Boof ԅ(,◔ ﹏ ◔ )ᓄ

[eassae]

I've been working on this off and on. Mostly off for the past few weeks. Ran into an energy suck. Anyway, I got back on it the past few days. Kind of lost sight of where I was originally going with the track but…

https://soundcloud.com/eassae/boof/s-gGklp32IKdj

[eassae]

Updated the timing on the vocal starting at 2:45. A few minor drum and mixing tweaks.

[chagzuki]

It's good, in a classic cinematic style... I don't know my genres, so I don't know if this fits a genre, but it has that anticipation generated by the sparse rhythmic punctuations and atmospheric pads etc., a feeling of expectation and tension. It could easily be a passage in a film.

My take on where you can push it to: I get the impression that there's some things you could do to make the mix hit harder, and just have everything sit more clearly in the mix and soundstage. Of course, might just be my preference, but with the sparseness of percussion which creates that anticipation, the vocal phrasing is also not particularly firmly on the beat (slightly wistful), and so there are many parts where I'm losing where the beat is, a touch. So when the percussion is sparse, I think I want the vocal to punctuate the beat with some confidence. If the beat is searching, and the vocals are searching, I get a little lost.

In mix terms, I'm hearing some masking in the tricky lower mids, 100-400Hz. I find it hard to hear an obvious culprit, although when the bass comes in around 1:10, the vocal gets clearly dominated, and the bass sounds like it's quite strong in the 200Hz-ish range. I would check how things fit if you dial that region down a bit, until the vocal no longer gets pushed back. I'm guessing you might have boosted the bass quite a bit to make sure it's prominent, but perhaps the bass prominence would be achieved better by high-passing other instruments more, particularly the delays and reverbs. I would guess that more high-passing would mean that when the bass and sub stabs come it they hit with force.
Then possibly figure out the most important frequency in the vocals, and bus all pads together and cut those frequencies slightly from the pads, to lend more confidence and space to the vox. Get that tightness.

[eassae]

In mix terms, I'm hearing some masking in the tricky lower mids, 100-400Hz. I find it hard to hear an obvious culprit, although when the bass comes in around 1:10, the vocal gets clearly dominated, and the bass sounds like it's quite strong in the 200Hz-ish range. I would check how things fit if you dial that region down a bit, until the vocal no longer gets pushed back. I'm guessing you might have boosted the bass quite a bit to make sure it's prominent, but perhaps the bass prominence would be achieved better by high-passing other instruments more, particularly the delays and reverbs. I would guess that more high-passing would mean that when the bass and sub stabs come it they hit with force.
Then possibly figure out the most important frequency in the vocals, and bus all pads together and cut those frequencies slightly from the pads, to lend more confidence and space to the vox. Get that tightness.

I see what you mean about the vocal and the drums syncing all the time, not sure if it bothers me, but it was something I had thought about as well. I've adjusted it once, but maybe I'll adjust further.

I checked the mix based on your comments, but I'm really not finding what you're hearing. There are two primary basses; one that is long and wide and has almost no center information, and a short punctuated one that is center, but has very little info above 300 cycles. There is a longer effect kick at the 1:10 mark, but it's duration doesn't compete to much with the vocal in my monitors(Genelec 8351b) or my headphones(AKG K812 & K872) and it really only has significant information at around 75 cycles.

The bass, synths, vocals, drums, efx… all have their own sub mix bus, and the synths and efx are all high passed. Each reverb has additional frequency cuts in the verbs themselves, mostly Valhalla. Also on the synth bus is an instance of TrackSpacer sidechained to the vocal and Fabfilter compressor sidechained to the kick. The piano leaks a bit into the bass range but I find to much high pass on piano starts to make it sound thin fairly quickly.

[chagzuki]

The bass, synths, vocals, drums, efx… all have their own sub mix bus, and the synths and efx are all high passed. Each reverb has additional frequency cuts in the verbs themselves, mostly Valhalla. Also on the synth bus is an instance of TrackSpacer sidechained to the vocal and Fabfilter compressor sidechained to the kick. The piano leaks a bit into the bass range but I find to much high pass on piano starts to make it sound thin fairly quickly.

Interesting, sounds like there's a lot of space-creation happening via EQ then. Well, you've got better monitoring equipment than me, though it could be too good (!).
Don't get me wrong, it sounds strong. That was just what my ears were telling me, and it's always hard to know where the end point is with mixing, and just how much power you can get from the elements of the song, and what compromises have to be made. We could have a back and forth and test whether or not it's possible to squeeze any extra power out of it, if you like.

[eassae]

though it could be too good (!).

There is that I probably should get some of those cube speakers or something.

[chagzuki]

There is that I probably should get some of those cube speakers or something.

Yeah, it's definitely good practice.

I'll swap you a single mono one for your Genelecs.

[eassae]

I'll swap you a single mono one for your Genelecs.

Hmmm… Not quite ready to give one up. They are my babies

[chagzuki]

Hmmm… Not quite ready to give one up. They are my babies

It was worth a try. I respect your decision.

[eassae]

finitely good practice.

So I threw a TrackSpacer on the bass bus sidechained to the vocal, focused it from 175–1k on the mid only, and it did seem to bring the vocal in focus just a tad more. It's very subtle but…

Anyway, thanks for lending your ear

[seismic1]

I saw the film in '85 or '86, but it took me ages to track Susan down, after an inadvertent detour down a few Google rabbit holes

[tomtom1]

i think it is a good track. in some parts i wished the vocals sit ab bit more in front of some the synths, closer to the listener. but maybe it is just my personal expection. (where can i queue for the genelecs? I trade some fluid audios...)

but overall it is a good mix!

[enroe]

A beautiful modern electronic ballad, I would say. The voice brings a lot of emotion
- and thus mental images. Well done, I like it a lot!

[eassae]

i think it is a good track. in some parts i wished the vocals sit ab bit more in front of some the synths, closer to the listener. but maybe it is just my personal expection. (where can i queue for the genelecs? I trade some fluid audios...)

but overall it is a good mix!

Do you have any specific time codes or sections you think I should look at?

[tomtom1]

i think it is a good track. in some parts i wished the vocals sit ab bit more in front of some the synths, closer to the listener. but maybe it is just my personal expection. (where can i queue for the genelecs? I trade some fluid audios...)

but overall it is a good mix!

Do you have any specific time codes or sections you think I should look at?

hm... maybe around 1:35-1:50. but tbh i don't know exactly what it is. maybe the voice could be a bit bigger (in terms of width). maybe it is only the question what is the primary element (layer) and the secondary. my ears expected that the voice is (always) the primary element. but maybe others feel it different. somehow i miss maybe a bit of some side elements.

listen to 1:40 in the video (maybe not the best example, but i think it is a very good mix). there is some backing in the sides, what makes the voice very big, later on she sings quieter (the voice is in the middle) but additional voice elements are in the sides...