Practice with Eastwest and Mixing with Studio Headphones

[Meteo Xavier]

So I got my big, fancy new studio headphones and my fancy new East West stuff, and I'm trying to learn to use it all and make it work.

http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/?fid=689

I was practicing on this one tonight. The track itself is basic, its just practice to make the instrumentation believable and the mixing work ok. I'm going to learn how to do more with expression and volume automation, but I didn't do any of that here. The mixing was a pain, but I got it so it sounds about the same in my studio headphones as it does on my non-studio speakers.

I'm not looking for anything specific to fix, I'm just looking for a general ballpark to how I'm doing. Is this even close to decent mixing and believable instrumentation? If not, what do I need to improve on?

That's all I'm looking for. I'm just checking my accuracy. Thank you!

[Dj Mokram]

The track is a little too atmospheric atm to allow critique on the realistic instrumentation standpoint.

If you're looking for feedback on such area, try something more melody-based instead.

That will force you to expose your individual technique on each instruments a bit more.

I'd say there's a strong emphasis on highs, and the choir is a bit prominent, but I didn't find anything else bothering with the overall mixing.

Though most of the sounds are of course really decent, what got my attention here is the flute.

First thing that comes to mind is the anime 'Kino no Tabi', cause Ryo Sakai used the exact same instument in the music.

Out of curiosity, is it from Ra?

[Meteo Xavier]

Yep, its Ra.

The highs are too prominent? Really? I didn't think they were high enough.

[Hemophiliac]

I'm going to learn how to do more with expression and volume automation, but I didn't do any of that here.

If you're not going to do these it's not going to sound real at all, realistic performance is all about the details. automation will make things sound much more realistic.

2 other things, attacks of choir and strings are way slow and make them sound unnatural too. regular humanization of velocities and where the notes actually fall on the beat will help with a real sound.

this song is really lacking bass in general too, you have a low string part but it's not very present.

[Meteo Xavier]

If you're not going to do these it's not going to sound real at all, realistic performance is all about the details. automation will make things sound much more realistic.

I'm aware of that. This is a "control" part of the experiment where I try to see how much I can get away with without.

2 other things, attacks of choir and strings are way slow and make them sound unnatural too. regular humanization of velocities and where the notes actually fall on the beat will help with a real sound.

this song is really lacking bass in general too, you have a low string part but it's not very present.

This is good stuff right here. The choir I knew about, the strings I didn't. I was worried they had that "brick" like static attack if I didn't work on the attack.

The low strings I had trouble with too. I think its the bass drum hits that are masking it. The cello (not the double bass beneath it) was chewing up a lot of low-end and it didn't sound right.

Was it a mistake to try and it to sound about the same from my studio headphones (AKG) to my non-studio speakers? I'm starting to think that wasn't the right thing to do, but I'm still trying to learn how to discern proper sound balance between outputs.

[Meteo Xavier]

Ok, so I did some more mixing work on it. I fixed some things, added some humanization to the drums, and I added automation clips for all the sustaining instruments, strings, choir, flute.

http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/?fid=692

Am I getting closer?

EDIT: Updated File 2/26/10. I played with FL Studio Maximus instead of Soundgoodizer and the result is much better, to me at least.

[Meteo Xavier]

Here is another one I've been working on today.

http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/?fid=699

I'm making progress slowly. I'm doing this and some other Asian flavored ones as I'm in talks to do some music for a traditionally Japanese MMORPG. This file isn't perfect, but I'm definitely getting a little better I think.