pop/rock mix female vocalist

[xmostynx]

alright...let me know if i'm going in the right direction...
i've been editing and mixing this for a few days now
some work was done from an old engineer and now i had to take on his mess
let me know if im cleaning up or making a bigger one :)

the lead vocals are upfront a bit..i'm having a hard time placing them in the overall mix.
the p pop will be edited out once i feel comfortable with their placement.. i've got a list of little things i want to do, but let me know whats up

i'm out of school a month...so go easy on be..
honesty is appriciated..

oh yea :) excuse the auto-tune...

-Patrick

[Reeves]

nice stuff

what kind of gear was used here ? esp. vocal chain?

[Almost Human]

Well, on first listen, ths is how is sounds on my speakers (Alec Lansing Surround Sound)...

The vocals definitely seem to be a little upfront and overpowering at times, but you've alreday mentioned that. I'm trying to keep an open mind since I'm typically more of a hard rock and metal guy, and that obviously influences what I want to hear in a mix...

The kick sounds a little "boomy" to me. The actual quality of the vocal recording sounds great. The snare seems to get a little lost in the mix on these speakers at times. Not always, but it seems to get overpowered by everything else at times.

But overall, sounds pretty good. Pretty loud, so is this already mastered? Anyway, can you talk a little about your chain for recording everythijng, and the gear that was used?


EDIT: Just now noticed you're just up the road from me in Pittsburgh...

[xmostynx]

not already mastered, but the clients (the girls parents) like to listen to this stuff over and over in their cars and what not, so i take some time to throw a maximizer on the master fader and a bit of Q and compression..

the vocal chain...C! compressor, autotune, tube (which is made by anatares), RVOX, Q10 and then a DESSER (all waves)

i just woke up so thats what sticks out in my head, i'm sending it to 2 effects busses, a small tight room verb and a tap delay

there are 2 background vocal tracks, which are cut up, to emphasize a few spots, they are compressed and Q'd...then ran into a bus with the lead vocal track, there they are compressed and Q'd again

the snare is a sampled snare, and the rest of the drum kit is a modified kit from a Roland V drum setup...i hate so much electronic drums...(which explains the lovely bass 'boomy')

the rest of the instruments...are just Eq'd and compressed to place them in the mix...

hows the overall placement and level of things?
goodmix or an 'allright' mix?

thanks for the comments! all is appriciated





gear that was used :) i forgot to mention that...we are running nuendo..:( with a motu mk3, a mackie D8B, the vocals are ran into a DBX 576 preamp and compressor, with 2 groove tubes in it.

she's belting into a CAD mic, with a popscreen on it, i made her redo the vocals a bit for me, and i was pleased when i had her about 6 inches from the mic, where she can place her ,thumb and pinky up (like the california surfer thing) to keep reminding her of the distance i was looking for....

mixing this on a g5 with all waves plugins...mackie monitors...

during tracking, i always place a little bit of compression on it, just to keep things undercontrol..nothing else..

thanks again for the comments...id love to hear more

[john caldwell]

Welcome to the forum.

Your mix is pleasant, as is the tune. There are a few areas for improvement, from my perspective:

1) The electronic drums sound highly artificial wrt to timbre and the lack of organic variation in the parts palyed. I'd either morpf the sound into an obviously processed drum pad, or replace it with an acoustic drum part.

2) The chunk guitar panned left is not integrating well. I hear this as a matter of the part not locking well with the drum and bass. The chunk part also uses a fair amount of LF and low-mid energy, so its arrival is pretty conspicuous.

Again, very nice to have you aboard. I also am in Pittsburgh, and would enjoy collaboration if the opportunity presents.

Best,

John Caldwell

[xmostynx]

thanks for the pointers...i hate the drum kit as well...but i'm making the best of what i got..the producer loves the drums.. :( ..riight so they are there

however, i've done a bit more work on that tune..and i'll post an update of the tune soon.
some things i've changed was the placement of that chunk guitar..if we are talking about the same chunk guitars....the client and her parents love guitars, so they just wanted more and more and more parts..till to me, its overfilled with guitars..

anyways, i've tightened everything up a bit more, and placed her as best in the mix as i could, which keep in mind..still is a bit upfront for my taste but i'm not producing this :)

then again, you all can take another listen of the mix before its off to get mastered...

again thanks for the advice