0x000000FF Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Hey, folks! I've been experimenting with my recording setup and mixing in virtual instruments, namely piano. At the moment, I'm just using the grand piano packaged with Live 9. My latest attempt is a take on Gridania (Daytime) from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Here's a link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2r17dz9newf9f4w/gridania-mix-r2.mp3 I just wanted to get some early thoughts. For one thing, I'm finding it challenging to get the piano to sit in the mix. The introduction sounds very muddy to me, and my ear gets a bit "confused" until I swing into the melody. That could just be the arrangement's problem though. Not sure. I've tried some mild notching, but I'm really not sure how to go about it. For notching, what's a good way to find the frequencies to kill or punch in each track? Thoughts? Tips? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garpocalypse Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 (edited) Not bad at all. Kind of sounds like something Russ Barenberg would be into. On the short side but I am a sucker for this style of bluegrass. The bass is really muddying things up. Try to dry out the tone a little and bring it down in volume. The acoustic guitar sounds good but it's such a unique sound that keeping it to the left the whole time is kind of disorienting to me. Maybe someone else can echo that but I would recommend putting in a second guitar part or really anything panned to the right. Just to get some balance and make it feel like you aren't listening to a piece with your head slightly to one side. Best way to notch, in my opinion, is to stick a frequency analyzer on the tracks you are giving your attention to and look where the hot spots are for the given sound. If you see 2+ instruments with similar energy in the same area you are going to run into problems. Usually a notch of around 5db will work fine if the volumes are lined up correctly. The other way to do it would be to make a spike with one of your bands in the EQ and move it around at +10 or more db until you hear something that doesn't sound like it goes with the other instruments then bring it down to -5db to take it out. I think you are going to need more than notching though for some of these instruments. Try knocking off some of the lower freqs in the piano to brighten the sound and bring it up in volume. You have a lot in the lower register as it is. I would try to put the piano more on top of the guitars rather than inside them. Let the bass enjoy it's space down low and move the piano upwards and it will sound fine! I'm enjoying what you have though and really hope you will have some more updates for this one! By the way. Skip Hop Wobble. One of the best albums ever made. Good luck! Edited February 6, 2014 by Garpocalypse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pl511 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Maaaaan, that sound~ That intro is really lovely in particular, awesome use of some of the things usually people forget with the piano. Nice chords too! I can't speak on behalf of the mixing or another at all, but I'm really enjoying the overall arrangement overall. It sounds really organic and natural, really atmospheric and calming stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris ~ Amaterasu Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Thanks for this, I'm so addicted to FFXIV. Sounds great! =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0x000000FF Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I'm glad you like it. And thanks for the suggestions, Garpocalypse. Here's a tweaked version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/02pjqyqu66mcnpw/gridania-mix-r3.mp3 I agree that the bass was really aggressive. I pulled it back quite a bit. I also pulled some of the lows out of the finger picked guitar and the piano. I also boosted some of the highs on the piano, then picked up the track gain a bit too. I pulled the melody guitar towards the center, so it isn't panned so hard. If you get a chance, please let me know if this sounds better or worse to you. Thanks a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garpocalypse Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 definitely an improvement! I also used to feel like i needed to notch everything. Then I watched this video and it helped simplify the whole thing for me. Now you just need to milk the source for what you can and get it up in length. The melody is played very well but it keeps coming back without giving the remix a chance to develop. I liked what you had 00:38 but then the guitar came back in playing the same thing it had played just a few seconds earlier. I think there is some real potential in that section for some creativity. Listen to some music that is in the style you are going for and try a few things out that you heard to see if you can expand on the idea. Liking it alot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Bass is booming quite noticeably, on certain notes more than others. If it's live it needs stronger compression. Then maybe it needs a few dB off the low end to make it blend better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0x000000FF Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Bass is booming quite noticeably, on certain notes more than others. I agree! I only have a very subtle compressor on that track. I'll try tweaking it to normalize this. The dynamics of my playing are pretty varied here! Now you just need to milk the source for what you can and get it up in length. Yeah! I'm planning on varying the repeated melody (right now, it's just copy pasta of the guitar). In the original track, it sort of "picks up" on the repetition, and I want to try something similar, maybe letting the piano take the melody. After that, I want to jump into one of the later movements with a long(ish) transition, which should give me a chance to improvise a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 I agree! I only have a very subtle compressor on that track. I'll try tweaking it to normalize this. The dynamics of my playing are pretty varied here! Yeah, you generally can and should compress the living hell out of live bass. I have found very few exceptions in my experience where I want to keep the dynamics of live bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0x000000FF Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 I didn't get a chance to add more over the weekend, but I did fiddle with the bass. Here's the latest: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t0u3qfnk4n5gvcy/gridania-mix-r4.mp3 I managed to compress the bass so that I only get about 0.5dB variance between large and small transients. To my ear, I'm also getting bigger sustain (stays within threshold) and a loss of sharp, crisp attack. I'm really not sure if this works well or not. After listening to it many times, I'm starting to become numb to the whole thing! Thoughts are appreciated! Sorry for the small delta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0x000000FF Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 (edited) I found a little time this weekend to mess around with this. Here's a sparse update to the arrangement: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4nen68z5kxin0yg/gridania-mix-r5a.mp3 I think the mixing has improved since the first version, but more insight or advice is very welcome! I managed to work in a little "intermission" before moving into the theme's second movement. I tried to stuff in a motif from Limsa Lominsa's theme too. :3 I don't intend to ever have no percussion or such a sparse sound, but I'm not sure; I actually kind of like the non-melodic passage with just the guitar and piano. Any thoughts or ideas there? At some point, I gotta bring the bass back. I want to make the second movement part sound "big", I think. I don't know exactly how I'll do that though. Thanks! Edited February 24, 2014 by 0x000000FF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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