Ben Mcmillan

On ‎5‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 10:30 PM, Tezza said:

See if you can get this direct monitoring working first, that is mixed in the unit itself, you do not need to press monitoring in your software, that should be off. There is also an advanced switch on those units, on the back,i think that needs to be set to "on".

Ok thanks for your feedback Tezza. I will try your suggestions. The advanced button is on so that is ok.

21 minutes ago, Chuck E Baby said:

You should have a direct monitoring switch and knob on your interface. Have you tried experimenting with those ?

Yes I have. it generally shows the direct montoring level is on (red light) and I make sure the knob is turned all the way up (to the right) but don't here any noise produced by instruments or vocal through the headphones.

8 minutes ago, Tezza said:

You should have the choice of both software monitoring and direct out on that unit. The direct monitoring button on the front mixes whatever is coming in through the microphone input with what is coming backfrom the DAW. I think this is the unit we are talking about:

Yes Tezza thank you this is the one. In my sonar I have an input monitoring button that can be pressed on any given track.  when the digital in button is off on my ua25  I get a light on the direct monitoring signal. I normally have this signal right over to the right but nothing notable happens....

7 minutes ago, martins said:

what's the output of your track you record on?

it make me think that is maybe a setting on your soundcard  software panel

I've enabled asio driver input monitoring..  but no luck.  which what I think you may be referring to?

7 minutes ago, martins said:

maybe try another project

It's across all projects... when I turn the input monitoring on I get awful feedback while having the digital in button on my cakewalk ua ex 25 pressed in... I've actually never been able to hear myself or what i'm playing and it's been years. I've simply had to have one ear in the headphones and one ear listening to the instrument or my voice with the headphones slipped off and because the headphones levels need to be high for me to hear the mix I always end up with some of that in my songs because the mic captures the song playing in headphone bit that I have off my other ear!

Hi guys

Wondering if anyone would know the reason why I can't hear myself in real time through the microphones I have.  I press the input monitoring button but nothing happens. I cant hear anything. I can still record and it captures the audio but I can't myself singing or playing and that makes it a lot harder to record anything decent as I cant get the feedback in real time.

cheers.

Ben

7 hours ago, Byron Dickens said:

Two words: room treatment. 

I'm  surprised no one mentioned that yet.  Until you have an at least somewhat accurate listening environment to mix in, it's like starting the marathon an hour after every one else does.

Thanks for your feedback Byron. Yes, that's one of the issues I have. My bedroom is a poor shape and my speakers aren't placed right. It's just the way it is sadly.  I'll endeavour to change things up. Thanks for your feedback. 

6 hours ago, Lynn said:

I believe this is much ado about little.  This is a fine song that, to me, is vocal driven, therefor, the words need to pop out of the mix and tell the story.  The vocals are well performed so let them shine.  Yeah, the bass and/or percussion could be boosted and cleaned up a bit, but this isn't a hard rock or pop song, so they don't need to hold quite as much weight.  Try a few alternate mixes with the vocals, bass, and percussion boosted a bit and see if this doesn't satisfy.  Also, this post belongs in the song section where the great CW producers and mixers live.  If you never touched this song again, you should still be proud of a fine song.

Thanks for your feedback Lynn. I'm aware of it needing to be in a another thread but it was more about a technical question regarding production. I'll try to save a few alternative mixes along the way in times to come to give me a better understanding across multiple devices too. Thanks again for your feedback. It is much appreciated. 

12 hours ago, martins said:

wow & wow what a good song!

Thanks you Martins. 

4 hours ago, iRelevant said:

To me it seems there is a problem in the lower end of the mix. Bass is rumbly, drowning out other stuff. Also missing the Kick. Would Clean up the bass with EQ'ing, and sidechain the Kick to the Bass for presence.

Thank you irelevant.  Side chaining is something that would help for sure. thanks so much for your input. 

cheers

Ben Armistad 

1 hour ago, Cactus Music said:

OK that would explain a lot. I used to use SI bass but it tends to lake definition which is what I'm hearing. Donload the Ample P bass lite, it is free with the only limitation of just one sample library and it doesn't go below low E. https://www.amplesound.net/en/download.asp   

See if that helps, I've tried a lot of bass VST's and this one is very close to a real P bass.

My set up for it is this  Keep the velocity below 115 or it will add slaps. I'm at around 108 vel. I set the volume knob at 1.0  I assign it to it's own Buss.   I hi pass filter at 80 hz.  

You might want to hi pass your guitars to get them out of the way, you might have to much low end build up happening. Try 130hz  

I put hi pass filters on every buss. My reverb buss it is set at 230hz.  Vocals at 150HZ etc. 

all excellent stuff Cactus. I've probably gone about it sightly wrong in that I've put high pass on individual tracks a bit much instead of buss... thanks for all the help. You've got some sound knowledge for sure. 

1 hour ago, Tezza said:

I agree with cactus, bass is lacking, there is no centrally placed bass, it seems to me the bass and kick drum more centrally placed will give more dynamics to the song. Both the bass and the kick drum are sinking into the instruments, fine if that's the sound you want but I think it might sound better separating the kick and bass drum from the instruments a bit more frequency wise. A more cutting kick and up the frequencies of the bass, so it can be heard. The stereo sound of the instruments is fine.

I can't hear what your saying, I'd like to hear more passion and effort in the vocals to impart more feeling, more emphasis on the meaningful words. You probably need to put a bit more compression on the vocals to pull them up in the mix, use a longer attack time so the front of your vocal stands out. Not too much reverb, that will sink them back down.

I don't think it's that bad at all, some nice sounds, a bit of work on the bass and vocals should polish it up nicely. Listening again, I think it is your enunciation or accent when you sing, the words are not separated enough I really cannot understand at all what you are saying. It gets better when you lift your voice, yes I can understand you easily in the higher range.

Lastly, it needs a middle eight or something to lift it a bit more, I feel it is going somewhere but it doesn't quite break, you lift your voice later, perhaps too late.

 

 

thanks Tezza. Much appreciated. I understand you regarding some of the words.. I'm a kiwi. That might be it,haha. i'll have to sort the bass and kick out a bit though... thanks again. much appreciated. 

1 hour ago, Cactus Music said:

Yes the sound is certainly pleasing and enjoyable to listen too.  But thats using good headphones.  If I don't hear the bass on my studio headphones then I will say the majority of listeners will also not hear it on ear bubs or cell phone speakers.  

 I just turned on my monitors and now I do hear a kick thump and a droning sort of bass but if you want to stand side by side with commercial releases you need your mixes to sound right on all listening systems. My guess is your studio monitors are of the bass heavy type.  

There is almost too much low end on my monitors. Its a sort of drone as I said. I can't hear the bass or the kicks attack. It's all below 100hz. Give it some mids.   Once again , if this was the sound you like nothing wrong with it, but to my listening taste I want to hear good bass. 

Ok thanks you very much for continued feedback... I can get your thoughts regarding the drone like , i've been unable to separate the bass from itself if you like. I'll try giving it more mids and less low end. ..  it's "plucked mutes" preset in studio instruments bass guitar...  

Hi Cact

1 hour ago, Cactus Music said:

I'm listening with headphones and I find it's a nice stereo depth of field, Guitars sound real good, mix of instruments are good,, but is there supposed to be a bass? I don't hear any bass or kick for that matter. Seems the low end is there on the guitars. It's not that you have to have these parts if that was what you wanted, but leaving out Bass and kick might be what you are missing. 

Hi Cactus. The bass and kick are there... or at least on my monitors, headphones might be called in to check my end on the low end... I'm more thinking into the overall sonic sound, I find my releases always seem a little one dimensional or something compared. I just can't place what it is.... Thanks for your feedback about the low end though. 

Hi guys and girls 

I've attached a sample of a song I'm about to released. I'm on spotify etc..  It seems that all my mixes are missing something sonically? some sort of space or energy when compared to commercial releases and I can't put my finger on what I need to do...  I'm not talking about the composition itself.  but my mixes... just wondering if some helpful people would give some constructive thoughts.... It seems to me to do with stereo width / lacking compression / or reverb something just isn't quite right.. I play the guitars and those and vocals are always recorded mono and all virtual instruments / drums are programmed...  I typically use universal reverb across my entire mix.... 

Any feedback would be much appreciated. 

Ben Armistad. 

Soldier's Prayer 3 .Mp3