Re: Final Mix?

<SNevitt4@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:SYcjf.24915$ih5.9838@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
: > And overall, there is just a bit of joy missing; I'm not sure if it is
: > the tempo or what, but there is just this slightly grim feeling that
: > you are all determined to get to the end of this thing, but you won't
: > be hurried. Sorry, but I don't know how to fix that.


: Thanks so much for your input! I'll take all your points up with my
: engineer, Steve Durkee. He's very experienced, having worked for years
with
: Prince at Paisley Park. I'm afraid I don't know how to fix the "joy"
: problem either, short of completely re-doing the tune. That's just not
: affordable right now.
: Stu Nevitt
: http://www.StuNevittDrums.com


Stu,

The drums almost sound as if they were recorded at a faster speed so the
playback is slowed down. Every once in a while someone does that and it
renders a heavy, intense slo-mo feeling. I don't think that's what you were
after here, but the mix has some of that flavor. You do have a low, loose
sounding set that sounds a lot different from what I've heard on reggae
(high and tight). Could you use some judicious gating to help tighten up
the drums? Given what you've got, you might be able to add more "joy" by
bringing the percussion more to the center and making it much more than
barely audible, by pulling back the high-hat level, and by messing with the
snare sound. Could you add back some uncompressed snare along with the
squashed sound that's in the mix now? Seamlessly overdubbing an additional
thinner-sounding high-hat with a lot more notes that sounds like it belonged
in the same drum set could pep up the mix. Then again, good reggae isn't
always tight and zippy, is it? Also, if Eddie could redo the bass track
with fewer notes and clean spaces in between, that might help. Precise bass
cutoffs are as important as when the notes hit. The bass sounds heavy in
the mix to me; I have to turn the whole mix way down to tolerate it on my
Sennheiser HD600 headphones, which many people consider to be light on the
bass. What do I know? I don't even listen to Reggae.

When you think you have everything, then listen to the mix and make a note
of any instant where the energy seems to drop or wane. If you don't like
it, then find something that will keep up the energy at that instant, be it
an overdub, different EQ or levels, or an effect. I think the delay that
kicks in for a while at 1:40 works well. The mix gains energy for a bit
there because of that and for some other reasons. The change at 3:14 is not
subtle. Nice tune, overall.

Bruce Cooley


.

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