Swamp Blues - mix comments

Great song needs a bit of magic on the mix but very tight, Thanks

Pull the kick back a little and take some of the top off it. A bit more verb on the drums, vocals, and main guitar would help it too. Don't drench it. Just take it out for a short swim. You recorded the instruments fine, but it sounds like you've got quite a bit of compression or limiting going on with the mix. You're very close. It's a 5-minute fix. Just padding that kick will help a lot.

I liked the song the more I listened.  I too am weak on mixing.  I can mix dry tracks get them balanced and then add some effects but I leave the fine mixing to my pard, Mark Cline.  I agree that something is holding it back from being all that it can be but I cant say what.  I just wante you to know it is a cool song and a fun listen!

I would tend to agree. It sounds 'ok' on 3 out of the 4 headphones I own...but tends to sound a tad muffled on my Sennheiser hd280 pros. I would guess that I haven't been able to zero in on the frequencies I ought to have, as a result of poor monitoring during the mix stage. 

I think the hi hat/cymbal might be too loud, and covering your vocal a little bit. Have you eq'd the hi hat so that everything below 800k is gone??
 
nice swamp thang!
-Tom

montezuma
Geez Gary, I'd be very interested in that. Let me know if you are still keen. 
 
Thanks

I sure am...
send a link and we will see what we can do.  :-)
You can send via pm if you like...
 
Maybe have a little competition on here and see what others can do with it?  :-)

GREAT song performed really well.
I'm not sure if you were going for it but the dry mix has a 70's vibe to it that I would hate to take away completely. 

daryl1968
GREAT song performed really well.
I'm not sure if you were going for it but the dry mix has a 70's vibe to it that I would hate to take away completely. 

Nah I wasn't really going for that...but I'll take it! Ha thanks. My main preoccupation is with trying to get songs to sound kind of equal across as many listening scenarios as possible. It's frustrating when you put a lot of effort into recording and mixing...and then it sucks the second it's listened to on anything except what it was mixed on. We all have this issue I guess. It's a tough one.
 
 

Here is my first rough mix on your song....
Need to work on the vocal and correct BV's as to me it is a little out of tune.
Vocals are my weak point...  will come back to it later as my ears are tired.
Without vocals.. http://www.cakewalkowners.com/sb_no_vocal.wav
 
With vocals...http://www.cakewalkowners.com/swamp_blues_Master1.wav
Love the song though.
 
Thoughts?

garybrun
Here is my first rough mix on your song....
Need to work on the vocal and correct BV's as to me it is a little out of tune.
Vocals are my weak point...  will come back to it later as my ears are tired.
Without vocals.. http://www.cakewalkowners.com/sb_no_vocal.wav
 
With vocals...http://www.cakewalkowners.com/swamp_blues_Master1.wav
Love the song though.
 
Thoughts?

Hi Gary...wow your mix is sure full of energy which my mix lacks. It needs that energy. Because I'm not very experienced with mixing and have a pretty limited mixing vocabulary, so to speak, I definitely mixed conservatively. If I was to take a leaf out of your book (and I think I should) I would go for a bit more aggression in the mix.
 
I haven't had a chance to listen to your mix on my main setup yet...just some cans direct into my laptop. So I'll have to listen properly in the morning. 
 
That snare sound wasn't great source material to start with...it's all Ezdrummer midi converted to audio and I think I stuffed up the sound right out of ezDrummer...my original mixes had the bus compressor going crazy smashing down the snare and therefore the whole song, because I hadn't realised quite a number of the hits were pretty much clipping. As you said...the BU vocals are probably not all right on the money, but I will say collectively, in my mix anyway, they seem ok enough to me. If you put them under the microscope individually, they probably sound rough around the edges. 
 
Are you going to keep going with it? It's an interesting exercise to see how you treat it. I'll almost definitely go back into my mix and see if I can inject more aggression, like you have. Look forward to hearing how it goes, if you keep at it. 

Yep, no worries at all. I'm a mixing novice, so its all a learning experience I'm happy to have!

Hey Montezume - the song and mix are good.  The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the hand claps.  But I liked the song Good job overall.

As I have stated before...  I liked the song a lot.
The lyrics made me smile and your vocals have a good "strange sound".
I didn't mind the handclaps...  they pricked your ear up in the mix.

My mix was a rough one... not much done on eq etc...  but im going to give it more time.
I thought the song lacked energy..  the snare I added somehow gave it that  (need to gate it) and I put a little distortion on the bass.

I have enjoyed learning on this project...  but i love this kid of music and have blues band myself.