Mix Review.

Bing17 · 05-30-2012, 03:32 PM

I admit, I am no engineer. This is an acoustic cover of Ziggy Stardust for a video contest my girlfriend's son in entering, honoring the 40-year anniversary of the LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

It's piano, guitar, vocals and a tambourine; pretty simple. He only has a week to shoot a concept video and thought it would be interesting to use a different version of the song for his video. Recorded and mixed in a day.

Any feedback is appreciated. Once the video is completed I'll replace this video with the final version. Thanks in advance for any comments and/or critiques.

Ziggy Stardust Acoustic Cover.wmv - YouTube

Freddy G · 05-30-2012, 04:52 PM

The guy's voice is fantastic! I love it.
Here's what I would do differently with the mix though.
I would favour the guitar over the piano . The piano sounds shrill, sounds like a cheap electronic keyboard. The guitar is an acoustic that was recorded with a mic? That's got way more organic mojo than the piano, make it the featured instrument and tuck the piano in behind it (and take some of the bright edge off the piano too). The other thing I would do would be to clean up the performance timing between the piano and guitar. Especially near the beginning the timing between the two is pretty ragged.
But the main thing is that the vocal is so cool! Fix that other stuff and it's a winner.
Oh, one other thing...are you sucking out some mid frequencies from the vocal? It's too sucked out, put some of it back in.

switchback · 05-30-2012, 05:11 PM

Hey, like freddy said the vocal is COOL! if you want to keep the mix as is then you need to add some bottom either add a bass or kick the bass up on the keys or add kick and snare or high hat. I don't hear any warmth just a lot of higher end frequencies. Great and fun song. keep going !!

Bing17 · 05-30-2012, 11:45 PM

Thank you guys so much for the advice and your valued input. A little info on the process. Freddie, yes, the piano is a NI piano, which really does sound bad in my opinion, too. We have a wonderful Steinway grand but unfortunately, a bad sounding room and not enough quality mic's to mic it properly.

Kingdom of Nye · 06-02-2012, 01:01 PM

listening on my home rig, sounds great.

Wouldn't worry about the piano sounding that way. The voice is very strong, well recorded, great vibrato, great work in general. It's not like we're covering a Bill Evans tune, you know?

Bing17 · 06-02-2012, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kingdom of Nye

listening on my home rig, sounds great.

Wouldn't worry about the piano sounding that way. The voice is very strong, well recorded, great vibrato, great work in general. It's not like we're covering a Bill Evans tune, you know?

A particular member familiar to us here has taken the tracks to his lair for a proper mix and treatment. I'll post it when I get it back. I look forward to hearing the contributions.

Oh, and thanks for the compliments.

Freddy G · 06-11-2012, 04:02 PM

I loved Bing's vocal performance on his version of Ziggy. So I asked him if he wouldn't mind me adding some production, or to just simply do a remix.
Anyway, he sent me the raw mix files and I started to go at it during some down time at the studio. I thought...hmmm this will be a good chance to try out some drum software that I've had for a while (I won it online for a mix contest) but have never had the need to use it (I've always recorded real drummers).
So I programmed drums, then played bass guitar, acoustic guitar and electric guitar tracks.
There were some interesting problems with this production, for instance the files were all recorded to a tempo of 80 BPM (which usually is a "thank goodness" revelation if your going to add drums after the other tracks). Yet every time the chorus hit it felt like it really dragged, so I sped it up. Other things too, but after talking to Bing17 he urged me to create a post on the production ins and outs of this so I'll start with posting my mix. BTW I'm hoping to do some more collaborations! It was great fun

Ziggy Stardust - YouTube

Bing17 · 06-11-2012, 04:35 PM

While redundant, I am going to start another thread on this when I get home tonight. I have that much to say about Freddy, his work and what a great experience this has been; what a true pleasure Freddy, the man, is.

And Freddy gets to do what he loves on the next production, he gets to get funky. I bet you didn't know that about him....

05-30-2012, 04:52 PM	#2 (permalink)
Freddy G V.I.P. Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada Posts: 3,806 Thanks: 76 Thanked 662 Times in 99 Posts	Re: Mix Review. The guy's voice is fantastic! I love it. Here's what I would do differently with the mix though. I would favour the guitar over the piano . The piano sounds shrill, sounds like a cheap electronic keyboard. The guitar is an acoustic that was recorded with a mic? That's got way more organic mojo than the piano, make it the featured instrument and tuck the piano in behind it (and take some of the bright edge off the piano too). The other thing I would do would be to clean up the performance timing between the piano and guitar. Especially near the beginning the timing between the two is pretty ragged. But the main thing is that the vocal is so cool! Fix that other stuff and it's a winner. Oh, one other thing...are you sucking out some mid frequencies from the vocal? It's too sucked out, put some of it back in. Bing17 likes this. __________________ blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. BLAH?! Blah BLAH BLAH???!! A.Lifeson

05-30-2012, 05:11 PM	#3 (permalink)
switchback Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: FL Posts: 1,052 Thanks: 23 Thanked 12 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Mix Review. Hey, like freddy said the vocal is COOL! if you want to keep the mix as is then you need to add some bottom either add a bass or kick the bass up on the keys or add kick and snare or high hat. I don't hear any warmth just a lot of higher end frequencies. Great and fun song. keep going !! Bing17 likes this. __________________ ....... it takes one to know one, ya know

05-30-2012, 11:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
Bing17 Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Somewhere Between Hollywood and Hell Posts: 1,772 Thanks: 25 Thanked 26 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Mix Review. Thank you guys so much for the advice and your valued input. A little info on the process. Freddie, yes, the piano is a NI piano, which really does sound bad in my opinion, too. We have a wonderful Steinway grand but unfortunately, a bad sounding room and not enough quality mic's to mic it properly. __________________ a boat. Last edited by Bing17; 06-01-2012 at 10:30 PM.

06-02-2012, 01:01 PM	#5 (permalink)
Kingdom of Nye Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 283 Thanks: 2 Thanked 4 Times in 2 Posts	Re: Mix Review. listening on my home rig, sounds great. Wouldn't worry about the piano sounding that way. The voice is very strong, well recorded, great vibrato, great work in general. It's not like we're covering a Bill Evans tune, you know? Bing17 likes this. __________________ http://www.mitchelljdoran.com

06-11-2012, 04:35 PM	#8 (permalink)
Bing17 Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Somewhere Between Hollywood and Hell Posts: 1,772 Thanks: 25 Thanked 26 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Mix Review. While redundant, I am going to start another thread on this when I get home tonight. I have that much to say about Freddy, his work and what a great experience this has been; what a true pleasure Freddy, the man, is. And Freddy gets to do what he loves on the next production, he gets to get funky. I bet you didn't know that about him.... __________________ a boat.

Today
Les Paul	Sponsored Links __________________ This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members. Register your free account today and become a member on Les Paul Forums

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode