[jvsax]

I just added the finishing touches to this mix. After the drum solo intro it goes into a 4/4+2/4 section before settling into the 4/4 bridge, and then back to a drum interlude section to end the form.

Click here to hear the tune "Silesia"

Right after I played my solo I had to run out to handle a minor emergency phone call. By the time I got back the guys had finished the tune. Nothing like a little added stress to make it interesting!

 

[hakukani]

Nice job, nice group, nice playing, good tune.

Just a couple of notes on the mix: The bass is playing some nice lines, but kinda gets lost in the mix. Maybe some light compression or eq in the mids would help to make the line clearer. It's just taste, but I thought the snare was a little light on the backbeat figures. Maybe it's because the kick is so far down in the mix. In general, there wasn't much low end in the song, so there's definitely 'room'. On the horns, I'd like to hear a little more pre delay on the reverb--maybe a tad brighter would be nice as well. It's that, or the tail is really short on the horns. The piano chords are a bit on the long side. Less reverb? The trumpet seems to be really forward in the mix.

Thanks for sharing! Good work.

 

[jvsax]

Good tips, I'll try out all those suggestions. As far as low end goes, I used a subwoofer for all the mixes with this band, because most home/car systems have one now. But if the system doesn't have a sub then I think some low end gets lost. Do you have a sub in your setup? I kept the reverb simple in that I just used a small hall (27% wet) on everything, but the piano preset had some 'verb too so I'll try bypassing that. You've got good ears, thanks!

 

[hakukani]

I listened on my MDR 7506 headphones. They have a pretty good low end response.

What did you use to record/mix? I usually use some sort of effect loop, and mix the verb in with the dry sounds on a different stereo 'channel'. That way I can solo the verb 'channel' and sort of do a 'reverse' mix of the verb, then touch it up when I listen to the complete mix.

 

[jvsax]

I like that idea, it's a flexible way to control wet/dry mix for each track. I'll try that next time. For these tunes I just ran the stereo mix through a Lexicon 550 Small Hall 27% wet. I tracked this session with Motu hardware and Cubase software.