• Songs
  • My latest studio production, Ska/rock band, Brass!
2015/10/04 11:23:47
ChuckC
   Hey there gang, I have not been on much in quite a while, I have been busy as hell with the day job, family, the 2 bands I am playing with and working as a producer here in the studio for other artists, but it is a blast!  I just finished a 6 song Ep for this Ska/rock/pop punk band Bargain Bin Heroes and it really came out pretty cool.  I did a single for them earlier this year (my 1st time working with brass), and they came right back for more!  
 
 Drums were my studio Kit  (new birch mapex mars series kit, and the drummers piccolo snare)
Guitars we used a couple different guitars, a strat and one of my les pauls into a marshall half stack.
Bass was DI'd into a sansamp tech 21
Vocals were LD condensers,
Brass we went with Ribbon mics
 
I have improved a lot over the last couple of years in that, the raw captures are just miles better than they used to be.  Once you know what you are going to want it to sound like later, you can make sure your capture is much closer to that sound before you hit record.  And the mixes came out really good I think.  I wanted to share, This is not my band, but clients of mine, Comments are welcomed.  Thank you and Keep on tweaking til you get what you want out of it!!
https://www.reverbnation.com/stormroomstudios/song/24422425-walking-away-bargain-bin-heroes
 
 
2015/10/04 13:00:27
Wookiee
Not hearing much in the way of kick and the bottom end seems quite light.
what did the band think?
2015/10/05 14:44:41
stevec
Sounds pretty good here!  Clear mixes and good separation.  Brass sounds nice too, no harshness... ribbons are working well.   While I can hear the kick and bass and they seem pretty tight, it seems to be more in their mid-upper ranges so not necessarily "big bottom" which is maybe where Wookie was headed...
 
2015/10/06 03:04:10
synkrotron
Excellent tracking and mixing job . I'm not going to enter the mix crit with the big boys cos I know not of what I speak
 
Fun song too... Nice and upbeat... I like that
2015/10/06 06:48:37
Tom Riggs
Fun tune I enjoyed it.
 
I agree with stevec though there is something about the bass and the kick that could use a little help. Perhaps eq would make room for both.
 
 
2015/10/06 09:49:52
kevinwal
Sounds really great on a laptop! I can't usually hear kick and bass on this thing and I'm getting a hint of it here, everything else is quite clear, very clean and well defined which seems to work really well with this song. Thanks!
2015/10/06 19:49:07
ChuckC
Thank Guys!   Yeah the lower end of the kick on this kinda peaks at around 100 hz (not real real low) and there is a bit of warmth from the bass down below it.    Ya gotta keep in mind this genre is from the 90's ska/punk revolution and was not real kick heavy to start with, none of the bands were.  Oddly enough one of the main references I used when mixing this was a band called Less Than Jake as the instrumentation and basic style is fairly similar...  Then, to my surprise the band sent the mixes to Moat house studios to have it mastered (This is a studio owned and run by Roger, the bassist of Less than Jake).  I thought... Man, these mixes are modeled on basically their sound, if he hates it and needs a bunch of revisions, I might as well just hang it up! 
   Well, I was delighted when he liked the mixes and it required no revisions at all.  He did say that that he bumped the sub-low frequencies a couple of db and that it was consistent across all 6 songs on the EP so, he said if he had to guess, that my sub was probably a little too loud in my control room and suggested I turn it down a hair as to make future mixes just a little more sub-heavy.   
Wookiee,  the band is really ecstatic with the way this turned out. So am I, I realize the kick doesn't hit quite like modern rock, or hip hop.  That's OK bud, It wasn't intended to.
2015/10/06 20:04:59
Beagle
I'm not sure I know what "ska" really is, but this is a good mix.  you've already said the bottom end is the way it's supposed to be for this genre, so no comments there.
 
there are a few places the horns and the lead vox could have been tightened up on timing and there's one place where the lead vocalist was off pitch - or maybe he did that on purpose, IDK!
 
 
nice clean mix
2015/10/06 20:40:47
emeraldsoul
If I were to comment on the mix only, it's pretty good balance wise, for ska the bass isn't too ballsy.
 
Otherwise, I think those horn hits should line up with the vocal timing-wise, or vice versa. Ska has super tight rhythms and typically a ska vocal is a little more sparse than this guy, he's a bit all over the place and a bit loud for me. How much reverb is on the vocal? Maybe add more to smooth him out?
 
I thought the horns came out pretty well, nice job! How widely are they panned? Maybe a bit more towards the edges and you could bring a centered vocal with a dash more reverb down a db or two in the mix. 
 
You may not be shooting for "English Beat" but if so, unleash the power of reverb!!!
 
cheers,
-Tom
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