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OT(ish) - Would you be kind enough to offer some feedback on this Pop Soul mix?
This is a mix I'm working on as part of a contest. How do you know when a mix is done? The advice I've heard/read suggests the answer is: "when you don't know what to do with it anymore." That's where I am with this One. I've had a few ideas since the mixdown I'm posting here, but they didn't seem to make a difference or improve the mix. I still have a couple of days before the submission deadline.
Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it, but any feedback is welcomed and appreciated. You should be able to stream or download the song.
Comments
Only one play and not a style i listen to normally so these points may not apply. The hats cut through too well maybe. Kinda cold, abrupt in release. Some sparkle? Similar with the high musical stabs. Or, more bottom end to compensate in the chorus. You have a fabulous voice and it, and your song, reminds me of Craig David . Could do worse than check out some of his stuff as a guide. And copy it to S OT MC (ish) for some valid, educated comments. Still learning here. Good work sir.
Hope you do well in the contest. Best of luck.
@Bluepunk Thanks, but I'm not the singer, just the mixer. That's why I didn't post to SOTMC.
The singer is ARLO (Hector Montenegro). You can find him here:
https://www.facebook.com/iamthearlomusic
https://soundcloud.com/thearlo
BTW, I agree about the hats. There are some exceptions, but I'm not a fan of artificial cymbals in general. In this case, it's what I have to work with.
I realize there aren't a lot of pop fans here, and I wasn't expecting much, but less than 30 views in over 8 hours? Ouch!
I'm not asking for a comprehensive critique. Any passing comment on quality or likability will be helpful.
The song is 3:22 minutes long, by the way, and it's not your typical Pop song IMO.
I will give it a listen too in a little while and give you my low down
Wow, that mix really sounds good. Other than to my own stuff, I don't normally listen with an ear to improve a mix, so this was interesting. I don't know that I would have noticed these two things without listening for something, but here goes. If you've got a low cut on that bass, you might try opening it up a hair more to boost the lows slightly. I'm listening on Focal Spirit Pro cans, and I think there could be just a bit more low end. I'd also like to hear something more happening with the rhythm guitar part. Perhaps pan it slightly right for one verse, and slightly right for the next. Or maybe set up a stereo delay with it or copy it and move it a hair to the left or right of the original track on the timeline. The part gets a little monotonous as it is.
Again, you've got a great mix here. Everything has its own space, clarity, punch, etc. Excellent work, sir.
What kind of compressor did you use on the vocals? Sounds very nice.
I really appreciate the feedback, and I will try your suggestions.
For the vocals, I used a brickwall limiter in front of an LA-2A emulation.
Okay I've given your song a thorough listen on my Sennheiser HD 650. I agree with supanorton it's a very good mix and sound quality is excellent. Yes the lows could be subtlety boosted a tad. It sounds like you're in the sweet zone. I did find the guitar solo that started at approx. 2:13 is too timid and too short for my liking. I would have liked to hear that solo bloom more, develop and interact with the vocal. Perhaps the guitar could show up a little earlier in the development of the song.The vocal is great and sits well but I'd like to hear a little more reverb on it at times. I would try starting at maybe the 2:50 minute mark start fading the vocal and music while adding more echo reverb and fade the song out completely. I would not end the song with the vocal right at the end as is it's too abrupt. Hope this helped!
Congratulations on a fine job and good luck in the competition
I'm sure it will. I will experiment with your suggestions, too, and see if I can make improvements. What makes it difficult is that I've listened to the song so much that it's grown on me, now every change I make sounds off!
I wish you guys could hear the "before" guitar tones. They were not good.
This mix competition was made to be difficult, and I'm almost certain they threw in some bunk tracks (which I eliminated) because they did not fit the song AT ALL. I'm talking room shaking 909 sub-bass and a noodling guitar track that runs for much of the song.
Of the competitors that have posted their mixes, I think this is the best one I've heard, but he incorporated those bunk tracks and the mix sounds too buys to me.
Thanks for your time and feedback.
I like your mix more! There's too much bunk ...elimnate it
I guess they mixed up some good stuff along with lemons and bunk.
Just remember it's your mix so go with your gut instincts and best wishes
Thanks for letting me listen in...
Had a listen on my home speakers and thought it sounded like a really nice clean mix. Nothing stood out as needing changing although I'm sure you could tweak it until the cows come home. Nice work!
@Bluepunk @supanorton @Arpseechord @gusgranite
I've uploaded another mix, so I'm hoping you guys can do me (another) solid by having a listen and tell me if you think it's an improvement. I won't bore you with the details, but for this mix I sidechained the kick and snare instead of notched EQ cuts on the bass tracks.
https://spaces.hightail.com/space/02OXP
I listened to them both, and I like the second one better. The extra bass brings a nice warmth to the entire thing that wasn't there before, especially the rhythm guitar part. You did a phenomenal job on this. Wish my mixes sounded this good. For what it's worth, I agree with you about the other person's mix; it's too busy to the point of distraction. To my ears and sensibilities, your mix fits the mood and message of the song better too. Best of luck on the contest.
Had a quick listen @telecharge. Nice mix. Tho everyone has different ways, & different views on about how things are done(good or bad, etc) We all have our opinions. I would of love to of done a house remix version of this track, but anyway......... Ahem!.......... From my listening from it, may I suggest, that you might want to either bring the vocals down a tiny weeny bit, so that the backing track comes slightly forward. The reason for this is that thru my speakers( & headphones), the vocals are slightly drowning out the the backing track. Especially the Mid range, & the Bass. Also maybe a slight sprinkle of Reverb on the closed hihats.......... It's sometime hard to get the happy balance. Hell!...... We all do it.
If you don't the suggestion matey........ Nice work tho. 
The drone-y noise is out of place in the intro. Lose it.
The vocals are too loud. Period.
The chorus is weak, how the first line just trails off to 'one...one' with no real build and a token close. It kills the flow of the song.
The guitar solo doesn't fit at all. It should at least come in in the 2.08-2.12 section to give a hint it's coming. There's too much dead space in those 5 seconds, especially coming out of the already drab chorus.
@supanorton Cheers, man. I'll likely go with it, especially if others agree since there was a common theme of the low end needing some love. I don't have the best monitoring system, so I'm always worried about too much bass.
@studs1966 You can still remix it if you want. Here are the stems:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b8hqml4aeq45th6/ARLO-One.zip?dl=0
I'll try your suggestions, as well. A wise man once told me, "It's difficult to destroy a song by mixing the vocal too high, but you can kill a song's impact by mixing it too low." To my taste, none of the backing tracks are anything special, so I don't mind them getting stepped on.
I've already tried a number of things with those dam hi-hats, but I will revisit reverb. Artificial hats are tough, and I don't think they really fit this song either.
@oat_phipps Um... okay.
I took the time to listen and provided my input. Just following the golden rule here; I'd rather someone tell me specifically what they don't like about my song rather than just say 'whoa that's pretty good'.
Just a bit brusque with your feedback is all, but I know you're an opinionated person. I didn't post here looking for "yes men." I had nothing to do with the performance or production, though. Aside from the vocals, I'm just trying to make lemonade.
If you check out the SoundCloud of one of my competitor's mix that I linked to above, you'll see I've already removed a number of elements, so I'm a bit concerned about removing too much, and if I start rearranging things, that opens a whole other can of worms.
I do appreciate your input. Other than lowering the vocals, which I will try, I'm just not sure how to incorporate it into the mix.
Can feel the bass now. Helps mesh it together somewhere comfortably in the middle. Good work.
'Hat-gate.' A black book says, to add brilliance, use a 10-12 kHz broad boost. To dampen harshness, cut in the 3-6 kHz region. This is where they are most brutal. Perfect for my stuff, but maybe you could try that to deflect the ticking away
I'll listen to your new mix later tonight
@Bluepunk Thanks! Black book?!? Is that the one with the secret sauce recipe?
I tried EQing, but not much luck. It served to quiet it a bit, but didn't alleviate the ticking away or the "machine gun" effect as it is often referred to. However, I did have some luck with saturation. I had tried this before, but in conjunction with EQ. I'll be posting another mix with that and lower vocals that I tuned in a few places.
@Arpseechord Cool. Much obliged. I might have a good buzz by then.
Had a listen telecharge and the second mix is much better than the first. Everything seems to seat on a firmer foundation and all elements sit in their proper place.The song flows with the right elements chosen. Really enjoyed this mix you did an excellento job. It's a keeper to submit
Great job captain!!
@Arpseechord You are too kind. I was stuck, and you guys helped me move the mix forward. I couldn't have done it without you all. I sincerely appreciate your time and feedback.
Well I never say no to more bass...
Thanks for the drop box link @telecharge. Out of curiosity, what equipment are you mixing down on mate?
Yes. It will be torched when I am. The sauce recipes you can have, (apart from the one on page 5), but the bang up to date bank and safe security codes are nephew bound. Sorry.
Hi @telecharge. I download your samples from your Dropbox. To be fair to you, they don't seem to be top notch sample rate samples to play with......... 245mb??? ....There is only so much you can do with the mix geezer. Anyway, as i said, i downloaded your samples, about a couple of hours ago, & just loaded now onto Sound cloud a House mix of the acapalla. Hope you like it? It was just a bit of fun really. If i get time, i might try & see if i can put a reggae Dub mix. But things are going to get a bit mad over here in Cyprus. Now its warmed up, silly season is starting up & people want to swim in there pools after Dust & Thunder storms for the last couple of days.
I do. It's very groovy and danceable. Nice work for just a couple of hours. If you will indulge me in some feedback, I think it would be better if you brought up the vocals some and increase their tempo to better sync with the music. For a song like this, I would likely slice them up, so I can put them where I want, and maybe not even use all of them. Also, and I hope you're not offended, I'm not crazy about the ping pong effect on the electric piano. Other than that, I really like your backing tracks, and the sound quality is really good.
Thanks @telecharge. No offence is taken at all mate. Always up for a little bit of positiveness. I literally, quickly done the track, as I had to go out shopping & time was running out. I didn't check the levels(only what was coming out of my PC speakers). Properly. Once I got the BPM(134bpm I think?) I dabbled a little with warping the vocals a bit. But your right, I thought about just adding something like chorus only(maybe a little bit of the verse?) but didn't. It was a quick "Knock it out" job really. I m glad you like, & once again thank you for letting have a go at the project are doing.