not quite sure on the mix yet...

Howdy all

I love Brent Mason's Country Ballad playin' and I wanted to capture some of it in an instrumental tune. But it proved to be more difficult (for me at least as an amateur) while mixing than I anticipated at first. The guitar solo varies in loudness and I wanted to preserve these natural dynamics while taming some of the fast transients on the attack on higher notes.

There are quite a number of plug-ins on the single tracks, mainly compressors, delays and tape emulations. On the 2bus I deployed (lightly) a master-compressor and a master tape emulation and a second final brickwall limiter set to -0.3 db which should be enough headroom to catch any intersample peaks and leave some space for converting wav to mp3 (192 kBit/sec in this instance).

I also always want to check the arrangements for mono compatibility. This is quite important so I'm told, but it doesn't make things easyier when creating a wide stereo field with one instrument or an instrument group (there's some slight pseudo stereo on the guitar and pedal steel).

I'm in a somewhat difficult mixing environment (no, not bedroom - but dining room table) with terrible accoustics. As usual, it's work in progress..

Daniel

http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/srplayer.php?type=hipriv&trackid=58280

Title: Eternal Dream
Key=G , Tempo 65
Style is _BRSOLCB.STY (CountryBallad BrentGtSolo [65RS])
RealTracks in style: 366:Bass, Electric, Country Ev 065
RealTracks in song: 1538:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopBelieveHeld Ev16 065
RealTracks in style: ~368:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 065
RealTracks in style: 1513:Guitar, Electric, Soloist CountryBrent Ev 065
RealTracks in song: ~688:Organ, B3, Background Pop Ev 065
RealTracks in song: ~369:Pedal Steel, Background Ev 065
RealTracks in song: 1671:Pedal Steel, Soloist CountryPaul Ev 60
RealDrums in style: NashvilleEven8^2-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, HiHat

Sounds like good mixing to me, but I'm using headphones early Sunday morning. Maybe your table isn't so bad a environment.

Daniel

I'm no expert in any way, but I can tell you what I hear.
Generally it's a nice listen. Mixing wise - my first thought was that the organ was a bit dominant, stealing the space for the other instruments. Also generally it seems that some of the instrumets are competing for the same frequency range - could have something to do with the (high) number of instruments used.
I would think that the mix could be even more "clear" by working further with EQ^ing and panning of the instruments that operates in the same range.

Just my 2 kroner

brgds
Jan R

Thanks Tommyc, I'll keep the Table ;-)

Jan, you're Spot on! I just had a chance to listen to it for the first time in the car and I'm less than thrilled. It's too crowded and the Hammond is too loud! Bass weak and flat. Thank you for your valuable Inputs. I shall re-mix with some different comression settings and try to bring in some air.
Feeds, Daniel

"Feeds" should read Cheers. I'm on the road and this stupid iPhone constantly keeps changin the spelling! Can't edit either...

Daniel,

Sounds good to me, but I am out of town, listening on a friend's computer, so I am not that used to the speakers. (They are generally pretty flattering.) I will try to give it another listen in a couple days when I get home.

BTW, I use an iPhone too, and I hate the spell correct!

Steve

Hi Steve.

Thanks for your comment. I did some re-mixing and used an amp simulation for the lead. Drums are more subtle and the rest a bit more airy.

Daniel

http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/srplayer.php?type=hipriv&trackid=58300

Quote:

Daniel

I'm no expert in any way, but I can tell you what I hear.
Generally it's a nice listen. Mixing wise - my first thought was that the organ was a bit dominant, stealing the space for the other instruments. Also generally it seems that some of the instrumets are competing for the same frequency range - could have something to do with the (high) number of instruments used.
I would think that the mix could be even more "clear" by working further with EQ^ing and panning of the instruments that operates in the same range.

Just my 2 kroner

brgds
Jan R

I also no expert but I agree with Jan R on this one.

You might also try eliminating some of the rhythm instruments during different leads. For instance do you need both the organ and steel playing behind the lead guitar? Or the rhythm guitar and organ playing behind the steel leads? Just a thought but fading rhythm instruments in and out during different leads would help eliminate overlapping frequencies.

Just my opinions, now worth nothing in USD!