FRENCH FEMALE POP ROCK ITB MIX

[luctellier]

Here's a final and mastered mix of an upcoming french female artist I've done last week.

Please note that mixing french vocal is a bit different from english mixes.

I would appreciate to receive your comments and feedbacks.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE WAV 44.1 /16bits

Thanks!

[ez135]

Sounds great Luc !

Bon travail ! (Nice work !)

Like Luc said earlier, as always, French vox is somewhat louder in the mix than your usual English vox.

[luctellier]

Thanks Jean-François! :)

[chrisjones]

Hi Luc, as always... it sounds GOOD!

[luctellier]

Thanks Chris! :) I'll send your money check via mail tomorrow as promised! haha

[andrewj]

I just had the chance to hear it on my Laptopspeakers but also there it sounded awesome!

Perhaps I should send you my next multitracks for mixdown???

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by andrewj

I just had the chance to hear it on my Laptopspeakers but also there it sounded awesome!

Perhaps I should send you my next multitracks for mixdown???

Thank you so much! :)

Why not! Just PM me!

[lpkyer]

very good stuff luc keep it up !!
only downers I could point would be:

-vocals a tad sibiliant. rode mic eh? A bit more body could be cool too.

- i also find the cymbals to fight with the vocals. might be a bit too thin. but hey...like anyone would hear that once it's on the radio hahah !

- overall it's very nice, professional work ! probably your best I've heard so far!

[luctellier]

Lou,

Thanks for your constructive comments!

You are right! I had problems with the vocal track. I received the files already bright with a lot of "S". Plus, she's a female singing with the "France" accent which accentuates the "S" effect.

Unfortunately, I don't have any details on the recording chain but IMO the wrong mic was used for this girl. I'll ask the producer for the gear details!

I was affraid too that the cymbals were a bit bright and had too much top end. We used a De-Esser in the chain during the mastering process to conserve the top-end of the cymbals without souding too bright. I should have go back to fix it in the mix but I couldn't unfortunately.

[lpkyer]

j'pensais à ça Luc pis c'est wild en criss comme lyrics ça !! à quelle âge la fille ????

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by lpkyer

j'pensais à ça Luc pis c'est wild en criss comme lyrics ça !! à quelle âge la fille ????

She's only 14! I can't comment this...

I'm only the guy who mixed the song you know...

[bcgood]

The whole mix is over compressed and over limited in my opinion. I love the way French sounds when spoken by a female though!

bcgood

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by bcgood

The whole mix is over compressed and over limited in my opinion. I love the way French sounds when spoken by a female though!

bcgood

There was 4db of gain reduction during the loudest passage using Waves SSL Comp. No limiter was used, only a soft clipper to maximize the loudness.

By over limited did you mean that there is a pumping effect or you mean that the mix is too lood, saturated, distorted?

Thanks for listening btw! :)

[sonnyblack2000]

The recording was done at my studio. I produced some of the tracks for her upcoming album but not this one. The producer of this particular wanted the following vocal chain:
Neumann U87
Vintech X73
Urei 1176
So that's what we used
On my songs I used a Peluso 22251 instead of the Neumann. Sounded way cooler!
Thx to Luc for doing the mix cause the ones we got from the producer were not in the right direction that the label was looking for and I didn't want to do it (I had 6 songs to do already in a very short timeframe!)
Sonny

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by sonnyblack2000

The recording was done at my studio. I produced some of the tracks for her upcoming album but not this one. The producer of this particular wanted the following vocal chain:
Neumann U87
Vintech X73
Urei 1176

So that's what we used.

On my songs I used a Peluso 22251 instead of the Neumann. Sounded way cooler!

Thx to Luc for doing the mix cause the ones we got from the producer were not in the right direction that the label was looking for and I didn't want to do it (I had 6 songs to do already in a very short timeframe!)
Sonny

Sonny,

Everyone will agree that Neumann U87 is a great mic, but each vocalist has a mic that is best suited for him/her. Some singer sounds great in a 57 and some others need a C12... Pamela seems to have a lot of sibilant in her natural voice/prononciation.

It seems that based on the tracks I receive, the U87 wasn't for her but I'm looking forward to hear some tracks using the Pelusso 22251. Seems like a great vacuum tube mic.

More info on the Pelusso here: Peluso Microphone Lab

[Baz]

Nice pumping mix. really solid and balanced. Very good job.

I agree about the vocals..I actually find them to be borderline annoying. I have an 87i, so know the mic pretty well and it can really be hit n' miss, especially with F vocal's..To me at least, it sounds like heavy compression on her vox, and it isn't helping things any..

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by Baz

Nice pumping mix. really solid and balanced. Very good job.

I agree about the vocals..I actually find them to be borderline annoying. I have an 87i, so know the mic pretty well and it can really be hit n' miss, especially with F vocal's..To me at least, it sounds like heavy compression on her vox, and it isn't helping things any..

Thanks for sharing your thought on my mix!

[lpkyer]

[bcgood]

Originally Posted by luctellier

There was 4db of gain reduction during the loudest passage using Waves SSL Comp. No limiter was used, only a soft clipper to maximize the loudness.

By over limited did you mean that there is a pumping effect or you mean that the mix is too lood, saturated, distorted?

Thanks for listening btw! :)

I guess what I hear is distorted high frequencies and claustrophobic sonics which are almost always the result of brick wall limiting. Don't listen to me though I don't like the sound of most commercial cd's today because of this. I'm not hating on your skills, I'm sure your a great mixer!

bcgood

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by bcgood

I guess what I hear is distorted high frequencies and claustrophobic sonics which are almost always the result of brick wall limiting. Don't listen to me though I don't like the sound of most commercial cd's today because of this. I'm not hating on your skills, I'm sure your a great mixer!

bcgood

I agree with you, there is a lot of top end going on, maybe to much! As I said earlier, we used a Waves SSL Comp during the mastering and I don't know if you read it but I've started another thread regarding the Analog feature from this plugins. It seems that it adds noise and harmonic distortion. I've done many test (null test) to see what it was adding/removing. I would be curious to start over the mastering with the Analog feature turned off.

[virtualsounds]

Great mix, a little pumpy vocals and also the snare could use a little more high frequencies. Great mix as a whole.

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by virtualsounds

Great mix, a little pumpy vocals and also the snare could use a little more high frequencies. Great mix as a whole.

Thanks!

[jeronimo]

I liked everything on the mix BUT the drums... I didn't like the way the drums sound, but it's just my taste.
Other than that, nothing bothered me, not even the sibilance on the vocals.
Great work!

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by jeronimo

I liked everything on the mix BUT the drums... I didn't like the way the drums sound, but it's just my taste.
Other than that, nothing bothered me, not even the sibilance on the vocals.
Great work!

Thanks! :)

Can you tell me a little bit more about you didn't like about the drums? Thanks!

[jeronimo]

yes, sure...
maybe they sound a little two soft to me... the cymbals are too thin and the high end on the drums (specially on the toms) had something going on that remembers me mp3 compression (is I know, it was a WAV file)
as I said, it's just personal taste.
the mix itself has life and movement that I liked a lot!

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by jeronimo

yes, sure...
maybe they sound a little two soft to me... the cymbals are too thin and the high end on the drums (specially on the toms) had something going on that remembers me mp3 compression (is I know, it was a WAV file)
as I said, it's just personal taste.
the mix itself has life and movement that I liked a lot!

I made 2 versions of this mix, let me know if you prefer this version: http://download.delsondrive.com/luct..._VERSION_2.wav

The label choosed the first file I posted in this thread but some people liked this version with the drums louder.

[jeronimo]

definitely better than the first one TO ME.
but still something sounds "different" to me... can sonnyblack2000 tell us what was used?
If I was the label, I would ask for a mix with the drums between the first one (too soft) and the second one (good to me, but maybe to loud for a song where the girl is the main focus, if it was a band, I would take the second mix).
peace!

[luctellier]

Originally Posted by jeronimo

definitely better than the first one TO ME.
but still something sounds "different" to me... can sonnyblack2000 tell us what was used?
If I was the label, I would ask for a mix with the drums between the first one (too soft) and the second one (good to me, but maybe to loud for a song where the girl is the main focus, if it was a band, I would take the second mix).
peace!

The mastering engineer prefered the mix with the drum louder but the label decided to take the other mix and I can understand why. It's not a "band", it's a "pop female artist" and it's also in french. The song has to be vocal driven. French vocals have to be louder to be played on the radio. Same thing happens in France where the vocals have to be even louder.