KVR Audio

PurpleCatfishBettie · Post by **PurpleCatfishBettie** » Sat May 11, 2013 9:22 am

returning from hiatus: Confusion

PurpleCatfishBettie · Sat May 11, 2013 10:18 am

early listener feedback says (among other things), 'vocals too buried, overall mix too dim'... so, made some adjustments in those areas.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Sat May 11, 2013 3:01 pm

I quite enjoyed this one, with it's '80s New Order flashback and the dubstep brass section. This track seemed to contain a lot of elements and styles. Maybe when the vocals first enter, they are a little buried in the mix, but when I had become acclimatised to the level, it wasn't a problem.

Good work

Cam F · Post by **Cam F** » Sat May 11, 2013 3:45 pm

I'd work on making it a bit less muddy, normally an eq issue!

Overall quite interesting, not my style I guess but I could appreciate it all the same

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Sat May 11, 2013 7:26 pm

A good song with some unfulfilled dance potential due to the Casio sounds and production. I guess it's all part of the Mr. Blitz charm.

By the way, the vocals are still too low.

Untitle · Post by **Untitle** » Sat May 11, 2013 8:48 pm

Nice style

Chryzis · Post by **Chryzis** » Sat May 11, 2013 9:06 pm

This is a very refreshing style, I liked the arrangement. The only thing I can say is that it sounds a little 'dark'. Try making the mix a little brighter.

PurpleCatfishBettie · Post by **PurpleCatfishBettie** » Sun May 12, 2013 9:27 pm

attempted to clarify the mix: http://archive.org/download/Confusion_3 ... fusion.mp3

oh, btw... as always, thanks for the listens and comments.

ZenSound · Post by **ZenSound** » Mon May 13, 2013 12:12 pm

hey mrblitz, yes it sounds a little dark so practise a little the with the eq's.

Make a good mix is dificult so dont worry of take a little break between the eq's step, the compression step and automatization.

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Mon May 13, 2013 9:49 pm

Confusing and amusing. Plus blitz signature sound. Why ask for more...

funky lime · Post by **funky lime** » Tue May 14, 2013 1:07 am

this one is too much fun. i love the juxtaposition of the "modern" wobbly bits with the old-school lo-fi backbone. i'm in some kind of acid trip with Koji Kondo and Andy Warhol.

vocals are just melancholy and haunting enough while retaining a sort of mysterious cheerfulness to them.

i love how it's "cute" and "dark" at the same time. nicely done

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Tue May 14, 2013 3:39 am

I like the new version better than the original. A lot of the "Casio" synths have been replaced by guitar. The vocals are clearer too. It's still not going to win a Grammy for best produced track of the year but it's quite enjoyable in its present form.

Nice job.

skipscada · Post by **skipscada** » Tue May 14, 2013 6:53 am

Great stuff. Reminds me of psychedelic pop outfit Of Montreal in that it has lots of inventive parts and an ever-evolving arrangement. As for the constrained, muffled overall sonics, I suspect it's down to something in the MrBlitz setup and that if (and that's really an "if") MrBlitz wants to unmuffle his sound, it would probably be wise to look at something earlier in the chain than mixing stage EQ.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Tue May 14, 2013 9:51 pm

mrblitz wrote:attempted to clarify the mix:

Much clearer now. What was that? EQ, or just some judicious relevelling?

PurpleCatfishBettie · Wed May 15, 2013 10:12 am

actually, i cleared up space on this one by shortening the 'decay' of just about everything in the tune. many instruments (esp. percussion) had envelopes kind of like '/¯\', and were changed to more or less '\'.

there was also a 'high shelf', but it started at around 500hz and was -3.5db. i took that out to add back some 'brightness'. that was definitely causing some overall 'dimmage'. even i could hear it.

these sorts of tracks will always probably sound at least somewhat 'dark', because of the (other, remaining) high shelf that 'inevitably' cuts out everything above 10khz. ...overall, i'm going a bit for the 'old record' sound.

next, i'm going to back off on the 'squash' to get the 'dynamic range' to somewhere around 12 or 13. i think it's at 9 as it stands now...

thanks again for all of the comments...

Confusion (another mix)