"If I Didn't Care" - let the mix begin

[CRAZY6STRINGS]

I have no masters.....only a mistress!

[freightgod]

A couple things I'm doing to prep my ears for a decent mix that I can live with.

Since only Harry and Tom bellied up to the bar so far, and I appreciate that, I took some time to look at and listen to what they did. And I reject it all! Mwahahahahaha! I realize I have to please myself. Still it was helpful and surprising to realize how different other people's feel for something can be.

So, my ears are old and damaged. BUT I do have hearing aids that I am generally too lazy to wear. They were tuned by a professor in audiology, not just an ordinary run of the mill hearing aid salesperson. One thing she made very clear to me is that the brain needs time to adjust to the frequency adjustments these wonderful tools are making to my ears. So, I've got a fresh set of batteries and am going to keep these bad boys in for a while.

I'm going to spend as much time as possible while my ears adjust listening to comparable commercial mixes of songs I like in a similar style, which basically, in my case, means selections from Paul McCartney and the Beatles in a mostly acoustic style, and some stuff with horns in them. I'm going to keep a playlist running at home, work, car, and listen to it as much as possible on my various headphones, crappy speakers and various devices over a couple of days. I really believe this will help me get a 'feel' for a sound that I already know I love. Some examples : "For No One", "Calico Skies", "Someday". Any suggestions for songs in this style would be greatly appreciated. PM me a couple titles.....I'll find them.

I'm going to watch as many Mixcraft tutorials and read as much pertinent info on various forums over the next couple of days, just relearn the basics of mixing from some pros, brush up on some stuff I forgot I used to know and apply myself to some learning I've been putting off for years. I know how to skim...suggestions for online resources outside of Acoustica's youtube site (which I'll be all about) would be welcome. PM me or drop a link here. Please.

I'll keep dipping into my mix as I proceed. We'll see if I can come up with some sonic sausage by the weekend.

[outteh]

Go for it Big Guy! Looking forward to hearing your take!

[freightgod]

Just a 'keep alive' post: this is still happening, but I'm in deep learning mode, gathering plugins and roses as I go...and blowing my album budget all to hell Picked up a pair of AKG-701's to complement my Sony MDR-7506 headphones. I have to say, wish I had picked up the 701-s ages ago, if only for the long term comfort of wearing these clouds on my head. Sooo comfortable!

[CRAZY6STRINGS]

Other than the comfort aspect, what more do you expect from the AKG cans?

Can you direct me to the latest available mix of "I Didn't Care?"

[freightgod]

Other than the comfort aspect, what more do you expect from the AKG cans?

Can you direct me to the latest available mix of "I Didn't Care?"

T is Toms, P is my last and H is Harry'shttps://soundcloud.com/if-i-didntcare

I'm basically starting my mix from scratch, even tweaking some instruments and such, but not adding any performances, I don't think...

The AKG's are open backed so don't accentuate the bass like the Sony's do. Plus, I can wear them much more comfortably with my hearing aids on. Useless for tracking, but the Sony's are sealed so they're perfect for tracking. I'm no audiophile, but the AKG's sound really good, and because of my hearing loss I more or less have to trust their reputation, which is pretty solid. As long as I compare my stuff with reference mixes regularly, I should be able to get a pretty good sound, is the plan. We'll see. The comfort factor is huge, however, as I'll be living in these things for a few months....

Speaking of hearing loss and headphones...when I had my hearing tested for fitting my audiologist provided me with a fairly detailed graph of my loss. Since basically tuning hearing aids is programming an e.q. curve....I've been thinking I should try graphing that curve and inserting a detailed e.q. 'preset' at the last stage of the audio chain when I mix. Why not? Then I won't have to wear them when I track and mix. Hmmmm. I'll let you know how that works out...

[CRAZY6STRINGS]

I think starting from scratch was wise and in an earlier post of yours you outlined your prospective strategy...again a solid plan.

I cannot agree with you more about the Sony's being uncomfortable after a while...and it doesn't tke long even for them to become painful.

I need a new set and was wondering what to get, but one does need a closed set for tracking.

I think the eq at the end idea sounds logical. Its like reverse engineering.

[freightgod]

Well, I finally did a mix I am willing to walk away from for a while.

https://soundcloud.com/if-i-didntcare/02072015p

Hope you guys like it It's been fun, but I'm too tired to talk about it. I moved knobs and stuff, lol.

[outteh]

Good job! I see what you were aiming for, lot of hard work in there!

[freightgod]

Pretty much I followed my strategy as outlined above:

First, I introduced a gain stage plug (BlueCat GainSuite) at the first fx slot in every single channel.

I panned out a soundstage.

Using the methods described in this article from SoundOnSound: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec14/a ... -noise.htm (sorry, subscription only), I basically brought each voice to an equal level, by one at a time letting each track peak through a pink noise generator set for they dynamic range of this song style. The gain stage plugin allowed me to set faders to zero, for ease of visualization and detailed mixing.

Pretty much ended up re-enabling all the built-in effects from mixcraft's vsts, chorus, reverb, etc.

Um, that was pretty much it. I did a lot of volume adjustments to the lead vocal, but pretty much left everything else alone...I'm not talking about individual track fx, there was a lot of that going on, but I pretty much applied those before getting my levels down. Once I went through the 'mixing to pink noise' stage, I think everything gained a lot of clarity.

On to the mastering stage! I'll begin a separate thread for that soon, and see if anybody wants to take a .wav and give it a shot. I will be getting this song mastered professionally and we can compare results. Should be fun.

Personally, I will probably be taking my mastering out for lunch in the future. But hey, if I can be convinced that as good a job can be done by myself...it's going to be interesting.

[Mark Bliss]

Mastering stage already? Ya'll in a hurry?

Gutsy experiment paying for mastering of a "just for fun" collab. My hats off to you. Will be interesting to see what comes of that. Of course "mastering" comes in as many flavors or more than the mixes submitted so far.

Been "skimming" as Paul says, and catching up a little. Finally got a chance to listen to the latest 3 or 4 versions. Interesting project you have going on here, and I was curious to see what everyones take on it was.

Just following along.

[freightgod]

It's been fun. I was planning on taking a dozen songs or so to an album this summer so this is a good way to get a sample of my guy's work.