I stand naked before you...

[bleen]

...and submit a mix for your critique!

Aaron English, an artisit here in Seattle whose CD I co-produced and mixed and couple of years ago, called and asked for an instrumental mix of one of the tracks from the disc. I was happy to oblige, but also took it as an opportunity to remix the song (with vocals) just for giggles.

My computer was crying by the time I finished (...need a G5...), but I'm so much happier than I was with the mix on his CD (too many people offering "ideas" during that whole project). It's a rather interesting song - somber mood - incredibly dense arrangement and some fun instruments (violin, cello, riqq, hurdy gurdy, m'bira, taiko drum, etc). I played the kit parts with a pair of mallets from a little Remo kid's drum, thus the soft attack on the toms and cymbals.

Here's the track:
Aaron English - Mandeleine

[jho]

Originally posted by bleen
...and submit a mix for your critique!

Aaron English, an artisit here in Seattle whose CD I co-produced and mixed and couple of years ago, called and asked for an instrumental mix of one of the tracks from the disc. I was happy to oblige, but also took it as an opportunity to remix the song (with vocals) just for giggles.

My computer was crying by the time I finished (...need a G5...), but I'm so much happier than I was with the mix on his CD (too many people offering "ideas" during that whole project). It's a rather interesting song - somber mood - incredibly dense arrangement and some fun instruments (violin, cello, riqq, hurdy gurdy, m'bira, taiko drum, etc). I played the kit parts with a pair of mallets from a little Remo kid's drum, thus the soft attack on the toms and cymbals.

Here's the track:
Aaron English - Mandeleine

Hey, Aaron is on the same label as my band Man On Fire. Tell him Jho said Yo!

[tunesmith]

Hey man...

Props on the mix! Not my bag when it comes to style, but I always recognize good musicianship (mix and otherwise) when I hear it.

Tunes.

[bleen]

Thanks, Tunes!

I was beginning to wonder if it was so frightening that no one would dare post their thoughts about it....

[jho]

Originally posted by bleen
Thanks, Tunes!

I was beginning to wonder if it was so frightening that no one would dare post their thoughts about it....

Ah dude, that's a great sounding record. Good job! Aaron is a talented guy too.

Jeff

[bleen]

Originally posted by jho
Ah dude, that's a great sounding record. Good job! Aaron is a talented guy too.

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff - I'll talk to Aaron today and tell him you said "Hello!"

[jho]

Originally posted by bleen
Thanks, Jeff - I'll talk to Aaron today and tell him you said "Hello!"

Kewl!

Tell him that ROSfest (www.rosfest.com) was a blast and Shawn Gordon is a trip...

Jeff
Man On Fire

[Roland]

Originally posted by bleen
Thanks, Tunes!

I was beginning to wonder if it was so frightening that no one would dare post their thoughts about it....

Ok, I will take you at your word and risk a flaming!

Love the track, dark as you said. The arrangement is great, well performed and sounds like a good balance to me (I am limited unfortunately to hearing it on a fair computer speaker set up.

My only criticisms are that the bass drum sounds a little lacking in depth and I'm not keen on the vocal sound. Would have liked to hear a more gentle compression on the vocal mic, possibly a "bigger" vocal sound. At the present the vocal sounds like it is hard limited and it gives the track a slightly hard edge in the 2-3khz region. On a second listen it sounded like the mid is generally quite forward in the track so it might be different sounding on your monitors.

Has it been finally mastered for release?

After all the above being said, I still really enjoyed it!

Regards



Roland

[bleen]

Originally posted by Roland
Ok, I will take you at your word and risk a flaming!

Ha! No worries, Ronald!

My only criticisms are that the bass drum sounds a little lacking in depth and I'm not keen on the vocal sound.

Yeah, the kick drum is my old Premier and wasn't the best sounding drum to begin with...

I may replace it with a sample of my Starclassic kick that sounds lovely.

Would have liked to hear a more gentle compression on the vocal mic, possibly a "bigger" vocal sound. At the present the vocal sounds like it is hard limited and it gives the track a slightly hard edge in the 2-3khz region. On a second listen it sounded like the mid is generally quite forward in the track so it might be different sounding on your monitors.

I'll give that a careful listen - he has a rather sibilant voice and the vocals were tracked with an AT4033 - not the subtlest mic, and long gone from my collection for many reasons...

Has it been finally mastered for release?

No, I did some quick "give-it-some-level-and-EQ" for this, but it's not mastered.

After all the above being said, I still really enjoyed it!

Thanks for listening!

Cheers!

[not_so_new]

Hey Bleen...

I am listening on internal laptop speakers so don't ask me about tones or mix (for what it is worth it translates just fine) but the song is kick ass, great arrangment and production.

Rock on man, very cool vibe I think you nailed it!!

[withintheflux]

I find it hard to believe anyone has criticisms of this mix. genuinely great! wow.

[RaGe]

Other that the vox that sounds a bit thin, I have one word: WOW!!!
Care to feed us on what you used on the strings, gtrs (mic/pres)?

[bleen]

Originally posted by RaGe
Other that the vox that sounds a bit thin, I have one word: WOW!!!

Thanks, man!

Care to feed us on what you used on the strings, gtrs (mic/pres)?

Well, when we tracked this three years ago, great gear was hard to come by with my budget, soooooooo....the drums were tracked through a Mackie 1604VLZ into a Aaron's 001, and everything else was through the 001 pre's... fuuck dfegad

He wanted to track everything to his PT|LE rig...

Guitars were mic'd with 57's and the violins and cello were mic'd with both AT4033 and Oktava MK012s - I chose the better track in the mix.

The CD was mixed on my rig in '01-'02 which at the time was based around DP3. Shortly after that I switched to Logic and that's what this new mix was done with.

[RaGe]

Simply amazing how you managed to get such beautiful tracks with the gear you had. It shows how talented you are man and I truly mean it.
I checked some mp3s on the artist's website, and you're right, this new mix you did is much better than what's on the CD.

Also this is the kind of music that I would like to be involved in one day.
Fantastic job!

[RaGe]

btw is this a real piano?

[bleen]

Wow, thanks again, RaGe!

The ADAMs I'm mixing with now don't hurt, either!

And no, it's not a real piano - he's still using his Yamaha P150 (I think that's the model) from the mid-90's.

Some of the cuts on the CD are real - I tracked a 9' Steinway in a chapel for a few of the songs. That was KILLER!

[Roland]

Originally posted by bleen
[B]Thanks, man!



Well, when we tracked this three years ago, great gear was hard to come by with my budget, soooooooo....the drums were tracked through a Mackie 1604VLZ into a Aaron's 001, and everything else was through the 001 pre's... fuuck dfegad

He wanted to track everything to his PT|LE rig...

Guitars were mic'd with 57's and the violins and cello were mic'd with both AT4033 and Oktava MK012s - I chose the better track in the mix.

The CD was mixed on my rig in '01-'02 which at the time was based around DP3. Shortly after that I switched to Logic and that's what this new mix was done with.

Just goes to show what results can be had on "budget" gear. I think the production and the playing make the track. I also have great sympathy for you over the 4033, number of people I have heard rave about them, but they always sounded pants to me, I've never been a fan of any single capsule, large diaphram condensors.

Regards



Roland