Michael Martinez

Thanks to everyone on this thead. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of mixing now.

4 minutes ago, Douglas Kirby said:

I don't really hear the kick drum at all, and I think the female vocal needs a bit more compression - like you suggested.  I enjoyed the song - the chorus is a good hook.

Thanks for posting.

I think I've got the kick more audible in my latest mix (thanks to Drum Replacer).

For the female vocals, I'll make a note to add some more compression next time I remix it.

5 hours ago, Chuck E Baby said:

Newer mix definitely sounds better with less reverb more kick on the drums. What are you using for cymbals Michael ?

From 1:15 - 1:30. 

I wish I could tell you, but I don't know - it's acoustic drums and I'm not the drummer .If you want, I can ask the drummer what he's using.

Yep that was it. I updated to the latest version - problem solved.

3 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Are you running the latest version of CbB? This was a known issue in the first 01/2019 release.

That darn well could be it. When I logged in last night I noticed there was an update for Cakewalk, but I haven't installed it yet.

1 hour ago, Wookiee said:

What does it say in the True Peak box @Michael Martinez ?  Looking at the new version it is defiantly not looking as loud.

I am seeing a peak of -0.5 so it looks more like it is warning you you are close to the edge, the other mix was showing +1.5

Yeah, I think I figured it out. I lowered the kick a little on the mix, and backed off the boost on the master, I think it's better now. 

Ok, I'm pretty sure those points of clipping are the vst Kick drum. I wonder if I should compress it/put a limiter on it in the mix.

Wookie: I just ran the Youlean meter on the new mix/master and I also see the little red indications of clipping scattered throughout.  I'm not sure where this is coming from... How do I fix this? Should I put a limiter on the stereo out of my mix prior to bouncing down (before mastering)?

Actually I guess there's two things I need to understand how to fix:

1. prevent clipping

2. lower the average LUFS - is this done by simply lowering the level of the master out during the mastering stage, or increasing compression during the mastering stage?

I wonder where the clipping is coming from? I followed the peaks in my mix and all the tracks were around -8dB and below. Was the clipping ioroduced during the mastering?

On a different note: I took everyone's suggestions here, and I redid the mix from scratch. Here's the new version:

https://clyp.it/o2uqwrw3

I think it sounds cleaner now. But I think I need to lower the level of the bass guitar a little. And maybe add a touch of thickening or stereo width to the vocals.

Let me try running that Loudness meter on the above mp3...

The "Save Scene" and "Save as new scene" buttons are greyed out under "Mix Recall". Is there some special thing I need to do to get these to work?

Nevermind, I found the answer on an old thread: drag and drop the midi track to a folder. This make a .mid file from the midi data.

I found there's a way to export midi tracks but it ends up producing a cakewalk (.cwp) file. I couldn't see a way of generating a .mid file - is there a way to do this?

4 hours ago, Chuck E Baby said:

The bass, Vocals and most of the piano anyway sound great. But the drum track sounds weak. But Not the kind of "weak" that can be fixed by simply making the track louder or using EQ.  Im still surprised they are real drums. I thought they were a TTS-1. By using Drum Replacer you could beef it up.

Great song. I love the harmony's. Listened to it again this morning. It really grows on you.

Thanks. Actually yesterday I did install Drum Replacer - what a nifty tool. I was able to use it to identify the kicks and snare and create a new midi track and use TTS-1 drum kit to reinforce those. I'm finishing up a new mix of the song, I'll post it here later.

Lynn: thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you mentioned the bass - I myself already was feeling a lack of bass, in the back of my mind was thinking how to fix that. I've got a couple synth basses in there, but they are on the off beat and they aren't deep, so they are acting more like twangy synths. I'm going to try adding a regular reggae style bass guitar and see how it sounds. Thanks for that catch.

13 minutes ago, Lynn said:

 I wouldn't recommend adding more reverb, as that will push the drums into the background if you're not careful.  If you compress the track to get the kick to stand out then you will compress all the drums if you don't use a multi-band compressor.  Without knowing what you have and are using, it's hard to advise.  Still, a good song.

Good catch. I love how reverb sounds on drums but you're right, I don't want to push them further back into the mix.

Regarding compression, thinking this through ... I guess the kick would *not* be compressed if it's the *only* thing playing when it hits, but if cymbal or snare hits at the same time (and louder) then everything would get compressed .... So yeah can't rely on that either. Darn it.

2 minutes ago, Chuck E Baby said:

Samples will get you there and lucky for you Sonar/Bandlab has Drum replacer which works very well for those instances (I used to use Audio snap).

 

I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds interesting. Do you mean that Bandlab will take an audio drum track and will "synthesize it", creating a new Midi/instrument drum track? 

As for "1073s" I have no idea what this means, but I will google it. 

I was thinking about compressing the drum track to get the kick to stand out more - is this a valid approach?

38 minutes ago, Lynn said:

I, too, like this song, and especially the unique vocals.  If you can't get past the drums on a single track, then I don't think it would be too hard to overdub the drums just the way you like them.  Overall, this could be a real gem just waiting for a little polish.

Overdub? Do you mean add more reverb, or do you mean create an additional drum track?

1 hour ago, amiller said:

‘Just commenting on the song overall...not the mix.  I really like this song.  The vocals have a unique and pleasing quality.  The song is also interesting and different in a good way.  I enjoyed it.  Thanks for posting.

Thanks so much.  I'm in the process of re-mixing it (with plenty of helpful tips from Wooky and others on here), hopefully I can produce a nicer mix.

3 hours ago, RBH said:

Ok- after listening to your mix - I think you're definitely on the right track - nice arraignment which is 90 % of any song IMO. Just for a 1st impression opinion - back off about 4db on the bass and raise the snare and kick slightly.   I'm just listening on half decent headphones for what that's worth.  Nice song - I think the vocals are great.

Thanks. You're referring to "Grey Skies and Blue Waters", or to "Good night, moon"?

I'll be honest I've been screwing around with the mix the past couple hours. Not a good thing - lol - I've undoubtedly made it worse.

Sigh .... I wish I knew what I was doing.

30 minutes ago, synkrotron said:

Absolutely no rush, Michael, and we should wait for more comments from peeps that mix this stuff day to day. I think it safe to say that, given what I create myself, my guidance would not have that much respect here.

cheers

andy

Well, as a "listener" you're opinion is certainly valid. And you used to do audio mixing before, which is more than can be said for me.

Excellent suggestions synkrotron, I'm going to go through the EQs on each channell again and see what's going on. If there's low end happenining when there's no kick or bass, then that's gotta go!

The drum track is a single audio track (kick, hi hat, toms, etc on single track) (that's how the drummer sent it to me). When I mixed it I had noticed the lack of kick, and I think I had already bumped up the EQ on the low end to try to compensate for that, but maybe I bumped it in the wrong place or something.

Just now, synkrotron said:

To me, the vocals sounded okay.

Okay cool. I'll read your review a little bit later (I'm in the middle of something else at the moment)

synktrotron: I see you posted a lenghty review. I'll will read it and respond later this afternoon.

I'll bring up the drum level, and maybe back off the reverb a little on the drum track? It's an audio track (acoustic drums).

Are the vocals mixed correctly?

37 minutes ago, synkrotron said:

Yes, indeed, and although some of us have mentioned SPAN, it will not show you that sort of thing as it is a spectrum analyser. What it really helps me with is keeping an "eye" on my low end, which headphones and even my nearfields are not that good at, and I can't afford to splash out on a decent set of nearfields at the moment.

One thing I like to do is upload my current "work in progress" piece to SoundCloud, which I can then "cast" to me Android TV and therefore listen on my Pioneer sound system. That really does help give me a good idea of any problem areas, low end, mid resonances, that kind of thing.

Would you mind making a critique of my mix here: https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/2983-please-critique-this-mix-grey-skies/

I'd welcome any suggestions you have.