play with the mastering tools to add some glue to the whole mix.

  • Per That is a very nice detailed comment. I did an approach similar to how you described for bass and drums. I used lots of compression on the bass then I had to use a limiter because some of it's notes was too strong as you can tell. First time using a limiter. I am really starting to pay attention to each instruments EQ curve. You left me with a lot to absorb. Thanks!


    waraba I do feel my progress keeps inching forward. I remember glossing over one of the reaper tutorials with Kenny Gioia using the REAQ to target frequencies. I'll have to return to that. I agree that the guitar track is a bit too loud.


    Here is some of the lyrics for context.


    ...

    (Verse 1)

    No more candle lights,

    No more sacrifice,

    Too many sleepless nights,

    is the way I feel with youuuuuuu.



    Too hard to satisfy,

    Too hard to compromise,

    Some things you can't deny

    The way I feel with youuuuuuu.



    All those never minds,

    All those token lies,

    Always driving blind,

    is the way I feel with youuuuuu


    (Extension)

    Don't tell me what to do,

    Hear what I'm telling you.

    When you talk to me,

    You talk right through me,

    It's always same with youuuuuu.

    ...

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.