Originally Posted By: TuneMonger
Memorable melody and good work with Synth5.

Thanks, Rob!

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Your mixes always sound fine to me, do you think otherwise?

It's hard for me to tell.

A good mix is clear and transfers well to a variety of systems. I think this mix has that quality.

But it's also a bit of a magic trick, arranging disparate elements that were recorded in different environments and convincing the ear that they all belong together.

With this mix, for example, I tried to create a sense of space, like the instruments were all in the same reverberant room. But too much 'verb just draws attention to itself.

I tend to push the vocal in the front, to the point where it doesn't really sit well in the mix. So with this mix, I tried to push it back a bit. The vocal is actually placed in a different room, with a plate reverb because plate reverbs sound lovely.

To keep the vocal clear, I added some tube effects on it. That adds a bit of distortion which brightens it and makes it stand out. But it also makes it harsh - which hopefully the plate reverb softens a bit.

The piano in the original mix has much less "bite" to it, and I was having a lot of trouble getting it to work with the new mix. With the reverb and wider panning, it pops out a lot more, so I have to do a lot more work to tame it. But now I wonder if I've put it too far back in the mix.

And on and on, one mixing decision after another. crazy

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Can Synth5 work with a swing groove as well, or are you confined to even groove?

You can set the grid to snap to 1/3, 1/6, 1/12 and so on.

Or you can turn of snapping entirely and put the notes down freeform.

So yes, it can swing.

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Again, nice work on this, it still blows me away how far software has come with vocals after such a long, hard road.
Yes, it's very impressive.

I need to make a decision at some point if I should bother continuing my own vocal synthesis project, as the available software is very good, and there seems little chance of me coming near that level of quality.

Thanks for stopping to listen and comment! laugh

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?