Mixes of Two Songs by SEVENS

[Charles Dye]

I'm sorry for being a little MIA around here. I hope to catch up on the posts in the next day or so. I'd like to try to make it up to you by sharing some of the mixes I've been working on.

The bands name is eL and they're an extremely talented rock band out of West Palm Beach, FL. Fantastic songs + a real fresh sound. Incredible energy. If you live anywhere in the South FLA I highly recommend you go see these guys live.

Chris Conner's production really captured the bands raw electricity and engineer Jeremy Hunter recorded some really great sounding tracks @ The White House + his studio in Nashville. I mixed them @ The Gate in Miami.

Here's the mixes:

• Gimme A Feeling
  
  Cause She Loves Me

Check them out + tell me what you think. If you have any questions I'll be glad to answer them.

I'll be back tonight to reply to posts. Thanks for your patience.

Great mix work!

On "Gimmi a Feeling I daydream of:

- The kick drum 'ducking' the dist gtrs and 'pill freak' solo gtr's... but then I like everything to sound like the Sex Pistols!

Plus a warm 'retro' drum kit sound for the verses and exactly what you have organized already for the loud parts.

On "She loves Me" because it sounds like a healthy slab of The Cult 'She Sells Sanctuary" & Psycadelic Furs "Pretty in Pink" I advise riding the faders on some stereo accoustic gtr tracks that double electrics in the choruses - WHILE TOTALLY DRUNK OFF YOUR ASS!

That should just about do it for the both tunes....

[djui5]

On "gimme" I might like a tad more drums but that's just me...
It sounds great...I like it.

On "She loves me" I'm diggin the HH panning on the intro..that's cool. Song sounds great...

Nice work!

[krid]

Great mix Charles !

The first thing that caught my attention were the vocals, I love how they throw out of your mix (specially in "Gimme a feeling").
Would you mind sharing your approach, plugs in, effects, settings on the vocals ?

Thanks

[Jim Roberts]

Both sound great Charles (even on my Powerbook speakers!).

Would love to have some insight into how you processed the drums tracks (i.e. plugs, bussing, etc.). Obviously the recording engineer had a bit to do with it, but would love to see more of your technique.

Safe to assume this is all summed in the DAW buss?



Jim

[jeronimo]

I liked the HH delay/pan on "She Loves..." like the snare tone (much better than Crease) and I love the guitar tone, great. Vocals sound good too!
Good organic drums on "Gimme...", like vocals too.
To me, better results than Crease.
Now, question. Any hughe differences on tracking between both jobs?

[Shan]

I love the mixes.

Cause She Loves Me: The panning of the hat is cool in the intro(and in the middle of the tune). Did they give you two Hat tracks? Can you share what you did on the Lead Vox on this track.You really brought out the breath in the voice. I like it. Love the ringing percusion tone at the end(not sure what that is) I like all the balances.Effects splashes really add to this song. Works for me.

Gimme A Feeling: Again, I like the air in the vox. Like the Lo Fi type of sound at the end(and intro). Sounds like a shorted out cable effect. The guitar that is panned hard left on the outro(2:49). It starts with a pic scratch harmonic type of sound. I thought it came in a bit loud and alittle piercing. Other than that the balance between all sounds great.

Great job. Once again I Love your work Charles. Keep it up.

Shane

[b-magical]

Sounds Great! Are the mixes mastered? What plugs did you use on the stereo bus if any?

Brian

[hammer]

um.......
Hey charles, they sound great. Commercial mixes.
But I can kinda tell they were mixed in da box
Or am I alone on this? Maybe it got lost in its mp3 translation. I dunno.
There just isn't that seperation that I hear on the Tools through SSL mixes.
Don't get me wrong,
I'm NOT saying that these are crap mixes...They are probably some of the best ITB mixes I've heard and are more than acceptable for mass distribution and consumption.

But I'm not gonna lie. I can hear the ITB thing goin on.

H.

[Mike Tholen]

Originally posted by hammer
um.......
Hey charles, they sound great. Commercial mixes.
But I can kinda tell they were mixed in da box
Or am I alone on this? Maybe it got lost in its mp3 translation. I dunno.
There just isn't that seperation that I hear on the Tools through SSL mixes.
Don't get me wrong,
I'm NOT saying that these are crap mixes...They are probably some of the best ITB mixes I've heard and are more than acceptable for mass distribution and consumption.

But I'm not gonna lie. I can hear the ITB thing goin on.

H.

ditto.

[Curve Dominant]

posted by hammer:
Hey charles, they sound great. Commercial mixes.
But I can kinda tell they were mixed in da box
Or am I alone on this? Maybe it got lost in its mp3 translation. I dunno.
There just isn't that seperation that I hear on the Tools through SSL mixes.

These songs could've been mixed with tin cans and waxed string for all I care.

They sound awesome.

I liked "Gimme A Feeling" a little bit more, because it was richer in bass energy. But I'm a city boy, and we like lotsa booty. The other mix didn't have the same "sack" to it.

But both mixes beat the sh*t out of plenty of "pro" SSL mixes I've heard.

I won't name any names.

[Shan]

hammer and Mike. If you guys can pick out mixes that were done on SSL or in PT or Neve etc. Then I would have to say very well done. You both have amazing ears. Thats a big compliment by the way.

Shane

[Charles Dye]

Everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to download the files + for giving your feedback. I really appreciate your comments. As I said before I think these guys are a really great band. And I have to add that Jeremy Clark their singer/guitar player is one extremely talented mofo. I had a lot of fun mixing these tracks. It's easy to mix such great music + performances.

Thanks.

[Charles Dye]

Originally posted by krid
The first thing that caught my attention were the vocals, I love how they throw out of your mix (specially in "Gimme a feeling").
Would you mind sharing your approach, plugs in, effects, settings on the vocals ?

krid,

Thanks for the kind words. My approach was to keep Jeremy Clark's vocals in the front of that big raucous mix of Gimme, but there was also a soft pillow of ambience (reverb + delay) placed around his lead to make it work together with the large track. Without the ambience he would sound really tiny.

I don't have the session open, but I'm fairly certain my lead vocal chain was: (all Waves) C4 --> DeEsser --> RenVox --> RenEQ.

The C4 does a great job @ just evening out the vocal. If it gets too boomy, nasal or shrill the C4 catches it all. It can really take a lot of the work out of vocal rides. I find that using the DeEsser on Wideband in combination with the top band de-essing of the C4 is a good combo. I've recently been using RenVox for vocals when you want them to be really present + in your face--it works great! And RenEQ has been my fave for vox since I started mixing PT.

The FX are the same as the ones I talk about in HDL: The Star Treatment--Lead + Harmony Vocals: the Split Harmonizer (DPP-1), maybe a bit of MetaFlange (doing a Hi-Trash flange effect), some Vocal Plate (Rev1), and possible a 1/4 note delay soft + in the back to establish what I call the back wall of the mix (HPF = 2-4k / FB = 7-18%, w/ a bit of Lg Hall + Split Harm on the return).

Hope this helps.

[Charles Dye]

Originally posted by Jim Roberts
Would love to have some insight into how you processed the drums tracks (i.e. plugs, bussing, etc.). Obviously the recording engineer had a bit to do with it, but would love to see more of your technique.

Safe to assume this is all summed in the DAW buss?

Thanks Jim.

About the drums, they were were pretty much mixed the same way I've talked about in other threads + HDL. I used the Drum/Squish bus parallel compression set-up. I used Valve-C1-RenComp-RenEQ-Tape on the Kick, Snare + Toms; RenEQ on the Hat; RenComp + EQ for the OH's; and CompressorBank CB4 (British/Neve 33609) + RenEQ for the Rooms.

And yes, recording engineer Jeremy Hunter really got great drum sounds to disk. The Room tracks from The White House in Nashville were especially important to the drum sound.

And both songs were mixed using the PT summing bus.

Hope this helps.

[alphajerk]

Originally posted by hammer
um.......
Hey charles, they sound great. Commercial mixes.
But I can kinda tell they were mixed in da box
Or am I alone on this? Maybe it got lost in its mp3 translation. I dunno.
There just isn't that seperation that I hear on the Tools through SSL mixes.
Don't get me wrong,
I'm NOT saying that these are crap mixes...They are probably some of the best ITB mixes I've heard and are more than acceptable for mass distribution and consumption.

But I'm not gonna lie. I can hear the ITB thing goin on.

H.

ya know... i havent even heard the mixes, i listened to his other mix from that rob zombie type band... but you ever hear of something called the placebo effect? what IF he turned right around and said, "ya know... these mixes we DID decide to mix on a SSL"

and if you arent saying they are crap mixes than what ARE you saying?!? that you should somehow be worshiped because you THINK you hear something that sounds "ITB"?!? do you want a cookie? [jules gave you one already here ;)]

i mean to me, that just sounds like a dickish kinda comment. you think mixing this on an SSL would of made ANY difference at the end of the day? would it sell even one more record? could it even of beaten this mix out? maybe paths were taken in ideas BY mixing ITB that normally wouldnt of been taken via traditional methods.

i mean GEEZ people... are we having fun or what?

Yes fun.

[alphajerk]

this antiDAW is starting to sound a LOT like audiophilism anymore... i have hung around enough audiophiles to know how quick they suck the fun outta listening to music.

[Shan]

Originally posted by Charles Dye
krid,


I don't have the session open, but I'm fairly certain my lead vocal chain was: (all Waves) C4 --> DeEsser --> RenVox --> RenEQ.

Well Charles, I'm mixing a country song for a client right now and I'm gonna try and add the C4 and RenVox in my chain. I want that really present sound you got on the vox in your new mixes. I'm not sure how to go about applying these in my chain. Usually I would duplicate the track, highpass to about 350, boost the highs alot and then compress the heck out of it and put it slightly under the vox. Can you give some tips on how to apply these. I'm just gonna dive right in there and mess with them for now and see what I can get out of them. Thanks.

Shane

[acorredor]

Charles:
First of all, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions... i wanted to ask you, regarding these two mixes, how did you manage to get the huge snare sound, i mean, while tracking? What mic/preamp/comp was used? and, coul you give us any mic positioning tips for kick/snare/toms/oh`s?
Just curious, what kinda PT system do you have, Mix, HD, or HD Accel?
All your answers are very much appreciated.

Best Regards

Alejandro Corredor
www.audiotaller.com
Bogota-Colombia

[spherop]

Charles, et al,

You've mentioned DUY Wide in many of your threads.

Wondering if you or anyone else here can recommend a plug in the VST/DX world that might approximate it effectiveness. I know there are a lot of VST stereo enhancers - but do any really do a wonderful job like DUY Wide?

[Charles Dye]

Originally posted by spherop
I know there are a lot of VST stereo enhancers - but do any really do a wonderful job like DUY Wide?

spherop,

I'm sorry, but I'm not that familiar with the VST plugs yet. Anyone else know of any good VST widening plugs?

[5down1up]

listening GREAT JOB

cool stuff ... my favs " gimme a feeling "
( might be cause i like feedbacks ... hrhr )

the singers great even if i would like to hear him LOUDER² .
sounds like your in love with the guitars .

wonder how the songs would sound if it would be more
" in your face " ( like a 4 man band kinda thing )
compared to that " wall of sound " ?!

but probablys that just cause i am listening on my 1$ pc speakers ... i like the music ...

have a good day

[Dan-O]

Originally posted by Charles Dye
spherop,

I'm sorry, but I'm not that familiar with the VST plugs yet. Anyone else know of any good VST widening plugs?

Waves Stereo Imager - Pretty good. You can image the lowend and has make-up gain for it as well.
http://www.waves.com/

PSP PseudoStereo - Very useful. Can really make the mids shine. Great on returns.
http://www.pspaudioware.com/

Voxengo Soniformer- Uses a stereo width envelope that is very impressive. In conjunction with it's spectral balance approach to compression, make-up of lost frequencies is a snap. Very cool tool.
http://www.voxengo.com./soniformer/

[spherop]

Great info.

I have a question.

Considering that freq. makeup can be an issue - do you guys usually mix with a stereo widener on the 2 buss from the get-go?

Originally posted by Dan-O
Waves Stereo Imager - Pretty good. You can image the lowend and has make-up gain for it as well.
http://www.waves.com/

PSP PseudoStereo - Very useful. Can really make the mids shine. Great on returns.
http://www.pspaudioware.com/

Voxengo Soniformer- Uses a stereo width envelope that is very impressive. In conjunction with it's spectral balance approach to compression, make-up of lost frequencies is a snap. Very cool tool.
http://www.voxengo.com./soniformer/

[sweet jesus]

heyas.. ive recently crossed over to PT from SX world...

there's loads of great VST plugins around to do what you want.

Check out www.kvr-vst.com for all your VST goodness.

[alphajerk]

Originally posted by Dan-O
PSP PseudoStereo - Very useful. Can really make the mids shine. Great on returns.
http://www.pspaudioware.com/

have you really got this to work on returns combining with the original signal off an aux? i foudn this works nicer as an insert on a particular channel that you want wider... and goes to mono nicely i might add.

one of my favorite plugins from PSP... highly underrated for $29 with a clip of others in the stereo pack.... price might of gone up a little.

[chriscavell]

Charles,

It's a pleasure to make my first post here on Gearslutz in a response to your thread. As everyone else has already said, I'd like to thank you for your presence here. I've been trolling the forum for quite some time and only recently decided to join. I spend a great deal of time on the DUC and only wish we had similar guest admin's from time to time...thanks again.

First, the Sevens sound like a really great group! I currently work in academia as an engineer for a local university, and am constantly trying to find something to work on that REALLY grabs me and makes me remember how much I enjoy doing this for a living! There's only so much "top-ten classical" and swing jazz I can take before I lose it!

My impressions of the tunes by the Sevens:

Cause She Loves Me - I really really like the mix on this one. It could be my monitor setup (which was recently changed quite a bit...still getting used to it), but I feel like I could use a tad more bass, just barely...I like the spacing of the hat in the into, but at around 47 secs to 57 secs it seems to distract me rather than intrigue me...just my take on it. I really dig the mix and the group though!!! One thing that I really like on this tune, and on Gimme a Feeling as well, the rather large, obviously acoustic, drums!!! It really differs from the 'cookie cutter' sound you hear everywhere the past few years...it sounds REAL...something I always appreciate when done well like this!

Gimme a Feeling - this one just rocks man. What a great find for you to get these guys! There are a few places where I lose his lyrics and am left guessing, but they are few and far between all in the second half of the tune...the vocal effects really have a way of placing an emphasis on the song/lyric itself, and I find myself really wanting to hear what he has to say in those few spots b/c you've captured my attention so well earlier on in the tune even if it's only just a syllable. No one else I think has mentioned this so it may just be me being picky.

In the end, I'm really just left a little jealous after listening...as you mentioned, there really is nothing like getting to work with material that is good in both areas, musically and performance-wise. Thanks for sharing these...inspiring.

I hope to get a few examples of my work up in a thread soon and would be absolutely honored if you (and any one else who'd like to) would take a listen and offer comments/suggestions. Thanks again for the previews of the...i guess "upcoming album" from the Sevens.

[Dan-O]