Marianna

Mixed in Studio One (on the desktop M-Audio AV-30 speakers) with all native PreSonus plugs. I'm still not convinced that I really know these speakers yet so if it sucks ... understandable. ;) I didn't play the loudness war with this so it's not really LOUD. My server is slow today so it might glitch a little on streaming playback.

Not my voice or my song. I wish. :) Thanks for the feedback. I suspected that it might not sound (out in the real world for other people) the way it does here on these little speakers. I have to run out in a few so I'll dl it to the ipod and have a listen in the car. I think then I'll hear what you hear. I spend a lot of time in my den editing and otherwise doing things in the daw and I really need to be able to count on what I hear on some basic level without doing room treatment.

I will let fine detail for other, most trained and experienced people. Sounds awesome to me. Radio Hit. Really.

Sounds great! Nice punchy bass. Warm tones. Love the bkg vocals and all the little color sprinkled around. Nice job.

:) That's one cool thing about iPod/iPhone/portable players. I had to run out to the store get some coffee so I just synced up iTunes so I could hear it in the car. plgrmsprgrs's on the right track. Even though I didn't hear exactly the same thing he heard the backing vox do need a little tweaking... if this was something I was working on I would revisit those. Also, the bass is a little heavier that what these speakers can duplicate, no surprise there, a 25hz hi-pass on the master might have helped some of that. Two lessons here... (note to self) 1. Always seek an objective ear. You can't hear what you don't hear. Somebody else will. 2. Never trust desktop speakers without multiple reference checks. Of course the same thing applies to the desktop that I normally do (that I didn't do here for obvious reasons) use commercial reference mixes.

Your mix is quality stuff. I'd love to know how you get the bass sounding so tight with the drums, it sounds great. I must say though, I know there's some really good guitar on this track that I can't hear for the vocals in your mix. Maybe it's a kind of production norm for this kind of thing, but if it is it's a shame because while it is a very nice track the vocal heavy production would alienate me as I like to hear instrumentation as much as voices Respect Didn't you start the "Mix practice" thread with this song here Lawrence

Hey Lawrence, Nice mix. I liked all the production choices. Sounded great on my little "labtec" desktops. Sweet song. Thanks for posting this up.

Again, I cannot take credit for that recording... only that version of the mix. Yeah, I kinda meant never "fully" trust desktop speakers without reference checks. Even though I still often use reference mixes in the studio I do trust that - generally - what I hear in the studio in my BM5a's is what's actually there. When I do miss it's always in the bass region. I have a sub but I'm considering removing it. With smaller desktop speakers it's often a little more of a crap shoot. Honestly, I hated these M-Audio monitors when I first heard them at home. They sounded boxy and wrong. I unhooked them and put my other speakers back... but one of those got damaged so I switched back to these a few weeks later and got used to them after awhile. Now I love them... for what they cost they will certainly do. People keep asking about the bass/kick on that mix. It was nothing more than taking about 15 minutes soloing on/off kick and bass together and tweaking the bass compression just right. There's an attack/release setting for bass, depending on the length of the notes and playing style, that gives you that punch of the initial transient and the right amount of sustain afterwards, but not too much to cut off the next transient. It takes a few minutes to dial it in. You're (in that case) compressing the section in the middle to the end. Attack after the transient and release just before the next note begins, it's a delicate balance. This goes back to automation also. If the playing style or note length changes dramatically on a section you might want to adjust the comp accordingly. Anyway... my starting point for compressor attack on electric bass for punch is around 50ms. I'll pull that project up and get the exact settings. Attack: 48ms Release: 91ms Ratio: 2:1 Knee: A little off of hard knee not fully hard. The amount of gain reduction might surprise you, almost 10db. No eq.