mark skinner

Hello , I'm finishing up a song we used to play in my acoustic band. It's a lot harder now being by myself to keep the energy up. I think it's pretty close but , really wondering about the bottom end and the vocal levels. I fought the break with several guitars and cello. I Finally picked up my dusty neglected mandolin and felt better. Thanks for the listen and for any crits or suggestions for improvement.. mark https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14881195

Very Nice ! She has a Great voice and knows how to use it. I thought the performance as well as the mix/master were both Top shelf. I do think it was Very unusual and risky , but Creative to slow the tempo at the choruses.. I Liked it. Congrats to you both .. Enjoyed it .. mark

Fantastic Creative production ! Earbud listen so .. I won't even attempt to give any mix suggestions. Vox didn't seem to hot to me though. I Really like the "depth" you got in this one. I For Sure enjoyed it .. mark

SubVibe , I Love how "immersive" this mix is ! I fell like I'm "In it" instead of listening from the outside. Great intro and Really liked the fade out. The little break part around 0:54 was Very nice and the song flowed into it Perfectly. Very impressive Mix/Master. Loved it .. mark

@treesha I still have not found the "clips follow selection" screen. I've looked in DAW preferences and on the melodyne screen. Maybe it isn't available to me , only using the "essentials" version .. ?

Found this .. Noel Borthwick Staff 5k Posted May 23, 2019 Try turning on the option for clips following selection. I posted a screenshot here. (The screenshot link didn't follow the paste ) I also read that clicking the orange Blob icon while in the Melodyne screen helps if the "clips follow selection" is set. mark

@treesha , I've been concentrating so hard to find the blobs , I never looked up to the top of the Melodyne page to actually see where It is on the timeline. This still doesn't explain why the notes instantly show up when I hit "play" on occasion. I had also not seen this in Melodyne 4. mark PS. Hope you are doing well , been waiting for a new song from you ..

@Max Arwood , I just went into my project and did some tests. Yes it is a timeline issue. I went to bar 38 on a mandolin track. I cut about a bar of the track. Put my timeline exactly on the first clip cut. Highlited the clip and used region effect melodyne. The Melodyne screen opened up and I double clicked it to get it full screen. My timeline then jumped back to bar 1 (the beginning of the song) . I then scrolled to bar 38 and the blobs were there. This is intermittent. I hit "undo" , closed Cakewalk and repeated it several times turning off FX , puttting my timeline off by a few bars etc.. Sometimes the timeline stays where it's supposed to and every thing works as it should. I'd say 75% of the time it doesn't. I'm still at a loss but at least now I know to look at the timeline on the Melodyne screen. There was acouple of times it wouldn't let me scroll forward past bar 14 ?? I'm "almost" done with this project , hopefully I can get it finished without further problems. I have not checked this problem out yet in a different project. Thanks .. mark

I have scrolled full page each time.

I recently got an update from Melodyne Essentials 4 to 5 . The first few times I used it everything worked as expected. I'm doing short sections (8 bars max) as a region effect. The blobs aren't drawn until I hit play. Sometimes I have to do it several times or get out then back in the screen. Ocassionally they are present as soon as I expand the screen. I was just wondering if anyone else has seen this ? All of my other waveforms draw correctly when opening a project or bouncing clips. Thanks .. mark

Hey David , first impressions .. I quickly hit pause and got my good headphones knowing this was a Fantastic song. I love what you are doing on the acoustic and the energy of it. Vocals were Great with plenty of punch but still very smooth. I think you've written and performed this one Very well. If I were mixing this .. I would very slightly pan the snare a little further to the right if you can . I Really liked the acoustic guitar in the intro section . The tone was Great being on the edge of almoste "brittle" . I would just do an automated EQ reduction on the highs and reduce the volume a little when the other instruments come in. I thought the outro section with the acoustic sounded nice as it is . With my headphones the lead vocals also seemed to need some highs reduced. They were on the edge of needing some de-essing. That .. coupled with the acoustic got a little peircing. I don't know for sure what I would do to the lead guitar in the break but , I think it needs "something". I would for sure pan it a little more towards center and add a little more reverb to give it some more depth. Just my honest opinions after a couple of listens. Super Fantastic song and capture . I absolutely Love it .. mark

That was very dreamy and mysterious . I very much enjoyed that creative composition and the somewhat lost feeling I got. As far as the somewhat strange chord structure .. After I retired I took some community college courses that used Cakewalk piano roll for composition. A Lot of the young students had not yet been "locked in a box" as far as chord progressions. I found the unusual choices they made Very interesting and musical but for sure unexpected. I got that feeling in this one.. Enjoyed it .. mark

I Totally agree with Andy's description of this track. A well established writer in Nashville (worked with him in my day job) once told me .. "Never quit working on the song you are working on" This is a perfect example of that. If you had pulled the plug on this one earlier , it would have never gotten to this point. Fantastic performance and mix/master. Love it .. mark

The remix sounds Nice Keith. Excellant Job .. Enjoyed it .. mark

I have around 200 vst's that get scanned when I open CbB. Normally I get a popup stating "scan complete" almost immediately. About 20% of the time it will hang on "searching for plugins" for about 12 to 15 sec. I'm thinking I may have a plugin that may become problematic at some point. I was just wondering if I could see visually where it is getting slowed down. Win10 , ssd. Thanks .. mark

That was Very Real and intimate. Fantastic job on the steele guitar , it was Very imersive , Soothing and not so country sounding. You presented it well .. it had an emotional feel like a cello does in this type of song. Loved it .. ms

@noynekker Thank's Bruce . I have to mention that @garybrun was also behind the scenes on this last version. He often gives suggestions and advise via PM or email (with examples) that really help out. This forum has been a fantastic resource in my learning process and has for sure created some lasting friendships . Thanks to All .. mark

Thanks Bruce , must have just been a glitch and all my stuff is back now. I haven't opened up Soundcloud in a while and it was a little alarming to read "upload your first track". ms

@AndyB01, @Bajan Blue Thank You for listening and the Nice comments. I've done some minor tweeking and gotten some of the mud out of the mix . I've also adjusted some of the bottom end out of the nylon guitars. The intro guitar was pretty boomy and had no clairity. Bass guitar was lowered to get some of the excessive low end out of the song. I'm calling this remix "final" and am going to get away from it for a while.. Thank You for the listens and for helping out mark

^^ Yes , I never touch the input or output sliders. They stay at 0. I failed to mention above that I am using the "master assistant". My mix is normally sitting around -6 to -8 db average before hitting Ozone , if it's not I just adjust my track fader. My procedure - I'll find a section that I want Ozone to listen to. Normally a chorus or a section with All of the instruments playing as well as vox. I turn down my monitors , play that section and let Ozone do it's thing. I Normally accept the results right away and then turn the maximizer module "off". I'll check the "EQ" suggestions they give me. I'll adjust them to my liking or not use them at all. I then play around with the widening module to see if it helps or not. When I'm satisfied with everything , I'll turn the maximizer module back on , set my targets , click the learn button , drop my interface volume and play the song from the Very beginning to the end. Then I turn learn function "off" (important) and bring up my Luffs meter while letting the song play all the way thru again. Luffs "integrated" and peaks should be the same as my targets. Best of luck .. mark

giant II , Just a suggestion .. In the future all collaborators should export their tracks from the Very beginning of the song. You can slip edit out the silence if you want to. If everybody is on the same page timing doesn't become an issue. Time stamped tracks can also be used if everyone has the ability. During collabs if I'm sending someone a guitar track , I may end up doing it a few times untill wer'e both satisfied. It can turn into a mess if it has to be alighned each time .. ms

Anyone else having problems with SoundCloud ? I can't find Any of my tracks .. mark

Yes it is very simple and I get nearly perfect results Everytime. Sometimes I will check the main stereo track before using Ozone looking for fairly long sections that are too quiet or loud. I watch the "short term" luffs with my loudness meter in those sections , and do a little entire mix volume envelope for problem areas. Puts a little less work on the maximizer later.. mark

problem with link

Are you using the "learn" function? I only have the basic elements version of Ozone , but I find it will set the maximizer to within 0.1 DB of the target I set. I turn on "true Peak" and usually set the output max to -1. db or -1.2 db. If you have a lot of loud quick transients use the IRC 1 setting instead of IRC 2. (smoother). In the elements version I have to turn on the "learn" function , play the song from the very beginning to the end and then turn learn "off". Turn Down your monitors or headphones before playing. It will blast you before the maximizer settles down. I then check the entire song with Youlean Luffs meter "integrated". 99.9% of the time I'm dead on my -14 luffs (if thats what I'm targeting) and within 0.1db of the max peak level that I set. This is by far the easiest part of the mastering process for me. mark