OK, another thing that I have noticed: Most (or all) of my favorite tunes (that I am using for references) just don't have drums in them. They also have congas, bongos, shakers, hand claps, finger-snaps and whatever else they can find laying around.
Doesn't having anything to do with mix quality, but it does help with song interest.
Kevin, you should download the Ozone trial and simply install and try a few presets to see if it immediately improves your mixes (I suspect it will surprise you how much better they sound!)
The trial is 10 days...software fully functional...comes with a ton of presets...no learning curve at all if you just try out the presets...so all you really have to lose is a couple of hours to download, install and check out the presets. If you like the result just keep your work and buy Ozone for the next CD!
WARNING WARNING WARNING.......
If you do this be sure of one thing. Check to see that you have the money available to purchase the full version. No "if" about it, Ozone will make the mix sound better. I was an owner before the trial was up.
Don't fall into the trap....
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
I recently joined Dueling mixes (www.duelingmixes.com) by Graham from recording revolution. I think it is about $29 per month but you can cancel anytime and the first month is free.
Graham and Joe mix a song for you, do an instruction video and then give you all the raw tracks to practice on and compare to their mixes. You can get feedback from other members of the forum on your mix.
I have mixed three songs so far.I think (I hope) it is improving my mixing.
PS I am NOT affiliated to the recording revolution or dueling mixes.
LyricLab A.I assisted chords and lyric app. Export lyrics and import directly into Band-in-a-Box 2024. https://lyriclab.net Play-along with songs you know and love, download SGU files https://playiit.com/
Ozone: I think I will spend a week or two making some of those changes I need to do and then I will get the 10-day trial version. If it works out, I guess I'll have to get the standard package (on sale until Nov 2nd for $199).
In the meantime if anyone want to "ozone" one of my tunes, I will gladly make the wav file available. rharv took one of my songs and did that -- but I already had a compressor, stereo imager and limiter/maximizer on the master buss, so there was no real headroom to make any significant improvements.
If you want to try one, I will remove all the master buss plugins (double check that there is at least -6db headroom) and place it out on dropbox.
Don't try and do any real work, though (ha, ha). Just use a preset and if that works, fine. If not, try another preset. No need to go nuts for this simple test.
I don't consider myself to be great at mastering... mixing is tough enough for me! Anyway... if you want to send me a link to download the wav, I'll give it a go. My email is listed in my profile (click on Noel96 and that should take you there).
It would be interesting to see what Herb does with your file, too. He's got more experience in this arena than I have.
Is there any particular song you wanted to try? Remember I am not really looking for a finished product -- just something that might give me feel for what ozone can do before I get the demo.
I dunno, even though there was limited room to work with, when I A/B your file (from Soundcloud) to the Ozone wav I created from it, I hear quite a bit of sonic difference. Measurable actually. I've never heard the original wav file though to make any 'real' comparisons... and I spent very little time on it. I said it took about 5 minutes. My point was to do exactly as you are now requesting; just do a quick 'one preset does this' type of example.
Make your sound your own! .. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
I dunno, even though there was limited room to work with, when I A/B your file (from Soundcloud) to the Ozone wav I created from it, I hear quite a bit of sonic difference. Measurable actually. I've never heard the original wav file though to make any 'real' comparisons... and I spent very little time on it. I said it took about 5 minutes. My point was to do exactly as you are now requesting; just do a quick 'one preset does this' type of example.
Not downplaying at all what you did (very much appreciated), but I just assumed that because there was only 1 db of headroom, any additional limiting was going to adjust the sound a little artificially. It was louder and sonically different -- but it was a tad more "brittle" (and I thought because of too much compression). I just figured that a test with 5 or 6 or more db of headroom would make more sonic sense.
Noel: Here are the two songs that I didn't have to add any compression to allow it to have any headroom (you may have to right click on the link and do a "link save as"):
You have to be aware that while Ozone can take a song and make it 1000% better sounding, it's also possible to have it do the exact opposite very easily.
You can have a decent sounding song to start with and slap some Ozone on it and ruin it ending up with a brittle, thin, weak sounding mess that's worse than the original.
To use Ozone properly you really do need to understand what is happening and what you are doing to the frequencies when you turn a knob or adjust a slider. If not.... you can just as easily ruin a song as fix it.
They do provide some downloadable PDF documents on mastering and on Ozone..... it's well worth the time to DL and print them and read, study, understand, what they contain.
Remember also, a preset is not a destination, it's the first step on a journey. Presets essentially give you a good starting point. But that's all they are. I have custom presets in it that I have saved. I have never popped on in and let it roll. Every single time I have used my favorite preset, I have had to tweek it to get it to fit the new song.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!
Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.
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Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!
With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
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