Silent Night

[JD01]

Its Fucking Shite.

[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE63TecSu7Q[/BBvideo]

Had an hour to work on a mix for this when I got in

OK, I've moved it up to A and it was a lot easier:

Silent Shite A Maj Mix 1.mp3

Silent Shite in A Maj Mix 2.mp3

[Bubba]

LOL. Well, you're the first one of us to come up with something - I guess the gauntlet is down! The idea and execution is well done.

Mix wise, this is really muddy to me. Too boomy, the guitars not spiky enough and the vocal - where the humour and point lies - is mixed to be unintelligible, which sort of negates the song. I assume you have a message to get across, but it's lost, I'm afraid.

A better mix will rescue this.

[JD01]

Cock bollock. I tried something different with the mix on this to try and make it brighter and more lively. But obviously fucking ruined it.

[JD01]

I changed up all my reverb impulses when I was getting towards my mix on this. As I'd kept everything as my usual template before. I've obviously mistaken something sounding different to something sounding better!

[Bubba]

As I say, this isn't a disaster, the concept, playing, recording and programming are all fine. Go forth and mix again, young Padawan.

[JD01]

As I say, this isn't a disaster, the concept, playing, recording and programming are all fine. Go forth and mix again, young Padawan.

Yeah, will do. Will be next weekend now though. Mrs heard an instrumental of this last weekend and she commented that it sounded really good, she doesn’t know anything about recording, but she’s heard enough of my mixes to say if they’re good or not, she heard it before I fucked about with it today though.

[Greg_L]

I really think you have a monitoring problem. Your mixes consistently have the same flaws IMO - what I think are flaws to my ears and mix sensibilities. Mucky unintelligible vocals, mucky guitars, clickety clack kick and bass, questionable use of reverb, stuff like that. It's always the same stuff. Maybe you like things to sound that way? That's perfectly fine. Your mix, your choice. One thing I think could help with your vocals on this song in particular is doing it in a different key. From what I'm hearing it sounds like it's too low for your range. This song has you dipping into a range that doesn't work for your voice very well.

[rayc]

The bass sounds fine to me in my headphones - the kick has a little too much click.
Vocal wise - it is probably a little in your uncomfortable zone but I don't know.
I like the premise and the elements - should've kept a copy of the template mate.

[JD01]

This is possibly a little low for me to sing - I was much happier on the higher parts, when I was autotuning my scratch vocal track to give myself something to sing along with I was accurate on the high stuff but hunting around on the lower stuff.

I know I have a monitoring problem, my room isn't great. I did this one entirely on headphones though, I find I get the best results when I flip between my main reference headphones (AKGs) and my monitors. I'll try not to bore you with millions of mixes of this, but try and free up some proper time to work on a mix for this on the weekend. This mix I'm most pleased with is the 3rd "It Isn't Easy" mix, and I let that one fester for a while before I went back to it.

Ray - its no hassle for me to go back to my previous template. I only swapped over all my impulses

[JD01]

Gents, can you have a listen to this instrumental version - I've been working on de-mudding the mix.

[rayc]

Sounds fie to me James. If I ran it through an EQ and saw some mid mud now I'd say it suits the track.

[JD01]

Sounds fie to me James. If I ran it through an EQ and saw some mid mud now I'd say it suits the track.

Cheers ray

[Bubba]

Sounds very good. Have you changed the key yet?

[JD01]

Sounds very good. Have you changed the key yet?

No. Its not exactly challenging to play though so if I get a bit of peace next weekend I'll retrack the whole thing. Will only take me 15 minutes to do the guitars.

Cheers though, that's mainly been achieved by EQing my reverb impulse. Was amazing how much clearer the vocal was too. Although the singing is a bit non-committal and shit. I'll probably have one more go in this key being a bit less tentative, then if it doesn't work I'll shift it up a step.

[JD01]

OK, gents.

Not quite there yet, but can you have a listen to this mix (in the original post). I think I've suceeded in taking away the bulk of the flubby mud and moved it up a step to A which was a lot easier to sing!

I'm going to re-track the lead vocal 'cos there's a few mistakes in there which I've autotuned and you can hear an artifact here and there. I also haven't written the solo for the end yet, but I can do that this evening and in the morning.

The reason I am posting it now is 'cos I've only got this weekend to work on it and I'm off to Germany on Sunday.

[Bubba]

I'm off to Germany on Sunday.

I'll have a listen later, when I'm more pissed.

[JD01]

I'm off to Germany on Sunday.

I'll have a listen later, when I'm more pissed.

Good effort - I'm saving up this weekend's booze quota for Monday night in the Berlin christmas market.

Is there a lederhosen and OoomPahhh, emoji?

[JD01]

I just stuck up a mix 2 of the A Major version already.

[Bubba]

Well, now the vocal is too loud. Also, the phrasing needs a bit of work, as it's detracting from the rhythm a little. I actually like A maj mix 1 better than 2!

[JD01]

Well, now the vocal is too loud. Also, the phrasing needs a bit of work, as it's detracting from the rhythm a little. I actually like A maj mix 1 better than 2!

Turning down rhe vocal. Awesome!
I'll have a bit if a sing song on the weekend to finish this off. Just getting a cab for the airport to the hotel