Pre master demo

Hi guys.

I’d like your opinions on my song. Be brutal and direct. :grin:

Cheers Bruce

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Hello Bruce, I just moved your post to “Your Music” section, as I realised my Reviews/Demos section was ambigous in what it was for, sorry about that. It should be a section for reviews and demos of plugins and sample libraries etc.

Would you mind editing your post and add a track description, like what sounds you used, what your creative vision was etc? :slight_smile:

Cool mix - especially the vocals and bass. Lovely vocal line. The only criticism would be the song doesn’t really go anywhere. Perhaps add a bit more build/vocal harmonies vocal ad libs or maybe some strings to build it up a bit more in to a finishing chorus.
I would be tempted to lower the verse vocals slightly and raise them in chorus. Or just drop instruments down one bar before chorus. Could also widen the stereo field in the choruses to add more impact. Perhaps add parrellel (differing reverb or saturation or both ) hard left and right for the chorus only Doesn’t feel like there’s enough distinction between verse and chorus.

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That’s good advice. I’ll try that and post a revised version. I can’t get her back for adlibs she’s too shy. I might try singing over the top to add some texture. I was wondering where adding the intro chorus over the last couple of choruses might work but I’m worried it’ll get lost.

Hi Phil.

I did what you suggested. I made the changes subtle and I think you can hear them.

I’m looking to send it out to be mastered. There’s about -3dB headroom.

What do you think? Cheers Bruce

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Hey sounds way better - feels more musical as well weirdly. It always amazes me how small changes make a huge difference to feel etc. Definitely more contrast between verse n chorus now.

Really like the track - excellent work.

I think it needs de-essing, and if I were your mastering engineer, I’d de-ess it in mastering. However, it’s always better to do this in the mix.

For my taste, the snare drum sounds compressed to the point that it sounds like a thud. Some of the tone has been squeezed out of it. However, this is a matter of taste, and it does have a pretty attack. If that’s the snare sound you’re going for, disregard my comment.

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I’m still playing around with the mix. I tried de essing but couldn’t really hear the difference. I’ll take another look at the snare :grin:

It doesn’t need it on every word. It’s gotta be set just right, and sometimes automated.

Or tell your mastering engineer to do it, but not all of them do that. The difference after de-essing can be subtle in the studio but massive on some listening devices (especially cars).

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If you send anything for mastering always give the engineer -6 till -8 or even -10dB headroom. Even if you send out a -30 version, this still will be better because when add gain in the digital domain you don’t lose quality in terms of hiss. Only if he does it exclusively analog, in most cases the devices are super clean. If you send -3dB he doesn’t have a lot to work with when he adds his EQs, compressors etc.

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Mastering engineer here… Alexey is right that I prefer some headroom. However, if you send me something that maxes at 0db, I’m just going to gain it down before I do my processing, and get the same result. So as long as we are all digital–and in 4 years of doing this professionally I’ve never had an analog job–it actually doesn’t matter.

And while IN THEORY my gaining it down to -8db might possibly, in theory, constitute some kind of “quality loss” compared to you sending me a file that’s originally produced at -8db, in reality no human would ever be able to hear a difference.

Now it’s a little different if you apply compression and limiting to try to get your file really loud before you send it to me. That really does tie my hands a bit. But even still, I don’t really mind if you strap a mild compressor across your stereo bus. If it sounds better to you in your studio, go ahead and do it. But don’t do it just to get your music loud. Let me do that.

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One last comment about mastering. If you mixed it through a stereo compressor on the stereo output bus, and made mix decisions while the mix was running through that compressor, leave that compressor on. If you remove the compressor expecting that the mastering engineer will re-compress and get you back to the same place, that likely won’t work out as you hope. Send me (or whoever you hire) the best sounding mix you possibly can, and if that means mixing through a compressor, do that. Just no limiting, and no trying to get it loud!

Getting music to sound good loud is a multi-step process in mastering. A nip here, a tuck there, and by the time I am running a mastered mix through a final limiter, you’d be surprised how little work the limiter is doing. It just ends up sounding pleasant, even though it’s really loud.

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Cool song. My opinion, humble and unasked for -but this is what I want when I ask for opinions, is that the mix could benefit very much by expanding the spectrum… it seems to me that there are too many mids and highs, but the mid low and low frequencies are not there… that makes this song sound as if through an old radio, like small speakers.

I would use maybe some bass harmonic enhancer, and EQ, (there is one enhancer that I am kind of aiming to, it is called Waves Factory Spectre Enhancement…“pluginBoutique.com” ) it should help with this above mentioned task…

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Hi.

My thoughts as well (although I was going for a vintage style mix) but to make an appreciable difference, I ended up taking so much out, it was killing the song.

I’ve tried used the TG chain plugin from waves but I’ve found controlling the frequencies quite difficult. I’ll look at your suggestion.

I’m going to send it to abbey road for mastering. I’m hoping they can resolve any EQ discrepancy. :slight_smile:

Cheers

IT is cool though. really. I think is not that much that’s needed.

Here, look at this one:

It is a nice distortion to creat harmonics, and then, it is mixed with the original signal.

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Hi.

I’ve listened to all the advice. I’ve possibly scooped too much from the violins, keys and guitars.

Let me know what you think. Cheers guys

I think it sounds fuller now. My humble opinion… the lead voice, lower a little bit the fader, and maybe expand it stereo with some chorus in some areas (use Infected Mushroom Wider (its free)

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