How to make a mix "come alive"?

[i51423]

What exactly needs to be done to really make a mix come alive?

I apologize for the vague (and possibly stupid) question... but how do you make a mix talk to its listeners? How do you make a chrous really explode.. but still transistion back into the verse without sounding weak or empty?

If you don't mind, I'd like to hear your suggestions. Even if it's adding extra stuff to the song... I just want to know how to make my recordings breathe.

I tried messing with parallel compression on the drums on the latest recording I did. I'm not sure I did it right.. because it didn't seem to make all that much of a difference. For the choruses.. I panned the guitars hard and brought them up a bit. I dropped them down again and brought a little more into the center for the verses.

Anything extra I messed with was pretty much ruined after I overcompressed the "master" so my band would be happy with the "loudness" of the mix. Blech.

[opentune]

Originally Posted by i51423

What exactly needs to be done to really make a mix come alive?

I apologize for the vague (and possibly stupid) question...

There are no stupid questions, so here is my stupid answer:

Make sure the arrangement is cool !!!

Pick a good (!) song and arrange it properly. Then "the extras" like fader rides,
delays, compression (as an effect), or even overdubbed percussion will
come to your mind.

Does this help?

[djui5]

Automation

[i51423]

I hope the arrangements are up to snuff! Ha.

We've been all about putting in auxilliary percussion. Lots of hand claps, shaker, and tamborine. We even threw in some cowbell this time.

What exactly would you ride the faders on? In the thread Bang posted on the MP3 forum.. he said he rode the OH faders. I guess I'm just lost on this concept. Eh.

[peeceebee]

I guess it's pretty obvious, but IMO the #1 consideration is to start with EXCITING PERFORMANCES(!)

Failing that...

You could also try being a little more extreme than you'd ordinarily be inclined to with everything you do, just to "pump it up", then back off a hair until it's reasonable but still BIG. In otherwords overshoot tastefulness with your signal processing, than back off until it's still larger than life, but reasonable enough to go out the door. So rather than working up to a big mix, make it TOO big & back it down until it's pro quality.

[opentune]

Would you mind to post an mp3 example of your work? I´m sure that some
very useful posts will follow....

[i51423]

http://www.thepremier.outburst8.com/...0in%20Love.mp3

Keep in mind.. I should probably be posting in Low End with the crap gear I'm using. And.. I know there's a bit too much compression on it.

[Jeff16years]

Originally Posted by i51423

What exactly needs to be done to really make a mix come alive?

I apologize for the vague (and possibly stupid) question... but how do you make a mix talk to its listeners? How do you make a chrous really explode.. but still transistion back into the verse without sounding weak or empty?

If you don't mind, I'd like to hear your suggestions. Even if it's adding extra stuff to the song... I just want to know how to make my recordings breathe.

I tried messing with parallel compression on the drums on the latest recording I did. I'm not sure I did it right.. because it didn't seem to make all that much of a difference. For the choruses.. I panned the guitars hard and brought them up a bit. I dropped them down again and brought a little more into the center for the verses.

Anything extra I messed with was pretty much ruined after I overcompressed the "master" so my band would be happy with the "loudness" of the mix. Blech.

record good music, good performances and be a better mixer. that's all it takes.


pretty easy actually.

[i51423]

Originally Posted by Jeff16years

record good music, good performances and be a better mixer. that's all it takes.


pretty easy actually.

Thank you for the incredibly informative answer!

I'm moreso asking what needs to be done within the mix to squeeze that last bit of energy out of it and really make it come alive.

[Slaytex]

Dude. I love the Guitars at 3:30. They remind me of old Nintendo music in a good way. I would try taking the two gtrs and sit them a bit more in the middle instead of being hard left and right (Try 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock) as it is taking everything else away from the mix. Also good use of Automation for volume jumps at certain points in a song can make a big difference. Such as bring the chorus up 3 db or so at the end of a verse ( try this at 2:50). Other than that I would even out the vocals as they fluctuate a bit. They also sound like they are in a big room and don't mix to well with the rest of the mix. Sounds pretty cool for recording with low budget stuff though.
Hope this helps or atleast points you in the right direction.

[Glenn Kuras]

http://www.thepremier.outburst8.com...in%20Love .mp3


Starting a song with the same lick as Sublime had is going to bite you in the ass some day..

[i51423]

Originally Posted by myfipie

http://www.thepremier.outburst8.com...in%20Love .mp3


Starting a song with the same lick as Sublime had is going to bit you in the ass some day..

Woah. Really?

I've never been a fan of Sublime nor have I listened to them more than in the background at parties.

[Glenn Kuras]

I am just funning with you, but I thought it was a one of there songs at first..

[i51423]

Originally Posted by Slaytex

Dude. I love the Guitars at 3:30. They remind me of old Nintendo music in a good way. I would try taking the two gtrs and sit them a bit more in the middle instead of being hard left and right (Try 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock) as it is taking everything else away from the mix. Also good use of Automation for volume jumps at certain points in a song can make a big difference. Such as bring the chorus up 3 db or so at the end of a verse ( try this at 2:50). Other than that I would even out the vocals as they fluctuate a bit. They also sound like they are in a big room and don't mix to well with the rest of the mix. Sounds pretty cool for recording with low budget stuff though.
Hope this helps or atleast points you in the right direction.

The stereo enhancement and overcompression reallllly brought out the guitars and made them sit far apart.

I might take a stab at it again eventually.

The vocals are pretty heavily compressed, too. I used the K_____ Classic series compressor. It was about 20:1, hard knee, and a high threshold. Fast attack, relatively fast release. Maybe I should've hit it with more? On my voice it sounded really squashed if I went any higher.

The most expensive mic used on the drums was my used D112 I got for $120... including shipping. Heh. I "stole" my friend's BLUE Dragonfly for the vocals. Everything else was all my cheap stuff. Thank you for listening, though. I was expecting the thread to fall to the bottom when I posted the song. Ha.

My friend said that guitar part reminds him of Casio keyboards.

[silverdisk]

www.harddisklife.com

[andychamp]

Originally Posted by i51423

(...) I "stole" my friend's BLUE Dragonfly for the vocals.(...)

Next time, try it on the guitar cabinet. You'll swear someone took away your monitors and replaced them with a Marshall/Fender/Vox/Mesa/whateverampyoureusing!

[Rush909]

Originally Posted by i51423

http://www.thepremier.outburst8.com/...0in%20Love.mp3

Keep in mind.. I should probably be posting in Low End with the crap gear I'm using. And.. I know there's a bit too much compression on it.

Ok... not an expert when it come to this music, but as a music fan, I think what would make this track more alive is attention mixing more that anything.. not even talking EQ or compression, but levels... it seems that the vocals are way louder than the rest of the track, which is necissary for certain types of music, but with hard hitting track like that I would almost want to have some of the guitars overshadow the lead a little... kind will make it rock a bit more and ultimatly have a greater impace...

deffinetly my $0.02

r.

[Jay Kahrs]

Making a mix come alive is about more then gear or technique. Really, it goes beyond individual instrument sounds. It's about the whole package.

What does the SONG want? What does it need? What are the strengths and weaknesses? Find the good parts and push them to the forefront while turning the unimportant & otherwise bad things is pretty important, if not the most important thing but you need to have the distance and objectivity to recognize those things and act on them.

Building a mix or a record is like building a house…the foundation needs to be solid before you add the trim. If the foundation isn’t solid and you don’t have a mix that kicks in the ‘static’ state then no amount of rides, effects, compression tricks etc. are going to save and inject life into it. Just like if the foundation of your house is crooked, slanted or otherwise not kosher then all the fancy molding, paint & marble floors won’t make up for the fact that the house isn’t level and is sinking into the ground. Beyond that, you need to understand the mix fashion for the style of music you’re working on and know how to build an appropriate mix for that style so it conforms to the fashion of the genre and doesn’t sound out of place to the listener.

The first thing that hit me was that this tune sounds like it was mixed by a guitar player...the drums should be way more out front. The drummer sounds like he’s killin’ the kit…but I don’t hear it and more importantly I don’t FEEL it. Parallel compression won’t really help that because it’s a fundamental mix issue. Nor will riding things in this case…there are too many other things that are outta whack and need to be addressed first. Riding vocals or pushing the kick & snare up 2dB in the chorus can put some life into a song, but in this case it would be like adding icing to a burnt cake…underneath it all the cake is still burnt LOL! I’d agree with Rush…pull all the faders down, take off all the plug-ins and start again from scratch. Get the mix to slam and THEN add the stereo enhancement and blah & blee to juice it.

Peace,

[i51423]

Originally Posted by andychamp

Next time, try it on the guitar cabinet. You'll swear someone took away your monitors and replaced them with a Marshall/Fender/Vox/Mesa/whateverampyoureusing!

That's pretty much all he uses it for. I didn't have it at the time of recording guitars or would've thrown it on myself.

Thanks, Rush. You guys are convincing me to take another stab at mixing this just for myself. We already have the copies burned for the presskits.. so it's a little too late for that. Heh.

Thank you for the honesty, Jay.

[Jay Kahrs]

Well, you asked!

The vocals sound really good...nice & steady through the whole thing so I wouldn't mess with them too much...but yeah...the kick needs to thump and the snare needs to crack. That'll help drive the song along an inject some much needed life into the mix. Try A/Bing to some other stuff while you're mixing, get some CD's that you like the sound of and compare you're mix to them. If something sounds "off" it probably is.

Good luck!

[mikecorleone]

the first thing to do is get a decent blend of the instruments. compression can be a dangerous tool if used improperly. for now, i wouldnt worry about eq or compression, just use the faders to get a blend so you hear all the instruments clearly. however it is a must to compress vocals on the way in , so eventually you should learn how to do this .

anyways, good luck

[i51423]

Originally Posted by mikecorleone

the first thing to do is get a decent blend of the instruments. compression can be a dangerous tool if used improperly. for now, i wouldnt worry about eq or compression, just use the faders to get a blend so you hear all the instruments clearly. however it is a must to compress vocals on the way in , so eventually you should learn how to do this .

anyways, good luck

I don't have an outboard compressor.. the closest thing I could do is compress the input on Cubase. Usually it's done to keep the converters from clipping, right? There would be no point in compressing after the converters besides in the mix, IMO.

[opentune]

The single note guitar is a little too upfront for me. At 0:46 it really fights
with the vocals (which are very cool btw).

I love the drummers playing! Would like to hear more drums.

Other than that i think people that buy the CD will not be disappointed
by the sound or performance. It´s ok!