Shadow of the Moon, new mix 9/9

Very nice Janet. On my buds, the piano may could be a bit brighter? Or maybe "excited?" I know you have Ozone, have you ever tried to use it "on a track?? or a bus? Like your piano? And then for example, just use the exciter? Of course it has a great limiter/mband compressor, etc...  

This is a lovely piece, but I would spank the brightness, perhaps via an exciter. 

Of course, what I say may be Bravo Sierra... Always a possibility. Love the movement on the PAD ;-)

You know, I turned the volume up a little and it was better. I would still consider either EQ or an exciter on that grand. Probably the later, but maybe with a touch of the former? Check out an Alloy demo... 

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/alloy/download.asp

But you can do pretty much the same thing w/your Ozone. Alloy has some nice presets.

Thanks Robby.  I'll try that.  Or at least one of those thats. :)

Thank you, ABV.  I'm really glad you like it.  That's a good idea about the panning too.

I'm going to try to do more mixing of this in X1 and see if it helps at all.  So far it's driving me batty, but I'll give it a few more minutes.  :)

(do you really have to go to the Console view to get to the FX bin?  Please tell me I can do it the old, uncomplicated way!)  

Sweet stuff, Janet!I love that riff too.

Beautiful tune Janet.  I love the melody and the emotional quality of your playing.  Your part and Rikkie's fit together so well.  Daren (ABV) has some good advice on the panning, and in X1 it should be a snap.  The f/x bin in X1 can be accessed from either the track view or console view.  If you decide to EQ or add f/x to the piano, just clone the original track, mute it, and experiment with the copy to your heart's content.  That way you can A/B the two tracks quickly.  The dark piano sound that you use is a good sound to begin with, so don't let it drive you to distraction.  You already have the performance done.  Bravo.

Very nice Janet.  I like the composition and melodies - very emotional.  The guitar blends beautifully with the piano.  The piano has a nice dark rich quality to it, and you performed it with a lot of passion. 

A couple things came to mine - I was listening on my headphones, and the strings which are panning back and forth had a slightly dizzying effect - on speakers it would probably be just fine.   You know what you could do to get a sweeping effect on those strings without having to pan is the Sonitus Modulator - they've got a "sweeping" preset that's pretty cool.

The other thing I thought of was a big cavernouse reverb tail!  Not loud reverb, but long reverb would sound cool and fit the song.  It sounds great with any reverb though - that is judgement call. 

Janet


I'm going to try to do more mixing of this in X1 and see if it helps at all.  So far it's driving me batty, but I'll give it a few more minutes.  :)

(do you really have to go to the Console view to get to the FX bin?  Please tell me I can do it the old, uncomplicated way!)  

I know what you mean Janet... I've had X-1 for a year, but I'm still using 8.5...
I just can't warm up to it...
This is lovely music and a wonderful performance/production... Rik's guitar was icing on the cake... well done...

Thank you Lynn.  I appreciate that!  :)  OK, so what's the trick for getting the FX bin to show up where it used to be...or even remotely close?  I've never had to look for it before.  I'll try some tricks with the piano too.  Thanks for the tips.  Actually, Rik already has...I'll try to listen to his version after I get more work done this afternoon.  :)  

Thanks John.  I knew that panned synth wouldn't be everyone's favorite, but I wanted to give it a try.  We'll see what happens.  Thanks again.  :)
Thanks very much, Geno.  Do you mean a cavernous reverb tail on the whole thing, or just the piano or synth?  I'll give your ideas a try too. Thanks again!  

Thanks so much, Allan.  Yeah, the synth panning is indeed different.  I can't imagine what it would be like in a good room with good speakers.   Really glad you liked the piano.  I'll keep messing with the eq.  Actually, I never even thought about that part of the mix (surprise!)  lol.   Too many things to keep track of these days... :)  

Thanks Frank!  Yeah, I imagine we're not the only two.  My goodness...that smart tool in staff view is the dumbest thing I've ever seen...and I don't exactly have the patience to find things that just used to BE there.  I wonder if there's a free manual out there that's way less than 300 pages?  Fortunately you can still make beautiful music Frank.  :)  Thanks again! 

Thank you, Phil!  

Thank you Lynn.  I appreciate that!  :)  OK, so what's the trick for getting the FX bin to show up where it used to be...or even remotely close?  I've never had to look for it before.  I'll try some tricks with the piano too.  Thanks for the tips.  Actually, Rik already has...I'll try to listen to his version after I get more work done this afternoon.  :)  

Janet, there's an option of what you can put under your track headers in Track View.  To the left of the track headers should be the inspector pane, with tabs for clip,trk, and PC (if you have Producer).  Open the trk tab and at the bottom of the screen you should see a tab for display.  Here is where you can decide what to put in each track, including the f/x bin.  I hope this answers your problem.

Thank you, Tim.  :)  Yeah, I bought it for myself last Christmas and then hit a dry spell with music...and the few times I've tried to use it just end up getting frustrated.  I thought it would help me keep up with the big boys, but it won't until I can figure out the very basics.  (there might be a little more to keeping up with you big boys too.  lol)  

Thank you, Lynn.  Can't wait to see if I can find that.  Since I never ever use the inspector pane, I didn't want to have to start now if I don't have to.  

Thanks Herb.  Like I said, I just never thought of eq'ing that thing.  I should be able to figure out at least one way to do it.  

Janet


 
Thanks Herb.  Like I said, I just never thought of eq'ing that thing.  I should be able to figure out at least one way to do it.  

you should experiment with it..... EQ can really bring out the sparkle in those keys.

Janet - About the reverb - I'd put some on all the instruments, and the strings would have even more to push it back in the mix.  You'd want to play around with the EQ of the reverb so that it wouldn't have too much bottom end. 

Thank you, Mike!  :)

Herb, I hope this is more sparkly.

Thank you, Gary.  I'm very glad Rik wanted to play along!

Thanks Geno...I was just sitting here messing with that...so glad you popped in again.  I gave it a try...woops...didn't play around with the eq of the verb.  I'll look at that now.

New mix up now.  Thanks again!  

Geno, the reverb has a low cut at 100.  I don't know if that's what you had in mind or not.  I can't hear the difference. 

Thanks Lynn!  I couldn't see a tab at the bottom, but for some reason I remember reading where you can change the look of the track view (and other views) with the number keys.  (where did I read that?!)  Anyway, I started messing around with those, hit 2, and voila...everything's back.  Well, at least those things.  Thank you!  

Janet,
Well you already have enough mixing suggestions, so I just say I liked what you did.
Glad your student let you finish it.
I also liked what Rik brought to the song as well.

Hello Janet
Long time no see/hear. Love the vibe of this piece. I'll leave all the mix suggestion to the others and just sit back and enjoy.  KUDOS!



Kev