Drakken Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 UPDATE 1/18/12: New version! Exciting news: ALL electric guitar and sax parts are now live recordings! That's courtesy of Aster and Xenon Odyssey, respectively. This song's come a long way from when it was just MIDI. Other changes: -lots of level adjustments (mostly to mix the guitar/sax recordings) -put a high-pass filter on a bunch of instruments to get rid of unnecessary lows -toned down the lows on the kick in the first half -added a lo-fi/distortion effect to the strings transition -added some movement to the choir in the 2nd half of the rock section -now using EZ Drummer for cymbals and hi-hat; minor drum part changes -now using T-Racks limiter & soft clipper on master track to increase volume (not using Mastering preset like last time) Any and all feedback is appreciated! Potential areas for improvement: -Sax needs to blended into the mix. I've messed around with adding reverb but haven't been able to get it to sit naturally with everything else. Could use tips on how to do this. -Spanish-sounding guitar in beginning should be replaced with real guitar. -More movement, particularly in first half, per Monobrow's suggestion. -Overall sound could be better. Still doesn't sound great compared to other songs. Don't know why. It's a shame, cause I feel like I have something special here. Just need to figure out how to make it shine. EDIT: Updated the above link; the panning on the intro instrument was messed up on the first upload. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakken Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 UPDATE 2/1/12: New version for mod review, featuring Aster's quad-tracked rhythm guitars and various minor changes. Got it a bit louder this time, though still not as loud as other OCR mixes. I worry about it being too harsh with all the compression/limiting/soft clipping I'm using. I'm still learning how best to use those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darangen Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I think the first part of the mix really brings this down for a few reasons. - It's kind of dull, imo. There isn't a whole lot going on except for an almost note-for-note cover once the sax comes in. The spanish style guitar was good, but... - The fake acoustic guitar is obviously fake, and would sound 100x better played live. - I don't know if it's your eq or your reverb, but something is making it sound like most of the instruments are playing in the room next door. - That celeste/vibra/xylophone is very unemotional. - The string section in the transition is a good concept, but not well executed. Humanization would make it a thousand times better. The first 2 minutes or so is this way until the guitars come in. After that it's not too bad. I think it would actually do better for the song if you moved things around a bit, put the intro as the outro or blend it in the middle as a break from the rock to give listeners ears a chance to rest. Monobrow mentioned the kick drum, but I think it's fine. It's normal for the kick to be like that in this genre. There's a lot of good concepts, I just think by the time the track gets really good the listener is probably already bored and has hit the "next" button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillRock Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I have to admit, at first, I was digging the intro. The Choir does sound blocky, I'd consider putting some attack/release on it. Generally, the first half of this mix is cool, but it drags. Honestly, I'd consider doing what Darangen said and change the structure and move some of the first half parts to the, so it will 1: move to the rock part quicker and not drag so much and 2: give the piece a more coherent structure and round out your track nicely. Atm, you have your Clean Section on one side, an outro d the Rock section on the other, the transition seems sudden and it doesn't feel quite cohesive as a result. I feel like Darangen has pretty much nailed what you need to do here overall, but bare in mind that this is pretty close. With a little TLC, you'll get this over the bar without a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level 99 Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 I think the first part of the mix really brings this down for a few reasons.- It's kind of dull, imo. There isn't a whole lot going on except for an almost note-for-note cover once the sax comes in. The spanish style guitar was good, but... - The fake acoustic guitar is obviously fake, and would sound 100x better played live. - I don't know if it's your eq or your reverb, but something is making it sound like most of the instruments are playing in the room next door. - That celeste/vibra/xylophone is very unemotional. - The string section in the transition is a good concept, but not well executed. Humanization would make it a thousand times better. The first 2 minutes or so is this way until the guitars come in. After that it's not too bad. I think it would actually do better for the song if you moved things around a bit, put the intro as the outro or blend it in the middle as a break from the rock to give listeners ears a chance to rest. Monobrow mentioned the kick drum, but I think it's fine. It's normal for the kick to be like that in this genre. There's a lot of good concepts, I just think by the time the track gets really good the listener is probably already bored and has hit the "next" button. Nailed the crits I would have had to T, actually. The Kick is also really boomy, you'd want to bring that away from the subs and into the low-ends a little bit more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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