Great musicians, good acoustics, prosumer gear and open source software.

[surflounge]

that sofa is fouling acoustics
congrats on such a mess I guess
there's a wild future for your style of studio design

[magnetophon]

surflounge: Erm... thanks, I guess?!

[magnetophon]

Hey guys,

I've been lurking here for years, and I finally gathered all my courage and signed up, with the goal of getting my mixes slashed!

So what do you think?

IOW: bump!

[cyjanopan]

Those mixes are really good, nothing to worry about I guess, I like malinese music most. BUT 8 or 12 track tape machine will fit the place and style perfectly. Even 2-track for dumping mixes will make it sound more convincing and give little colour. I can put one song for you on tape and you`ll hear yourself

[brother_spirit]

your studio design is out of this world

[magnetophon]

Originally Posted by cyjanopan

I can put one song for you on tape and you`ll hear yourself

Yes please! Would you like the unmastered version for that? If so, which song do you feel would benefit most from tape?

Greetz,

Bart.

[cyjanopan]

I think something which you feel need some softness and colour will be the best. I made quick transfer from mp3 of Manager song, I couldnt convert flac to wav... So pick whichever you like and send me wav, mastered is fine I think, theyre not squashed or anything.

[Bigpuppy]

Lake Montgomery - Timebomb

The recording is great, love the acoustic sound. Can't hear the vocal track at all. If someone was to asked what she is a singing I wouldn't be able to say.

You're getting great recording out of that room. Keep it up ! =-)

If you want to return the favor here is my newest mix:
New country song

[chielio72]

dewd .. you're also from the Netherlands!

First of all big respect you managed to accomplish this with open source software .. that's amazing, I tried but failed that route.

Second, the room sounds nice .. the design is very 'antikraak' ..like it too.

The sound is very live and acoustic .. just what it needs to be I guess.

Good job!

[binarymilton]

For the most part your mixes sound v. good. Mastering would add a bit of sparkle and polish. Sometimes I suspect there might be an amount of only just-audible bottom-end mud on your mixes, but it's hard to tell.

Zoumana Diarra - Sunguruba
This sounds great. Lovely, tactile, sensuous sound. I might make the lead guitar sound a tiny bit brighter but really I'm just finding something for the sake of finding something. Marvellous stuff.

Keko Yoma - Manager
Again, think the lead guitar could be a bit a bit brighter. Probably by cutting rather than boosting. Especially when it's distorted. Just sounds slightly flatulent when it's distorted. Can you separate the clean lead guitar sound and the distorted lead guitar sound onto different tracks? It would help - you could then give them a different treatment.
I would also experiment with adding a very small amount of reverb to the track as a whole and, proportionally, more to the snare, because the snare sounds a bit cardboard box-y. There's "dry" and there's "dead", and you're leaning just a bit closer to "dead" than "dry".
I suspect there's a ska-style "clang" you can find on that snare's EQ somewhere.

[binarymilton]

These mixes need a bit of work IMO:

Upsilon Acrux - No title
More dead-sounding drums. Actually, these sound quite muffled. The other songs so far were good enough to be mastered, whereas this doesn't sound quite like a finished mix to me; more like a rough mix. Drums are too quiet and muffled. The bass sounds too prominent, but also paradoxically a bit muffled. I think there's probably a bit too much low-mid as a whole in this mix.

In fact, instead of saying what's wrong with this mix, you simply need a reference track for this mix. Ask the band for a good contemporary example of what they're aiming for. I would suggest A/Bing against something by Tortoise, aPaTT, Seabrook Power Plant or Chrome Hoof. Once you have something, import the wav or MP3 into your software and keep A/Bing it against your mix.

Lake Montgomery - Timebomb
This one sounds a bit thin to me. Unlike your other mixes, it sounds quite harsh and toppy. When the singer hits certain high timbres, it verges on the grating. Her guitar dynamics are quite unwieldy.

I think you need to concentrate on the vocal here. Like someone else said, you can't make out what she's saying. (If I was her manager, I'd say she should tone down the vocal affectations a little: her singing style is a bit OTT.) I would start by turning the guitar down and maybe panning it to the side slightly. Place the vocal dead-centre if it isn't already. Work on thickening the vocal. Experiment with some compression on the vocal. Try some parallel compression on the vocal. Then maybe try some similar compression experiments on the guitar.

At the start of the song you can hear a bit of noise in the background. I'd try a noise-gate on both instruments and experiment with levels.

One problem with this track lies in the performance: both the vocals and guitar are very dynamic, going up and down in volume, but without much sense or logic to those dynamics. I would be tempted to ride some of these dynamics and impose a bit of order on them - eg when she gets quieter, make it more quiet, and for longer.

Generally though, the track needs warmth, saturation, separation, clarity and softness. One very crass, blunt-instrument, quick-fix solution - if you had to send the track out in two minutes' time - would be to grab a warm-sounding analogue compressor and get squashing.

[binarymilton]

Zoumana Diarra - Newayo

A great sound. I'm liking this Zoumana Diarra guy a lot!

There's an instrument right in the background - hard to tell what it is, comes in briefly half way through, very quietly.
Sounds like a flute? Synth? Dunno what it is. But I did wonder why it was so quiet that you could barely hear it.

If I had to say something, I'd say you could try to see if you could EQ the percussion to make it sound more "slappy" and tactile - ie actually hear the musicians hands hitting the skins. But, like the other track by this guy, this mix is good to go.

[magnetophon]

Thanks for the compliments everyone, but thanks even more for the critique!

Originally Posted by cyjanopan

I think something which you feel need some softness and colour will be the best. I made quick transfer from mp3 of Manager song, I couldnt convert flac to wav... So pick whichever you like and send me wav, mastered is fine I think, theyre not squashed or anything.

Thank you for your effort. I have no first hand experience with tape and it is very interesting to compare the two versions.

For my taste the decrease in drum-transients and the increase in distortion, mainly in the bass-region does not enhance this mix.
Also there is hardly an increase in volume as a 'trade'. Is your track normalized?
The ultra low bass seems boosted and compressed a bit.

If you have the time, I'd be very interested to hear what tape can do for "Time Bomb".

Originally Posted by Bigpuppy

Lake Montgomery - Timebomb

The recording is great, love the acoustic sound. Can't hear the vocal track at all. If someone was to asked what she is a singing I wouldn't be able to say.

You're getting great recording out of that room. Keep it up ! =-)

If you want to return the favor here is my newest mix:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/work-progress-advice-requested-show-tell-artist-showcase-mix-offs/512688-new-country-song.html

I head some trouble with the very dynamic vocal on "Time Bomb". See my comments later on.
I've written my thoughts on your mix in your thread.

Originally Posted by chielio72

First of all big respect you managed to accomplish this with open source software .. that's amazing, I tried but failed that route.

What went wrong? With distro's like 64studio It's not that hard anymore?!

Originally Posted by chielio72

the design is very 'antikraak'

Actually it is in a squat...

Originally Posted by binarymilton

Keko Yoma - Manager
Again, think the lead guitar could be a bit a bit brighter. Probably by cutting rather than boosting. Especially when it's distorted. Just sounds slightly flatulent when it's distorted. Can you separate the clean lead guitar sound and the distorted lead guitar sound onto different tracks? It would help - you could then give them a different treatment.
I would also experiment with adding a very small amount of reverb to the track as a whole and, proportionally, more to the snare, because the snare sounds a bit cardboard box-y. There's "dry" and there's "dead", and you're leaning just a bit closer to "dead" than "dry".
I suspect there's a ska-style "clang" you can find on that snare's EQ somewhere.

I've tried making the clean guitar brighter, but it starts masking the vocals and the wind-instrument (no idea what it's called)
The distorted guitars have already been put on separate tracks, and they could do with less low and low-mid. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
The band thinks I used to much reverb in general, but we do have trouble communicating so I might have misunderstood them. (they're back in Chili, I'm in the Netherlands...)
Did you notice the varying amount of verb on various things (also the snare) throughout the song or have I been too subtle?

Originally Posted by binarymilton

These mixes need a bit of work IMO:
Upsilon Acrux - No title
More dead-sounding drums.

You mean I should more often use the dry sound I gave the drums in some parts of the song?

Originally Posted by binarymilton

Drums are too quiet and muffled.

I guess I over-solved the cymbal-smashing? ....

Originally Posted by binarymilton

The bass sounds too prominent, but also paradoxically a bit muffled. I think there's probably a bit too much low-mid as a whole in this mix.

I really had trouble with those things too. I think the many notes and many sounds at once made it quite difficult to mix...

Originally Posted by binarymilton

In fact, instead of saying what's wrong with this mix, you simply need a reference track for this mix. Ask the band for a good contemporary example of what they're aiming for. I would suggest A/Bing against something by Tortoise, aPaTT, Seabrook Power Plant or Chrome Hoof. Once you have something, import the wav or MP3 into your software and keep A/Bing it against your mix.

I asked the band for some reference tracks, but they gave me a list of what seemed like all their influences.
The bands I know that use similar sounds like Orbital have totally different songs and arrangements, and the music I know that has a similar "amount of notes"/"complexity of arrangement" like Bird, Stravinsky, Mr Bungle or Dillinger Escape Plan use totally different sounds... Not sure what else to compare these guys too...I Googled your suggestions a bit but I couldn't find anything remotely similar. If you know a specific track I should listen to let me know. At the moment this mix is a bit of a partially solved puzzle to me.
An older album by Upsilon Acrux has a lot of LCR, but I think this track works better with all the sounds blended. Maybe I should try some more panning and listen if it works though.

Originally Posted by binarymilton

Lake Montgomery - Timebomb
This one sounds a bit thin to me. Unlike your other mixes, it sounds quite harsh and toppy. When the singer hits certain high timbres, it verges on the grating. Her guitar dynamics are quite unwieldy.

I think you need to concentrate on the vocal here. Like someone else said, you can't make out what she's saying. (If I was her manager, I'd say she should tone down the vocal affectations a little: her singing style is a bit OTT.) I would start by turning the guitar down and maybe panning it to the side slightly. Place the vocal dead-centre if it isn't already. Work on thickening the vocal. Experiment with some compression on the vocal. Try some parallel compression on the vocal. Then maybe try some similar compression experiments on the guitar.

At the start of the song you can hear a bit of noise in the background. I'd try a noise-gate on both instruments and experiment with levels.

One problem with this track lies in the performance: both the vocals and guitar are very dynamic, going up and down in volume, but without much sense or logic to those dynamics. I would be tempted to ride some of these dynamics and impose a bit of order on them - eg when she gets quieter, make it more quiet, and for longer.

Generally though, the track needs warmth, saturation, separation, clarity and softness. One very crass, blunt-instrument, quick-fix solution - if you had to send the track out in two minutes' time - would be to grab a warm-sounding analogue compressor and get squashing.

She sure was dynamic!! On this mix I used parallel-compression plus de-essing on the vocal and compression plus de-essing on the guitar. I'll try to use more, but the last time I tried I couln't make it any more comprehensible without artifacts from the compression and from comb-filtering between the room-mics and the vocals. It was recorded all together so if I ride a lot you hear the sound change with the rides.
Would you say the general idea of the lirics still comes across? Or maybe the only reason I can understand most of it is because I already know what she's singing?
Panning would increase the intelligibility but would also sound very unnatural to me. I guess I should just turn the guitar down a bit.

Originally Posted by binarymilton

Zoumana Diarra - Newayo

There's an instrument right in the background - hard to tell what it is, comes in briefly half way through, very quietly.
Sounds like a flute? Synth? Dunno what it is. But I did wonder why it was so quiet that you could barely hear it.

It's my Korg Z1 synth pretending to be a flute. The volume is on Zoumana's own request.

[MMski]

That room looks amazing. Cave-like.

[binarymilton]

Sorry, when I said "more dead drums" on that Upsilon Acrux track, I meant that the drums sound a bit dead - just like on the previous track but more so. I think your snares in particular sound quite dull. Judicious EQ or reverb might fix this.

Surprised to hear there's any reverb at all on your tracks! I can't actually hear it in the mix. Normally I'd say that's a good thing, but bear in mind if you wanted to add more reverb, you have that freedom.

Interesting that you've already done a fair bit of compression on that Timebomb track. Maybe you could try double-tracking the guitar (either real or fake-delay) and panning. That'd thicken it up a bit, and then maybe you could EQ one guitar part to sound more warm and bassy and the other more top-end.