Mix Off!! POP ROCK

[PeterPants]

Originally Posted by JohnnieTech

Here is my mix. I decided to replace the kick and the snare as I really couldn't quite get the sound I wanted out of the originals. This was a very well put together track. Would love some feedback if at all possible. Thank you!

Hey Johnnie, thanks for giving it a shot! to me the drums are lost in the mix especially the snare. the bass is kind of dominating the mix... even competing with the vocals. I'd work on bringing the levels of the drums up and getting the bass under control and see what that does to the mix.

I also checked your "acoustic" version. pretty cool! definitely a more stripped down almost live feel to it.

[doomnote]

Originally Posted by PeterPants

Cool man! glad to see it's still getting some more use out of it! Your mix sounded a little mono... like all the guitars were panned center or something. All those guitars fighting for the same space as the vocals. I'd try to see what you can do about making more space. the drums sound pretty good to me. I like the punch you got out of the snare.

Thanks for the advice - will do. Really glad to hear about the snare as I probably spent way too much time trying to get that perfect. I'm really anal about the snare sounding just right.

Thanks again for posting and the critique!

[mini logo]

My attempt is attached. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

[keyboardwizard]

My first mixoff! this was really fun, and I spent about 2 hours here trying to get a decent mix.
All was done ITB. My room is fairly bad with no acoustic treatment and doesn't translate very well. This is the first time I try this, so be nice with with me, but critics are highly appreciated.
My mix is maybe a bit dark, and lacks some definition in the low end.
the guitars are a bit low some places.
No automation were used.

It's not near the same league as captainhooks mix or the other experienced guys here, but it was fun to try!

I couldn't get the snare to work, so I mixed in a replacement from SD2.
what do you think?

[Xander]

Fun song to mix! I have some more "creative" stuff I want to try, but here is my basic mix after a couple hours after work for two nights (note that I did not smash the bejeesus out of it, so feel free to use your volume knob )...

Edit: I made some balance/tone changes this morning, correcting some 2 AM mix decisions

And to balance things out in this thread, I'll review some mixes from above mine! (I will get more later, but I have to get up for a 15 hour work day in less than 6 hours...)

keyboardwiz:

- There seems to be a lot of fighting from 100-300 hz. Cut some of that range from a few instruments, and it should clear up quite a bit!
- Great balances! Nothing seems too distracting from the story of the song.
- The rhythm guitars are kind of cloudy, and blending in with the bass. I had issues with this too. I think some high-passing on the guitars and cutting up the low mids on the bass could help
- Piano seems overpowering in the bridge section
- The macrodynamics aren't really there. The verses are pretty much the same volume as the choruses, so the choruses don't hit you like they should. The bridge is also pretty comparable to the last chorus, which reduces impact

minilogo:

- It sounds like a good rough mix, i.e., a faders-up mix. But it doesn't extend much past there.
- Balances between instruments are pretty good, nothing is too overpowering
- The vocals get lost a few times. Some careful compression and automation can fix that for sure!
- It's pretty muddy from 200 hz - 400 hz. Cutting some of that out of some instruments should help out quite a bit
- The bridge is nice and low, so the last chorus has some impact left in it!

[PeterPants]

Originally Posted by Xander

Fun song to mix! I have some more "creative" stuff I want to try, but here is my basic mix after a couple hours after work for two nights (note that I did not smash the bejeesus out of it, so feel free to use your volume knob )...

Cool mix! I thought your snare sound was pretty spot on for my taste!

[keyboardwizard]

Originally Posted by Xander

keyboardwiz:

- There seems to be a lot of fighting from 100-300 hz. Cut some of that range from a few instruments, and it should clear up quite a bit!
- Great balances! Nothing seems too distracting from the story of the song.
- The rhythm guitars are kind of cloudy, and blending in with the bass. I had issues with this too. I think some high-passing on the guitars and cutting up the low mids on the bass could help
- Piano seems overpowering in the bridge section
- The macrodynamics aren't really there. The verses are pretty much the same volume as the choruses, so the choruses don't hit you like they should. The bridge is also pretty comparable to the last chorus, which reduces impact

Thank you for your response.
I have this problem with my room that around 100-300hz is barely audible and very easy to overcompensate / don't hear fighting against instruments, and that typical distorted guitars seems much louder than they really are, so I don't have the ability to compensate for this yet I guess BUT I'm building a new studio as we speak, and will take room treatment quite seriously this time. I hear when I play this track at my pc-speakers at work it doesn't do justice for what I did in the studio, and doesn't sound what I heard there. so that's just another win for the "acoustic 101" but a lot of EQ is probably needed to clear up the instruments in the 100-300 section, thanks for that tips.
hipass/low-cut of the guitars is a great tips, and the cloudy piano needs some adjustments for sure.

I'm aware of the dynamics. I didn't do any automation. I'm not skilled at this area of what to "push" in the choruses, bridge, what to dampen etc. But that's something I need to work with to get a interesting mix!

Other than that, thank you again for a very constructive critique of my mix! I will take note of this - and you'll see a better mix next time!

your mix sounded great by the way!
I really liked the dynamics!
..and the kick. what did you do to it, replaced?

[Spede]

Hello. Here's my mix of this song. I started this mix months ago, but never
finished it initially because I felt that I just couldn't get an adequate mix out
these stems. Couple of months later I happened to open the session and
decided to finish it and in the I'm fairly happy with the results.

I've approached this mix in a different way than I usually do in this kind of
music: This mix has little less compression on individual tracks (and no drum
parallel compression at all), but the master bus compressor is peaking at
-11dB. Lots of automation keeps the mix in place and creates some
macrodynamics.

[Spede]

Some comments to other peoples mixes:

Xander:

The intro kick sounds very cool.
IMO the snare backs down too much during the verses; I can only hear the room/reverb.
You've certainly improved with use of automation lately: The chorus really comes into life!
The vocal feels slightly separated from the rest of the mix (little bit more during verses)
but we both know that it's probably the hardest thing to get done with these tracks.
In a situations like this I'd suggest using some dynamic EQs to notch out certain
(middle) frequencies when they peak too loud. Check out Brainworx DynEQ for example
or something similar with a high Q. They're good problem-solvers for situations like this.
I guess everything else is just matter of tastes. I think this is a good mix.

JohnnieTech:

The intro and the first verse sounds very nice and lush. Lovin' the acoustic guitar tone!
However, I feel that the drums are slightly weak and too low in the mix here.
There's something wrong with the snare: All the hits aren't coming through. Either it's a
gate/expander or (mis)trigger issue.
If you want to feature the bass very loud in the mix I'd suggest removing some more of
the upper bass/lower mid frequencies. Now there's a huge bump in the ~190 Hz region.
I personally think that the bass is too overall too loud in the second verse. Few dBs of
automation would help it and might even make the second chorus punchier.

[frame]

My first post here on GS!!
Here my mixoff!!

I mixed everything with my akg 240..I tried to do my best!..monitors will arrive soon!!
Please comment!
Thank you very much!

[child of Gaia]

^Great mix dude, especially since you mixed it purely on cans!

This thread is full of great mixes. I love how everyone has a different approach to mixing.

This is a great song PeterPants. It's a real earworm, and I enjoyed mixing it. I came across this thread a few days ago, so I thought I'd give it a shot whilst taking a couple of days break from my own stuff.

So here is my contribution:

[Fishmed]

Thank you Peter for sharing this song and letting us mix it.

I know I am late posting this mix, but I figure since the files are still available for download, there is no time limit.

I did not use any samples to replace or supplement the drums. I just used the tracks provided for my mix. Enjoy!

Bitter War