needed feedback
I keep workin’ in a new “album” for the last two years. This is the last I finished (only’s left mastering).
Please gimme gimme feedback.
Listen here: “While you and me…”
Quote:
give me whales to rip out
got smoke to draw clouds
a big hammer to punish seals
factories to poison seas
dont show me hunger scenes
i’d like to watch naked teens
impress me those grey machines
trees to make porn magazines
but i hear the people sound
a: companies kick and whip the crowd
b: the laws kick and punish the crowd
c:policemen kick and gas the crowd
they fight for you on the ground
a:while you and me fill our mouths
b:while you and me pleased to vow
c:while you and me laugh aloud
my culture doesn’t mind
i much prefer american style
coke with his biggest size
machinegun, pills and fries
please remove my identity
your words spread obscenity
they’re ugly but comfortable
for your crumbs i was born
the tv shows another big wave
a bigger hurricane
just the mortal earthquake
easier to look the other way
Well I’m not an expert or sound engineer, however I have been able to, in the last year, learn many things. So what I would like to do is break it down. I hope you won’t be offended.
Content. I like the content. It’s good, a nice flare and very good beat.
Sound: I can hear issues with drums, guitar is close, vocals have too much verb seems tinnies, bass not sure I could hear it, kick drum is to high in the low frequency. Over all the mix lacks mid range. All these things will play havoc when you go to master.
Mastering: Depending on what software you use, compression will play a big part in your project. Make sure to read up on it. This is what I’ve learned in the last year.
Initial mixing before mastering: I used to do pretty much what your doing, getting all the bass I can including highs and the result in the end would be when I mastered, too much bass, highs tinnie and lacking mid range. This was a problem for me for years. What I suggest you do is find a balance in the audio. Just enough highs so that you can hear them, just enough bass so you can just hear it. This goes for everything. The reason is when you go to master you can bring all these things up giving your sound good punch, clean mid range and clear highs. It’s not important to try to get punch before you master, only be able to hear it.
For example, given you have a treated room and a set of studio monitors plus a sub and you have listened to music through them for an extended period of time tweaking the balance between your sub and monitors until you can play any store bought CD without any further tweaking and the sound feels good to you at a comfortable volume level which is not loud. This is important because once you have this setup you’ll be able to do the following.
When I mix prior to mastering I start with the drums and bass tracks, What I strive for is the following. I solo the drums up until I’m just am able to hear the kick come slightly out of the sub, not booming at all just enough to hear it, then I solo the bass and do the same thing. Set the bass up so you can just hear the sub pick it up. Then set highs to taste for both. Then I solo just the bass and drums together, now if you got it right you should be able to hear the bass and kick drum with neither taking over. Mixing the vocals and other tracks you want to match the volume with the bass and kick drums making sure not to add very much in the highs, again strive to make it so you can just barely hear the clear stuff. Don’t make it tinnie but make it clear with enough volume so it’s in balance with the bass and drums.
Now you might be thinking the sound is not great and that will be true, but don’t worry about that. Once you have a balanced mix where you can just hear the kick drum and bass come through the sub gently, you’ll be ready to master.
Depending on the mastering software, which will run on the master channel, you want to add compression to even things out and then thats where you starting boosting the audio. As you boost the volume in the compression you’ll notice the kick and bass start to shine through the sub. As you boost the mids through highs your mid range will come through clean. The rest is tweaking the highs and other features of your mastering software, like the Harmonic Exciter in Ozone 4 which goes hand in hand with compression. a little of both to get that great sound. It’s important to study the manual of your mastering software to get the most out of it or at the very least answer some nagging question about some feature.
In a nut shell, it’s not all that important to get the kick drum or bass booming or get the highs just right before mastering, the mastering part of it along with compression, loudness maximizer and other features of your mastering software will make it shine. I use Ozone 4 as my Mastering software and the above methods I’ve used with good results in my books.
I hope this helps,
PACO
Hi Wyndorf, Another strong and interesting track - how many do have for the album?
What are you monitoring with and on which aspect of it are you asking for feedback?
I like it.
thanks for your answers… it’s that i wanted. YOu can find issues or mistakes so I could improve the final mix/mastering.
Quote:
Hi Wyndorf, Another strong and interesting track - how many do have for the album?
I’m working in 18 songs so I can choose 12-13… The big problem is while I workin in one I make more songs… so the number is rising… I hope I can finish about august/september (only’s left 6 vocal tracks, and the mastering).