Feedback on "Mix-Off" by Ken

[TonyBelmont]

This thread is to give our good friend Ken Lewis an opportunity to give feedback to those who submitted mixes to be evaluated by him from a previous thread.

This is the place to talk to Ken, and for Ken to talk to you on this topic. I know he has worked hard to give them all a good listen.

The MixOff critiques are in the following post: Feedback on "Mix-Off" by Ken

Anyone who gets out of line will be banned from participating here.

[jjboogie]

For him to be willing to do this amongst his busy schedule is really great and says a lot about his character.

[Nahuel]

Cant wait to read his comments!

[beat you down]

really curious!

[Ken Lewis]

Hey guys. OK, i have reviewed every mix submitted before the deadline. WHEW!!!! that was a ton of work. Sorry it took so long, i have been spending most of my time lately helping to make a big album that all of you will be hearing very very soon.

I will give anybody who participated one last chance to have their critique not included in my full posting. I tried not to be mean about any of my comments, but i was basically listening and typing very stream of consciousness. As i heard something, i commented. almost every mix got at least 2 listens thru. I can make alot of comments in 8 minutes. So, there is the occasional "WTF was that??" or "dude i cant listen, the out of phase stuff is killing my whole perception of the mix". you have been warned

I will post up critiques later today. I am still working on this album but will prolly be done today. stay tuned!!!

Ken

[rickrock305]

Originally Posted by jjboogie

For him to be willing to do this amongst his busy schedule is really great and says a lot about his character.

Agreed. Sorry I missed out on it.

[rickrock305]

Just a quick question for you Ken...did any of the mixes really do it for you? Any of em make you say "yea, that's the one I wanna go with"? Any chance of one of these guys landing the mix for the record?

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by rickrock305

Just a quick question for you Ken...did any of the mixes really do it for you? Any of em make you say "yea, that's the one I wanna go with"? Any chance of one of these guys landing the mix for the record?

Landing the mix for the album...... Probably not, mainly because my production partner Brent Kolatalo does most of their mixing for them (i mix a song here and there for them as well, so you would be my competition, good luck to ya :-), and Brent could have beaten any of the mixes submitted, so i'm not at all worried about him losing his gig.

ON A SIDE NOTE...........

!@$%$%(&%^#@#@%#&$^% YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

I can finally talk about it. The album wrap party was tonight for the Kanye West / Jay Z collaboration album "Watch the Throne". I was fortunate enough to work my ass off on a few songs for the album and it looks like my work might not be completely done just yet. We did get to hear several songs from the album tonight and all i can say is CLASSIC. hip Hop needs this.

OK, back on topic...... Rick Rock, to answer your main question...... No. there wasnt a single mix that really blew me away. I really thought there would be. I honestly felt like maybe 3 or 4 of them even beat the ruff mix noticeably, which i didnt think was going to be a high bar to jump over. And the way i delivered the session, you could almost put all faders even and duplicate the rough mix. So, i actually felt like alot of guys went backwards. The biggest problem i found was that guys are trying to do way too much 2nd level ish and creative ish that they are not getting the basics perfect. I think around 60 to 80% of any given mix is simply nailing the basics. Great balances that make the record feel good. then solid EQ and compression work. Then the effects and special effects, etc... Most people skipped right over step one.

There was one mix submitted after the deadline by JJ Boogie that i felt was a truly pro mix, which really only needed a few tweeks, but even that mix definitely had some problems that i would have never let slide.

The devil is in the details, and maybe because nobody was getting paid, maybe because their career doesnt depend on how well they do in a mixoff, but everybody overlooked the fine details, even JJ Boogie, but his overall mix felt fantastic (is fantastic a descriptor i should use in the hip hop forum? prolly not). His mix was super crazy dope fresh fly but still he plain missed a few things. No big deal. In the real world with clients this is where the REVISIONS process would start. With JJ a 3 minute phone conversation would fix all problems with his mix. I thought alot of guys got close and just needed some creative or technical direction. no big deal. This is a very typical part of the record making process, and like all things creative, is completely subjective, and in this case, i am the subjector i just made that ish up, i'm feeling kinda funny tonight. But seriously, this is completely normal. I get asked to make revisions to my mixes all the time. It is nearly impossible to not be sitting in the same room with the artist and deliver an absolute perfect mix that they artist doesnt want any changes to. The artist might love the mix, but they might still say "line 3 in verse 2 is too low" and "can you make the snare punch more". etc... actually on another post, i should post mix revision comments from a client of mine anonymously (with their permission) just to show you guys what a very typical revision request is. might be kind of enlightening. The mixing process has truly changed drastically over the last 20 years, I'm trying to stay at the cutting edge.

OK, posting up full critique Friday. Stay tuned!!!
-Ken

[nukmusic]

See...there it is. Tony did what I assumed he would do if/when asked.

OK Ken, bring on the opinions dammit LOL.
I've already stated my case on what I submitted and sure you or whoever may point out some things I am already aware of before the submission. What I'm looking for are those ideas that I did not think about doing within the mix. I wanted to add to the song without taking away from what was there. I also would like to know how you or the person doing the final mix worked out the technical problems within that session. It's good to add new tools to the tool bag. I think it's a nice tune.

And will the final mix (or a short clip) be uploaded for viewing?

Thx again.

[Methlab]

Wow Ken, this is above and beyond man. Incredible of you to do this for posters here.

I'd love to hear the best mix critiqued and then the final next to it at some point.

[mikeg09]

Kool! cant wait

[G. Kaye]

OT, but since you brought it up, any clues on the Jay-Z/Kanye album release date, Ken?

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by G. Kaye

OT, but since you brought it up, any clues on the Jay-Z/Kanye album release date, Ken?

Soon. Honestly thats all i know.

[essessbe]

Originally Posted by G. Kaye

OT, but since you brought it up, any clues on the Jay-Z/Kanye album release date, Ken?

supposedly scheduled to be released august 2nd

[AndyFromDenver]

it's gonna hurt so......good....

[Ken Lewis]

Hey guys,
really sorry about the long wait. I have been overwhelmed with work, still am but cant drag this on forever. I dont think anybody won, but my top three mixes to come in before the deadline are #11, #20, #28. in no particular order. Had to post this as a zip, but the zip includes a WORD Doc and a Text file which might be more cross compatible. Way too long to post here as text. Without further adieu...... -Ken

[JanZoo]

Can someone provide the link (if it's still alive) with the mixes?
I'd like to hear the mixes again and read Ken's critique.
I deleted the zip file with the mixes accidentally...

[Nahuel]

thank you so much Ken!

btw for JanZoo here is a temporary link, you be able to dl the rar in one hour or something, I just droped it in my dropbox, I'll delete it cause I need the space but I'll let it there a couple of days.

Originally Posted by clivek

Download all mixes - link below:


https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.p...Z2dwaFJjR0E9PQ

[beyondat]

YES! Ken said my mix was a decent effort with major flaws! I actually knew the vocals where to loud when i played it in the car but I wanted to make the deadline. I disagree and actually liked the idea of the distortion on the chorus, needed to be eq'd properly like you said. thanks for your time Ken this really give people on my level something to strive for.


34. clap is too sharp. Hook 1 is too upper midrangy. Don’t like the filter effect on the vocal, its too severe. Verse 1 LV is too loud and too essey which prolly means its overcompressed. Overall vocals are too loud, especially the verses, and sit far on top of the whole mix. If you blended them down a bit it would be a much better mix. Verse ad libs are wayyy tooooo low.
I like how the kick feels but could be slightly louder. Claps need to be thicker. Too sharp. You are kind of ignoring the lower midrange of the mix. Feels like there a lot of unused sonic space in the 200hz to 800hz range.
Vocals also need some de essing overall. Hooks are big offenders. Overall a decent mix, with a few major problems. Could be a much better mix very quickly just with some de esing and rebalancing, but overall, a decent effort. I think this mix is straddling the base hit and home run cateogories, but if I had to choose, I’d put it in the bass hit folder.
http://files.myopera.com/beyondat/fi...r-Beyondat.mp3

[mikeg09]

Well im glad Ken liked mine. I still need to work on a few things though and with what he said about mine, I learned some new things too!!!!

[mikeg09]

Hey ken, did you leave #1 out of the critiques? I dont see it in the document.

LOL

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by mikeg09

Hey ken, did you leave #1 out of the critiques? I dont see it in the document.

LOL

lets just leave one alone shall we. We all know why its gone.

[mikeg09]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

lets just leave one alone shall we. We all know why its gone.

LOL
hahaha

[Storyville]

My vote is for #20. I'd like to know who did that mix. Definitely my preference.

[JanZoo]

Originally Posted by Nahuel

thank you so much Ken!

btw for JanZoo here is a temporary link, you be able to dl the rar in one hour or something, I just droped it in my dropbox, I'll delete it cause I need the space but I'll let it there a couple of days.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2199844/RHS_Mixes.rar

It says : "Error (404)
We can't find the page you're looking for. Check out our FAQ or forums for help. Or maybe you should try heading home."

[Trell Blaze]

I'm not seeing the text file...

[G. Kaye]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

Soon. Honestly thats all i know.

cool, thx, cant wait.

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by G. Kaye

cool, thx, cant wait.

i posted it. Its Post #16 on this thread. zip file to download with text docs inside with every crituque

[Dayl]

Ah haha DQ'd, I thought as much

Thanks a lot Ken, great feedback all round. Its also good to relate you critique to what my room is telling me using all the mixes also.

Again, great work guys.

Thanks Again

[Trell Blaze]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

i posted it. Its Post #16 on this thread. zip file to download with text docs inside with every crituque

Yea I saw that. What I meant is that the text doc is not included. All I see is the word doc. Nothing on my computer will read it.