Take a listen to a live recording mix?

[sonusman]

http://www.phoenixlightandsound.com/mb5.mp3 Basically was tracked to ADAT's via a Mackie 32x8 using the direct out's. No eq on any tracks while tracking. Flown into Sonar via a MOTU 2408. In Sonar, I just did some fader automation on the tom's to emulate gates, and some fader riding on the vocal to smooth them out a bit. Back out of Sonar via the MOTU to the ADAT's for D/A individual tracks. Mixed on a Allen and Heath GL 2200. Used a HHB Radius 40 on the vocals. Used Behringer gates and compressors on the kick and snare and another Behringer compressor on bass. Effects were a Lexicon MPX-1 for verb and a ADA Multi Effects unit for delay. Out of the A&H into the A/D's on the MOTU and recorded into Wavelab. Did a quickie "mastering" thing with a little Waves REN EQ and L2. Ripped off the CD I burned and encoded with a Lame (aptly named...don't have a Fraunhofer codec at home... :( ) encoder. Not sure that I am really done with this. I am really fighting the lack of detailed eq on the A&H (just a low/high shelf and a couple quasi-parametrics per channel). Anyway, no excuses. This is a two hour mix. Appreciate comments. Ed

[not Cereal]

WOW the drums sound really killer on my MACINTOSH POWERED MONITORS and i like the basss guitar too. but the toms especially. the toms sound very very cool on these speakers. the guitar is ok too, i like it panned a little left like you did. thats interesting. the vox need a little stomp on the track, like "+6db nasty icestomp" sound; maybe a prosonus comp at 1.5:1 ratio AUTO setting amd add some delay too. overall, a very nice live recording and I LOVE LIVE. so MUCH MORE than studio. very well done!

[not Cereal]

ok i am listening once more, there must be two guitar players right? their styles/sync are very impressive. it sounds very well doubled, almost by the same person.

[sonusman]

Thanks for the feedback. Ed

[Gus Lozada]

Listening... I can NOT understand a word !! Wait a minute... it's because it's in English, not my native language... never mind :D Good vocal work ! I agree with Coaster man... the toms sound great. The Kick and Snare are a little bit weak. The cymbals sound little opaque but I guess we can blame the MP3. Guitars sound great, but could have been more dynamic in the mix, not just panned to both sides. The solo would have fit better in the center, but it sounded cool. Bass sounds cool, even for an MP3 file. Now... for a LIVE recording... it deserves :thu: :thu: Tell us about the mics in the drums, bass ad guitars!

[Duhduh]

My suggestions: Get rid of the verbon the guitars and vocals. Especially on the vocals. Dry vocals just ALWAYS sound better to me. And like hwta was said, the vocals could really use some squashing. The bass could come up a but, too. Put a little more punch on the kick. And maybe a low pass filter on the toms. They're a little clicky.

[sonusman]

This is the final, for better or worse! ;) http://www.phoenixlightandsound.com/song5.mp3 One of the problems with mixing this is that while it was being tracked, there was no attention to mic placement for the recording, only for the live mix, and I couldn't hear what was going to tape at all. A lot of the tracks just don't sound quite the way I would really want them. About the reverb on the guitar and vocals. NO WAY would I remove that. I usually try to get the mix to sound, well, "live", like it is in a hall or room or whatever. Anyhoo...... About the low end on the kick drum. There is nothing there to boost. What you hear is pretty much the way it sounded when you stand in front of it. Really. I mixed a CD years ago that this drummer played on, and I had the same problem. We wound up using a lot of trigger sampled kicks on that CD. He just likes that dead "thud" sound for some reason, and he plays with a piccalo snare! Yuk for this type of stuff. I guess I didn't mention that this was this bands first gig? Maybe they will aspire to be more. Thanks for the feedback everybody. Ed

[not Cereal]

i think its just great for a board mix and ya dont need to worry about it much. i get really killer board mixes too, then other times they are awful. theres just too many variables. but the ones that turn out well are exciting, because its live.

[sonusman]

This isn't a board mix. It was multi tracked and mixed later.

[philbo_Tangent]

I really liked mix generally. Vocals were well on top, unusual for this musical style (a GOOD thing). Drums were killer, though they could have used a bit more OH (cymbals were down). Guitars sounded great, and were at good levels. I would only hope the live show sounded this good....

[Duhduh]

[quote]Originally posted by sonusman: [b]This is the final, for better or worse! ;) http://www.phoenixlightandsound.com/song5.mp3 One of the problems with mixing this is that while it was being tracked, there was no attention to mic placement for the recording, only for the live mix, and I couldn't hear what was going to tape at all. A lot of the tracks just don't sound quite the way I would really want them. About the reverb on the guitar and vocals. NO WAY would I remove that. I usually try to get the mix to sound, well, "live", like it is in a hall or room or whatever. Anyhoo......[/quote][/b] Well if you want it to sound amateur, then keep the reverb. Although I have to say the verb you have now sounds better than the one before. Verb just tends to suck all the punch out of tracks. Oh well...Your mixes. [quote][b]About the low end on the kick drum. There is nothing there to boost. What you hear is pretty much the way it sounded when you stand in front of it. Really. I mixed a CD years ago that this drummer played on, and I had the same problem. We wound up using a lot of trigger sampled kicks on that CD. He just likes that dead "thud" sound for some reason, [/quote][/b] You dont need anything already there to boost. Thats what EQ does. It [i]adds[/i] the frequencies. And as far as what he wants, drummers usually dont know what they want/like until they hear it. [quote][b]and he plays with a piccalo snare! Yuk for this type of stuff.[/quote][/b] Ok, I feel for you on this one. In my experience piccalo snares tend to destroy the entire drum sound. They cut so hard that they bleed all over everything uncontrollably. [quote][b]I guess I didn't mention that this was this bands first gig? Maybe they will aspire to be more.[/quote][/b] The better the musicians and the better the sound of their gear, the better the recording. [quote][b] Thanks for the feedback everybody. Ed[/b][/quote]You probably think Im an asshole now. :wave: :D

[sonusman]

"Well if you want it to sound amateur, then keep the reverb. Although I have to say the verb you have now sounds better than the one before. Verb just tends to suck all the punch out of tracks. Oh well...Your mixes." Indeed they are. The reverb thing can go either way. Calling this "amature" though.....hmmmmmmmmm. That is a strong statement. I would like to hear similar work you have done before! "You dont need anything already there to boost. Thats what EQ does. It [i]adds[/i] the frequencies. And as far as what he wants, drummers usually dont know what they want/like until they hear it." Okay, if I was thinking before reading this that you dont' know squat, after reading this, I had little doubt. :D I am no spring chicken friend. Have done audio work for some time now. While I am no grammy award winning engineer, I DO KNOW that you cannot boost something that doesn't exist! You can add as much low end to something that doesn't have low end as you want, there still will not be low end! Now, there IS some low end there, but what is really missing is resonance, and no amount of eq is going to add resonance to something that doesn't have it. Now I could have created a sine wave tone at the pitch of the kick drum's lowest freq and ran it to a gate that was externally triggered by the kick drum and created a bit of resonance that way. They weren't paying me enough to go that far. As far as this drummer. Well, he never seems to quite get it together, nor have much clue about the concept that HE needs to create the good sound first. Oh well. He is right where he is supposed to be. [/QUOTE]You probably think Im an asshole now. :wave: :D [/QB][/QUOTE] Not at all. I may not like your "opinions", nor think much of your ideas, or for that matter value your knowledge much about audio, but I don't think you are an asshole. That could change though. ;) That is totally up to you. I have learned many times the hard way that if I am perceiving myself as being possibly an asshole for my actions, I probably meant to be that way. Maybe you meant to be an asshole? Ed

[Zeke Smith.]

I wouldn't remove the reverb, but I'd shorten the tails, especially on the electric guitar. Long verbs on electric do seem to lessen the impact of it, unless this was some kind of Eric Johnson solo thing, and it definitely isn't. Was the show done in a stadium? Right now, it sounds a bit that way. If it was, no worries, but if it was done in a club or small hall with 100 fans, the long reverbs are a bit disingenuous to the venue. That's all taste stuff though. I'm not a fan of long reverbs for most things, which is just my personal preference. Sounds pretty good though, especially for a live split.